Dell XPS 15 9520 review

Dell has established the XPS brand as the main MacBook alternative. Chances are very high that you’ve heard about that if you are into powerful, portable machinery. However, there is a huge disadvantage to owning such a notebook. First – your bank account won’t be really happy. Second – you won’t get the maximum out of the hardware. This happened last year, and we strongly suggest that would happen today with the XPS 15 9520.

It comes with an Alder Lake-H processor, which is very needy in terms of cooling. Regardless, we expect that the XPS 15 will be able to destroy every other device equipped with a last-gen processor, just because of Intel’s great year-on-year gains. However, we’ve previously talked about the way laptop manufacturers rely on Intel’s fantastic work to promote huge differences, compared to their last-year notebooks. And if they (the manufacturers) are really sneaky, they will compare their current offering with a competitor from a year ago.

Nevertheless, the XPS 15 9520 is largely unchanged from the XPS 15 9510. It uses the same body (which we’re going to show in the next section), and the only major difference is the chipset difference, which also results in a switch from DDR4 to DDR5 memory. Without further a do, let’s get right into the review.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-xps-15-9520/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Dell XPS 15 9520 - Specs

  • LG 4DWVJ-156WU1 (LGD06B3)
  • Color accuracy  5.0  1.6
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 8000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Home, Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Pro
  • Battery
  • 86Wh, 6-cell, 97Wh, 6-cell
  • Body material
  • Aluminum, Carbon
  • Dimensions
  • 344.40 x 230.14 x 11.65 - 18.54 mm (13.56" x 9.06" x 0.46")
  • Weight
  • 1.84 kg (4.1 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), DisplayPort
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • 4.0, Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD)
  • Card reader
  • SD, SDHC, SDXC
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Digital Array Microphones
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W Tweeters + 2x 2W Woofers Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Wedge Lock

All Dell XPS 15 9520 configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, you will find some paperwork, a 130W USB Type-C charger, and a USB Type-C to USB Type-A and HDMI dongle.


Design and construction

According to Dell, the laptop sits at 18.54mm at its thickest and weighs up to 2.10 kilos. Actually, it depends on your battery, and on your display option. The lightest model comes with a 56Wh battery and a 1080p display – 1.84 kg. Then, the 1080p panel is paired with an 86Wh battery – 1.92 kg. After that, you get the OLED touch-enabled panel – 1.96 kg, and the 4K IPS panel – 2.10 kg. The last two feature the larger battery option.

Ultimately, the laptop is thin and relatively light. To be honest, 2 kilos don’t feel light anymore, but it’s good for the notebook because it makes it feel substantial. Once again, you should be very careful with the sharp edges, which classify the laptop as a true James Bond device, since you can slay any enemy that gets in your way.

This notebook’s lid can be opened with a single hand, provided you can grip it. The bezels around the display are extremely thin. This is why we were baffled by the use of an IR face recognition sensor beside the HD Web camera.

Aluminum is once again paired with carbon fiber. The latter has the same rubberized finish as always, which is really comfortable on the wrists. Speaking of comfort, the keyboard is pretty good for typing, although it has a slightly shorter key travel than what we would have liked to see. It features a backlight and has a fingerprint reader embedded in the power button.

Surrounding the keyboard, there are two speaker grills. And below it, you will find the huge touchpad. It sports a glass surface, which makes the gliding extremely smooth. Furthermore, its tracking is accurate, while the response is very snappy. Interestingly, Dell tells the exact measurements in one of their documents – 150.9mm in width, and 90mm in height – not bad at all.

If you turn the laptop upside down, you will see two more speaker cutouts as well as the ventilation grill. Hot air, respectively, is being exhausted through two gaps in between the base and the lid. The virtual lack of a bottom bezel means that the lower part of the display takes a lot of heat when you are playing games, rendering a video, or stressing the laptop in another way.

Ports

The port situation is pretty simple – there are two Thunderbolt 4 connectors on the left, and one USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port on the right, which is paired with an audio jack and an SD card reader.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

You need to undo 8 Torx-head screws to get inside of this notebook. After that, pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool, starting from the front two edges. Be careful as the metal edges are really sharp.

This device is equipped with an 86Wh battery pack. By the way, if you want to take the battery out, you need to undo 8 Phillips-head screws and remove the tape holding the speaker cables to the package.

As you can see, there are two SODIMM slots on this laptop. This allows it to take up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM. Storage-wise, there are two M.2 PCIe x4 slots, which support Gen 4 drives.

For better or for worse, you won’t see a vapor chamber on this notebook. Instead, Dell supplies a more conventional solution with two heat pipes, two heat sinks, and a couple of heat spreaders for the graphics memory, and the VRMs.


