Looking for a good stills editing notebook PC that has enough performance for events

I need to upgrade my old Dell XPS15 9560 to something new. I've had a little to many problems with the XPS15 to dare to go with another one, so preferably some other brand than Dell.

I've been looking at MSI and Asus, but the brand is not really important as long as it has good support if I would ever need it.

Cost wise I can pay around the same price as a modern XPS15 costs or maybe slightly higher.

My XPS15 has soon been running for six years and I also want the new PC to have a long lifespan. My XPS15 is now becoming too slow especially on higher Mpix images even though it has 32 GB of memory.

I don't really need such a slim and light notebook as the XPS15 is, though it is nice, but I only use the notebook at home moving it with me to where I am at the moment and use it as my private "do everything" PC meaning some office tasks. email, web, watching Netflix, Youtube etc and editing my images. I even use my notebook in my bed, mostly watching films and then put it on the floor over night, so it has to be able to stand some dust etc.

Since I don't use any external monitor for editing I would like a resolution around 4K and a screen size at least at 15 inch (or bigger). I don't need touch function. I do need good colors and a large gamut. I calibrate my screen.

When I am finished with a project it gets stored on my Synology NAS so I don't need more harddrive than about 1 TB.

Performance wise I'd like it to be able to edit 60 Mpix RAW files from events and portrait sessions, meaning I sometimes have hundreds or even thousands of images that needs to be processed. I often use the gradients and other masking tools in Lightroom Classic and also the more processor intense functions like AI noise cleaning.

Other programs than Lightroom Classic that I use:
Photoshop (layers work and more advanced editing, like remove, replace objects etc)
DXO Photolab (mostly the Prime denoise functions)
Capture One (mostly when a RAW file for some reason doesn't look good in LR)
Topaz Labs Sharpen AI & Photo AI (mostly the sharpen function)
Portrait Pro (for skin editing)
Luminar Neo (for special effects mostly)

I don't edit video, only stills.

I've seen that OLED screen has become a little popular on notebooks, how is the risk for burn in these days?

Also some people say that no PC can compete with the M2 Macs for the same money, is that true? I don't really like the Mac environment so I would prefer to stay on Windows.

Any suggestion which PC(s) I should look at?

Thanks & best regards from Sweden!
/Anders

Yes, Notebookcheck's review of XPS 15 concludes "sacrificing performance for thinness." Display flickering and warm temperatures would be show-stoppers for me.

Instead you might look at their list of gaming laptops. Heavier but often a better value for the components included.

lattesweden said:

Performance wise I'd like it to be able to edit 60 Mpix RAW files from events and portrait sessions, meaning I sometimes have hundreds or even thousands of images that needs to be processed. I often use the gradients and other masking tools in Lightroom Classic and also the more processor intense functions like AI noise cleaning.

Other programs than Lightroom Classic that I use:
Photoshop (layers work and more advanced editing, like remove, replace objects etc)
DXO Photolab (mostly the Prime denoise functions)
Capture One (mostly when a RAW file for some reason doesn't look good in LR)
Topaz Labs Sharpen AI & Photo AI (mostly the sharpen function)
Portrait Pro (for skin editing)
Luminar Neo (for special effects mostly)

I don't edit video, only stills.

I've seen that OLED screen has become a little popular on notebooks, how is the risk for burn in these days?

Click to expand...

I have an OLED laptop that has a beautiful screen, but I'd be reluctant to use it for anything that involved having the same content on the screen for long periods of time for fear of burn-in.

The rtings.com website has an ongoing test of screens for burn-in, but I haven't been following it lately.

lattesweden said:

Also some people say that no PC can compete with the M2 Macs for the same money, is that true?

Click to expand...

Mac vs. PC is a permanent, endless, often heated, controversy that will never be resolved, and if started here will be moderated away.

lattesweden said:

I don't really like the Mac environment so I would prefer to stay on Windows.

Any suggestion which PC(s) I should look at?

Click to expand...

The gaming laptop suggestion is a good one. They generally offer superior sustained performance due to better cooling systems.

