Git
Tools
MacOS
Windows
G Suite
Photo, Audio & Video Editing
Networking
Linux
Android
Dell XPS
Lenovo ThinkPad
Livestreaming
Misc
Git
Tools
MacOS
Windows
G Suite
Photo, Audio & Video Editing
Networking
Linux
Android
Dell XPS
Lenovo ThinkPad
Livestreaming
Misc
Build is solid. Good physical construction. Chuck it into a backpack and don't worry about heavy textbooks (or other rugged gear) causing screen flex damage.
Performance is great. 6-cores is amazing, coming from a 2-core U-series laptop.
Display is really good. Bright LED backlight, crisp 1080. Love it!
Keyboard is a bit shallow. As a previous Thinkpad owner, I still have not fully eventually did get used to the XPS keyboard.
Noise level is good. Silent or near silent most of the time when idle. The fan does constantly spin with my USB-C dock connected, but at minimum speed.
Touchpad is great. It's big and clicky.
Audio is good. See tweak section below. Needs a further tweaking for realtime audio production.
Weight at ~2kg is good.
Battery/Storage I recommend getting the bigger 97 Whr battery as the battery life becomes a lot longer. SSD's are REALLY affordable nowadays if you're concerned about needing the extra storage bay.
Quality control from factory is bad
0. BIOS
1. Use Dell's drivers. It's 2021 and they're stable now.
2. ThrottleStop to undervolt.
3. Repaste the CPU
4. Optional mods
Sleep mode on the XPS (and Windows 10 in general) is absolutely terrible. There have been times when I've returned to my laptop only to find it BURNING HOT with the lid closed.
My recommendation is to turn off Modern Standby.
reg add HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power /v PlatformAoAcOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 0
Alternatively if you do NOT want to turn off Modern Standby (but why?), here are some mitigations:
1. Shut down when you can.
2. Set your power plan to hiberate after a few hours of idle. Better to wear the SSD than the laptop heat up to crazy temperatures in a backpack (or the fans going crazy in the dead of the night).
3. Windows 10 Settings > Power & Sleep > Network Connection > 'Always' disconnect from the network.
4. Dell's Modern Standby Performance Improvement Package for this model claims to improve sleep mode. Whatever it does, just install it and move on.
5. PowerCfg.zip attached to this support article is supposed to force disable connected standby, if the above didn't help you.
You will need to turn off a bunch of power management settings to get acceptable DPC latency. It's acceptable for me now mostly thanks to Dell's BIOS fixes early on