Dell XPS 15 9500 6 Months Later! An Almost Perfect Laptop!

**A Personal Review of the Dell XPS 15 Laptop**

As I sit down to write this review, I am reminded that one of the things that you'll never see on a spec list is the cursor behavior. And if it's working well, you'll never even think about it. But the second your cursor starts going all over the place or erroneously clicking while you're trying to work, it becomes the worst thing ever. Fortunately, this has not been my experience with the Dell XPS 15.

Upgradability is another novelty for me as I cannot upgrade most of the components in any of my other computers. The XPS 15, however, gives you an additional M.2 slot, letting you have two of your very own solid-state drives running at once. This means that you can enjoy faster performance and potentially even speed up certain tasks. While sourcing the mounting screw by yourself is not ideal, I've found it to be a minor inconvenience. Additionally, you can also upgrade the internal RAM with its two slots, which has been a game-changer for me. My son has one of the biggest memory laptops on the planet due to his virtual schooling requirements, and I put 64 gigabytes in here because I could. It's part of being a dad, and I really like being able to easily upgrade my own components as it's cheaper, easier, and allows me to save money from buying OEMs that are usually more expensive and slower options.

**The Good: Display, Port Selection, Power**

We've spent a long time now talking about the good things about the XPS 15. The display is absolutely amazing, with excellent color accuracy and brightness. The port selection is also great, with plenty of options for connecting external devices. Additionally, power is decent for the price, making it an excellent choice for users who need a reliable laptop without breaking the bank.

**The Not-So-Good: Graphics Card Option**

If we're talking Windows laptops to Windows laptops, there isn't much that I haven't liked. However, one area where I do have some criticism is with the graphics card option. Specifically, the 1650 Ti is not a good choice for productivity or creation tasks. While it's fine for gaming on older AAA titles and most indie games, it simply doesn't cut it for more demanding applications like video editing or 3D modeling.

**A Recommendation**

So, what's the verdict? If you refuse to give the new M1 Max a shot (which is understandable, given its release in recent months), then I'd still recommend the XPS 15. The display is stunning, the port selection is great, power is decent for the price, and the internal RAM can be upgraded to incredible levels. Additionally, the usability is excellent, with a smooth and responsive interface that makes navigating the laptop a breeze.

In fact, it's hard for me to recommend any of the current offerings from Dell or other OEMs. The XPS 15 has given me no problems over the past six months and has proven to be a reliable workhorse during a tough time earlier this year. It's a pretty darn good computer for what you get, and I'm glad I invested in it.

**Conclusion**

If you're curious about the XPS 15 or want to learn more about this excellent laptop, I invite you to check out my entire playlist from earlier this year. You can find that by clicking here: [link].

