Dell Precision 15 3571 review

Sometimes only a single-digit can make a huge difference. In the case of Dell, it is the “naughty 1”. If you see a laptop bearing the number 1 at the end of its model number, then it is most probably sporting pretty powerful hardware – at least a better one, compared to the one that ends with a zero.

This leads us to the laptop we’re reviewing today – the Dell Precision 15 3571. Ultimately, the Precision brand represents the workstation-like approach of the company. Most of the time, it shares the base of other notebooks. In this case – the Latitude 15 5531. Soon, we will show you the Precision 17 5770, which is based on the XPS 17. However, this is a topic for another day.

The special thing about the Precision 15 3571 is its hardware. It offers a significant upgrade over the 3570, as it features H-series processors, as opposed to the Alder Lake-U and P models. Another useful feature is the addition of the RTX A2000, which has 8GB of GDDR6 graphics memory and boasts all the goodies required for effortless professional work.

Contrary to that, Dell still lives in the medieval age of mobile computing and offers the Precision 15 3571 with a 768p TN panel option. Indeed, you have a choice to upgrade it to the 1080p or 4K IPS versions, but having such a base offering in 2022 is uninspiring.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-precision-15-3571/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Dell Precision 15 3571 - Specs

  • LG PXGVC-156WFC (LGD0709)
  • Color accuracy  5.5  3.8
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Home
  • Battery
  • 64Wh, 4-cell, 97Wh, 6-cell, 97Wh, 6-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Carbon
  • Dimensions
  • 357.80 x 233.30 x 22.67 - 24.05 mm (14.09" x 9.19" x 0.89")
  • Weight
  • 1.79 kg (3.9 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
  • Digital Array Microphones
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2.5W Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Wedge Lock

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found some usual paperwork, a power cord, and a 130W USB Type-C power adapter.


Design and construction

As we said, the Precision 15 3571 shares the same body and chassis as the Latitude 15 5531. It is a bit bulkier than the Precision 15 3570, and also a bit heavier – the measurements go 22.67-24.05mm in thickness, and 1.79 kg in weight. Interestingly, the latter still makes the laptop pretty light, which is good.

The build quality of the product is pretty good, although it is predominantly made out of plastic with some hints of carbon here and there. Also, both the body and the lid are relatively resistant to flex.

Unfortunately, the lid can’t be opened with a single hand. This doesn’t really ruin the overall experience, but it would have been a nice bonus. Nevertheless, you still get an optional Full HD Web camera with a privacy shutter, and an IR face recognition scanner beside it.

Here, the keyboard is pretty standard for a Precision/Latitude laptop. There is no mention of spill resistance, which is a bummer, given the fact that most ThinkPads on the market come with this feature. On the bright side, the keys have decent travel and fairly clicky feedback.

With a fingerprint reader embedded in the power button, and a touchpad, which is enviously responsive, you are getting a rather finished product.

Looking at the base, we see a couple of speaker cutouts, as well as a ventilation grill. Hot air, respectively, gets exhausted through the vent on the left side of the device.

Ports

On the left side, you get two Thunderbolt 4 connectors and a Smart Card reader. The right, on the other hand, is a bit more populous – there is a security lock slot, a LAN port, an HDMI 2.0 connector, followed by two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, an audio jack, and a MicroSD card slot.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

To remove this notebook’s bottom panel, you will need to undo all 9 captive Phillips-head screws. After that, pry the panel with a plastic tool, and lift it away from the chassis.

Our unit was equipped with a 64Wh battery pack. Albeit the smaller of two options, it delivered nearly 13 hours of Web browsing or more than 9 hours of video playback on a single charge. To take it out, unplug the battery connector from the motherboard and undo all three Phillips-head screws.

In terms of memory, you get two SODIMM slots for up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM in total. Storage-wise, there are two M.2 PCIe x4 slots with Gen 4 and RAID supports. Furthermore, you get a 2.5-inch SATA drive bay, but we didn’t find any mounting accessories needed for it.

Lastly, there is the cooling. It comprises two heat pipes, shared between the CPU and the GPU, which connect to a medium-sized heat sink. The use of a single fan is a bit questionable, given the high potential of the hardware inside.


Display quality

Dell Precision 15 3571 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 272 nits in the middle of the screen and 265 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 5%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6730K – 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 – 1200:1.