Display quality

Dell XPS 15 9520 is equipped with a Full HD IPS panel, model number LG 4DWVJ-156WU1 (LGD06B3). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.6 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1200p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:10, the pixel density – 145 ppi, their pitch – 0.18 x 0.18 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 60 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Viewing angles are good. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The maximum measured brightness is very high – 544 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 526 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 6%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 7310K (average) – colder than the 6500K optimum for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 27% Brightness (White level = 143 cd/m2, Black level = 0.08 cd/m2).
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 (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is very good – 1710:1.

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 on 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 XPS 15 9520’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 95% 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 XPS 15 9520 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.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

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 XPS 15 9520’s display doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. This makes the screen comfortable for long periods of use.

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 53.8 GU).


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell XPS 15 9520 configurations with 15.6″ LG 4DWVJ-156WU1 (LGD06B3) (FHD+, 1920 × 1200) IPS.

*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/xps-15-9520-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. Our configuration is equipped with the larger 86Wh battery. It lasts for 16 hours and 57 minutes of Web browsing, or 13 hours and 58 minutes of video playback on a single charge.


CPU options

This laptop can be found with the Core i5-12500H, Core i7-12700H, or Core i9-12900HK.


GPU options

In terms of graphics, you can either settle for an iGPU option, or pick a dedicated GPU in the form of the RTX 3050 (40W), or RTX 3050 Ti (45W). Both of them come with 4GB of GDDR6 memory.


Gaming tests

Metro ExodusFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Extreme (Check settings)
Average FPS84 fps41 fps19 fps

Borderlands 3Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Badass (Check settings)
Average fps77 fps53 fps40 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Lowest (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)
Average107 fps59 fps63 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Average fps75 fps69 fps59 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 i7-12700H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Dell XPS 15 95203.18 GHz @ 2.56 GHz @ 95°C @ 87W2.52 GHz @ 2.10 GHz @ 92°C @ 57W2.11 GHz @ 1.70 GHz @ 81°C @ 45W
Dell Precision 17 57703.34 GHz @ 2.69 GHz @ 78°C @ 95W3.30 GHz @ 2.66 GHz @ 87°C @ 92W2.54 GHz @ 2.10 GHz @ 75°C @ 55W
MSI Pulse GL76 (12Ux)3.29 GHz @ 2.76 GHz @ 77°C @ 97W3.27 GHz @ 2.75 GHz @ 83°C @ 95W3.14 GHz @ 2.68 GHz @ 86°C @ 85W
MSI Crosshair 15 (B12Ux)3.27 GHz @ 2.67 GHz @ 84°C @ 97W3.19 GHz @ 2.65 GHz @ 91°C @ 94W3.05 GHz @ 2.47 GHz @ 88°C @ 80W
Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH317-56)3.39 GHz @ 2.84 GHz @ 64°C @ 103W3.53 GHz @ 2.76 GHz @ 71°C @ 100W2.66 GHz @ 2.86 GHz @ 87°C @ 102W
MSI Stealth GS66 (12Ux)3.84 GHz @ 2.82 GHz @ 83°C @ 124W3.55 GHz @ 2.67 GHz @ 85°C @ 107W3.19 GHz @ 2.42 GHz @ 83°C @ 85W
MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux)3.81 GHz @ 2.91 GHz @ 81°C @ 116W3.54 GHz @ 2.72 GHz @ 83°C @ 98W3.30 GHz @ 2.57 GHz @ 79°C @ 86W
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE (PT516-52s)3.25 GHz @ 2.52 GHz @ 89°C @ 80W3.10 GHz @ 2.46 GHz @ 90°C @ 73W2.93 GHz @ 2.38 GHz @ 91°C @ 66W

