Dell XPS 15 9500 (2020) Unboxing and Initial Impressions!

**Exploring the Dell XPS 15 9500: A Comprehensive Review**

**Introduction**

The Dell XPS lineup has undergone a refresh with the introduction of the new 15-inch model, the XPS 15 9500. This article delves into the unboxing experience, design, hardware, and user experience of this laptop, comparing it to competitors like the MacBook Pro 13.

**Unboxing Experience**

The journey begins with unboxing the Dell XPS 15 9500. The packaging is impressive, featuring magnetic closure—a touch that adds a premium feel. Inside, the laptop is securely packed, and the included accessories are thoughtfully presented. Notably, the box contains a USB-C to HDMI adapter, a 90W power brick with a USB-C port, and a 100% recycled plastic power cable. Dell’s inclusion of essential adapters and sustainable packaging highlights attention to detail.

**Design and Build Quality**

The laptop boasts a sleek design with a sharp aluminum finish, giving it an elegant look reminiscent of high-end devices. The display is referred to as the "infinity display," characterized by minimal bezels and a built-in webcam. The keyboard area is spacious, offering ample room for large palms, a feature that stands out compared to smaller laptops. The trackpad is generous in size, rivaling Apple's offerings, and supports familiar gestures, enhancing usability.

**Hardware and Performance**

Under the hood, the XPS 15 9500 comes with an Intel Core i5 quad-core processor and 8GB of RAM. It runs on a 64-bit operating system, providing smooth multitasking capabilities. The laptop includes a full SD card slot, which is particularly appealing for content creators who need direct access to storage without external dongles. Additionally, the presence of two Thunderbolt 3 ports adds versatility for connecting high-speed peripherals.

**User Experience**

The user experience is enhanced by features like Windows Hello face unlock, allowing secure login with facial recognition. The keyboard, while slightly mushy compared to Apple devices, is comfortable and efficient for typing. The trackpad is responsive and intuitive, mirroring the gestures familiar from macOS. The display impresses with vibrant colors and excellent viewing angles, making it ideal for both work and entertainment.

**Comparison to Competitors**

A notable comparison arises between the Dell XPS 15 9500 and the MacBook Pro 13. While the XPS offers a larger screen and robust hardware, the MacBook excels in port selection and ecosystem integration. The XPS's inclusion of an SD card slot and Thunderbolt ports gives it an edge for specific use cases, particularly for those needing additional connectivity options.

**Conclusion**

The Dell XPS 15 9500 is a formidable contender in the laptop market, offering a blend of powerful hardware, elegant design, and user-friendly features. While it may not surpass the MacBook Pro 13 in every aspect, its unique strengths make it a compelling choice for those seeking versatility and performance.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe Dell XPS line has been refreshed with their new 15-inch model what comes in the box and is it any good let's find out oh it's heavy and what we're finding out I'd like to thank today's sponsor Squarespace what's up everyone I'm the everyday dad and if I can figure it out you can figure it out now I know I know you're gonna be saying to yourself everyday dad Gary you're an apple guy what's going on with the windows now yes I agree normally I talk about Apple stuff I have a lot of Apple products in my house but I also use a lot of Windows stuff and I've always wanted to get an XPS one of the very first videos we made here on the channel was about an Alienware laptop true story let's crack this thing open because I'm pretty I'm pretty excited about this thing because I do there's a few things on here that we're gonna see in a second probably gonna break my mind probably gonna break my mine so what do we have in here now this is very nice packaging I gotta give Dell credit credit where credit's dude this is a very nice box it's magnetically you can you can see that that is a magnet it does not get any fancier than magnets so what do we who XPS okay here's the computer now I did get the base model because again I always buy base models will set you over here and let's see what else we get in the box because Apple so much as I love Apple products you don't really ever get anything cool in the box did we get something cool here so in here we get a little USB c2 HDMI I assume that means that this then does not have HDMI and I do appreciate if you're gonna take a port or a piece of functionality away from a like piece of tech whether it be a camera or a computer at least give us the dongle inside the box so I do like we've got an HDMI connection inside of here we also have the power brick that is USB see because USB see is just how life needs to be from now on and we've got the power cable itself 100% recycled plastic 25% from Ocean bound sources thanks Dell so all of this stuff it's really felt like it's nice it's not as small as Apple products 90 watt power charger which is really cool what do we get in this little package do we get any stickers Dell are you gonna give me some stickers no warranty and safety information how to plug it in Thank You Doh I did not know how to plug a computer in okay we've got the paperwork out of the way we got all the boring stuff out of the way let's check out the computer because that's what I'm that's the main star of the show right and it has again something I am very excited about so this is the Dell XPS 15 9500 oh man that is a that is a really nice sharp aluminum finish and this is the thing that I was really looking forward to USB see and a full SD card slot hmm oh man and it's not it doesn't seem that much bigger than a MacBook but man full SD card Apple I'm telling you Apple ID I hate dongles I hate dongles having an SD card slot built into a computer when you are a creative that makes content all of the time that's a huge deal that is a gigantic deal I cannot wait to try that out headphone jack USB see looks like we have another USB see I do believe these are two of these are Thunderbolt three we'll have to check and see which one is that looks like it's got a very robust cooling system fans here on the side here on the side one gigantic fan here in the bottom this label is removable thanks for telling me that though man this thing is beautiful let's open this baby up oh man look do you see that trackpad that is an Apple rivaling trackpad this is gorgeous this is a gorgeous piece of machinery I have got to say like I haven't used an XPS machine in a while I've got a Dell there g3 gaming laptop in there and that's been my VR rig and I use an Inspiron for my work computer I haven't used an XPS in a long time and this is a gorgeous it's got like a faux carbon-fiber feel to gigantic speakers keyboard one of the things that I like about and Mac computers you'll hear me talk about all the time is the keyboard and I like how big the palm rest is on Mac books and I really like how big the palm rest is here can you even hear those keys like they do feel pretty good they feel pretty good this is a like this is a 15-inch machine and it doesn't necessarily feel that big but it's nice and spread out I like all of the actual function keys as opposed to a touch bar I like that it's just a straight-up regular keyboard I do kind of wish this was what the inverted T thing that I'm used to but you know we'll play with this more in a little bit but that is that is a gigantic trackpad so they might be having some Apple Envy there look at that look at those bezels like you almost can't see the bezels because of this they call it their infinity display and I do believe there's even a little webcam built-in right there oh man let's so what we're gonna do next we vote we've unboxed that we see what we got let's plug it in and just do a few quick tasks on it this is the base model because I compare all base models against other base models because we all try to save some money right and one of the things the reason I got this the way that it did is the XPS 15 especially at the base model really seems to compare against the MacBook Pro 13 hi there I'm Cortana thanks hold on Cortana I was I was talking to a little sign in here touch ok Cortana I was talking everybody but I really think that this competes against the MacBook Pro 13 which is one of my favorite computers ever because of the way that even you can configure these internals you can get a GPU in here it's not as beefy of a GPU as you can get on the 16 inch MacBook which I think is what the 17 inch Dell which I cannot wait to pre-order it's not available for pre-order yet Dell if you're watching I would love to borrow one of those I think the 17 will compete with the 16 and then this 15 competes with the MacBook Pro 13 and that's what we're gonna that's how we're gonna break all of this stuff down so let's set this thing up real quick we'll plug it in and you'll be able to see just how cool this looks okay and as we're setting this up something I do want to mention really quickly is that this has Windows hello which is their face unlock feature which is cool because Mac does not it has it on this phone like all my iPhone I can do face unlock but it doesn't do it on the computer so I'm really I'm curious to see this setup and okay we got a centered in the frame look directly in the camera I continue to look directly in the camera great okay now we gotta set it up to a pin you guys don't get to I'm sorry you don't you don't