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe dell xps 15 9500 from 2020 is legit one of my favorite laptops ever made and honestly besides my macbook air is probably the device that gets used the most often in my house that's not that's not an exaggeration as soon as we knew my son was going to have to do virtual schooling the 9500 was repurposed to him and this is easily this laptop was one of my best buys of 2020. no i don't do my video editing on it no it doesn't do all of the cool stuff that my macbooks do but this has been awesome so how is it holding up six months later should you still buy a windows laptop despite the fact that the juggernaut of the m1 macbook line exists let's find out i hope i didn't break it because he definitely needs to still use it what's up everyone i'm the everday dad and if i can figure it out you can figure it out seriously i've been wanting to make this follow-up video for so long because like i said in the intro this computer has been a lifesaver and sure we could have used a lower end model to do the same thing but i think there are a few key features here that made this as awesome as it is and why we continue to use it for virtual home schooling i'd like to start off this video saying that this is still the version that i purchased myself i did not get a loaner nor did i have to return my original model due to manufacturing problems though if you've been following the channel i did have to return my xps 17 due to a wonky trackpad this right here though is still the same laptop from all my previous videos it's just been battle hardened by an eight-year-old can you see can you see the dings i tried to clean this as best i can but there's only so much you can clean when your eight-year-old has been using the laptop and if some of the b-roll shots look pretty rough that's probably that's probably why it is i did i i promise you i did my best as this is an x-time later video we're not gonna go super in depth on the tech specs or features there are literally thousands of videos out there that can give you the microscopic look at probably every single component on this machine and i don't feel like doing that today so what we are going to do is we're going to go over the things that i've liked and the things that i've disliked over the past six months of actual daily use okay not on the weekends actual five days a week use well he's probably he's been watching youtube videos actual daily use and in a stunning turn of events i'm gonna keep you on your toes let's start off with the things that i like surprise the very first thing that i like about the xps 15 is probably the number one thing to look at when getting one of these machines and it's probably one of the reasons that you're looking at one of these computers in the first place the display now you might be thinking to yourself gary mr apple guy here all you do is talk about ipads and macbooks and iphones and all that stuff which as a keen eye observer that i am talking to you those retina displays have a much higher resolution than this display that you are championing here on the windows laptop wow you had a really long conversation with me other me yes the screen that comes on my version of the dell xps 15 is the 1080p ish display it's not technically 1080p because it's a much taller by 10 aspect ratio but it looks gorgeous it looks so good resolution isn't everything in life and as a video creator you can trust me on that we could be shooting this in 8k nobody cares about 8k i am shooting in 4k though and despite it lacking a bit compared to the apple display's retina panel resolution or the razer panel's refresh rate this is the best looking display on a laptop right now period and not only is it the best looking but that extra real estate on the bottom or the top depending on your outlook on life is actually a usable amount of workspace it's not space to have for space to say you actually get more functionality out of the computer because you have more room when you get into the zone typing or working here those super thin bezels they're not even noticeable and as somebody that does a lot of work on macbooks those bezels never go away it's like no matter what you are doing how you are working the bezels are always just glaring and judging they're always judging plus with up to 500 nits of brightness and a p3 color accuracy it's so good this display by itself almost won this laptop my favorite laptop of 2020 award it didn't for reasons but the display is not the fault of that the next thing that i've really liked about the 9500 here is oddly enough the power and i say oddly enough because if you remember back to my original content regarding this computer i've only got the base model so this has no graphics card this has no high-powered i7 processor but for what i've needed this computer does all of it flawlessly like i said we were in a tight spot our school didn't have enough chromebooks to go around at the start of virtual schooling and so because of all that this became the de facto telescool computer for my son the four core 4.5 gigahertz i5 processor has been remarkable even when doing more power oriented tasks like we showed back in those original videos this 10th gen intel cpu was even powerful enough to do 4k video editing if you were able to lower your playback resolution and you even got a decent if not especially impressive render time so you could even if you bought the cheapest base model of this you could use this for 4k video editing in a pinch sure in those number oriented benchmarks this specific version will do worse as it's lacking that dedicated graphics card and it doesn't have as high of an end of an integrated gpu like the apple m1 or 11th gen intel processors but it's not half bad for what it can do at its price and if you do want more power this can go up to an eight core i9 processor though i would be concerned about thermal performance of the chip in such a small computer but i haven't personally used that version of the processor inside of here so i can't really say but i would have concerns you can even though this does not have a dedicated graphics card you can get a model with one