The notebookcheck website will tell you which ones have a screen good enough for your needs and a strong discrete graphics chip to speed up the "AI"-type software.

CAcreeks said:

Yes, Notebookcheck's review of XPS 15 concludes "sacrificing performance for thinness." Display flickering and warm temperatures would be show-stoppers for me.

Instead you might look at their list of gaming laptops. Heavier but often a better value for the components included.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-Best-Gaming-Notebooks.98628.0.html

Click to expand...

Thanks! Very good link!

I've looked at some different brands and models, here some findings:

Razer doesn't seem to have screen resolutions around 4K on other than very expensive models.

MSI doesn't seem to have much representation in Sweden (no local website nor localised under site of their main site). They do sell in Sweden at some retailers, but I guess one has to deal with an international support.

Asus seems pretty big in Sweden with own presence, but their models with 4K screen either ships with 12th gen Intel CPUs or those with 4K and 13th gen CPUs are extremely highend (= expensive).

I see that the Intel 14th gen will be released any day soon, though I didn't really understand if that was only CPUs for stationary models or also laptop/notebook CPUs that will come now.

I feel that I should at least get a 13th gen CPU since I want a PC that can run for some years and already from the beginning start with an old generation is maybe not the best start.

Austinian said:

lattesweden said:

Performance wise I'd like it to be able to edit 60 Mpix RAW files from events and portrait sessions, meaning I sometimes have hundreds or even thousands of images that needs to be processed. I often use the gradients and other masking tools in Lightroom Classic and also the more processor intense functions like AI noise cleaning.

Other programs than Lightroom Classic that I use:
Photoshop (layers work and more advanced editing, like remove, replace objects etc)
DXO Photolab (mostly the Prime denoise functions)
Capture One (mostly when a RAW file for some reason doesn't look good in LR)
Topaz Labs Sharpen AI & Photo AI (mostly the sharpen function)
Portrait Pro (for skin editing)
Luminar Neo (for special effects mostly)

I don't edit video, only stills.

I've seen that OLED screen has become a little popular on notebooks, how is the risk for burn in these days?

Click to expand...

I have an OLED laptop that has a beautiful screen, but I'd be reluctant to use it for anything that involved having the same content on the screen for long periods of time for fear of burn-in.

Click to expand...

I see that Asus has some anti burn in points listed on their web site. Among those that the Windows taskbar should be in hide mode to not always sit there plus some other tricks.

Austinian said:

The rtings.com website has an ongoing test of screens for burn-in, but I haven't been following it lately.

Austinian said:

Also some people say that no PC can compete with the M2 Macs for the same money, is that true?

Click to expand...

Mac vs. PC is a permanent, endless, often heated, controversy that will never be resolved, and if started here will be moderated away.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't mean to start a computer war, I thought that this was pure fact. I mean either Lightroom runs faster for the same money or not. Should be easy to measure, but maybe not? But lets drop that discussion if it isn't appropriate.

Austinian said:

Austinian said:

I don't really like the Mac environment so I would prefer to stay on Windows.

Any suggestion which PC(s) I should look at?

Click to expand...

The gaming laptop suggestion is a good one. They generally offer superior sustained performance due to better cooling systems.

The notebookcheck website will tell you which ones have a screen good enough for your needs and a strong discrete graphics chip to speed up the "AI"-type software.

Click to expand...

I can only see one with 4K resolution on that site. Gamers seems to prioritise high frame rates over high resolution.

lattesweden said:

Sorry, I didn't mean to start a computer war, I thought that this was pure fact. I mean either Lightroom runs faster for the same money or not. Should be easy to measure, but maybe not?

Click to expand...

Consider the enormous variety of computer configurations and prices. Which PC, versus which Mac, at what prices? That's a lot of combinations to measure, and it changes with time.

lattesweden said:

But lets drop that discussion if it isn't appropriate.

Click to expand...

Yes, lets.

lattesweden said:

lattesweden said:

lattesweden said:

I don't really like the Mac environment so I would prefer to stay on Windows.

Any suggestion which PC(s) I should look at?

Click to expand...