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 3571’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 50% 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 3571 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 = 22 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 3571’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 54.9 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 3571 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-15-3571-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 64Wh battery pack lasts for 12 hours and 43 minutes of Web browsing, or 9 hours and 22 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

You can find this device with the Core i5-12500H, Core i5-12600H, Core i7-12700H, Core i7-12800H, or Core i9-12900H.

Dell Precision 15 3571 CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the Dell Precision 15 3571 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Dell Precision 15 3571 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

Besides the integrated graphics cards, there are the NVIDIA T600, RTX A1000, and RTX A2000 to choose from. The latter has 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM, while the other two come with 4GB of VRAM.


Gaming tests

Metro ExodusFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Extreme (Check settings)
Average FPS83 fps35 fps17 fps

Borderlands 3Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Badass (Check settings)
Average fps72 fps48 fps37 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Lowest (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)
Average101 fps66 fps60 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Average fps67 fps62 fps54 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 i9-12900H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Dell Precision 15 35712.95 GHz @ 2.37 GHz @ 74°C @ 80W3.00 GHz @ 2.37 GHz @ 80°C @ 80W2.37 GHz @ 1.88 GHz @ 71°C @ 52W
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533 (2022)4.00 GHz @ 3.06 GHz @ 77°C @ 126W3.97 GHz @ 3.04 GHz @ 85°C @ 125W3.93 GHz @ 2.96 GHz @ 86°C @ 121W
ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (GZ301)3.54 GHz @ 2.68 GHz @ 64°C @ 95W3.04 GHz @ 2.48 GHz @ 70°C @ 83W2.45 GHz @ 2.07 GHz @ 67°C @ 50W

Needless to say, the Precision 15 3571 performs the worse out of the three laptops we’ve tested with this processor. It gets beaten even by the 13-inch tablet ROG FLow Z13 (GZ301).

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA RTX A1000GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
Dell Precision 15 35711390 MHz @ 73°C @ 39W1391 MHz @ 74°C @ 40W

In terms of the graphics card, this is the first laptop we test with the RTX A1000. Here, we have the 40W iteration, which is very lenient on the cooling, hence the low temperatures under load.

Comfort during combined load

There is one advantage of having a laptop with only one fan – it is pretty quiet. On the other hand, the middle part of the keyboard gets pretty warm during a combined load such as gaming.


Verdict

We knew this would happen as soon as we popped the laptop open. You just can’t put a single fan inside of a pretty powerful machine and expect it to work the same way as a dual-fan system. This is not how the universe works. As Winnie the Pooh has once said, the more fans your laptop has, the better its performance would be.

On the other hand, you have to keep in mind that the Alder Lake-H series are so powerful that they can easily muscle their way around the poor cooling setup. Your business needs will be satisfied also by the wide variety of ports – inside and out. We are talking about two Thunderbolt 4s, two USB Type-As, an HDMI 2.0, a LAN port, a MicroSD card slot, and more. While the internal slots include two RAM SODIMM slots for memory expansion up to 64GB of DDR5 memory, while the storage comprises two M.2 PCIe x4 slots, which support Gen 4 drives. Furthermore, there is a 2.5-inch SATA drive bay for your CAD libraries.

Surprisingly, the smaller 64Wh battery pack delivers nearly 13 hours of Web browsing, or about 9 hours and a half of video playback on a single charge. This is astonishing.

Dell Precision 15 3571’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Thankfully, it doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment, which makes it safe for use for long periods of time. On the other hand, the image looks a bit dull due to the 50% sRGB color gamut coverage.

There are some things that may make us forget about the horrendous 768p TN display option. Some of them offer you biometric authentication – like the fingerprint reader and the IR face recognition scanner. Another reason to forgive Dell is the build quality of the machine. Although its lid can’t be opened with a single hand, the entire structure is super tough.

At the end of the day, your purchase decision should rely mainly on your workflow. If you are constantly taking advantage of your hardware, you should better look for a device that has a more capable cooling solution. However, if the workload consists of many but short bursts of load, then the Precision 15 3571 might cut it. Especially if you care about battery life too.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-precision-15-3571/

Pros

  • Wide I/O, which includes a MicroSD card reader
  • Two M.2 storage slots, with Gen 4 support + 2x DDR5 SODIMM slots
  • Fingerprint reader embedded in the power button + optional IR face recognition
  • Wi-Fi 6E, 2x 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))
  • Impotent cooling solution
  • There is still an archaic 768p TN display option

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments