Dell XPS 17 overview: A masterful Home windows workhorse

Are you searching for a pc that may do all of it? Whether or not you’re at your table or touring around the nation? The Dell XPS 17 may well be your subsequent pc. This huge pc is a flexible device that’s relaxing to make use of day by day and packs sturdy total efficiency. The show could also be gorgeous and battery lifestyles is spectacular. Whilst the keyboard is not anything to jot down domestic about, we really feel the professionals a long way outweigh the cons. Learn on to be informed extra.

Dell XPS 17 9720 (2022) specifications and contours

The bottom Dell XPS 17 has an Intel Core i5-12500H processor with built-in graphics, 8GB of RAM, 512GB of garage, and a 1920×1200 show. My overview pattern packs a couple of upgrades, then again, together with an Intel Core i7-12700H processor, Nvidia RTX 3060 cell graphics, and a 4K touchscreen.

• CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H
• Reminiscence: 32GB
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060
• Show: 3,840 x 2,400 IPS Touchscreen
• Garage: 1TB SSD
• Webcam: 720p with IR digicam, dual-array microphone
• Connectivity: 4x Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort Alt Mode and Energy Supply, 1x SDcard reader, 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
• Biometrics: Fingerprint reader, IR digicam
• Battery capability: 97 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 14.74 x 9.76 x .77 inches
• Weight: 5.34
• MSRP: $1,649 base, $2,799 as examined

Dell’s improve pricing is tame, as my overview pattern’s considerably faster {hardware} provides $1,000 to the cost. A $2,799 pc is infrequently inexpensive, after all, however Dell’s total pricing feels aggressive within the phase. A in a similar way supplied MacBook Professional 16 begins at $3,099, whilst a equivalent Razer Blade 17 retails for a similar $2,799 (however has part as a lot RAM). 

Design and construct high quality

IDG / Matthew Smith

This can be a 17-inch pc with a 16:10 show. It’s a actually large piece of glass that dominates all of the revel in. Dell makes use of narrow bezels to stay the pc as small as imaginable given the show introduced, and this effort is a hit. The XPS 17 is extra compact than the LG Gram 17 (regardless that LG’s pc is lighter), Razer Blade 17, or HP Envy 17.

There’s an old-school really feel to the Dell XPS 17. Maximum of that is the pc’s sheer dimension – at just about 15 inches vast and 10 inches deep, this beast is noticeably higher than laptops I’d typically imagine huge, such because the HP Spectre 16, Dell XPS 15 and MacBook Professional 16, really feel considerably smaller than the XPS 17.

The XPS 17’s dimension is simple to forget when the pc is closed on a desk. Dell’s XPS 13, 15, and 17 all proportion the similar normal parts and use equivalent fabrics, so they appear equivalent at a distance. This is helping the XPS 17 strike a narrow, trendy pose regardless of its dimension. 

Construct high quality is superb, as effectively. There’s strangely little flex to be discovered within the show lid, chassis, and keyboard deck. This stress may make the XPS 17 a pleasing improvised weapon within the match of a zombie apocalypse. 

Keyboard and touchpad

IDG / Matthew Smith

There’s a extra practical get advantages to XPS 17’s dimension: it has gobs of internal house. The pc’s massive palmrest supplies plentiful house in all instructions. Most homeowners will don’t have any hassle discovering a at ease typing place.

Dell leans into this with a center-aligned keyboard that lacks a numpad. Opting for to ditch the numpad, which is commonplace on many 17-inch laptops, helps to keep the keyboard focused at the pc’s floor and above the touchpad. It’s an especially at ease structure. 

The keyboard itself is much less spectacular. Key really feel is shallow and ends with a obscure, spongy bottoming motion. That is countered by means of high quality keycap fabrics and easy key go back and forth. It averages out to a satisfactory revel in that falls in the back of choices just like the LG Gram 16 and MacBook Professional 16. Even the Acer Swift 3 16-inch, a far more cost effective pc, is a little more delightful. 

Touchpad high quality, however, is height notch. The touchpad floor is huge, measuring six inches vast and nearly 4 inches deep, by means of a long way the biggest touchpad I’ve used on a Home windows device this yr. It feels responsive and gives various house for the use of WIndows’ multi-touch gestures. My hands continuously land at the edges of the touchpad, because of its dimension, however unintentional inputs aren’t a topic. 

