Compared! Dell XPS 17 VS 16' MacBook Pro M1 Max! Most Apple-esque PC!

# Comprehensive Comparison: 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max vs. Dell XPS 17 (2021)

## Introduction

In this in-depth article, we will compare two top-tier laptops: Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro equipped with the M1 Max processor and Dell's 2021 XPS 17. This comparison covers design, ports, display quality, cameras, audio performance, and overall system performance.

## Design

Both the MacBook Pro and the Dell XPS 17 boast premium all-metal builds, ensuring durability and a sleek appearance.

- **MacBook Pro**: Features an aluminum chassis with a polished finish, adhering to Apple's minimalist design philosophy.

- **Dell XPS 17**: Showcases chamfered edges, glossy and matte finishes, and soft-touch material accents, offering a high-end look reminiscent of Apple's designs.

## Ports

Each device offers a range of connectivity options tailored to different user needs.

- **MacBook Pro**: Includes a MagSafe 3 port for power, two Thunderbolt 4 ports (Type-C), a headphone jack, an SD card reader, and an HDMI 2.0 port.

- **Dell XPS 17**: Features four Thunderbolt 3 ports, an SD card reader, and a headphone jack, with the convenience of standard USB-C charging.

## Display

The displays set these laptops apart in terms of visual performance.

- **MacBook Pro**: Boasts a 16.2-inch mini-LED display with 3456x2234 resolution, 254 pixels per inch (ppi), 1000 nits sustained brightness, 120Hz refresh rate, True Tone, and P3 wide color gamut.

- **Dell XPS 17**: Offers a 17-inch screen with 1920x1200 resolution, lower pixel density (133 ppi), 500 nits brightness, and a matte finish with thinner bezels.

## Cameras

Both laptops include front-facing cameras for video calls.

- **MacBook Pro**: Features a 1080p FaceTime HD camera enhanced by Apple's ISP for improved video quality.

- **Dell XPS 17**: Includes a 720p RGB camera with Windows Hello and facial recognition capabilities, supported by infrared sensors.

## Audio

Audio performance is another key differentiator.

- **MacBook Pro**: Equipped with six speakers, including force-cancelling woofers, spatial audio with Dolby Atmos support, and higher volume output.

- **Dell XPS 17**: Features 2.5W stereo woofers and 1.5W tweeters for balanced sound, though lacking Dolby Atmos support.

## Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

Both devices offer advanced connectivity options.

- **MacBook Pro**: Supports Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6.

- **Dell XPS 17**: Supports Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi 6.

## Performance

The performance benchmarks highlight significant differences between the two systems.

### Single-Core Performance (Geekbench)

- **MacBook Pro**: Scored 1769.

- **Dell XPS 17**: Scored 984.

### Multi-Core Performance (Geekbench)

- **MacBook Pro**: Achieved 12,308.

- **Dell XPS 17**: Achieved 6,195 on battery, with minimal dip to 5,984.

### Single-Core Performance (Cinebench R23)

- **MacBook Pro**: Scored 15.32.

- **Dell XPS 17**: Scored 882.

### Multi-Core Performance (Cinebench R23)

- **MacBook Pro**: Achieved 6,129.

- **Dell XPS 17**: Scored 882 on battery.

## Graphics Performance

The M1 Max's 32-core GPU outperforms the Dell XPS 17's NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 with Max Q in compute tasks.

### Compute Test (Geekbench)

- **MacBook Pro**: 68,950.

- **Dell XPS 17**: 26,534 on battery; 68,730 when powered.

## Usability and Build Quality

The Dell XPS 17 excels in build quality with a premium feel, large trackpad, and excellent keyboard. It uses standard USB-C charging, complemented by an illuminated charger.

## Conclusion

Both laptops offer unique strengths: the MacBook Pro excels in performance and display quality, while the Dell XPS 17 provides impressive design and usability at a more affordable price point. Your choice may depend on your specific needs—whether for professional tasks or daily use.