of those though i'm saying that now we're gonna give the graphics card its own section the video later probably not a good sign the way that i'm saying that but we're not to dislikes yet the next thing that still shocks me to this day and that i've thoroughly enjoyed is the size this is one of those things that you really can't appreciate until you've seen one of these in person so the next time you can safely and socially distantly like make sure that you're taking care of yourself and the workers go to a local store to physically see one of these you will be shocked at how small this laptop actually is yes it does have a gigantic 15-inch display but the laptop itself feels almost like a small 14-inch laptop or even a big 13-inch gaming laptop i say it's shocking because i do have a couple of other 15-inch laptops in my house and the dell gaming laptop that i have is huge compared to this size on a laptop when you're working from home doesn't really buy you much but in the days we are ever not exactly trapped in our homes that will hopefully be here in the not so distant future this kind of size buys you a smaller overall kit in general because you have a smaller laptop you can use a smaller dock you can use a smaller bag and you can use a smaller stand etc all of this stuff when the main part of the setup is small everything else around it can be small too and as somebody that's as i'm getting older look honestly i'm getting older the older i get the less i like carrying around stuff because my old man back just can't handle heavy things anymore speaking of the physical nature of the laptop the next thing that i've really liked is the port selection on the computer yes i know that this year's model of the xps 15 is lacking compared to previous years as there is no hdmi port which yes sucks you don't get an hdmi port anywhere built into this computer but at least dell does include the dongle for hdmi and usba in the box with the computer which is something that i wish more companies would ensure that you have the functionality if they take it away i wish that came with your original purchase price and not have them make you pay extra and above to get simple required functionality gee i wonder who i'm talking about here but here on this computer you do get two thunderbolt 3 ports one on each side again something that all computers need to have but additionally you have a usbc port that can basically be it's kind of like the de facto charging port plus you get what i consider to be the holy grail of laptop ports the sd card slot and it's not a micro sd card slot but a full sized one and i know i know almost nobody really cares about this it's only us youtubers and the very rare photographer or videographer that cares about having a dedicated sd card slot who else if you're taking pictures on your cell phone don't care about an sd card thought heck in my family i'm the only person that uses the sd card slot on my computer but darn it i wish this could be on everything and i'm stubborn and i'm the youtuber making the youtube video please everybody please bring the sd card slot back please bring it back another physical thing that i've really liked is the keyboard which let's be frank as somebody that thinks the apple i'm pointing to my macbook air as somebody that thinks the apple laptop magic keyboard is the pinnacle of laptop keyboard designs i don't give credit to windows machines all that often but this keyboard is actually pretty darn good can you hear that can you hear all the keys ah they just this is good if i had to complain about something i would say the same thing that i say about the larger macbook the keyboard is just a tiny bit more spread out than i'd prefer i like having all of my keys in easy access it is kind of a delicate balance between having the keys too close together and having them spread too far apart this isn't terrible but i do have to stretch to reach the y key some of the number keys these keys are a little more subdued than the apple ones but they still feel good and have enough spring in them that it's pretty easy to get into a good typing rhythm plus del i've got to clean it off again plus dell has easily the best trackpad in the windows laptop game look at this huge trackpad it takes up such a big chunk of the body of the computer and while it's accurate enough to not need a mouse all the time the most important thing to get right when you start implementing these larger track pads is palm rejection as the larger the trackpad is the more likely your palm is to brush against it this one thankfully has pretty darn good palm rejection i know i talk about track pads rejecting palms it's kind of funny that's one of those things that you'll never see on a spec list and if it's working well you'll never even think about it but the second your cursor starts going all over the place or erroneously clicking while you are trying to work then it becomes the worst thing ever and the last major positive thing that i want to talk about so that we can keep this video in the reasonable length category is upgradability yes this is a novelty for me as i cannot upgrade most of the components in any of my other computers the xps 15 gives you an additional m.2 slot letting you have two of your very own solid state drives running at once sure you will have to source the mounting screw by yourself that could be changed that could have changed in the six months since i bought this but when i bought this computer i had to buy my own mounting screw and that's even then that's not a deal breaker for this kind of potential speed and performance plus you can also upgrade the internal ram with its two slots so fun story my son probably has one of the biggest memory laptops of all virtual schooling computers on the planet i put 64 gigabytes in here because i could it's part of being a dad i really like being able to easily upgrade my own components as it's cheaper it's very easy and it lets you save money from buying oems usually more expensive and slower options okay we've spent a long time now talking about the good what haven't i liked about the xps 15. if we're talking windows laptops to windows laptops there