Apple ipod pro

Apple iPad Pro
What's Hot: Huge screen is great for movies, spreadsheets and video editing. Fast! Excellent pen.

What's Not: Very expensive, Pencil and Apple keyboard pretty much unavailable for a month. As big and heavy as a 13" MacBook Air when paired with keyboard.

Reviewed November 14, 2015 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief (twitter: @lisagade)

The iPad Pro is a weird beast; neither fish nor fowl, as the cliche goes. It's as big in terms of footprint as a 13" Ultrabook (say Apple's own MacBook Air), and the price with accessories exceeds that of the 13" Air. It's Microsoft's Surface Pro 4, minus the pro OS. This is an iPad, so it runs iOS rather than Mac OS X, which can be severely limiting or liberating, depending on your preferences. The upside is that this 12.9", $799 to $1,079 tablet is instant-on and pretty hard to fatally screw up by your own hand or via malware (iOS viruses and malware are very rare). For IT folks, it's heavenly because it's user-proof. On the other hand, a device this size and at this price should do more than run mobile apps, at least if you're looking for a true laptop replacement.

Apple touted the optional $99 Pencil and $169 keyboard case as the must-haves to turn this into a productivity powerhouse. The world's most expensive pencil will be wonderful for artists and those who take notes long hand. For the rest, the very finger-friendly OS doesn't need help from a skinny pointing device, unlike Windows with its still sometimes small touch targets. Apple says the iPad Pro really shines when you connect the optional keyboard. It is ironic that Steve Jobs once said that laptops shouldn't have touch screens since you have to reach across the keyboard to touch the screen, and that (according to Jobs) induced muscle strains and pains. You will need to touch the screen since neither Apple's nor Logitech's keyboard cases have a trackpad (I assume it's not supported by the magnetic data connector that the iPad Pro uses to talk to keyboard accessories). Now that Tim Cook is at the helm and products like Microsoft Surface and Lenovo Yoga style 2-in-1s have proved popular, Apple has changed their tune.



Apple's keyboard case is a mixed bag--it has no iOS or multimedia keys, isn't backlit and it offers only one position for the display (err, tablet). The Pencil and keyboard add $270 to the already pricey tablet's bill of sale, but your credit card may be safe for now. Apple launched the iPad Pro in stores in ample quantities on November 11, 2015, but Pencils and the Apple keyboard are backordered 4-5 weeks. This is an unusual supply chain gaffe for Apple, a company that mastered inventory management when Tim Cook was COO and driving that chain like a champ. For those who need productivity now in the form of a keyboard, thankfully Logitech's superior and less expensive $149 keyboard case is available now (we have one in for review). It is backlit, has iOS and multimedia keys and a more traditional keyboard compared to Apple's fabric-covered keys that remind me of the now discontinued Surface Touch Cover. The only drawback is that the Logitech keyboard weighs 1.6 lbs. as does the iPad Pro, so together you're carrying 3.2 lbs. (heavier than the 13" MacBook Air).

On the bright side, the iPad Pro has the lovely IPS "retina" quality display you'd expect from Apple. It's sufficiently bright for use in a well lit room and colors are rich and well balanced. The 2732 x 2048 display lacks the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus' 3D Touch (the technology doesn't work on displays this large). At 264 PPI, it has pixel density similar to the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. Like those two, it supports a digital pen with pressure and tilt sensitivity as well as palm rejection so you can rest your hand on the glass as you write or draw. I tested the Pencil, though we couldn't get one in for extended review, and in the period of time that I used it, I was impressed with tracking speed and parallax. The effectiveness of the tilt sensor outshone Wacom's tilt feature. Latency is very close to Surface Pro 4's N-Trig digitizer and pen, as is parallax (perceived offset of the pen tip to inking location). For Apple's first go at pen digitizer technology, it's every bit as good as Wacom EMR and N-Trig (in fact better for tilt).




The tablet is also very fast and responsive thanks to Apple's new dual core A9X CPU and the ample 4 gigs of RAM. We couldn't make it stutter, and it's faster the the iPad Air 2 when using Apple's recently introduced split-window multitasking feature. Benchmark scores show that this is the fastest iOS device yet. There are few cross platform benchmarks, and some like Geekbench, are more accurate when testing within a platform-- their numbers don't always make sense or jibe with other benchmarks that test CPU performance in a platform-centric way. So take the scores with a grain of salt when looking at comparisons with Windows PCs and Macs.



