As a workstation I have a Dell XPS 15 9520 which I must say is a beautiful machine, like all notebooks from Dell XPS series designed for professionals . The design is very modern and youthful, I find it light enough and the battery lasts enough hours that I don’t have to carry the charger during meetings, let’s say up to 2/3 hours.
I use it mainly for web development with Visual Studio 2022, Docker Desktop, Visual Studio Core, SQL Server Management Studio, Chrome, React or Angular with Typescript, with fairly full-bodied projects, without slowing down.
64 GB of RAM and i9-12900HK CPU combined with the SSD disk makes everything very smooth and I am satisfied.
Compared to the previous 9570 model, they also corrected the flaw of the webcam position, which is now positioned as in all other laptops, i.e. at the top. Another nice improvement is that in this new model the power cable of this model is USB-C.
Via a USB-C port I connected two Lenovo ThinkVision P24h-2L monitors with DisplayPort in a daisy chain.
Daisy chain is a little advertised feature (I don’t know why) of some monitors which in my opinion is a killer-feature! You can connect the second monitor in cascade to the first, i.e. only one monitor is connected to the laptop, while the other uses the DisplayPort-OUT to feed the signal to the DiplayPort-IN of the second monitor. A nice saving on cables, ports and docking stations! Also the monitors have USB ports, where I can connect the wifi dongles and the webcam.
Just beware that they don’t support 4k monitors.
The ports are 3 and all USB-C, so no normal USB, but an adapter is provided. But if you use USB dongles for wifi mouse / keyboard, like Logitech, or if you have normal USB sticks, it is a bit annoying, to be honest. They could at least provide a USB 3 port.
Very interesting is their software, which allows you to keep system drivers updated, and configure the battery charge. In my case, when I keep it 99% connected to the power supply, I can extend the life of the battery with a special “always connected to the mains” function.
From the BIOS it is also possible to disable the function that as soon as you lift the lid, the PC turns on and starts. I don’t understand who might be interested in such a function, which I find quite annoying.
In the end I must say that it is an excellent purchase, recommended! A great gift for a student or family member!
A note about the battery: If you do not find the official Dell batteries, when you buy a compatible one, check with the supplier that they are recognized as “genuine” by Dell, otherwise they will refuse to charge it (they say for safety reasons, explosions, etc) and I have found no way to bypass this block!
It happened to me with a replacement battery for another Dell XPS 9570 because the originals are no longer available.