Feel free to share your thoughts on which laptop suits you best!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enlet's compare the 16-inch macbook pro with an m1 max processor to the latest generation dell xps 17. welcome everybody to apple insider it is andrew here and as i mentioned i've got two machines to check out in this video for you i have the all-new 16-inch macbook pro this is the guy with apple silicon on the inside the m1 max processor and that 32 core gpu and i'm comparing this against the 2021 the latest generation dell xps 17. this is the one with the 10th gen 8 core intel core i7 processor and the nvidia geforce rtx 2060 graphics with max q so this should be a great compare because honestly this del looks pretty awesome so i'm excited to dive into this so without further ado let's take a look at the designs both of these machines opted for a nearly all metal design of course we're all familiar with the latest generation macbook pros that have the all-aluminum chassis they look pretty phenomenal well at least i think they do i guess there's some argument about how the new machines look but if we go over to the dell xps 17 it's also got a pretty awesome design to it it too has an all metal body and there's like a lot of like nice details there's like chamfered edges going around it there's like glossy parts and matte parts it's a really neat look and on the inside it's this soft touch material uh it almost has like a carbon fiber look to it but it looks pretty great like this is a high-end looking machine if i was looking for the most mac like experience on a pc this is what i would end up picking up it's that good it very much looks like it's on apple's level as far as the design and quality of this machine goes if you want to take a look at the port starting off with the 16 inch macbook pro down the left hand side we have the magsafe 3 port which is of course used for power you can use the 140 watt charging brick to give this thing fast charge 50 in only 30 minutes then we have two thunderbolt 4 ports which are the type c format then we have a high impedance headphone jack on the right hand side we have that uh s2 card reader as well as another thunderbolt 4 port and an hdmi 2.0 port if we go over here and look at the dell it has a few ports on its own on the right hand side we have an sd card reader then we have two thunderbolt 3 ports on the left side we have two more thunderbolt 3 ports there's also a headphone jack in total the dell xps 17 has four thunderbolt 3 ports while the macbook pro has three thunderbolt 4 ports so there's more thunderbolt here but a newer version of thunderbolt on the mac so which one's your preference i'll i'll leave that to you guys moving to the displays the macbook pro has a 3456x2234 16.2 inch display with a pixel density of 254 pixels per inch has a thousand nits of sustain brightness and can go up to 1600 nits during hdr playback it's a mini led display supports pro motion refresh rates up to 120 hertz as well as true tone and the p3 wide color gamut if we go and look at the dell xps 17 as a 1920 by 1200 display measures in at 17 inches there's a pixel density of a woeful 133 ppi it also only has a max brightness of 500 nits only about half of what apples does in standard performance it's really going to depend on what you need this display for though because it looks like the dell is at a pretty big disadvantage with its display especially that pixel density but in other ways it beats the macbook pro the matte finish it has looks awesome and especially if you're in a high brightness area it really pays off and it has much smaller borders than even we do on the macbook pro so it has thinner bezels and a matte finish that i really prefer for a lot of daily content but the gloss finish it still looks a lot better it's still more brightness it's still the higher refresh rate a lot of stuff that's great with apple display but if you're not using it for content creation or content consumption the dell may be the better choice of course both of these machines have built-in front-facing cameras apple's 60-inch macbook pro has a new 1080p facetime camera which is aided in part by apple's own isp built into the m1 pro or m1 max processor on the windows dell xps 17 it only has a 720p rgb camera but in one benefit it does have built-in infrared cameras and sensors which can be used for windows hello and facial recognition authentication so you can have a password you can have facial recognition and both of them have fingerprint readers built in so you have a lot of biometric options on the windows dell xps side and you have a touch id on the macbook pro on the macbook pro apple has six total speakers including force cancelling woofers apple supports spatial audio on the macbook pro including support for dolby atmos on the dell xps 17 there are 2.5 watt stereo woofers as well as 1.5 watt serial tweeters for four total speakers listening between the two i think they both sound fairly solid dell has done a good job compared to many other pc manufacturers with the audio in its machines apple does put out a slightly higher amount a more higher volume of audio from its macbook pro but i'm not going to put either of them down the one benefit that i really like from apple is support for dolby atmos it's not incredible like you have an actual dolby atmos setup but it does give you some semblance of spatial audio just through your computer speakers it's a neat effect and if you watch a lot of movies or anything that supports dolby atmos or spatial audio i think it's cooler on the macbook pro the dell xpi 17 has dual array microphones while apple has three beamforming microphones apple supports bluetooth 5.0 whereas dell supports bluetooth 5.1 and they both support wi-fi 6. from a usability perspective i have very little qualms with either these two machines with a lot of pcs that i test and try they are really cheaping out on things like the build quality the chargers the feel of the keyboard all of that stuff but dell has knocked out of the park i mean the build of this machine is great in comparison to the macbook pro it still has that all metal body that i love its trackpad is