Due to the inferior cooling solution, the XPS 15 9520 is forced to run its Core i7-12700H at its base TDP. This makes the laptop the lowest performing notebook, in the long run, that is equipped with this processor.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 TiGPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max fan)
Dell XPS 15 95201168 MHz @ 74°C @ 30W1380 MHz @ 75°C @ 38W
Dell XPS 15 95101187 MHz @ 74°C @ 40W1293 MHz @ 75°C @ 44W
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio1610 MHz @ 73°C @ 49W1629 MHz @ 70°C @ 50W
ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (GZ301)1299 MHz @ 62°C @ 40W1285 MHz @ 62°C @ 40W
Lenovo ThinkBook 15p Gen 21539 MHz @ 69°C @ 50W1536 MHz @ 69°C @ 50W
HP Omen 16 (16-b0000)1781 MHz @ 68°C @ 80W1767 MHz @ 71°C @ 80W
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)1681 MHz @ 87°C @ 75W1376 MHz @ 74°C @ 48W
ASUS ZenBook Pro 15 OLED (UM535)1530 MHz @ 66°C @ 50W1529 MHz @ 68°C @ 50W
HP Pavilion Gaming 15 (15-dk2000)1613 MHz @ 65°C @ 60W1576 MHz @ 73°C @ 60W
MSI Sword 151633 MHz @ 73°C @ 60W1605 MHz @ 79°C @ 60W1644 MHz @ 69°C @ 60W
Dell G15 55111882 MHz @ 71°C @ 88W1878 MHz @ 72°C @ 89W
Dell G15 55151857 MHz @ 76°C @ 80W1850 MHz @ 77°C @ 80W
Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-57)1616 MHz @ 70°C @ 66W1607 MHz @ 72°C @ 65W1632 MHz @ 69°C @ 66W
MSI Katana GF761619 MHz @ 76°C @ 60W1594 MHz @ 82°C @ 60W1632 MHz @ 70°C @ 60W

Interestingly, the XPS 15 9520 runs at higher clock speeds for long periods of time than its predecessor. However, the monitored TGP is lower (38W vs 44W). This means that there is more unexplored potential, which makes the cooling insufficient.

Gaming comfort

Although the temperature of the graphics card is not too high, the externals get pretty toasty. On the bright side, the laptop is not too loud, which may be one of the reasons for the behavior of the hardware.


Verdict

Laptop hardware (and computer hardware in general) has become really powerful. However, a big amount of the performance uplift has been due to the push for higher power limits. Respectively, this leads to a bigger strain on the cooling solution of each machine, which happens to be the biggest challenge faced by manufacturers.

Unfortunately, this is an area, where Dell leaves a lot more to be desired. First and foremost, the company left its 15-inch XPS device without a vapor chamber cooling setup. This leads to low CPU potency and a GPU that is unable to reach its already low TGP of 45W.

On the bright side, our laptop came equipped with the larger 86Wh battery option. It lasts for a very long time on a single charge – 17 hours of Web browsing or 14 hours of video playback.

Dell XPS 15 9520’s Full HD IPS configuration has comfortable viewing angles, excellent maximum brightness, and a very good contrast ratio. It covers 95% of the sRGB color gamut, which makes the image pretty punchy. Moreover, our Gaming and Web design profile makes the colors accurate for the Web standards. Ultimately, the screen is appropriate for presentations and outdoor work. Now, if you want something with a bit more punch, you can pick the UHD+ IPS or 3.5K OLED options, both of which support the DCI-P3 color gamut almost fully.

Interestingly, the internal ports are very impressive, as they offer up to 64GB of dual-channel DDR5 RAM, and up to two M.2 PCIe x4 Gen 4 SSD drives. However, the outside is less of a screamer, as it offers two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, one USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, an SD card, and an audio jack. See, this is not bad by itself, but the lack of other ports is a bit sad. On the other hand, Dell tries to brighten your day by including a USB Type-C to USB Type-A and HDMI dongle inside the box.

Once again, features like a fingerprint reader and an IR face recognition sensor come by default. Plus, this machine has fairly good input devices, to say the least, and packs arguably the best speaker setup on a non-Apple laptop.

At the end of the day, there is one big question to be asked. Should you invest in the new XPS 15 9520, or you should go for the XPS 15 9510, which comes at roughly $700 less than a comparable configuration. In our opinion, investing in the future is always a better thing. However, considering the fact that the price difference between the new and the old device is nearly 50% of the price of the older unit, we would definitely recommend getting the XPS 15 9510. Or at least wait for the XPS 15 9520 to get discounted. And if you want to be completely exotic, you can go for the ASUS ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED (W7600).

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-xps-15-9520/

Pros

  • Strong body build of carbon fiber and aluminum
  • Virtually bezel-less screen
  • High maximum brightness and almost full sRGB coverage (LG 4DWVJ-156WU1 (LGD06B3))
  • Thin and light
  • Easy upgrade and maintenance
  • Great keyboard, touchpad, and speakers
  • Fingerprint reader embedded in the power button and an IR face recognition system
  • Two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, USB Type-C charging, and an SD card reader (+ tiny dongle inside the box)
  • No PWM (LG 4DWVJ-156WU1 (LGD06B3))
  • Accurate colors with our Gaming and Web design profile (LG 4DWVJ-156WU1 (LGD06B3))


Cons

  • Poor cooling
  • Pricey
  • Limited I/O (Sharp 90T02-LQ156R1 (SHP14D0))

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Jeremie
Jeremie
1 year ago

Was your model that you got that 17h of web browsing the iGPU version or the one with the dedicated RTX3050 ?