Dell Precision 15 3570 review

Together with HP and Lenovo, Dell is one of the most consistent manufacturers when it comes to the mobile workstation market. Their Precision series battles with the ThinkPads and ZBooks of their respective competitors. To be frank, the success of Dell has been limited, but the company continues to produce newer and arguably better machines.

Today, we’re going to show you the Precision 15 3570 that we bought. It’s definitely not among the most expensive workstations out there, and to be frank – it looks very similar to the Latitude 15 5530. However, it is still not a budget device, so we have to be fairly strict in our scrutiny.

As soon as we take a look at the specs sheet, we see the first red flag – Dell still offers a workstation device in 2022 with a 768p TN panel. Indeed, besides it, you will find a 1080p and a UHD IPS option, but you should definitely stay away from the TN device.

Other than that, we see a choice between Alder Lake-U and Alder Lake-P CPUs. Both are really good, but the P-series is very close to the H-series in terms of performance. Also, you have two dedicated GPU options. If the integrated graphics is not enough for you, there are the NVIDIA T550, and the NVIDIA RTX A500 up for grabs. The main difference between them is that the T550 is built on the Turing architecture, while the RTX A500 works with an Ampere chip – thus, it comes with hardware ray-tracing support.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-precision-15-3570/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Dell Precision 15 3570 - Specs

  • LG PXGVC-156WFC (LGD0709)
  • Color accuracy  5.5  3.8
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 1000GB SSD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 1x 2280 M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 + 1x 2280 M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4  See photo
  • RAM
  • up to 32GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Home
  • Battery
  • 58Wh, 4-cell, 58Wh, 4-cell , 41Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Carbon
  • Dimensions
  • 357.80 x 233.3 x 20.77 - 22.15 mm (14.09" x 9.19" x 0.82")
  • Weight
  • 1.59 kg (3.5 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • 4.0, Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.0
  • Card reader
  • microSD (SD/SDHC/SDXC)
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD / FHD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual-Array Microphones
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2.5W Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Wedge Lock

What’s in the box?

This is another device that comes with minimal branding on its packaging. This is due to the company’s efforts toward carbon neutrality and sustainability.


Design and construction

The environment-conscious approach continues with the body of the laptop, which is partially made from recycled plastics and reclaimed carbon fiber. In terms of design, the laptop is fairly basic. However, there is nothing bad about that.

Both the lid and the base show some flex when we twist them. Nevertheless, it is not too worrying. In terms of measurements, the laptop sits at 20.77-22.15mm in thickness, while the weight stands at 1.59 kg. This makes it very light, considering other 15-inch mobile workstations.

Unfortunately, the lid can’t be opened with a single hand. However, it has slim side and bottom bezels, and a top, which houses either an HD or a Full HD Web camera with a privacy shutter, and an optional IR face recognition scanner. In addition, the Full HD option features a Human presence detection proximity sensor.

Next, we have the base. It features a keyboard with a NumPad and an optional backlight. Ultimately, the board is pretty comfortable to use, thanks to its decent key travel and somewhat clicky feedback. The only real disadvantage we saw was the size of the “Up” and “Down” arrow keys. By the way, there is an optional fingerprint reader, embedded in the power button.

Now, the touchpad looks a bit small. And it is small, compared to the behemoths found on the XPS series, and the MacBooks of the world. However, it does a pretty decent job, as its tracking is accurate, while we found almost no input lag.

Naturally, the bottom panel houses the speaker cutouts, as well as the ventilation grill. The fan draws the cool air and then exhausts it through a vent located on the left side.

Ports

On the left side, you will find a couple of Thunderbolt 4 connectors, as well as a Smart Card reader. Then, on the right, you get a security lock slot, a LAN port, an HDMI 2.0 connector, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, an audio jack, and a MicroSD card slot.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

To get inside this notebook, you need to undo 8 captive Phillips-head screws. Then, pry the bottom panel starting from the front corners.

Once inside, you can see the battery. We have the larger 58Wh option, which lasted us for 12 hours of Web browsing, or nearly 10 hours of video playback. Before you continue, unplug the battery connector from the motherboard. Then, undo all three captive Phillips-head screws, if you want to remove the battery itself.

This device has two RAM SODIMM slots. They support up to 64GB of DDR5 memory in total and work in dual-channel mode. Storage-wise, there are two M.2 PCIe x4 slots. The slot located next to the fan supports Gen 4 drives.

Speaking of which, the cooling comprises two heat pipes, a single heat sink, and a fan. Also, the graphics memory sports a heat spreader.


Display quality

Dell Precision 15 3570 in our configuration is equipped with a Full HD IPS panel with a model number LG PXGVC-156WFC (LGD0709). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution is 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Viewing angles are excellent. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The measured maximum brightness of 291 nits in the middle of the screen and 278 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 6%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6770K – slightly colder than the sRGB standard of 6500K.