The gaming laptop suggestion is a good one. They generally offer superior sustained performance due to better cooling systems.

The notebookcheck website will tell you which ones have a screen good enough for your needs and a strong discrete graphics chip to speed up the "AI"-type software.

Click to expand...

I can only see one with 4K resolution on that site. Gamers seems to prioritise high frame rates over high resolution.

Click to expand...

That's often the case; fast response can be paramount for some types of game/gamer.

If you really require 4K, your choices are likely to be limited in the gaming world. Perhaps one of the mobile workstations would work, though the high performance ones can be very pricey. In laptop screen sizes, IMO 2560x1600 looks pretty good. Maybe one of those in a gamer chassis?

Edit: I wouldn't rule out an otherwise suitable PC just because it was 12th gen. instead of 13th; the price savings might be worth a small performance drop. From what I've seen, 12th, 13th, and 14th gen are all fundamentally the same architecture with relatively minor differences.

Austinian said:

If you really require 4K, your choices are likely to be limited in the gaming world. Perhaps one of the mobile workstations would work, though the high performance ones can be very pricey. In laptop screen sizes, IMO 2560x1600 looks pretty good. Maybe one of those in a gamer chassis?

Click to expand...

Also 16" HP Spectre 3-in-1 and 16" Dell Inspiron 3-in-1 are available with UHD or UHD+ screens. However the GPU choices look weak for the software you mentioned above.

My daughter has been happy with her small HP Spectre, which is near top-of-line. If you can find it with RTX 4050 or higher, I'd recommend it. In the US, Intel Arc A370M is the best you can do (drivers are probably still buggy).

Don't overlook AMD Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9, possibly more power efficient than Intel.

CAcreeks said:

Austinian said:

If you really require 4K, your choices are likely to be limited in the gaming world. Perhaps one of the mobile workstations would work, though the high performance ones can be very pricey. In laptop screen sizes, IMO 2560x1600 looks pretty good. Maybe one of those in a gamer chassis?

Click to expand...

Also 16" HP Spectre 3-in-1 and 16" Dell Inspiron 3-in-1 are available with UHD or UHD+ screens. However the GPU choices look weak for the software you mentioned above.

Click to expand...

The weak GPU is my only complaint about my Inspiron 16 OLED 2-in-1; it's a MX550, too feeble for anything demanding. The Inspiron 16 Plus might be a decent choice, but ISTR notebookcheck said it was noisy and it's 2560x1600. Maybe that 16" Spectre, which I'm not familiar with.

CAcreeks said:

My daughter has been happy with her small HP Spectre, which is near top-of-line. If you can find it with RTX 4050 or higher, I'd recommend it. In the US, Intel Arc A370M is the best you can do (drivers are probably still buggy).

Don't overlook AMD Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9, possibly more power efficient than Intel.

Click to expand...

IDK about any small laptop; can it keep the CPU/GPU cool for the OP's loads, who said "I sometimes have hundreds or even thousands of images that needs to be processed." That sounds pretty stressful.

Austinian said:

Austinian said:

Austinian said:

Austinian said:

I don't really like the Mac environment so I would prefer to stay on Windows.

Any suggestion which PC(s) I should look at?

Click to expand...

The gaming laptop suggestion is a good one. They generally offer superior sustained performance due to better cooling systems.

The notebookcheck website will tell you which ones have a screen good enough for your needs and a strong discrete graphics chip to speed up the "AI"-type software.

Click to expand...

I can only see one with 4K resolution on that site. Gamers seems to prioritise high frame rates over high resolution.

Click to expand...

That's often the case; fast response can be paramount for some types of game/gamer.

If you really require 4K, your choices are likely to be limited in the gaming world. Perhaps one of the mobile workstations would work, though the high performance ones can be very pricey. In laptop screen sizes, IMO 2560x1600 looks pretty good. Maybe one of those in a gamer chassis?

Click to expand...