huge and feels great to tap and slide around on his speakers sound great the backlit keyboard looks good the bezels on the thing are fantastic there's just a lot of a lot to love with the dell xps 17. i also love that it uses just standard usb c power delivery to charge the machine you don't have to have any weird proprietary special charger but even the charger that it does come with has a little light on there so you know that is charging a machine just a little touch like that that gives us an elevated feel as you're using it now let's go ahead and talk about the performance on these two machines now in previous tests for windows pcs we'd run them both connected to power as well as just on battery life and when i tested the dell xps 17 both on battery and power i did not see a big difference at all in terms of the single or multi-core performance in geekbench i did see it on the graphics so we'll come back to that but we're going to look here just for overall results between these two machines on the single core test the macbook pro got a 1769 while the dell got a 984 if we go ahead and look at the multi-core the mac got a 12 308 whereas the dell got a 6195 on the multi-core i did see it dipped down to about a 59 84 when it's connected just to battery but i don't think that's a big drop at all i think that's pretty awesome performance for the dell both can get the battery versus power there's not a big dip off there and there's definitely no dip off on the mac turning to cinebench r23 the macbook pro scored a 15 32 on the single core and 882 on the dell for that single core going to the multi-core the max cord a 12-308 whereas the dell scored a6129 if we compare the graphical performance of apple's own 32 core gpu inside the m1 max processor to the nvidia geforce rtx 2060 graphics inside of the dell xps 17. inside of the compute test for geekbench we are getting a 68 950 on the mac and a 26 534 on the dell when it's connected to just the battery no direct power but when we do plug it into power we get a much better score on the dell it goes all the way up to a 68 730 so definitely some big performance gains on the dell when it's connected to power versus just running on battery life so that about rounds it out i'm very impressed with how these two machines stack up this is the most apple-esque pc that i have tested to date i mean the fact that they've shunned pretty much all ports except for thunderbolt 3 and a single sd card slot is very apple asked even as apple has went away from that with the latest macbook pro bringing back more ports such as hdmi but still this is a great attempt at dell to create an apple like machine in the pc space they've done an amazing job there's of course a big advantage to apple silicon in the macbook pros but i expect that we're going to see windows catching up sooner rather than later as intel really starts to push things forward with its next generation cpus let me know what you guys think if you want to grab either of these there are links down below in the description and let me know what you think on twitter at andrew underscore osu otherwise i'll check you on the next video youlet's compare the 16-inch macbook pro with an m1 max processor to the latest generation dell xps 17. welcome everybody to apple insider it is andrew here and as i mentioned i've got two machines to check out in this video for you i have the all-new 16-inch macbook pro this is the guy with apple silicon on the inside the m1 max processor and that 32 core gpu and i'm comparing this against the 2021 the latest generation dell xps 17. this is the one with the 10th gen 8 core intel core i7 processor and the nvidia geforce rtx 2060 graphics with max q so this should be a great compare because honestly this del looks pretty awesome so i'm excited to dive into this so without further ado let's take a look at the designs both of these machines opted for a nearly all metal design of course we're all familiar with the latest generation macbook pros that have the all-aluminum chassis they look pretty phenomenal well at least i think they do i guess there's some argument about how the new machines look but if we go over to the dell xps 17 it's also got a pretty awesome design to it it too has an all metal body and there's like a lot of like nice details there's like chamfered edges going around it there's like glossy parts and matte parts it's a really neat look and on the inside it's this soft touch material uh it almost has like a carbon fiber look to it but it looks pretty great like this is a high-end looking machine if i was looking for the most mac like experience on a pc this is what i would end up picking up it's that good it very much looks like it's on apple's level as far as the design and quality of this machine goes if you want to take a look at the port starting off with the 16 inch macbook pro down the left hand side we have the magsafe 3 port which is of course used for power you can use the 140 watt charging brick to give this thing fast charge 50 in only 30 minutes then we have two thunderbolt 4 ports which are the type c format then we have a high impedance headphone jack on the right hand side we have that uh s2 card reader as well as another thunderbolt 4 port and an hdmi 2.0 port if we go over here and look at the dell it has a few ports on its own on the right hand side we have an sd card reader then we have two thunderbolt 3 ports on the left side we have two more thunderbolt 3 ports there's also a headphone jack in total the dell xps 17 has four thunderbolt 3 ports while the macbook pro has three thunderbolt 4 ports so there's more thunderbolt here but a newer version of thunderbolt on the mac so which one's your preference i'll i'll leave that to you guys moving to the displays the macbook pro has a 3456x2234 16.2 inch display with a pixel density of 254 pixels per inch has a thousand nits of sustain brightness and can go up to 1600 nits during hdr playback it's a mini led display supports pro motion refresh rates up to 120 hertz as well as true tone and the p3 wide color gamut if we go and look at the dell xps 17 as a 1920 by 1200 display measures in at 17 inches there's a pixel density of