Dell Inspiron v XPS Laptops

Foxbat Flyer

Foxbat Flyer

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,100
Name
Chris
Edit My Images
Yes
Dell market their XPS laptop range as a high-end product, pitching for the MS Surface Pro and Apple buyers. Their Inspiron range seems to be the standard home and office offering. Bearing this in mind, I would welcome any experience and opinions on the following:

For the same price (£1299), Dell offer a very high spec Inspiron or a lower spec XPS laptop:

Inspiron
  • I7 8th Generation CPU
  • 16GB Ram
  • 512 GB SSD
  • 4K Screen (3840 x 1920)

XPS
  • I5 (8th Generation CPU)
  • 8 GB Ram
  • 256 GB SSD
  • HD Screen (1920 x 1080)
On the face of it, the Inspiron seems like a far better buy - does anyone have any experience of the differences between the XPS and Inspiron ranges? Is the build quality so much better on the XPS?

Thanks for your comments,

Chris
 
It all depends what you plan on using it for. On screen alone I would get the XPS as the panel is proven to be reliable for editing photos etc in colour reproduction. The 4k panel on the Inspiron may not be anywhere near as good and as such would instantly rule it out if you didn’t plan on attaching a calibrated monitor to it.

Besides that, the Inspiron is the faster unit. This is based on the assumption both run an nvme/pcie SSD and even if they didn’t the difference will be negligible.
 
I think you mean these two.

There are some differences beyond what you said

Inspiron 15 7000 series
XPS 15

They have difference processors. The XPS has an i5 and the inspiron has an i7. Both 8th gen.
BUT the i5 on the XPS is stronger. It is because one is a U model and one is a H model.
If you don't believe me the i5 scores 9370 and the i7 score 8327 on the cpubenchmark website.
If they were from the same family the i7 would be higher scoring by quite a bit.

Secondly the RAM and memory is not so simple.
I think the inspiron uses a single channel RAM module of 2400mhz. ( the XPS states dual channel and the inspiron does not so that is why I assume the inspiron is single channel )
The XPS states dual channel 2666mhz so it is slightly faster plus dual channel has very good performance benefits I believe.
The SSD on the XPS is a newer type M.2 and the inspiron is a standard SSD. Although I'm not sure if the M.2 SSD on the XPS is a very fast type or not. They can be extremely fast.

Thirdly the XPS is likely built to a higher standard, possibly tougher and more features in the small print but there are too many to list.

Fourthly the XPS has a much better graphics card and that is a big plus in my opinion. You could even class it as a gaming laptop.

Hope this helps
 
Thanks for your comments Andrew - much appreciated.

I was hoping that the 4K panel used in the XPS and the Inspiron is the same one - short of looking at them side by side I don't suppose there is any way of finding out. I can't find anything on Dell's website to verify this.

I expect the "fit and finish" on the Inspiron will not be the same, but I'm happy with that providing the screen is good.

Chris
 
Thanks GTG, your comments are helpful. I'm out of touch the latest specs, so I was going on the basic details.

I'll do some reading on the differences between the U and H versions of the CPU.

Thanks,

Chris
 
I have a inspiron 7567, I was in the same boat as you are before buying.

My spec are:
- i7 7700hq (not a u kind of processor!) there is no throttling issue which i read a lot of bad thing about the xps being so slim and compact.
- 32gb 2x16gb (was 16 but i added 16 more) it's 2400mhz but it is dual channel and ddr4 (found a guy on ebay selling memory pull out of the same conputer for 100£ which was a really good deal)
- the 4k screen is very good, it is very near 100% rgb (i tested this with my calibration tool), i think it was 98 or 99%, from what i can see the display is a sharp SHP1450 not a crap display at all, that's one of the reason why i went for the 4k one!
- superspeedy nvme 512gb ssd really really fast
- one spare slot for extra ssd on sata iii with already all the right cable and attachement in it, where i have added my old SSD for photos
- the sound is great

The built quality is ok but i'm used to thinkpad and the keyboard also it is sturdy it as small keys. The whole design with a numpad on the right and the trackpad offcenter annoy me, i much prefer having a bigger keyboard, no numpad and the trackpad on the center. The trackpad doesn not have some really clicky button at the bottom either which i am used to.
There's no dedicated volume button, wifi switch, which i like on business laptop
There's only a full size hdmi, no DP no thunderbolt but the next generation insiron has a thunderbold on it
I had a 14inch before and that is pretty chuncky!
So yes ergononomicaly it is a bit of a let down for me compare to business like thinkpads

Why i don't regret buying the xps:
If they have the large battery take the space for the second hdd!
With the specs I had, i got mine in as new condition for 800£, for the same spec the xps was going for 1300£!
No worry with potential throttling issue

I think if it's to use on your lap get the xps
If it's to use on a table/desk and if money matter, get the inspiron!
 
