Dell XPS has always been rated as one of the most attractive laptops on the market, from design, performance to other features. That is also the most worthy representative of Windows placed next to the MacBook. With the Dell XPS 15 9500, this product line is raised to a new level.
The last XPS 15 line already had those ultra thin borders, but with the XPS 15 9500, Dell can still make the device 5.5% smaller , while the screen area goes up 5% compared to its predecessors. If you are wondering why the overall size almost feels the same, it’s because the area is larger but it kind of evens out in practice. The reason is that Dell has switched to the 16:10 screen ratio like the MacBook instead of 16: 9 as before.
Increasing the screen height helps Dell make full use of the screen’s bottom edge, turning this into an extremely impressive laptop; all four edges are thinned to the maximum. Inside the “sexy” appearance, the Dell XPS 15 9500 also carries the power of the recently launched 10th generation Intel processor and discrete Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q graphics.
Configuration and price
Dell XPS 15 9500 is basically shipped by Dell with Intel’s newer 10th generation H-series processor, so it should feel faster than the older 9th generation, kind of, you know. In a standard configuration you get an Intel Core i5-10300H running at 2.5 GHz , along with 8GB of RAM, a 256GB PCIe SSD , an Intel UHD graphics unit, and a 15.6 inch 1920 x 1200 display. Overall this configuration makes sense for people doing mostly office chores. The room if you mean everyday use, you might want a big-screen laptop that stays snappy, for photo editing, light video montages or even some collage work.
For this exact build the price is 1,299 USD. Of course there are lots of other ways to spec it, like the following:
– Core i5-10300H, 8 MB Cache, 4 Core, 2.50 GHz to 4.50 GHz
– Core i7-10750H, 12 MB Cache, 6 Core, 2.60 GHz to 5 GHz
– Core i7-10875H, 16 MB Cache, 8 Core, 2.30 GHz to 5.10 GHz
– Core i9-10885H, 16 MB Cache, 8 Core, 2.40 GHz to 5.30 GHz
Memory goes from 8GB up to 64GB, SSD storage can reach 2TB, and there’s an optional discrete card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q – 4 GB GDDR6. Battery options are 56Wh or 86Wh, and the screen choices include Full HD or a 4K touch model.
This article ’s review unit costs $2,399 and comes with a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-10750H CPU, 32GB RAM , 512GB PCIe SSD, an Intel UHD GPU paired with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q with 4GB of RAM , plus a 15.6 inch touch display at 3840 x 2400.
Design
The XPS 15 9500 pulls you in on the first look , it has a platinum CNC aluminum lid and a bold Dell logo. When you open the screen, almost all of the palm rest area is clad in carbon and there’s also a big touchpad there, it feels very intentional.
On the version with the 86Wh battery , the XPS 15 9500 weighs 2.05 kg, which lines up with the 16-inch MacBook Pro weight. The body is 18 mm x 344.72 mm x 230.14 mm , and yeah, it’s actually 5.5% smaller than the prior XPS 15, even if you don’t notice it right away.
Connecting port
Like the 13-inch line, the Dell XPS 15 9500 also drops the classic USB-A port and instead ships with 3 Type-C ports. Two of them support Thunderbolt 3, so data and video can move fast. You still get the power port , and there’s a 3.5 mn audio jack too, so in that respect it’s basically comparable to the 16-inch MacBook Pro. One genuinely nice touch for semi-professional photographers and videographers is that there is still a complete SD memory card slot.
Monitor
By pushing the aspect ratio up to 16:10 , the screen resolution goes up as well to 3840 x 2400. That makes it one of the top, if not the top, highest resolution laptops available. The display is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 6 layer, giving a sturdy kind of feel; plus the touch experience is a bit more natural, less resistance-y, more smooth overall.
On display quality, the Dell XPS 15 9500 4K model can show about 132% of the sRGB color gamut , so colors look more alive than the 123% you usually see in the premium laptop crowd. That figure is also higher than the MacBook Pro’s 114% . For brightness, this system hit 434 nits, which is above the 367 nit average plus it kinda edges out the MacBook Pro at 429 nits.
Also, XPS includes Dell PremierColor, so people can tweak the color display modes pretty easily without much fuss.