My current 6 years old XPS15 has a 4K screen which is the best feature on it. The screen is actually fantastic (but the battery has swelled and pushed from under on the touch pad so I had to buy a new one, the sound is horrible at some frequencies so one has to set up a software equalizer to filter them out as much as possible, during almost five months all XPS15 9560 owners had to run without the GPU activated last year since there was a bug that caused blue screen and Dell didn't bother to work on it for a long time, and my PC now since some months back has a keyboard that either don't register a key stroke or bounces so I get two of the same letter). So no Dell again but 4K screen I do want.

Austinian said:

Edit: I wouldn't rule out an otherwise suitable PC just because it was 12th gen. instead of 13th; the price savings might be worth a small performance drop. From what I've seen, 12th, 13th, and 14th gen are all fundamentally the same architecture with relatively minor differences.

Click to expand...

Aha, that is good to know!

CAcreeks said:

Austinian said:

If you really require 4K, your choices are likely to be limited in the gaming world. Perhaps one of the mobile workstations would work, though the high performance ones can be very pricey. In laptop screen sizes, IMO 2560x1600 looks pretty good. Maybe one of those in a gamer chassis?

Click to expand...

Also 16" HP Spectre 3-in-1 and 16" Dell Inspiron 3-in-1 are available with UHD or UHD+ screens. However the GPU choices look weak for the software you mentioned above.

My daughter has been happy with her small HP Spectre, which is near top-of-line. If you can find it with RTX 4050 or higher, I'd recommend it. In the US, Intel Arc A370M is the best you can do (drivers are probably still buggy).

Don't overlook AMD Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9, possibly more power efficient than Intel.

Click to expand...

Back when I still bothered a little more about PC hardware and still built my own stationary machines (which I don't since I only use notebooks these days), one stayed away from non Intel CPUs since they were more buggy and lower performance, but during the last years it seems that the non Intel companies have done a come back?

Austinian said:

CAcreeks said:

Austinian said:

If you really require 4K, your choices are likely to be limited in the gaming world. Perhaps one of the mobile workstations would work, though the high performance ones can be very pricey. In laptop screen sizes, IMO 2560x1600 looks pretty good. Maybe one of those in a gamer chassis?

Click to expand...

Also 16" HP Spectre 3-in-1 and 16" Dell Inspiron 3-in-1 are available with UHD or UHD+ screens. However the GPU choices look weak for the software you mentioned above.

Click to expand...

The weak GPU is my only complaint about my Inspiron 16 OLED 2-in-1; it's a MX550, too feeble for anything demanding. The Inspiron 16 Plus might be a decent choice, but ISTR notebookcheck said it was noisy and it's 2560x1600. Maybe that 16" Spectre, which I'm not familiar with.

Austinian said:

My daughter has been happy with her small HP Spectre, which is near top-of-line. If you can find it with RTX 4050 or higher, I'd recommend it. In the US, Intel Arc A370M is the best you can do (drivers are probably still buggy).

Don't overlook AMD Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9, possibly more power efficient than Intel.

Click to expand...

IDK about any small laptop; can it keep the CPU/GPU cool for the OP's loads, who said "I sometimes have hundreds or even thousands of images that needs to be processed." That sounds pretty stressful.

Click to expand...

Yeah, during those exports out from Lightroom the machine goes quite hard with the fans full for quite some time.

Also during some more advanced edits it can run as much as the silicon can deliver. It is hard to say how much is CPU vs GPU dependent, I've seen some breakdowns of different Lightroom functions and how much or little they offloaded the task to the GPU but Adobe changes the software so much so what was true one week doesn't need to be true the next week (subscription based software comes with many updates). It seems there is a mix of load so good to have much of both.

--
Best regards
/Anders

I'm also looking to replace my 1.5 year old Dell XPS-15 9510. In my case, the laptop has a serious issue with the screen not coming on when I start the laptop. (It seems mostly heat-related, and I have equipped the laptop with 64GB of RAM and two 2TB SSD's, so can run hot.

Other than that issue, and some quibbles with the inclusion of only 3 USB ports, all USB-C, I like the laptop. The OLED display is awesome. I don't ever want anything less, particularly when editing images. My Dell Latitude simply didn't have enough dynamic range, and I ended up over-editing images in the field in ways that I couldn't see on the laptop screen, but instantly did when I got home and saw them on my desktop monitors.