In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is good – 1100:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Dell Precision 15 3570’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 53% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Dell Precision 15 3570 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 23 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Dell Precision 15 3570’s display doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness levels at any point. This makes it comfortable for use during long work periods, without harming your eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Gloss level measurement

Glossy-coated displays are sometimes inconvenient in high ambient light conditions. We show the level of reflection on the screen for the respective laptop when the display is turned off and the measurement angle is 60° (in this case, the result is 50.8 GU).


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell Precision 15 3570 configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS LG PXGVC-156WFC (LGD0709).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/precision-15-3570-laptop/drivers

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This laptop’s 58Wh battery delivers 12 hours and 14 minutes of Web browsing, or 9 hours and 43 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

This laptop comes with quite a roster of processors. There are four options from the Alder Lake-U series – Core i5-1235U, Core i5-1245U, Core i7-1255U, and Core i7-1265U. In addition, you can choose between three Alder Lake-P options – Core i5-1250P, Core i7-1270P, and Core i7-1280P.

Dell Precision 15 3570 CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the Dell Precision 15 3570 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Dell Precision 15 3570 model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.

Results are from the Cinebench R23 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)

Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)


GPU options

In terms of graphics, the choices go down to the NVIDIA T550, and the NVIDIA RTX A500. Both have 4GB of GDDR6 video memory.

Dell Precision 15 3570 GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the Dell Precision 15 3570 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Dell Precision 15 3570 model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.

Results are from the 3DMark: Time Spy (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)

Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)

Results are from the 3DMark: Wild Life (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)

Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS294 fps228 fps139 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS166 fps137 fps117 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average P-core frequency; Average E-core frequency; CPU temp.; Package Power

Intel Core i7-1265U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Dell Precision 15 35703.77 GHz @ 2.88 GHz @ 76°C @ 55W2.91 GHz @ 2.25 GHz @ 71°C @ 32W2.70 GHz @ 2.10 GHz @ 61°C @ 27W

The Precision 15 3570 definitely has the cooling capacity to handle even the more powerful P-series. As you can see, the U-series chips are barely able to warm up, even when you try to obliterate them with Prime95.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA T550GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max Fan)
Dell Precision 15 35701413 MHz @ 73°C @ 30W1420 MHz @ 73°C @ 30W

The graphics card also doesn’t heat up too much, while being able to run at 30W of TGP. The interesting thing here is that the fan is spinning a bit faster when you’re playing games – courtesy to both the CPU and the GPU being utilized, and the latter using a bit more energy.

Comfort during combined load

In addition to being fairly quiet during extreme load scenarios, the Precision 15 3570 doesn’t get too warm on the outside. This makes it comfortable for long periods of abuse.


Verdict

At the end of the day, there are a couple of things we would like to address. First – it is about time manufacturers ditch the idea of even thinking to offer a 768p TN panel, regardless if we’re talking about a budget notebook or a mobile workstation like the Precision 15 3570.

Secondly, we would like to praise Dell for its environment-conscious policies. Stuff like this can quickly add up and make a huge change for the world.

As a workstation, the laptop seems pretty decent. Its pro-grade graphics card is certified to work with a wide variety of professional software – whether it is for civil engineering, architecture, 3D modeling, or else. And if you happen to own the RTX A500 – you will get ray tracing support on a hardware level, which is fantastic.

Dell Precision 15 3570’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. It’s good to see that its backlight doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. However, the color coverage of 53% of the sRGB gamut, means that the image looks a bit dull.

If you have paid close attention to the CPU options segment, you will know that this laptop can be found with an Alder Lake-U processor, or an Alder Lake-P one. The former series is close to the performance of last year’s chips, but the P-series is the real deal. It will surely make your work effortless.

It’s also worth noting the option of an IR face recognition system with a proximity sensor and a fingerprint reader. The port selection is also very good with two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, a LAN port, a MicroSD card slot, and more.

You see, on the inside, you will find two DDR5 slots for memory, and two M.2 PCIe x4 slots for storage, one of which supports Gen 4 drives. This is fantastic. Interestingly, the Precision 15 3570 comes with a smaller battery than its predecessor. It also delivers a shorter battery life, which is expected. The older unit can run up to 15 hours of Web browsing, while the new one depletes its battery for a bit over 12 hours. Although this is not a bad result, it is a bit unfortunate to see a downgrade (even if it’s minor) compared to last year.

Nevertheless, the Precision 15 3570 offers a big-enough performance upgrade to be worth recommending. You know the drill – before you buy, eliminate every option that has a 768p TN panel.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-precision-15-3570/

Pros

  • Wide I/O, which includes a MicroSD card reader
  • Two M.2 storage slots, one of which runs at 4.0 speeds + 2x DDR5 SODIMM slots
  • Fingerprint reader embedded in the power button + optional IR face recognition
  • Wi-Fi 6, Thunderbolt 4
  • No PWM (LG PXGVC-156WFC (LGD0709))
  • Comfortable keyboard with a backlight
  • Good battery life


Cons

  • Covers only 53% of sRGB (LG PXGVC-156WFC (LGD0709))
  • There is still an archaic 768p TN display option

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