Show, audio

IDG / Matthew Smith

The bottom Dell XPS 17 has a 17-inch 1,920 x 1,200 IPS non-touch show, however my overview pattern used to be upgraded to the three,840 x 2,400 IPS touchscreen. It may’t somewhat fit Apple’s Liquid Retina XDR, or OLED, however no doubt has strengths. 

Most brightness is very top at as much as 550 nits, upper than the five hundred nits promised by means of Dell. That is so top that outside use turns into imaginable regardless of the show’s extraordinarily shiny coat. Prime brightness comes with increased black ranges, then again, so films and streaming presentations can glance washed-out in darkish scenes.

Colour efficiency is excellent. I measured 100% protection of the sRGB and Adobe RGB colour gamuts, in addition to 98 p.c of DCI-P3. Put merely, the XPS 17 can show quite a lot of colour – as vast as you’ll to find on any pc offered nowadays. Colour accuracy is exceptional, as effectively, so content material appears as its writer supposed. 

Sharpness is actually top-tier. A answer of three,840 x 2,400 on a 17-inch show interprets to 266 pixels in step with inch, which is as just right because it will get on a pc of this dimension. The intense pixel density supplies readability in 3D video games, superb readability in 4K streaming content material, and crisp edges round tremendous textual content. 

Players must word the XPS 17 lacks Nvidia G-Sync and the show has a most refresh charge of 60Hz. Those sacrifices are made to allow switchable graphics, a call that improves battery lifestyles. 

Whilst the XPS 17’s show is superb, its audio system fall brief. Most quantity is top however the audio has a harsh, glowing high quality that’s ugly when the quantity is became up. Discussion comes thru obviously, as do fast bass beats, however complicated tracks can sound muddled. Nonetheless, the audio system are applicable for video calls and podcasts. 

Webcam, microphone, biometrics

Paintings-from-home execs will probably be disenchanted by means of the Dell XPS 17’s webcam. It’s a elementary 720p digicam that gives simply satisfactory video high quality and struggles with low-light eventualities. It’s tremendous for many video calls however received’t go muster if you happen to’re hoping to provoke in a digital assembly or name in for an interview. 

The similar will also be mentioned of the dual-microphone array. Most present dual-mic arrays are satisfactory, and the XPS 17’s isn’t any exception, it doesn’t stand out. Audio high quality is usable however has , hole high quality. 

There’s some just right information in biometrics, a minimum of. The XPS 17 has a fingerprint reader constructed into the keyboard and helps Home windows Hi facial reputation login in the course of the IR digicam. Each options are usual and paintings effectively, regardless that I to find facial reputation faster and extra dependable than a fingerprint reader. 

Connectivity

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Dell XPS 17 embraces Thunderbolt 4 in a large, heat, fuzzy undergo hug. We’re speaking 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports, all of which enhance DisplayPort Change Mode and Energy Supply. All 4 Thunderbolt 4 also are suitable with USB4. This spectacular variety method you’ll be able to fee the pc the use of any to be had port and fasten a couple of DisplayPort screens.

A handy guide a rough phrase of caution, then again: the Dell XPS 17 configuration I reviewed can eat over 100 watts at load, which is greater than the utmost wattage of maximum chargers and peripherals that may give continual over Thunderbolt 4 or USB4. Homeowners will wish to use the charger that incorporates the pc. 

Whilst the XPS 17 is pleasant with Thunderbolt 4, it provides different ports the chilly shoulder. There’s no USB Sort-A, no HDMI, no usual DisplayPort, and no Ethernet. You’ll wish to pack an adapter to make use of those connections. A three.5mm combo audio jack is provide, then again. 

There may be one unusual connectivity possibility to be had: a full-sized SDcard reader. Photographers and videographers will respect its inclusion.

Wi-fi connectivity contains Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. It’s a small unhappiness to look Wi-Fi 6E, the newest wi-fi usual, is unsupported. A Dell consultant says that is because of the antenna design. Regardless of this, I measured wi-fi speeds an identical to Gigabit Ethernet over brief distances – speedy sufficient that I didn’t pass over the bodily Ethernet port.

