Dell’s XPS 15 9520 Improves on An Existing Design
Dell’s XPS 15 9520 is a rather moderate incremental improvement to an old notebook. It is really iterative. The main difference between it and the XPS 15 9510 we evaluated last year is that it has 12th-generation Intel processors instead of 11th-generation Intel processors. Except for replacing the foreshortened Windows 10-era rectangular logo on the Windows key to a square Windows 11-era logo, everything else remains the same, from the design to the screen to the GPU.
A Brief Overview
With a weight of just over four pounds, this is still a machine designed for folks who want more power than a 13- or 14-inch laptop can deliver but don’t want to upgrade to a full-size desktop or a large gaming laptop.
It still includes a slim-bezel screen, a massive trackpad, a comfortable keyboard with firm-but-not-too-firm keys and a reasonable amount of travel, Thunderbolt and USB-C connections for peripherals and charging, as well as a single SD card reader and a headphone jack. A fingerprint reader, a face-scanning Windows Hello-compatible IR camera, a 720p webcam, and serviceable-but-mediocre speakers round out the essentials.
Some of the finer technical aspects are worth repeating. Thunderbolt 4 connectors are located on the laptop’s left, while USB-C ports are located on the right. It keeps a pair of RAM slots for removable DDR5 memory modules, an increase over DDR4 from last year, as well as an additional M.2 2280 socket for a second NVMe SSD. Although the system’s 130 W power brick has a USB-C connection, it is still technically proprietary you may charge the laptop at a reduced pace with any old USB-C charger, but you may still need to use Dell’s for full power and performance.
We put the model through its paces with the 34562160 OLED display, which falls between between the entry-level 19201200 IPS screen and the top-tier 38402400 IPS panel. It’s good to have the choice for folks who appreciate the endless contrast of OLED, but the little graininess, particularly when staring at flat, textureless fields of white or color, and oversaturated hues are the costs. However, the screen’s maximum brightness of 404 nits and gamut coverage of 100 percent sRGB and 99.4 percent DCI-P3 as tested by an i1Display Studio colorimeter are also satisfactory.
However, when compared to the Core i7–11800H in our review model from last year, the 12700H sacrifices two large CPU cores in favor of eight efficiency cores, a trade-off that isn’t noticeable in single-threaded or lightly threaded tasks but provides a modest boost in CPU-heavy rendering or video transcoding tests. Users will be able to utilize the clone it features without any issues as well.
Overall, not a vast improvement but an update from its predecessor. Plus, there are no major downsides with this model. If you looking for a laptop with these specifications then this is the best option for now.