Unfortunately, it seems Dell XPS is very much the non-Mac go-to editing laptop by spec, but I'm going to look hard at the HP Proart Studiobook and the Asus Zenbook.

If only I could trust a Dell XPS again the decision would be easier. But mine has what seems a long-standing problem that Dell never addresses. It's resulted in me having to reinstall windows and all my programs twice on vacations.

PHXAZCRAIG said:

I'm also looking to replace my 1.5 year old Dell XPS-15 9510. In my case, the laptop has a serious issue with the screen not coming on when I start the laptop. (It seems mostly heat-related, and I have equipped the laptop with 64GB of RAM and two 2TB SSD's, so can run hot.

Other than that issue, and some quibbles with the inclusion of only 3 USB ports, all USB-C, I like the laptop. The OLED display is awesome. I don't ever want anything less, particularly when editing images. My Dell Latitude simply didn't have enough dynamic range, and I ended up over-editing images in the field in ways that I couldn't see on the laptop screen, but instantly did when I got home and saw them on my desktop monitors.

Unfortunately, it seems Dell XPS is very much the non-Mac go-to editing laptop by spec, but I'm going to look hard at the HP Proart Studiobook and the Asus Zenbook.

If only I could trust a Dell XPS again the decision would be easier. But mine has what seems a long-standing problem that Dell never addresses. It's resulted in me having to reinstall windows and all my programs twice on vacations.

Click to expand...

The company Dell seems not to be the Dell that Michael Dell once founded. Dell used to be quality and durability and good support. I've even met Michael Dell in the mid 90s when the 486 was the hottest CPU around. Michael had a Pentium processor in his shirt pocket and showed to us months before Intel released it. But that is another story.

The Asus Artpro Studiobook series seems pretty nice and the extra wheel seems more useful than one first thinks. But what I can see only OLED screens with their pros and cons. And reasonable priced ones with 4K screen only 12th gen Intel, at least here in Sweden.

lattesweden said:

PHXAZCRAIG said:

I'm also looking to replace my 1.5 year old Dell XPS-15 9510. In my case, the laptop has a serious issue with the screen not coming on when I start the laptop. (It seems mostly heat-related, and I have equipped the laptop with 64GB of RAM and two 2TB SSD's, so can run hot.

Other than that issue, and some quibbles with the inclusion of only 3 USB ports, all USB-C, I like the laptop. The OLED display is awesome. I don't ever want anything less, particularly when editing images. My Dell Latitude simply didn't have enough dynamic range, and I ended up over-editing images in the field in ways that I couldn't see on the laptop screen, but instantly did when I got home and saw them on my desktop monitors.

Unfortunately, it seems Dell XPS is very much the non-Mac go-to editing laptop by spec, but I'm going to look hard at the HP Proart Studiobook and the Asus Zenbook.

If only I could trust a Dell XPS again the decision would be easier. But mine has what seems a long-standing problem that Dell never addresses. It's resulted in me having to reinstall windows and all my programs twice on vacations.

Click to expand...

The company Dell seems not to be the Dell that Michael Dell once founded. Dell used to be quality and durability and good support. I've even met Michael Dell in the mid 90s when the 486 was the hottest CPU around. Michael had a Pentium processor in his shirt pocket and showed to us months before Intel released it. But that is another story.

The Asus Artpro Studiobook series seems pretty nice and the extra wheel seems more useful than one first thinks. But what I can see only OLED screens with their pros and cons. And reasonable priced ones with 4K screen only 12th gen Intel, at least here in Sweden.

Click to expand...

I tended to think of Dell as the Walmart of the PC world, mostly due to their extremely aggressive business practices. (Which were the source of much admiration of Michael Dell in the business community.)

That's not to say that I thought their machines were junk. The last Dell I used was a Precision workstation at my last job in 2016. It was nice enough, but not something I'd want for my PC hobby (distinct from a photo hobby).