Efficiency

The Dell XPS 17 I examined had an Intel Core i7-12700H processor with a complete of fourteen cores: six efficiency cores and 8 environment friendly cores. This used to be paired with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB PCIe NVMe forged state pressure. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

I’ll lead with PCMark 10, a complete device benchmark that leans closely on processor efficiency. It reaches a ranking of seven,134 at the Dell XPS 17, which is in the back of the opposite laptops on this aggressive set. The variation is narrow, then again, and possibly to be anticipated given the XPS 17 is a tad smaller than maximum 17-inch laptops. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Cinebench R20 supplies a more potent consequence for the Dell XPS 17. It eeks in a minor victory over the Gigabyte Aorus 17 and Razer Blade 17. The Ryzen-powered Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 falls noticeably in the back of on this take a look at regardless that, to be honest, which may be because of its small dimension (we’ve but to check Ryzen 6900HS in a 17-inch pc). 

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Dell XPS 17 as soon as once more falls fairly in the back of the pack within the Handbrake video encode take a look at. This can be a long take a look at, requiring greater than 13 mins on even the fastest device, so it highlights variations in thermal efficiency. It’s transparent the XPS 17 struggles to handle processor efficiency over the years, a minimum of when in comparison to different 17-inch powerhouses. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

We now transfer to graphics, the place the Dell XPS 17 unearths itself at an obstacle towards the aggressive set. Dell doesn’t be offering a graphics possibility faster than the RTX 3060, whilst competition move as much as the RTX 3080 Ti. Predictably, the XPS 17 can’t stay up within the 3DMark Time Undercover agent benchmark.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Shadow of the Tomb Raider as soon as once more presentations the XPS 17 in the back of – even supposing, in sensible phrases, this isn’t a nasty consequence. The XPS 17 maintains a framerate effectively above 60 FPS on this sport regardless of its much less robust GPU. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

The a lot more not easy Metro Exodus benchmark places the Dell XPS 17 simply shy of 30 frames in step with 2nd. This as soon as once more presentations the bounds of an RTX 3060, however I feel it’s a tremendous consequence for the XPS 17. The pc is able to forged 30 FPS gameplay on the extra affordable Extremely efficiency atmosphere.

Consumers must be mindful the XPS 17’s much less succesful graphics {hardware} comes with a decrease price ticket. A Razer Blade 17 or Gigabyte Aorus 17 can beat the XPS 17 when configured with sooner {hardware}, however the Razer Blade 17 we reviewed had an as-tested worth of $3,999 whilst the Gigabyte Aorus 17 used to be examined at $3,299. You pay for what you get. 

Dell’s XPS 17 delivers decent efficiency around the board. The query consumers must ask is that this: is the XPS 17 – and its graphics particularly – fast sufficient for me? The solution, for most of the people, will probably be “sure.” On the other hand, players and execs who use apps with GPU compute enhance must glance to choices that provide sooner graphics {hardware}. 

Battery lifestyles

The Dell XPS 17’s dimension makes it a hard go back and forth spouse. It’s going to have compatibility in maximum luggage designed to house a 15-inch pc, however no longer all, and the pc’s five-pound weight isn’t simple to forget about. 

A portion of that weight is because of the large 97 watt-hour battery. That is as regards to the 99 watt-hour dimension restrict imposed by means of FAA laws for gadgets passengers can carry on flights (anything else higher is against the law). 

Dell makes use of switchable graphics to show off the Nvidia graphics {hardware} (if supplied) when it’s no longer required. The built-in Intel graphics {hardware} is used as a substitute. This offers strangely just right battery lifestyles in elementary day by day duties. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Dell XPS 17 lasts longer than some smaller laptops that configure extra power-hungry options, comparable to an OLED show, and simply blows previous any choice that has discrete graphics however lacks switchable graphics. 

There’s a catch. This benchmark didn’t have interaction the Nvidia discrete graphics {hardware} and is standardized to a brightness degree of 200 nits. Firing up a 3D rendering utility or 3D sport will tremendously slash battery lifestyles. 

Nonetheless, the XPS 17’s battery lifestyles is a best-case situation for a big Home windows pc. The pc can deal with a packed eight-hour day of writing, enhancing, and video calls. 

Conclusion

There’s one phrase that very best describes the Dell XPS 17: balanced. 

Dell’s well-rounded workhorse doesn’t set data in any specific space however delivers forged effects around the board. It provides forward-looking connectivity, an enormous display screen, sturdy CPU and GPU efficiency, and just right battery lifestyles. And it does all this at a cheap worth. This makes the Dell XPS 17 a just right have compatibility if you need a unmarried do-it-all device and don’t thoughts lugging round a big backpack while you go back and forth. The XPS 17 can deal with any activity you’ll throw at it, at domestic or at the move.