isn't much that i haven't liked yes when these were first shipping there were reports of people having issues with poor trackpad functionality and maybe there was some poor manufacturing but dell did accept returns on those and i haven't seen much complaining about that recently so i would assume that that problem is fixed if we stack this up against those new m1 apple laptops sure there could be more things that i could ding this on like fan noise battery life and power for price but that's not something that i think is value added here if you would like to see a video of the macbook pro 13 versus the xps 15 they're roughly the same price and could fit the same market if you want to see that comparison leave me a comment below really i only have one major complaint about this computer and it's the graphics card option look i know the 1650 ti isn't all that old as far as laptop graphics cards go it was released in april of 2020. you can find it in a lot of the more budget option computers that still want to have a dedicated graphics card and for gaming it's fine it works perfectly well on older aaa titles and most of the indie games that i spend my limited gaming time playing you only need so much power to run rim world right but for productivity or creation the 1650 ti is not a good option and for how much a specked out version of this laptop costs it's just a terrible choice you can get a huge i9 processor in here but you can't get the latest nvidia encoders or ray tracing technology brands please please if you are going to include a lower end graphics card option and call this a work computer because this is not a gaming computer this is a work computer please at least put in the 1660 which does have the newest end bank generation and all of the bells and whistles that go along with that but at the end of the day so what right six months is a long time and in technology terms this is almost like a dinosaur right and in that six months a lot of really powerful computers both windows and apple have come out in the meantime so the real question of today's video is would i still recommend the xps 15. if you refuse to give the new m1 max a shot yes i'd still recommend the xps 15. the display is amazing the port selection is great power is decent for the price so long as you're not doing big video edits you can upgrade the memory internals yourself to crazy levels the usability is great and even the battery life is pretty good for a windows computer it's hard for me to really recommend the current offerings of windows laptop but it's easier for me to recommend this one i really really liked this over the past six months it's given me no problems and this bailed us out during a tough time earlier this year it's a pretty darn good computer for what you get and if you like this video and you're more curious about the xps 15 here's a link here's a place to click for my entire playlist from earlier this year that will give you much more coverage on this actually really good computer and you can find that by clicking right here click click click click click click click thanks for watchingthe dell xps 15 9500 from 2020 is legit one of my favorite laptops ever made and honestly besides my macbook air is probably the device that gets used the most often in my house that's not that's not an exaggeration as soon as we knew my son was going to have to do virtual schooling the 9500 was repurposed to him and this is easily this laptop was one of my best buys of 2020. no i don't do my video editing on it no it doesn't do all of the cool stuff that my macbooks do but this has been awesome so how is it holding up six months later should you still buy a windows laptop despite the fact that the juggernaut of the m1 macbook line exists let's find out i hope i didn't break it because he definitely needs to still use it what's up everyone i'm the everday dad and if i can figure it out you can figure it out seriously i've been wanting to make this follow-up video for so long because like i said in the intro this computer has been a lifesaver and sure we could have used a lower end model to do the same thing but i think there are a few key features here that made this as awesome as it is and why we continue to use it for virtual home schooling i'd like to start off this video saying that this is still the version that i purchased myself i did not get a loaner nor did i have to return my original model due to manufacturing problems though if you've been following the channel i did have to return my xps 17 due to a wonky trackpad this right here though is still the same laptop from all my previous videos it's just been battle hardened by an eight-year-old can you see can you see the dings i tried to clean this as best i can but there's only so much you can clean when your eight-year-old has been using the laptop and if some of the b-roll shots look pretty rough that's probably that's probably why it is i did i i promise you i did my best as this is an x-time later video we're not gonna go super in depth on the tech specs or features there are literally thousands of videos out there that can give you the microscopic look at probably every single component on this machine and i don't feel like doing that today so what we are going to do is we're going to go over the things that i've liked and the things that i've disliked over the past six months of actual daily use okay not on the weekends actual five days a week use well he's probably he's been watching youtube videos actual daily use and in a stunning turn of events i'm gonna keep you on your toes let's start off with the things that i like surprise the very first thing that i like about the xps 15 is probably the number one thing to look at when getting one of these machines and it's probably one of the reasons that you're looking at one of these computers in the first place the display now you might be thinking to yourself gary mr apple guy here all you do is talk about ipads and macbooks and iphones and all that stuff which as a keen eye observer that i am talking to you those retina displays have a much higher resolution than this display that you are championing here on the windows