get to see my pin okay back to setting it up I just wanted to see how it looks then we're gonna shut it and open it to see how quick there go Android phone photos clearly you don't know me Dell don't get don't get fresh just cuz I'm trying to Windows computer doesn't mean that we're totally switching here this is just i like having both options because this has an SD card slot and welcome to Windows Windows thank you for welcoming me holy cow so this is the 1080p like this is not the high-end display it's not the touch display or anything like that but this is just taking away those bezels man this is gorgeous like I cannot get over how beautiful this screen is and it's got some serious can you guys see that like that's got some crazy good viewing angles like you're almost not even on it and you can still see it that's nuts this display is very vibrant it's just I'm shocked like I mean I guess you spent so much time in one ecosystem you don't really know what else is out there but it's it's beautiful hold on let's do the list of the face ID thing okay we're shut lets open up open up it wouldn't that one pretty quick do it pretty quick let's try it again open up and that one went way faster so maybe it's like once it sees you for the first time man okay that's pretty good like by the time you'd be settled anyway or you do the fingerprint thing it's about the same speed Wow so you can see here I got the version with the i-5 quad-core 8 gigabytes of RAM 64-bit operating system man this thing I gotta be honest I'm I'm very initial impressions are on very impressed let's do a quick typing test so do we have like word or no it's notepad right because we didn't we're not installing office no we can do Google Documents let's do a let's do a quick typing test on this Dell XPS computer man it's so weird because like the it's a bigger computer than my 13-inch MacBook and it's like you're more spread out so I'm so used to typing on the smaller thing but this this does feel good this feeling they're a little slushy er the keys here feel a little mushy er than on my Apple devices but it feels perfectly fine let's try a quick typing test because yeah it feels pretty good everything seems to be in a really accessible spot it doesn't seem that much different I do like I like that the trackpad is like right here and it seems to share a lot of the same gestures that I'm used to kinda okay so that is the the one hand clapping gesture from Apple got it it's not that it's not that different right that different we can try all sorts of stuff on here now that we've got the SD card we so we tried out the typing the typing was great we will do so tomorrow we'll do a video where we'll find out if this can be used as your only video editing computer and I'm really excited to try that out cuz again I really I'm liking what we have on display here now one thing I will say initial impressions we haven't done much with this computer like we logged in we did the typing test but it's already I mean it feels kind of warm already not like hot but it just feels kind of warm so that's something we'll have to keep track of maybe all the carbon fiber keeps in the heat I don't know and thanks to today's sponsor Squarespace you can create your own very beautiful website Squarespace is the all-in-one platform to build a professional website online store or portfolio it's easy to claim a domain /url create a custom site that matches your style and bring your ideas to life head over to Squarespace comm for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com slash every day dad to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and thank you for watchingthe Dell XPS line has been refreshed with their new 15-inch model what comes in the box and is it any good let's find out oh it's heavy and what we're finding out I'd like to thank today's sponsor Squarespace what's up everyone I'm the everyday dad and if I can figure it out you can figure it out now I know I know you're gonna be saying to yourself everyday dad Gary you're an apple guy what's going on with the windows now yes I agree normally I talk about Apple stuff I have a lot of Apple products in my house but I also use a lot of Windows stuff and I've always wanted to get an XPS one of the very first videos we made here on the channel was about an Alienware laptop true story let's crack this thing open because I'm pretty I'm pretty excited about this thing because I do there's a few things on here that we're gonna see in a second probably gonna break my mind probably gonna break my mine so what do we have in here now this is very nice packaging I gotta give Dell credit credit where credit's dude this is a very nice box it's magnetically you can you can see that that is a magnet it does not get any fancier than magnets so what do we who XPS okay here's the computer now I did get the base model because again I always buy base models will set you over here and let's see what else we get in the box because Apple so much as I love Apple products you don't really ever get anything cool in the box did we get something cool here so in here we get a little USB c2 HDMI I assume that means that this then does not have HDMI and I do appreciate if you're gonna take a port or a piece of functionality away from a like piece of tech whether it be a camera or a computer at least give us the dongle inside the box so I do like we've got an HDMI connection inside of here we also have the power brick that is USB see because USB see is just how life needs to be from now on and we've got the power cable itself 100% recycled plastic 25% from Ocean bound sources thanks Dell so all of this stuff it's really felt like it's nice it's not as small as Apple products 90 watt power charger which is really cool what do we get in this little package do we get any stickers Dell are you gonna give me some stickers no warranty and safety information how to plug it in Thank You Doh I did not know how to plug a computer in okay we've got the paperwork out of the way we got all the boring stuff out of the way let's check out the computer because that's what I'm that's the main star of the show right and it has again something I am very excited about so this is the Dell XPS 15 9500 oh man that is a that is a really nice sharp aluminum finish and this is the thing that I was really looking forward to USB see and a full SD card slot hmm oh man and it's not it doesn't seem that much bigger than a MacBook but man full SD card Apple I'm telling you Apple ID I hate dongles I hate dongles having an SD card slot built into a computer when you are a creative that makes content all of the time that's a huge deal that is a gigantic deal I cannot wait to try that out headphone jack USB see looks like we have another USB see I do believe these are two of these are Thunderbolt three we'll have to check and see which one is that looks like it's got a very robust cooling system fans here on the side here