Dell XPS 15 - Intel Evo Proves All Powerful

For an ordinary, everyday laptop user like me, it's getting more and more difficult to find anything wrong with the latest crop of Windows laptops.

This is mostly thanks to the chips driving them and Intel has once again proven it's up to the task with the latest 13th-gen Intel Core processors. I've tried a couple of Intel Evo-certified devices now and my overall takeaway is these laptops are now at a point where they're hard to criticise because they do exactly what you want them to, quickly, quietly and efficiently - becoming more of a natural extension of your work environment rather than a separate tool you have to learn to use in a specific way.

Once the barriers of connectivity, processing power and battery life have been overcome, that's where true productivity happens - and there's no better example than the latest Intel Evo laptop from Dell.

The Dell XPS 15 is a classy piece of kit right out of the box; slim as can be, tapering down to its very narrow, easy-open user-facing edge. It's constructed from Platinum Silver-coloured CNC machined aluminium with a contrasting black keyboard and carbon-fibre plam rest inside.

The 15.6-inch FHD+ display means this is not a particularly compact device - but that means more advantages than disadvantages as far as I'm concerned; plenty of room for a well-spaced and responsive full-sized keyboard, flanked by upward-firing speakers and a very large touchpad.

There's a dedicated fingerprint key for secure logins and there's also the Windows Hello camera for a face unlock instead - good to have options. Both work reliably and more importantly, swiftly. This is one of the first indicators of just how well the 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H processor drives everything. Login is effortless, as it should be.

A screen and keyboard combo of this size means this is pretty much as close as you're going to get to emulating a desktop experience without connecting an external monitor - which you can do via USB-C or the external HDMI/USB-A to USB-C adapter included in the box.

The large, anti-glare display not only provides plenty of on-screen real-estate to work with, if you like to have multiple windows open simulataneously - but it also obviously makes the XPS 15 a fine multi-media device for streaming video or viewing online meetings.

And video doesn't just look amazing, it sounds phenomenal too.

From the first moment I streamed video on the XPS 15 I was stunned by the sound quality. I think this is the first time I've encountered a Waves Nx speaker array and if this level of performance is typical then I'm definitely a fan. As mentioned, there are two up-firing speakers on either side of the keyboard with another couple of tweeters in the base. Even when the computer was sitting on my duvet the sound was still clear, powerful and roomy - a bigger sound than pretty much anything I've experienced on any similar device.

Of course, this is so much more than a fancy way to watch movies in bed.

The XPS 15 is a great way to make movies as well.

The review device I've been sent is the base model; 16GB of RAM, 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD storage and a dedicated Intel Arc A370M video card. Yes, even the base configuration features a 4GB graphics card which not only means this computer is well capable of running most high-spec games but it also makes it a wonderful tool for audio and video production.

I edited the video at the bottom of this review without so much as a stutter or pause. Exporting, converting and saving files happens quickly and consistently. Oh... and games load pretty fast too.

There are two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports on the left side, a USB 3.2 Type-C with DisplayPort on the right, a headset port and an SD-card slot for easy transfer of large files. I really like having USB-C ports I can plug a charger into on both sides of the laptop - it makes things a lot more versatile. I also really like that the XPS 15 comes with a 130W charging brick - that means a fast charge of the 6-cell, 86 Wh battery which I've found lasts and lasts - it certainly coasts through a day's work for me before I have to plug it in again.

By now, you might be thinking this is pretty much the perfect laptop but I can't have that, so I've found one significant flaw just to prove this is a genuinely unbiased review. On a device where pretty much every component has impressed, the camera is decidedly average. I thought we'd left the days of sub-standard laptop cams behind us - I've certainly been more than happy with some of the higher resolution, light-correction and auto-focussing abilities of the webcams on several laptops I've used over the last year or two but sadly, not this time. The 720p image is grainy and although you have the option to remove background noise when using the dual mic array for voice calls, I wasn't overly wowed by the mic quality either.

This seems an odd shortcoming on a device otherwise tailormade for a WFH/Hybrid work environment - especially when the quality of both screen and speaker system is absolutely first-rate.

As is pretty much every other aspect of the XPS 15. Thanks in a large part to the sheer power and efficiency of that 13th-gen Intel Core chip, intelligent features like Adaptive Thermals - which senses if you're using the device on your lap or a desktop and adjusts the cooling method accordingly - work reliably and quickly, with no fuss. 

Linking your phone for easy file transfer and media management is another way a device like the Dell XPS 15 earns its Intel Evo certification. Again, this works effortlessly - not just with Android devices via Phone Link but using Intel's own Unison app, all the same features are accessible on iOS devices too.

Other than its camera performance, the XPS 15 has consistently wowed me at every turn; battery life, display performance, unblievable speakers and of course the power of the 13th-gen Intel Core chip combined with excellent graphics and fast DDR5 memory simply can't be faulted. If I didn't know this was the base-configuration I'd been using I would have assumed I'd been sent all the upgrades as well. Effortless computing.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Dell XPS 15.