laptop wow you had a really long conversation with me other me yes the screen that comes on my version of the dell xps 15 is the 1080p ish display it's not technically 1080p because it's a much taller by 10 aspect ratio but it looks gorgeous it looks so good resolution isn't everything in life and as a video creator you can trust me on that we could be shooting this in 8k nobody cares about 8k i am shooting in 4k though and despite it lacking a bit compared to the apple display's retina panel resolution or the razer panel's refresh rate this is the best looking display on a laptop right now period and not only is it the best looking but that extra real estate on the bottom or the top depending on your outlook on life is actually a usable amount of workspace it's not space to have for space to say you actually get more functionality out of the computer because you have more room when you get into the zone typing or working here those super thin bezels they're not even noticeable and as somebody that does a lot of work on macbooks those bezels never go away it's like no matter what you are doing how you are working the bezels are always just glaring and judging they're always judging plus with up to 500 nits of brightness and a p3 color accuracy it's so good this display by itself almost won this laptop my favorite laptop of 2020 award it didn't for reasons but the display is not the fault of that the next thing that i've really liked about the 9500 here is oddly enough the power and i say oddly enough because if you remember back to my original content regarding this computer i've only got the base model so this has no graphics card this has no high-powered i7 processor but for what i've needed this computer does all of it flawlessly like i said we were in a tight spot our school didn't have enough chromebooks to go around at the start of virtual schooling and so because of all that this became the de facto telescool computer for my son the four core 4.5 gigahertz i5 processor has been remarkable even when doing more power oriented tasks like we showed back in those original videos this 10th gen intel cpu was even powerful enough to do 4k video editing if you were able to lower your playback resolution and you even got a decent if not especially impressive render time so you could even if you bought the cheapest base model of this you could use this for 4k video editing in a pinch sure in those number oriented benchmarks this specific version will do worse as it's lacking that dedicated graphics card and it doesn't have as high of an end of an integrated gpu like the apple m1 or 11th gen intel processors but it's not half bad for what it can do at its price and if you do want more power this can go up to an eight core i9 processor though i would be concerned about thermal performance of the chip in such a small computer but i haven't personally used that version of the processor inside of here so i can't really say but i would have concerns you can even though this does not have a dedicated graphics card you can get a model with one of those though i'm saying that now we're gonna give the graphics card its own section the video later probably not a good sign the way that i'm saying that but we're not to dislikes yet the next thing that still shocks me to this day and that i've thoroughly enjoyed is the size this is one of those things that you really can't appreciate until you've seen one of these in person so the next time you can safely and socially distantly like make sure that you're taking care of yourself and the workers go to a local store to physically see one of these you will be shocked at how small this laptop actually is yes it does have a gigantic 15-inch display but the laptop itself feels almost like a small 14-inch laptop or even a big 13-inch gaming laptop i say it's shocking because i do have a couple of other 15-inch laptops in my house and the dell gaming laptop that i have is huge compared to this size on a laptop when you're working from home doesn't really buy you much but in the days we are ever not exactly trapped in our homes that will hopefully be here in the not so distant future this kind of size buys you a smaller overall kit in general because you have a smaller laptop you can use a smaller dock you can use a smaller bag and you can use a smaller stand etc all of this stuff when the main part of the setup is small everything else around it can be small too and as somebody that's as i'm getting older look honestly i'm getting older the older i get the less i like carrying around stuff because my old man back just can't handle heavy things anymore speaking of the physical nature of the laptop the next thing that i've really liked is the port selection on the computer yes i know that this year's model of the xps 15 is lacking compared to previous years as there is no hdmi port which yes sucks you don't get an hdmi port anywhere built into this computer but at least dell does include the dongle for hdmi and usba in the box with the computer which is something that i wish more companies would ensure that you have the functionality if they take it away i wish that came with your original purchase price and not have them make you pay extra and above to get simple required functionality gee i wonder who i'm talking about here but here on this computer you do get two thunderbolt 3 ports one on each side again something that all computers need to have but additionally you have a usbc port that can basically be it's kind of like the de facto charging port plus you get what i consider to be the holy grail of laptop ports the sd card slot and it's not a micro sd card slot but a full sized one and i know i know almost nobody really cares about this it's only us youtubers and the very rare photographer or videographer that cares about having a dedicated sd card slot who else if you're taking pictures on your cell phone don't care about an sd card thought heck in my family i'm the only person that uses the sd card slot on my computer but darn it i wish this could be on everything and i'm stubborn and i'm the youtuber making the youtube video please everybody please bring the sd card slot back please