The Dell XPS 15 9560 Review: Infinity Edge Part Two
by Brett Howse on July 31, 2017 8:00 AM ESTWireless Performance
Dell has made a lot of updates to the XPS 15 9560, with a new CPU, GPU, and larger battery all contributing to a better laptop. The exception here is the wireless, which is a Killer Wireless-AC 1535 2x2:2 card in the review unit. The XPS 15 9550 we reviewed featured a Broadcom 3x3:3 card, which was easily the best performing wireless solution we’ve had a chance to test. Broadcom has been bought out, and they’ve dropped some of their products altogether, such as cellular modems, but they do still offer wireless products, but for whatever reason, Dell has now switched to the same Killer NIC they use in the XPS 13. They do offer an Intel Wireless-AC 8265 as well, but we can only test what we have.
The Killer Wireless-AC 1535 is not our favorite wireless NIC, although it has gotten better with driver updates over the last year or so. Performance is generally ok with the NIC, although not class leading by any means, but stability hasn’t ever been its strong suit. During the initial setup of the XPS 15, Windows 10 attempted to download the Creators Update, but the wireless disconnected twice during this process, causing the update to fail. That happens far too often with this NIC, especially if the drivers are not up to date.
Another issue that Killer needs to get on top of is that its OEMs using its products don’t seem to have any motivation to ensure that they are offering their clients the latest version of the Killer software suite, which has improved quite a bit since the previous Windows 8 style app. The new app has been out for quite a while, but despite this, Dell is shipping the XPS 15 with the older version.
Killer is one of the few manufacturers to offer a MU-MIMO NIC, so there are advantages to it (although the Intel 8265 also offers this) but the performance and stability are not as solid as the Intel solution.
Thermals
Compacting the XPS 15 with the Infinity Edge display could have been a cause for concern for performance, since there’s less internal room for fans and heatsinks, but as we saw with the previous generation, Dell has done the necessary engineering to allow full performance without any thermal throttling over time. To test this on the new XPS 15, we ran Dragon Age Inquisition for an extended time, and logged the temperatures and other statistics to file.
The XPS 15 with the NVIDIA GTX 1050 doesn’t have any throttling issues, even under maximum load for an extended period. The GPU temperature and frequency was incredibly stable throughout the test, at 77°C and 1202 MHz respectively.
Noise
The downside of good thermals is often noise, especially as laptops have gotten thinner and lighter. With a 45-Watt CPU, and discrete GPU, there’s a chance that good thermals will come at the expense of a loud laptop.
Luckily Dell has enough cooling capacity that it can be practically silent at idle, which isn’t the case for plenty of notebooks. If you like a quiet office, the XPS 15 would fit in well. Under load, the noise does ramp up, but it only gets to about 52 dB(A) with the SPL meter 1-inch over the trackpad. While plenty audible, for a notebook with a GPU, it is pretty reasonable.
Audio
Dell offers WAVES MaxxAudio Pro software to customize the audio experience, and it has a very nice interface to made adjustments to all aspects of the audio experience, with a great EQ and the ability to create and save profiles. It also lets you do some pseudo 3D affects to headphone audio.
The speakers on the XPS 15 are located on the bottom of the notebook, near the front, and they offer plenty of volume. The system was peaking close to 90 dB(A) with the SPL meter 1-inch over the trackpad, making this one of the louder notebooks around. As with all portable computers, the frequency response is not ideal, with a noticeable lack of depth in the response.
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aznchum - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
I was in this same pickle for the XPS 15 9550 when it first came out in Nov 2015. Issues with lag on waking from sleep and screen flickering. Had to disable the HD 630 graphics to remove the lag waking from sleep and the screen flickering, but that totally kills your battery running the GTX 960M all the time. This may have been fixed with drivers given Skylake was brand-spanking-new at the time. I ponied up the extra money and got the Mid 2015 15" rMBP. Never looked back and never had an issue. If you MUST have windows, use Parallels.nagi603 - Monday, July 31, 2017 - link
A colleague of mine had a faulty keyboard. The right ctrl button got stuck. Factory new, etc... Looks like QC is not the best at Dell.Garrett S. - Monday, July 31, 2017 - link
Laxaa,Check my amazon verified purchase reviews of the Dell XPS 15 9560. I've had 3 different laptops. All 3 have the infamous screen flashing/screen strobing, which occurs randomly, sporadically, at different time frames.
2 laptops were brand new from dell, factory sealed, from Amazon with 4k screen options, and both of the screens were like bloody strobe lights at a dance club. Also had half (left side only) audio coming out of headphone jack on 3 different headphones. I've had bad screens on all 3, defective headphone jacks, and once, on a brand new one, the fn key was bent in the air (again, check the photos).
So I tried a manufacturer refurbished directly from dell, and walla! Same good ole dancing strobe light (but didn't occur as often as the brand new ones did... it took about 2 hours of usage before screen started rapidly flashing like a strobe, which actually induces seizures).
I left reviews on Amazon (video/photo evidence), and mine are verified purchases (which means my reviews are not fake and/or fraudulent).
I'm going to purchase brand new laptop number 4 tomorrow, and most likely later on, number 5, 6, etc...
Dell: Don't worry guys. I'll cycle through hundreds and hundreds of your laptops until I find a working laptop!! I'll help the shipping company with weekly deliveries until you get your act together. For now, I'm writing this on my 2013 Macbook Pro retina, arguably, the world's greatest laptop ever created.
Laxaa - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
I guess ease of mind is what's going to justify spending extra on the MacBook Pro, because that doesn't sound good at all. And I've read similar things on Reddit as well.mr_tawan - Monday, July 31, 2017 - link
It would be great if they include the numeric pad on the keyboard.DanNeely - Monday, July 31, 2017 - link
They can't. Not enough room without using undersize keys for the entire keyboard. Slim bezels mean its about an inch narrower than a traditional fat bezel 15.6" laptop, roughly the size of a 14" fat bezel model which is also too narrow to fit a numpad.If you want slim bezels and a numpad, you'll need to hope someone makes a slim bezel 17" model. Being the size of a 15" fat bezel laptop, it'll again be wide enough to fit one.
tipoo - Monday, July 31, 2017 - link
I actually feel the opposite, I'd rather a centered keyboard and trackpad than a numpad. If you do data entry there's always external numpads. Most people don't use them that much and the keys are redundant.twtech - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
I'm really glad it doesn't have a numeric keypad. That's the #1 thing I look to avoid when comparing models, and it pretty much rules out everything over 15".I'm actually pretty proficient at using a number pad, but when I have it I use it so rarely, it's not worth having the main part of the keyboard be off-center. I actually don't even use a number pad on my desktop computers either - it's a waste of space.
mr_tawan - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link
I agreed that it's not for everyone. For English-only usage it's fine not having a numeric pad. In my case, I also use Thai as well. Thai layout covers the whole main keyboard with no room for numbers (as it contains its own set of numeric characters as well). The only other way to input (Arabic) number is to switch the layout back to English, which is a little bit cumbersome.Anyway thanks for all input (@tipoo, @twtech, andDanNeely). Appreciated.
Glock24 - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link
Totally agree. I can't stand the keyboard being off center because of the num pad, and even worse, some laptops have Frankenstein key shapes, sizes and layouts to make the num pad fit.