a woeful 133 ppi it also only has a max brightness of 500 nits only about half of what apples does in standard performance it's really going to depend on what you need this display for though because it looks like the dell is at a pretty big disadvantage with its display especially that pixel density but in other ways it beats the macbook pro the matte finish it has looks awesome and especially if you're in a high brightness area it really pays off and it has much smaller borders than even we do on the macbook pro so it has thinner bezels and a matte finish that i really prefer for a lot of daily content but the gloss finish it still looks a lot better it's still more brightness it's still the higher refresh rate a lot of stuff that's great with apple display but if you're not using it for content creation or content consumption the dell may be the better choice of course both of these machines have built-in front-facing cameras apple's 60-inch macbook pro has a new 1080p facetime camera which is aided in part by apple's own isp built into the m1 pro or m1 max processor on the windows dell xps 17 it only has a 720p rgb camera but in one benefit it does have built-in infrared cameras and sensors which can be used for windows hello and facial recognition authentication so you can have a password you can have facial recognition and both of them have fingerprint readers built in so you have a lot of biometric options on the windows dell xps side and you have a touch id on the macbook pro on the macbook pro apple has six total speakers including force cancelling woofers apple supports spatial audio on the macbook pro including support for dolby atmos on the dell xps 17 there are 2.5 watt stereo woofers as well as 1.5 watt serial tweeters for four total speakers listening between the two i think they both sound fairly solid dell has done a good job compared to many other pc manufacturers with the audio in its machines apple does put out a slightly higher amount a more higher volume of audio from its macbook pro but i'm not going to put either of them down the one benefit that i really like from apple is support for dolby atmos it's not incredible like you have an actual dolby atmos setup but it does give you some semblance of spatial audio just through your computer speakers it's a neat effect and if you watch a lot of movies or anything that supports dolby atmos or spatial audio i think it's cooler on the macbook pro the dell xpi 17 has dual array microphones while apple has three beamforming microphones apple supports bluetooth 5.0 whereas dell supports bluetooth 5.1 and they both support wi-fi 6. from a usability perspective i have very little qualms with either these two machines with a lot of pcs that i test and try they are really cheaping out on things like the build quality the chargers the feel of the keyboard all of that stuff but dell has knocked out of the park i mean the build of this machine is great in comparison to the macbook pro it still has that all metal body that i love its trackpad is huge and feels great to tap and slide around on his speakers sound great the backlit keyboard looks good the bezels on the thing are fantastic there's just a lot of a lot to love with the dell xps 17. i also love that it uses just standard usb c power delivery to charge the machine you don't have to have any weird proprietary special charger but even the charger that it does come with has a little light on there so you know that is charging a machine just a little touch like that that gives us an elevated feel as you're using it now let's go ahead and talk about the performance on these two machines now in previous tests for windows pcs we'd run them both connected to power as well as just on battery life and when i tested the dell xps 17 both on battery and power i did not see a big difference at all in terms of the single or multi-core performance in geekbench i did see it on the graphics so we'll come back to that but we're going to look here just for overall results between these two machines on the single core test the macbook pro got a 1769 while the dell got a 984 if we go ahead and look at the multi-core the mac got a 12 308 whereas the dell got a 6195 on the multi-core i did see it dipped down to about a 59 84 when it's connected just to battery but i don't think that's a big drop at all i think that's pretty awesome performance for the dell both can get the battery versus power there's not a big dip off there and there's definitely no dip off on the mac turning to cinebench r23 the macbook pro scored a 15 32 on the single core and 882 on the dell for that single core going to the multi-core the max cord a 12-308 whereas the dell scored a6129 if we compare the graphical performance of apple's own 32 core gpu inside the m1 max processor to the nvidia geforce rtx 2060 graphics inside of the dell xps 17. inside of the compute test for geekbench we are getting a 68 950 on the mac and a 26 534 on the dell when it's connected to just the battery no direct power but when we do plug it into power we get a much better score on the dell it goes all the way up to a 68 730 so definitely some big performance gains on the dell when it's connected to power versus just running on battery life so that about rounds it out i'm very impressed with how these two machines stack up this is the most apple-esque pc that i have tested to date i mean the fact that they've shunned pretty much all ports except for thunderbolt 3 and a single sd card slot is very apple asked even as apple has went away from that with the latest macbook pro bringing back more ports such as hdmi but still this is a great attempt at dell to create an apple like machine in the pc space they've done an amazing job there's of course a big advantage to apple silicon in the macbook pros but i expect that we're going to see windows catching up sooner rather than later as intel really starts to push things forward with its next generation cpus let me know what you guys think if you want to grab either of these there are links down below in the description and let me know what you think on twitter at andrew underscore osu otherwise i'll check you on the next video you\n"