bring it back another physical thing that i've really liked is the keyboard which let's be frank as somebody that thinks the apple i'm pointing to my macbook air as somebody that thinks the apple laptop magic keyboard is the pinnacle of laptop keyboard designs i don't give credit to windows machines all that often but this keyboard is actually pretty darn good can you hear that can you hear all the keys ah they just this is good if i had to complain about something i would say the same thing that i say about the larger macbook the keyboard is just a tiny bit more spread out than i'd prefer i like having all of my keys in easy access it is kind of a delicate balance between having the keys too close together and having them spread too far apart this isn't terrible but i do have to stretch to reach the y key some of the number keys these keys are a little more subdued than the apple ones but they still feel good and have enough spring in them that it's pretty easy to get into a good typing rhythm plus del i've got to clean it off again plus dell has easily the best trackpad in the windows laptop game look at this huge trackpad it takes up such a big chunk of the body of the computer and while it's accurate enough to not need a mouse all the time the most important thing to get right when you start implementing these larger track pads is palm rejection as the larger the trackpad is the more likely your palm is to brush against it this one thankfully has pretty darn good palm rejection i know i talk about track pads rejecting palms it's kind of funny that's one of those things that you'll never see on a spec list and if it's working well you'll never even think about it but the second your cursor starts going all over the place or erroneously clicking while you are trying to work then it becomes the worst thing ever and the last major positive thing that i want to talk about so that we can keep this video in the reasonable length category is upgradability yes this is a novelty for me as i cannot upgrade most of the components in any of my other computers the xps 15 gives you an additional m.2 slot letting you have two of your very own solid state drives running at once sure you will have to source the mounting screw by yourself that could be changed that could have changed in the six months since i bought this but when i bought this computer i had to buy my own mounting screw and that's even then that's not a deal breaker for this kind of potential speed and performance plus you can also upgrade the internal ram with its two slots so fun story my son probably has one of the biggest memory laptops of all virtual schooling computers on the planet i put 64 gigabytes in here because i could it's part of being a dad i really like being able to easily upgrade my own components as it's cheaper it's very easy and it lets you save money from buying oems usually more expensive and slower options okay we've spent a long time now talking about the good what haven't i liked about the xps 15. if we're talking windows laptops to windows laptops there isn't much that i haven't liked yes when these were first shipping there were reports of people having issues with poor trackpad functionality and maybe there was some poor manufacturing but dell did accept returns on those and i haven't seen much complaining about that recently so i would assume that that problem is fixed if we stack this up against those new m1 apple laptops sure there could be more things that i could ding this on like fan noise battery life and power for price but that's not something that i think is value added here if you would like to see a video of the macbook pro 13 versus the xps 15 they're roughly the same price and could fit the same market if you want to see that comparison leave me a comment below really i only have one major complaint about this computer and it's the graphics card option look i know the 1650 ti isn't all that old as far as laptop graphics cards go it was released in april of 2020. you can find it in a lot of the more budget option computers that still want to have a dedicated graphics card and for gaming it's fine it works perfectly well on older aaa titles and most of the indie games that i spend my limited gaming time playing you only need so much power to run rim world right but for productivity or creation the 1650 ti is not a good option and for how much a specked out version of this laptop costs it's just a terrible choice you can get a huge i9 processor in here but you can't get the latest nvidia encoders or ray tracing technology brands please please if you are going to include a lower end graphics card option and call this a work computer because this is not a gaming computer this is a work computer please at least put in the 1660 which does have the newest end bank generation and all of the bells and whistles that go along with that but at the end of the day so what right six months is a long time and in technology terms this is almost like a dinosaur right and in that six months a lot of really powerful computers both windows and apple have come out in the meantime so the real question of today's video is would i still recommend the xps 15. if you refuse to give the new m1 max a shot yes i'd still recommend the xps 15. the display is amazing the port selection is great power is decent for the price so long as you're not doing big video edits you can upgrade the memory internals yourself to crazy levels the usability is great and even the battery life is pretty good for a windows computer it's hard for me to really recommend the current offerings of windows laptop but it's easier for me to recommend this one i really really liked this over the past six months it's given me no problems and this bailed us out during a tough time earlier this year it's a pretty darn good computer for what you get and if you like this video and you're more curious about the xps 15 here's a link here's a place to click for my entire playlist from earlier this year that will give you much more coverage on this actually really good computer and you can find that by clicking right here click click click click click click click thanks for watching\n"