XPS 15 header.jpg

Yesterday I posted details about Dell’s award-winning XPS 13 Ultrabook. It’s a great little ultraportable with a beautiful display. What if you want a premium Windows notebook with that same Quad HD+ resolution, but a 13-inch display is just too small? No worries, Dell also released the XPS 15, a full-sized, premium laptop that boasts a fantastic 3200 x 1800 touchscreen display.

Dell XPS 15 Key Specs (as configured)

 

  • Quad HD+ LED-backlit, touchscreen display (3200 x 1800 pixels) with Gorilla Glass
  • 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7-4712HQ processor
  • 16 GB RAM
  • Nvidia GeForce GT 750M graphics card with 2GB RAM
  • 1TB hard drive with 32GB SSD
  • 3 x USB 3.0, mini DisplayPoprt, HDMI, Ethernet
  • 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0
  • Integrated 61 Wh battery
  • Runs Windows 8.1
  • 1.8 cm thick, weighs 2kg

For full specs of the Dell XPS 15 as offered through Best Buy, please see the product page

Full-Sized Laptop With QHD+ Display 

While ultraportables like the XPS 13 and MacBook Air tend to get a lot of attention, there’s still considerable demand for full-sized portable PCs. If you’ve ever squinted through a big Excel spreadsheet on a 12-inch or 13-inch display, you’ll understand why. Even at high resolution, those smaller displays can make the text so small it’s virtually unreadable—razor sharp (in the case of the XPS 13), but too tiny for practical use.

The Dell XPS 15 is aimed at those users who want it all: a big display with high resolution, full-sized keyboard, power, portability and a premium look.

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The XPS 15 packs a Quad HD+ display at 3200 x 1800 pixels. To get some idea of how sharp that is, it works out to roughly 235 pixels-per-inch. Very crisp. In comparison, the Retina display on the 15-inch MacBook Pro is 2880 x 1800 pixels, or 220 pixels-per-inch. The Dell’s display also supports touch input.

The XPS 15 may not be quite so slim as the XPS 13, but it’s still a very attractively svelte laptop.  Premium materials such as machined aluminum, carbon fibre and Gorilla Glass are featured and the rig tops out at 1.8 cm in thickness, tipping the scales at 2kg.

Power to be a Productivity Pro

Good looks and a high resolution display are nice to have, but the XPS 15 also packs the components needed to excel as a no-compormise working computer. 

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This one’s equipped with a Core i7 CPU (Dell hasn’t yet updated the line to the Broadwell version, but the 4th generation Core chips are proven workhorses), 16GB of RAM and a discrete video card—Nvidia’s GeForce GT 750M with 2GB of RAM on tap. Massive storage is offered with the 1TB hard drive that’s supplemented by a 32GB SSD for fast start-up and system-level operations.

This laptop is not only a productivity champ, it should be more than capable of handling casual PC gaming on the go.

Good looks, an awesome display and performance. The Dell XPS 15 should be on your list if you’re shopping for a premium full-sized portable PC that’s capable of handing pretty much anything you can throw at it.

Brad Moon
Editor Computing solutions
I’m a long-time electronics and gadget geek who’s been fortunate enough to enjoy a career that lets me indulge this interest. I have been writing about technology for several decades for a wide range of outlets including Wired, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, MSN, About.com, Kiplinger, and GeekDad. I’m in my 10th year as a senior contributor for Forbes with a focus on reviewing music-related tech, Apple gear, battery power stations and other consumer electronics. My day job is with the Malware Research Center at AI-native cybersecurity pioneer CrowdStrike.