BobKnDP said:

lattesweden said:

PHXAZCRAIG said:

I'm also looking to replace my 1.5 year old Dell XPS-15 9510. In my case, the laptop has a serious issue with the screen not coming on when I start the laptop. (It seems mostly heat-related, and I have equipped the laptop with 64GB of RAM and two 2TB SSD's, so can run hot.

Other than that issue, and some quibbles with the inclusion of only 3 USB ports, all USB-C, I like the laptop. The OLED display is awesome. I don't ever want anything less, particularly when editing images. My Dell Latitude simply didn't have enough dynamic range, and I ended up over-editing images in the field in ways that I couldn't see on the laptop screen, but instantly did when I got home and saw them on my desktop monitors.

Unfortunately, it seems Dell XPS is very much the non-Mac go-to editing laptop by spec, but I'm going to look hard at the HP Proart Studiobook and the Asus Zenbook.

If only I could trust a Dell XPS again the decision would be easier. But mine has what seems a long-standing problem that Dell never addresses. It's resulted in me having to reinstall windows and all my programs twice on vacations.

Click to expand...

The company Dell seems not to be the Dell that Michael Dell once founded. Dell used to be quality and durability and good support. I've even met Michael Dell in the mid 90s when the 486 was the hottest CPU around. Michael had a Pentium processor in his shirt pocket and showed to us months before Intel released it. But that is another story.

The Asus Artpro Studiobook series seems pretty nice and the extra wheel seems more useful than one first thinks. But what I can see only OLED screens with their pros and cons. And reasonable priced ones with 4K screen only 12th gen Intel, at least here in Sweden.

Click to expand...

I tended to think of Dell as the Walmart of the PC world, mostly due to their extremely aggressive business practices. (Which were the source of much admiration of Michael Dell in the business community.)

That's not to say that I thought their machines were junk. The last Dell I used was a Precision workstation at my last job in 2016. It was nice enough, but not something I'd want for my PC hobby (distinct from a photo hobby).

Click to expand...

I have a Dell i3 equipped machine that has a Windows Vista logo on it, which tells roughly how old it is. It is still running fine on Windows 10, though only on mains, the battery is totally dead. I use it as my stationary scan and print PC. Before the XPS15, the i3 Dell served as my private PC and I used to do Lightroom and Photoshop work on it.

lattesweden said:

BobKnDP said:

I tended to think of Dell as the Walmart of the PC world, mostly due to their extremely aggressive business practices. (Which were the source of much admiration of Michael Dell in the business community.)

That's not to say that I thought their machines were junk. The last Dell I used was a Precision workstation at my last job in 2016. It was nice enough, but not something I'd want for my PC hobby (distinct from a photo hobby).

Click to expand...

I have a Dell i3 equipped machine that has a Windows Vista logo on it, which tells roughly how old it is. It is still running fine on Windows 10, though only on mains, the battery is totally dead. I use it as my stationary scan and print PC. Before the XPS15, the i3 Dell served as my private PC and I used to do Lightroom and Photoshop work on it.

Click to expand...

I've had good luck with Dells so far; the ones I've had worked well till they were 10-11 years old and developed problems. There was a period years ago when the industry was experimenting with different touchpad surfaces, most of which I hated. Asus and Dell seemed like the only brands with touchpads I liked, and the Asus proved harder to upgrade. Nowadays most touchpads are much better, but some-but-not-all Dells still do better on my 'single finger light touch drag' test than most rivals. So except for the Surface Pro tablet and Acer Chromebook my laptops are all Dell.

I choose laptops largely on UI factors like touchpad, screen, keyboard, etc. Those are the things I notice every time I use them.

Austinian said:

lattesweden said:

BobKnDP said:

I tended to think of Dell as the Walmart of the PC world, mostly due to their extremely aggressive business practices. (Which were the source of much admiration of Michael Dell in the business community.)

That's not to say that I thought their machines were junk. The last Dell I used was a Precision workstation at my last job in 2016. It was nice enough, but not something I'd want for my PC hobby (distinct from a photo hobby).

Click to expand...

