How can Dell improve on its already excellent XPS 15? By adding the latest hardware from Intel, whose new hybrid chips promise far better multitasking performance than before. We loved the XPS 15's updated design when it debuted two years ago, and last year, Dell added an OLED screen option, which led us to call it “practically perfect” in our review. At this point, we're running out of superlatives. Still, it's worth noting that the XPS 15 continues to be the 15-inch notebook that every PC company aspires to make.
Gallery: Dell XPS 15 (2022) | 10 Photos
Gallery: Dell XPS 15 (2022) | 10 Photos
A big reason for that is the XPS 15’s recent redesign, which dramatically narrowed the bezels and gives the entire computer a more modern look. You can practically date laptops by the thickness of their ugly display borders. Even though I've seen it in various forms over the last few years, I still love the way the screen just flows into the lower keyboard area. And while it sounds like a cliche, those razor-thin borders truly make the screen look like it's floating.
Every other aspect of the XPS 15's case also feels like it's honed to perfection, from the aluminum exterior to the smooth carbon fiber around the keyboard. I'm sure Dell will eventually give us an XPS 15 Plus that takes design cues from the newer XPS 13 Plus, but the standard model still has a level of polish that goes beyond most Windows laptops.
The big selling point for the XPS 15 this year is Intel's new 12th-gen hybrid processors. Thanks to their combination of high performance and efficient cores, they're far more capable than last year's when it comes to juggling a bunch of work. And those low-power cores come in handy for saving battery life. Together with NVIDIA's 45-watt RTX 3050 Ti GPU (which was also in the model we covered last year), the XPS 15 is now even more of a genuine powerhouse.
PCMark 10 | 3DMark Night Raid | Geekbench 5 (CPU) | |
|---|---|---|---|
Dell XPS 15 (2022, Intel i7-12700H, NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti 45w) | 6,825 | 24,250 | 1,680/11,412 |
HP Spectre x360 16 (Intel Core i7-11390H, NVIDIA RTX 3050) | 4,785 | 16,927 | 1,518/4,200 |
Dell XPS 15 (2021, Intel i7-11800H, NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti 45w) | 5,966 | 22,264 | 1,536/7,551 |
ASUS ZenBook Duo (Intel Core i7-1165G7, Xe graphics) | 4,704 | 15,315 | 1,410/4,539 |
Our review machine, equipped with a Core i7-12700H, 16GB of RAM and that NVIDIA GPU, scored 17 percent higher than last year's model in the PCMark 10 benchmark and 40 percent faster in Cinebench's multithreaded test. In the real world, those scores mean that the XPS 15 could end up saving you hours when it comes to editing huge video files or rendering 3D projects. The new CPU also gave the XPS 15 a slight leg up in some complex games like Halo Infinite. I reached a steady 60fps while playing in 1080p with medium settings, whereas the last XPS 15 struggled with complex shooters while using the same GPU. (It was fine for a low-impact game like Overwatch, but that was about it.)