on the side one gigantic fan here in the bottom this label is removable thanks for telling me that though man this thing is beautiful let's open this baby up oh man look do you see that trackpad that is an Apple rivaling trackpad this is gorgeous this is a gorgeous piece of machinery I have got to say like I haven't used an XPS machine in a while I've got a Dell there g3 gaming laptop in there and that's been my VR rig and I use an Inspiron for my work computer I haven't used an XPS in a long time and this is a gorgeous it's got like a faux carbon-fiber feel to gigantic speakers keyboard one of the things that I like about and Mac computers you'll hear me talk about all the time is the keyboard and I like how big the palm rest is on Mac books and I really like how big the palm rest is here can you even hear those keys like they do feel pretty good they feel pretty good this is a like this is a 15-inch machine and it doesn't necessarily feel that big but it's nice and spread out I like all of the actual function keys as opposed to a touch bar I like that it's just a straight-up regular keyboard I do kind of wish this was what the inverted T thing that I'm used to but you know we'll play with this more in a little bit but that is that is a gigantic trackpad so they might be having some Apple Envy there look at that look at those bezels like you almost can't see the bezels because of this they call it their infinity display and I do believe there's even a little webcam built-in right there oh man let's so what we're gonna do next we vote we've unboxed that we see what we got let's plug it in and just do a few quick tasks on it this is the base model because I compare all base models against other base models because we all try to save some money right and one of the things the reason I got this the way that it did is the XPS 15 especially at the base model really seems to compare against the MacBook Pro 13 hi there I'm Cortana thanks hold on Cortana I was I was talking to a little sign in here touch ok Cortana I was talking everybody but I really think that this competes against the MacBook Pro 13 which is one of my favorite computers ever because of the way that even you can configure these internals you can get a GPU in here it's not as beefy of a GPU as you can get on the 16 inch MacBook which I think is what the 17 inch Dell which I cannot wait to pre-order it's not available for pre-order yet Dell if you're watching I would love to borrow one of those I think the 17 will compete with the 16 and then this 15 competes with the MacBook Pro 13 and that's what we're gonna that's how we're gonna break all of this stuff down so let's set this thing up real quick we'll plug it in and you'll be able to see just how cool this looks okay and as we're setting this up something I do want to mention really quickly is that this has Windows hello which is their face unlock feature which is cool because Mac does not it has it on this phone like all my iPhone I can do face unlock but it doesn't do it on the computer so I'm really I'm curious to see this setup and okay we got a centered in the frame look directly in the camera I continue to look directly in the camera great okay now we gotta set it up to a pin you guys don't get to I'm sorry you don't you don't get to see my pin okay back to setting it up I just wanted to see how it looks then we're gonna shut it and open it to see how quick there go Android phone photos clearly you don't know me Dell don't get don't get fresh just cuz I'm trying to Windows computer doesn't mean that we're totally switching here this is just i like having both options because this has an SD card slot and welcome to Windows Windows thank you for welcoming me holy cow so this is the 1080p like this is not the high-end display it's not the touch display or anything like that but this is just taking away those bezels man this is gorgeous like I cannot get over how beautiful this screen is and it's got some serious can you guys see that like that's got some crazy good viewing angles like you're almost not even on it and you can still see it that's nuts this display is very vibrant it's just I'm shocked like I mean I guess you spent so much time in one ecosystem you don't really know what else is out there but it's it's beautiful hold on let's do the list of the face ID thing okay we're shut lets open up open up it wouldn't that one pretty quick do it pretty quick let's try it again open up and that one went way faster so maybe it's like once it sees you for the first time man okay that's pretty good like by the time you'd be settled anyway or you do the fingerprint thing it's about the same speed Wow so you can see here I got the version with the i-5 quad-core 8 gigabytes of RAM 64-bit operating system man this thing I gotta be honest I'm I'm very initial impressions are on very impressed let's do a quick typing test so do we have like word or no it's notepad right because we didn't we're not installing office no we can do Google Documents let's do a let's do a quick typing test on this Dell XPS computer man it's so weird because like the it's a bigger computer than my 13-inch MacBook and it's like you're more spread out so I'm so used to typing on the smaller thing but this this does feel good this feeling they're a little slushy er the keys here feel a little mushy er than on my Apple devices but it feels perfectly fine let's try a quick typing test because yeah it feels pretty good everything seems to be in a really accessible spot it doesn't seem that much different I do like I like that the trackpad is like right here and it seems to share a lot of the same gestures that I'm used to kinda okay so that is the the one hand clapping gesture from Apple got it it's not that it's not that different right that different we can try all sorts of stuff on here now that we've got the SD card we so we tried out the typing the typing was great we will do so tomorrow we'll do a video where we'll find out if this can be used as your only video editing computer and I'm really excited to try that out cuz again I really I'm liking what we have on display here now one thing I will say initial impressions we haven't done much with this computer like we logged in we did the typing test but it's already I mean it feels kind of warm already not like hot but it just feels kind of warm so that's something we'll have to keep track of maybe all the carbon fiber keeps in the heat I don't know and thanks to today's sponsor Squarespace you can create your own very beautiful website Squarespace is the all-in-one platform to build a professional website online store or portfolio it's easy to claim a domain /url create a custom site that matches your style and bring your ideas to life head over to Squarespace comm for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com slash every day dad to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and thank you for watching\n"