Dell XPS 15 (2016) Review

The Dell XPS 15 doesn't quite live up to the prestigious all-conquering history of some of the first, massive 17in XPS models. It won't provide you with a near-desktop level of gaming performance in a portable package.

The lack of built-in wired networking might disappoint those hoping to take the this laptop to a LAN, although it won't cost much to add an adapter. But, on the plus side, its excellent battery life means this is a true road warrior.

So, rather than being kick-ass gaming portable, the Dell XPS 15 is more of a good all-round notebook with great battery life that you can also play games pretty well on. It's also a little on the pricey side, when MSI's brilliant GS40 6QE Phantom can be had for over £100 less, with much more compelling gaming abilities and a lighter chassis.

Most of the price difference is due to the screen, however. It is lovely, and confers great bragging rights, but adds £300 to the price compared to the Full HD model. So the latter is the better value option, with Full HD better suited to the GPU performance anyway.

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Pros:

• Excellent battery life.
• Decent gaming performance for a 15in notebook.
• Future-proofed 16GB of memory.
• Great 4K touch screen.
• Fast, capacious NVMe SSD for primary storage.
• Light 2kg chassis.
• Thunderbolt 3 port.

Cons:

• Faster 15in gaming notebooks are available.
• decent everyday performance but not a good first choice for gaming.
• No built-in wired networking.

KitGuru says: The Dell XPS 15 combines excellent battery life with decent gaming potential into a slim, reasonably light chassis – but the beautiful 4K screen makes for a relatively high price too.

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