I have a Dell i3 equipped machine that has a Windows Vista logo on it, which tells roughly how old it is. It is still running fine on Windows 10, though only on mains, the battery is totally dead. I use it as my stationary scan and print PC. Before the XPS15, the i3 Dell served as my private PC and I used to do Lightroom and Photoshop work on it.

Click to expand...

I've had good luck with Dells so far; the ones I've had worked well till they were 10-11 years old and developed problems. There was a period years ago when the industry was experimenting with different touchpad surfaces, most of which I hated. Asus and Dell seemed like the only brands with touchpads I liked, and the Asus proved harder to upgrade. Nowadays most touchpads are much better, but some-but-not-all Dells still do better on my 'single finger light touch drag' test than most rivals. So except for the Surface Pro tablet and Acer Chromebook my laptops are all Dell.

I choose laptops largely on UI factors like touchpad, screen, keyboard, etc. Those are the things I notice every time I use them.

Click to expand...

I have had mostly Lenovos and Dell machines during the years.

My current 6 years old XPS15 has a 4K screen which is the best feature on it. The screen is actually fantastic

But the original battery swelled and pushed from under on the touch pad so I had to buy a new one which was really expensive. The second one has not developed swelling.

The sound is horrible (sounds like a broken speaker and did that already from day one, something resonates) at some frequencies so one has to set up a software equalizer to filter these frequencys out as much as possible

During almost five months all XPS15 9560 owners had to run without the GPU activated last year since there was a bug that caused blue screen and Dell didn't bother to work on it for a long time.

And my PC now since some months back has a keyboard that either don't register a key stroke or bounces so I get two of the same letter. The keyboard has never had any good feeling, but is now almost unusable. I use an external wireless keyboard as much as possible. I have a new replacement keyboard that I have ordered, but one can't just undo some small latches and lift it up like in the old days, one has to tear apart the whole internals since the keyboard is mounted from the inside.

It also looses Wifi connection at times, which it developed suddenly last year, most likely driver problems with a new Windows update. And Dell don't bother to update the Wifi driver.

--

Best regards
/Anders

lattesweden said:

I have had mostly Lenovos and Dell machines during the years.

My current 6 years old XPS15 has a 4K screen which is the best feature on it. The screen is actually fantastic

Click to expand...

My XPS 15 9570 only has the FHD screen; I just do casual editing to verify the day's photos when traveling. Major editing waits till I'm at home with the desktop.

lattesweden said:

But the original battery swelled and pushed from under on the touch pad so I had to buy a new one which was really expensive. The second one has not developed swelling.

The sound is horrible (sounds like a broken speaker and did that already from day one, something resonates) at some frequencies so one has to set up a software equalizer to filter these frequencys out as much as possible

Click to expand...

I use earbuds on laptops; for me, all the laptop speakers I've heard are pretty sad.

lattesweden said:

During almost five months all XPS15 9560 owners had to run without the GPU activated last year since there was a bug that caused blue screen and Dell didn't bother to work on it for a long time.

And my PC now since some months back has a keyboard that either don't register a key stroke or bounces so I get two of the same letter. The keyboard has never had any good feeling, but is now almost unusable. I use an external wireless keyboard as much as possible. I have a new replacement keyboard that I have ordered, but one can't just undo some small latches and lift it up like in the old days, one has to tear apart the whole internals since the keyboard is mounted from the inside.

Click to expand...

The Dell service manuals are good; if I had keyboard problems I'd see if Dell sold replacement keyboards, and try to replace it.

lattesweden said:

It also looses Wifi connection at times, which it developed suddenly last year, most likely driver problems with a new Windows update. And Dell don't bother to update the Wifi driver.

Click to expand...

I didn't like the WiFi card that came with my XPS 15 9570, so when I upgraded the SSD and memory I also replaced the WiFi card; that was cheap and easy.

lattesweden said:

BobKnDP said:

lattesweden said:

The Asus Artpro Studiobook series seems pretty nice and the extra wheel seems more useful than one first thinks. But what I can see only OLED screens with their pros and cons. And reasonable priced ones with 4K screen only 12th gen Intel, at least here in Sweden.

Click to expand...