Also a good think it the case design, one screw off and you access memory, and SSD, wifi card, nvme ssd!
I got mine 800 pound and was able to had my old 1TB ssd and an extra 16gb ddr4 for 100£. 900£ for these spec is really unbeatable but then i have to accept it is second hand and also it was as new there is only 6 months warranty left.
 
Thank you Thomas, it's great to get some real-user feedback, thank you for taking the time to summaries your experience.
 
Andrew Moore said:
If you could link the two units this would undoubtably help as we could go over all aspects of the units.
Click to expand...

The link should take you the comparison page where I have selected the two models under consideration.

http://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/compare?ocs=cnx97001,cn757013

The XPS has the faster CPU, as GTG pointed out, not sure how much faster in practice with Lightroom. The 4k display on the Inspiron has it in the lead, but I don't believe it is the same 4k panel as used in the XPS, but the 4k XPS is a bit OTT for me.

Thanks,

Chris
 
Lightroom is all about CPU performance, really, and I'd avoid a dual core system - isn't there an inspiron with a quad core processor? In the future lightroom will probably eventually start using graphics processors effectively, in which case the XPS will have a bigger speed advantage. Build quality - expect a slightly creaky case instead of aluminium and carbon fibre, but if you don't carry the computer around much then it doesn't matter, and the inspiron you linked looks a lot better than the ones I've used in the past.

I bought an XPS 15 (9530 model IIRC) 4 years ago after owning a Macbook, and it's still a decent machine with i7 quad core, 16GB RAM. It has a QHD (effectively 4K) screen which was really nice after the Macbooks crappy screen, but offers no advantages over full HD, and makes it harder to get a realistic idea of how sharp a photo is are unless I enlarge it to 200% (pixel-peeping doesn't work!).

I'd look at this one (if the link works): http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/...fk0NCdynQ8Cm8i3pY7K2HZa9Cb4Wvry5uNOhCK3/C72Y=
 
The i5 is a coffee lake 4c8t with HD630. The i7 is a kaby Lake 4c8t with hd620. The difference in single threads will be negligible, a few percent. In multi threaded tasks the coffee Lake takes a good 10-15% lead and in graphics performance the i5 is far superior.

I’d take the XPS. The extra ram and storage would be nice but that IPS 1080p panel is far nicer than the panel on the Inspiron.

It’s likely the SSD will be pcie on the XPS and SATA on the Inspiron. That won’t make much odds in the real world but I’d still have the XPS because of it. It’s also a very nice laptop where as the Inspiron at that size is a little clunky.
 
Thanks Toni and Andrew for taking the time to contribute, your comments are much appreciated.

The CPUs in both the XPS and Inspiron are both substantially better than the I7 in my desktop, which runs LR reasonably well, so I have no doubts that whichever I choose the performance will be excellent.

The choice is coming down to 4k display on the Inspiron v the refinement of the XPS.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions,

Chris
 
Foxbat Flyer said:
Thanks Toni and Andrew for taking the time to contribute, your comments are much appreciated.

The CPUs in both the XPS and Inspiron are both substantially better than the I7 in my desktop, which runs LR reasonably well, so I have no doubts that whichever I choose the performance will be excellent.

The choice is coming down to 4k display on the Inspiron v the refinement of the XPS.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions,

Chris
Click to expand...

Then do you do most of your editing with external screen or not? I went for 4k because i like to edit on the laptop without the need to plug an external monitor.
Really these are expensive why not get near new / as new laptop from elsewhere?
One problem of the xps is the 256gb ssd, if it has the lage battery there no room for an extra ssd and i would find 256gb too limiting, but then if you use cloud storage maybe you don't mind?

Look a very quick search took me one minute so you probably found other ones:
for 250£ more you get the full maxed spec xps: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-XPS...362239?hash=item4b453fe3ff:g:0-QAAOSwX5ZbEl1b
or that https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Pre...832008?hash=item23a1b4bd08:g:5HgAAOSwkkNbEWJu

Or a bit like mine for 825£ a inspiron with 7700hq and 4k...

Buying direct from dell can be could if there is a special offer or if you get a discount code for being a student or some sort of deal but buying straight like this it is very expensive. For 1300£ i wouldn't buy the inspiron for sure. I only got it because i manage to get a much better deal.
 
The XPS I linked had a 500GB SSD. With mine, I swapped out the 32GB 'Cache' memory for a 256GB M-SATA card and the 1TB HDD for a 1TB SSD. I'm on the point of putting a 2TB HDD back in because I've run out of space on it.
 
Thanks for the links Thomas, it's good of you to take the time to contribute to what has become an interesting thread. It is unlikely to be used with an external display, unless it makes my desktop seem really slow. Most of the usage will be when I'm away from home, my old HP DV2700 is just not up to the job anymore.

Toni, your comments on the 4k v HD display are helpful - thank you. Unfortunately the link didn't work, but I'm finding plenty of options on Dell's website.

Chris
 
Link not working for me either now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top