Keyboard — Touchpad
As with the XPS 13, the Dell XPS 15 9500 (2020) has larger keys, but it still keeps a consistent spacing between them , with a nice bounce and quick response, which makes typing feel comfortable in day to day use. Overall, the keyboard on the Dell XPS still gets decent praise, even if it’s not as great as the “legendary” ThinkPad, it’s still satisfying for the picky types, you know the ones.
Then there’s the touchpad, it measures up to 15 x 8.9 cm on the Dell XPS 15 9500 . This is basically one of those laptops with a noticeably larger touch surface than most, even if it’s still just a little smaller than the MacBook Pro 16 (15.5 x 9.9 cm) , you can move around the entire screen without ever feeling forced to stretch to the very edge . The touchpad experience on XPS is often compared to the MacBook , and with the increased size , the feel on the XPS 15 9500 ends up being pretty close to the well known MacBook trackpad . But, naturally , it still falls short of Force Touch and the best‑in‑class software tuning that Apple manages to squeeze out of that setup.
With a very large size, when using, you will touch the Touchpad part of the machine. Still, like the MacBook, the machine’s recognition ability is very good, rarely wrongly identified.
Sound
XPS 15 9500 is equipped with up to 4 speakers from Waves NX 3D. Including two full-range speakers and two tweeters that provide excellent sound reproduction, vivid 3D sound.
Performance
The XPS 15 scored 25,934 on the Geekbench 4.3 test, a pretty high number. But because the configuration used in the review is only i7 with six cores, it is still not comparable to the MacBook with i9 configuration with eight cores reaching 31,178 points.
The XPS 15 9500 decoded a 4K video to 1080p in 10 minutes and 6 seconds . That’s way faster than the overall category average of 18:44 minutes, but the MacBook Pro is still clearly faster, it finishes in just 8 minutes.
On the hard drive speed test, the XPS 15’s 512GB PCIe SSD copied 4.97GB of multimedia files in 8 seconds at 726MB/s . Meanwhile the MacBook Pro with its 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD landed at 1,017.9 MBps. If you go with the XPS 15 9500 2TB setup, it can outright beat the MacBook’s numbers, mostly end to end, or at least in this kind of test.
The XPS 15 9500 isn’t exactly a machine that’s “born for gaming,” at least not if you’re judging by raw graphics performance. Its Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q card is more for moderate design, photo work, and editing tasks , not for heavy gaming sessions. In game testing, for example , the XPS 15 managed 42 fps at 1080p in GTA V.
Battery life
Kinda surprising, because the XPS 15 9500 still has a 4K screen but it manages to last 8 hours in the battery run, continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits brightness. Still, it doesn’t catch up to the 16-inch MacBook Pro (10 hours and 55 minutes), despite the MacBook using a lower screen resolution and having a larger battery capacity.
Regarding temperature, the machine is quite cool when using light tasks like watching videos. Still, we need to wait for more detailed temperature tests after running heavy tasks like rendering on Only the highest configuration version of i9 knows if the machine’s cooling system is working effectively or not.
Dell XPS 15 9500 15.6 inch FHD+ Laptop Intel Core i7-10750H 10th Gen, I7-10750H (6-CORE) 512GB PCIe SSD 16GB RAM GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6, Windows 10 Professional (Renewed): Buy it now
New Dell XPS 15 9500 15.6 inch UHD+ Touchscreen Laptop (Silver) Intel Core i7-10750H 10th Gen, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB SSD, Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti with 4GB GDDR6, Window 10 Pro (XPS9500-7845SLV-PUS): Buy it now
Dell XPS 15 9500 (Latest Model) 15.6″ Laptop Intel Core i7-10750H 10th Gen 32GB DDR4 RAM 1TB SSD, 4K UHD+ (3840×2400) 500-NIT Touch NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6, Windows 10 PRO (Renewed): Buy it now
Dell XPS 15 9500 15.6 inch FHD+ Laptop Intel Core i7-10750H 10th Gen, 32GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB SSD, NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6, Windows 10 Professional (32GB RAM | 1TB SSD) (Renewed): Buy it now
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Tech Reviewer & Product Analyst
Định Bia has spent over 10 years testing consumer electronics with a focus on smart technology. He work as a product advisor at Biareview where he helped customers find the right devices for their needs. He personally tests every product featured on this site using a consistent evaluation framework covering quality, durability, and value. All reviews are based on experience, not influenced by the manufacturer.