I tended to think of Dell as the Walmart of the PC world, mostly due to their extremely aggressive business practices. (Which were the source of much admiration of Michael Dell in the business community.)

That's not to say that I thought their machines were junk. The last Dell I used was a Precision workstation at my last job in 2016. It was nice enough, but not something I'd want for my PC hobby (distinct from a photo hobby).

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I have a Dell i3 equipped machine that has a Windows Vista logo on it, which tells roughly how old it is. It is still running fine on Windows 10, though only on mains, the battery is totally dead. I use it as my stationary scan and print PC. Before the XPS15, the i3 Dell served as my private PC and I used to do Lightroom and Photoshop work on it.

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Sorry to hear of all your troubles with the XPS 15. Due to lack of numeric keypad, I would not buy one to replace my wife's HP Omen 17 (if it dies).

Can you buy an Asus machine from their website? They offer gen 13 according to the website served here in California. Also one model with Ryzen 9 and 3840x2400 screen.

https://www.asus.com/us/laptops/for-creators/proart-studiobook/filter?Series=ProArt-Studiobook

TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor) is ahead of Intel in chip technology, leading to smaller tolerances and better performance/power ratios. We recently bought an Asus Strix 17 with Ryzen 9, which seems good so far, although it's too soon to tell.

Contrary to Austinian, there are laptops with excellent sound quality.

Austinian said:

lattesweden said:

I have had mostly Lenovos and Dell machines during the years.

My current 6 years old XPS15 has a 4K screen which is the best feature on it. The screen is actually fantastic

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My XPS 15 9570 only has the FHD screen; I just do casual editing to verify the day's photos when traveling. Major editing waits till I'm at home with the desktop.

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I only use my notebook since I like to be at different locations at home when I edit my portrait sessions and events. Sometimes I sit in the kitchen, or the living room sofa, or I lay in the bed. So I am used to not needing to have a stationary place to edit.

Austinian said:

Austinian said:

But the original battery swelled and pushed from under on the touch pad so I had to buy a new one which was really expensive. The second one has not developed swelling.

The sound is horrible (sounds like a broken speaker and did that already from day one, something resonates) at some frequencies so one has to set up a software equalizer to filter these frequencys out as much as possible

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I use earbuds on laptops; for me, all the laptop speakers I've heard are pretty sad.

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My XPS15 has good sound when I watch a movie for instance until it hits the bad frequencies, then it sounds like the speaker is cracked. Piano play, people cheering and some other tones sets it off. It was worse before I put in the equlizer software and pulled down the frequencies that are most affected.

Austinian said:

Austinian said:

During almost five months all XPS15 9560 owners had to run without the GPU activated last year since there was a bug that caused blue screen and Dell didn't bother to work on it for a long time.

And my PC now since some months back has a keyboard that either don't register a key stroke or bounces so I get two of the same letter. The keyboard has never had any good feeling, but is now almost unusable. I use an external wireless keyboard as much as possible. I have a new replacement keyboard that I have ordered, but one can't just undo some small latches and lift it up like in the old days, one has to tear apart the whole internals since the keyboard is mounted from the inside.

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The Dell service manuals are good; if I had keyboard problems I'd see if Dell sold replacement keyboards, and try to replace it.

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That is what I have done, meaning bought a replacement keyboard and I have downloaded the service manual. The problems is that you have to start from the back and remove basically everything to get the keyboard out as the last component since they mounted it from the inside and not as they did back in the days from outside in the front.

Austinian said:

Austinian said:

It also looses Wifi connection at times, which it developed suddenly last year, most likely driver problems with a new Windows update. And Dell don't bother to update the Wifi driver.

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I didn't like the WiFi card that came with my XPS 15 9570, so when I upgraded the SSD and memory I also replaced the WiFi card; that was cheap and easy.

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That is actually not a bad idea. I have upgraded the memory to 32 GB from the original 16 GB already. The SSD is original 500 GB, but it is enough for me since I only have Windows, programs and the current project I work on on the SSD. My other storage is on a 24TB Synology 4 disk raid system.

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Best regards
/Anders