XPS 15: i7 FHD vs i5 4K ?

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Kiri

Limp Gawd
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Apr 10, 2008
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Hi guys,
I need a new laptop powerful enough to be my only workhorse for video, photo, and audio production. (premiere, after effects, photoshop, ableton mostly) .

I've pretty much decided on the Dell XPS 15, but having a bit of trouble choosing between the available options.

Specifically I want to ask you guys is there much difference between the i5-7300HQ and i7-7700HQ processors?

Unfortunately the i7 processor only comes with the FHD screen, unless I go for the much more expensive $2200 config, but I'd prefer not to spend that much if I can avoid it.

There is $1600 config with the 4K screen, but that comes with only the i5 processor.

I've also never had a 4K screen in a laptop before, so was not sure if I really need that or not, but from what I've read it seems like it will be worth it for photo and video editing especially. (for color accuracy mostly, and screen real estate)

So what do you guys think?
Would I be better off with 4K screen and i5, or FHD screen with i7?

Thanks for the advice! Have a nice day :)
 
I ordered the XPS 15 4K, this morning. I've been using retina MBPs (13" and 15") for several years, so I'm used to high laptop screen resolutions. I think the i5 will be fine for all but the most demanding CPU-intensive tasks.
 
I bought mine on eBay for $1100 with an i7, 4k screen, 16gb ram, and 128gb ssd. I updated the ssd myself to a 1tb 850 evo drive so now I've it spec'd out for under $1400.
 
Probably best to check them both out, although I would just go with 1080P since the battery life will be better and performance should never be an issue.
 
I got my daughter the 1080P for the reasons Strelok mentioned.

image.jpg
 
If the config you want isn't on Dell's site, you can phone in to order and get essentially whatever you want.
 
yeah you can custom order. I got a xps 13 9360 FHD with touch screen on an i5 7200u. My only regret is that I only got 8gb and didn't go for 16gb.
 
Hey guys, my XPS 15 just arrived!
Everything seems good with it, but I am wondering if I should do a clean install of windows or not?
Are there any pros/cons? I'm guessing I could get rid of some bloatware, but is there anything important I might lose?

There doesn't seem to be a ton of bloatware, but I would kind of like to clean install anyway, mostly because some of the stuff in windows is still in Japanese (I bought the machine in Japan so the OS came installed in Japanese and then downloaded and installed the English language pack). Installing the language pack fixed most things, but some stuff seems to be stuck in Japanese (like the login screen, some tooltips, etc... ) Not a huge deal, but kinda wanna start fresh.
 
A clean install ain't a bad idea and certainly can't hurt at all. Make sure you get online (I'm guessing you already have) so it will activate properly with Microsoft's servers and then get a clean install on there - all you'll need to do after the install is get back online (make SURE you have the Wi-Fi and network drivers handy just in case, there's a chance that Windows 10 may not have them natively because of it being such a new machine) it'll contact Microsoft and activate just fine once more since it's an OEM machine - Product Keys are not required to be input for a clean install on that machine so don't even bother with 'em or the one on the COA sticker if it's got one in the battery compartment - I'm guessing there since I've never used one of the newer XPS models.
 
Tiberian said:
A clean install ain't a bad idea and certainly can't hurt at all. Make sure you get online (I'm guessing you already have) so it will activate properly with Microsoft's servers and then get a clean install on there - all you'll need to do after the install is get back online (make SURE you have the Wi-Fi and network drivers handy just in case, there's a chance that Windows 10 may not have them natively because of it being such a new machine) it'll contact Microsoft and activate just fine once more since it's an OEM machine - Product Keys are not required to be input for a clean install on that machine so don't even bother with 'em or the one on the COA sticker if it's got one in the battery compartment - I'm guessing there since I've never used one of the newer XPS models.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'm preparing a USB stick to do a clean install now. :)
 
You can always call up Dell and they will customize you one to your liking.

Also, I would prefer 1080p over 4k simply for the extra battery life.
 
I've had mine for just over a week and couldn't be more pleasantly surprised and happy. I understand the appeal of the 1080p's battery life, but I'm thrilled with the 4K touchscreen. I always do a fresh OS install on any new laptop. I just like starting with no unnecessary junk on my computers.
 
i got my xps 13 on a 1080p with touchscreen btw. you can have dell customize it for u.
 
Etherton said:
Seen this?
Click to expand...

That is one hell of a deal, but that 4K screen is wasted for gaming and gaming in 1080p on a down-scaled native 4K screen is terrible.

Commander Shepard said:
I've had mine for just over a week and couldn't be more pleasantly surprised and happy. I understand the appeal of the 1080p's battery life, but I'm thrilled with the 4K touchscreen. I always do a fresh OS install on any new laptop. I just like starting with no unnecessary junk on my computers.
Click to expand...

I also want to stress to OP that the 4K is glossy as hell. I personally can't stand that and I don't understand why in this day-and-age there isn't some screen technology that just makes screens easy to read even in sunlight. Or hell, even in regular room lighting without always seeing a very clear reflection of yourself.
 
zamardii12, 4k scales down to 1080p just fine. I have an XPS 15 with the 4k screen and play games at 1080p without issue. While it is extremely glossy, to call it "terrible" for gaming is just bs.
 
DarkStar02 said:
zamardii12, 4k scales down to 1080p just fine. I have an XPS 15 with the 4k screen and play games at 1080p without issue. While it is extremely glossy, to call it "terrible" for gaming is just bs.
Click to expand...

I was always under the impression that anything under native resolution looked worse than the selected lower resolution on its native panel.

So a native 1080p scaled to 720p looked worse than 720p on a native 720p panel.

Perhaps it's different on 4k down to 1080 since 4k is exactly 4x the pixels?
 
4K scaled to 1440p also looks very good. Nothing's quite as sharp as native resolution, of course.
 
DarkStar02 said:
zamardii12, 4k scales down to 1080p just fine. I have an XPS 15 with the 4k screen and play games at 1080p without issue. While it is extremely glossy, to call it "terrible" for gaming is just bs.
Click to expand...

iRUSH said:
I was always under the impression that anything under native resolution looked worse than the selected lower resolution on its native panel.

So a native 1080p scaled to 720p looked worse than 720p on a native 720p panel.

Perhaps it's different on 4k down to 1080 since 4k is exactly 4x the pixels?
Click to expand...

i was under this impression as well. When I originally built my PC I was running a 4K monitor, but performance was really sluggish in some newer games so if I tried lowering resolution 1440p, or virtually any resolution that was lower than the native 4K, everything looked blurry especially desktop icons and text as well as in-game stuff. So I was just saying from my personal experience down-scaling didn't work for me. It bothered me so much that I sold my 4K monitor and bought a nice 1440p monitor.
 
4k downscales to 1080p almost perfectly, 1440p doesn't. My primary external monitor is 4k and before I had a gtx 1080 I used to play games in 1080p and they looked fine.
 
reviews showing about 30% less battery life on the 4k, and since i want to do some light gaming without the downscaling and stuff i just went FHD
 
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