The more important thing is the OS and what you can do with that processing power. We'll never know if the iPad Pro can run Adobe Photoshop CC faster than a MacBook Air or Surface Pro 4 because it doesn't run Mac OS X or Windows. Apps for the iPad are less complex and less demanding, and Adobe's iOS apps lack the rich features available in their desktop products. For those who run Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Eclipse, Visual Studio, Xcode or VMs like Parallels, the iPad Pro can be a great companion but not a replacement for a computer that can run those programs. If your needs are light and you spend your time in Word, Excel and PowerPoint (there are capable iOS versions from Microsoft and Apple has their compatible though not quite comparable free iWork suite), do email, web browsing, social network and stream videos, then the iPad Pro (and iPad Air 2) can easily meet your needs. If you use Photoshop or another photo editor just to edit camera phone photos for social sharing and your video needs are met by iMovie on the iPad, then the Pro could be your machine. Though there's nothing quite like Logic Pro for music production on iOS (or Windows!), Garage Band and third party audio programs are a blast for live recording with post editing and multitrack work. iOS still lacks a file manager and direct access to the file system, so you'll use iTunes on the desktop and cloud services to get documents and media on and off the tablet. There's no USB port for peripherals and no card slot. It's still not quite a computer in the traditional sense.



The iPad mini 4 on top of the iPad Pro. The iPad Pro is available in silver, space gray (pictured) and gold.

IPAD PRO VIDEO REVIEW


APPLE PENCIL REVIEW


IPAD PRO VS. MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO 4 COMPARISON


At 1.6 lbs. the iPad Pro weighs as much as the original 9.7" iPad and it's insanely thin at 6.9mm. It weighs the same as Surface Book's clipboard (tablet section), but is thinner. It's a tiny bit lighter than the 1.73 lb. Surface Pro 4. It's noticeably heavier than the 1 lb. iPad Air 2, though I found the large dimensions to be more challenging than the weight. This is a big tablet and I sometimes felt like I was twirling a pizza. It has dual band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, a fingerprint scanner that works with Apple Pay for online transactions and the LTE model has a GPS with GLONASS. The cameras are the same as on the iPad Air 2: a 1.2MP front FaceTime camera and a rear 8MP camera that can shoot 1080p video, 120 fps slo-mo and time lapse video.

BENCHMARKS



BATTERY LIFE

Apple tablets and laptops have very good battery life and their runtime claims are generally accurate. Apple claims the WiFi-only iPad Pro is good for 10 hours of use and the WiFi + LTE 4G model can run 9 hours on a charge. In our tests with the WiFi model, this has proven accurate with brightness set to 50% and WiFi turned on. We use a mix of productivity and streaming video when we test battery life. Gaming will greatly reduce runtimes (and the iPad Pro handles games like a champ). Apple ships the tablet with a 12 watt iPad charger and a Lightning cable. You can use the charger or a computer via USB to charge the tablet (the charger will be much quicker). Charging times aren't lightning fast as with Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 phones and tablets, but we topped the battery up from 56% to full in a decent 1.7 hours. The iPad Pro has a 38.5 Whr battery that's sealed inside.



The tablet has the same connections as the iPad mini and Air: 3.5mm audio jack and a Lightning port. That Lightning port supports USB 3.0 speeds, but Apple ships it with a 2.0 cable. The bigger chassis allows room for more speakers, so Apple has bestowed it with 4: 2 at the top and 2 on the bottom. Sound quality is very natural and fairly full for a tablet, though it's not wildly loud (that's what the headphone jack is for).

CONCLUSION

I like Apple products and own several-- the 13" Retina MacBook Pro, iPad mini 4 and the Apple Watch to name a few. Try though I might, you can tell that I haven't managed to fall in love with the iPad Pro. It's as expensive as a high end 13" laptop, but it's hobbled by its mobile operating system that won't let me be as productive as I am on a MacBook or Surface Pro 4. I do need pro apps support, file system access and other amenities of a desktop OS. You, of course, may have very different needs. If you've been happily using an iPad Air and have wished only for a bigger screen or a roomier keyboard, than this could be the device for you. The price is still a consideration in a world where the $500 iPad Air 2 had set the high watermark for mobile OS (Android, iOS and the retired Windows RT) tablet prices.



Beyond the impressive but currently unobtainable Pencil, the iPad Pro doesn't do anything more than the iPad Air 2--it runs the same OS and apps and the OS isn't particularly tailored to make better use of the added screen real estate (look at that icon grid with so much dead space between each icon). Will that change in the future--does Apple have great plans for new iOS features for this giant screen tablet? We don't know since Apple isn't saying. Will third party apps come up with great redesigns for the iPad Pro? That likely depends on how many of their customers buy a Pro.

For artists, the pen is absolutely lovely and easily competes with most anything on the market except perhaps the Wacom Cintiq. It's a great sketching tool, though once again you won't have access to full featured programs like Clip Studio Paint/Manga Studio 5, Illustrator, Painter 2016 or Photoshop CC and its quirky brushes. For note takers, the Pencil is leagues ahead of capacitive styli and Bluetooth pens for the iPad. If you're a student who takes a lot of handwritten notes, a hard sciences or engineering person who writes formulas and equations or a designer who needs to brainstorm sketches, then the biggest iPad yet could be perfect. The Samsung Galaxy Note series of Android tablets also offer a very good (Wacom) pen experience, but Samsung's slow model refreshes and the lack of quality Android tablet apps with pen support put it behind the iPad Pro.

Specs:

Display:12.9" IPS touch screen with digitizer for optional Apple Pencil. Resolution: 2732 x 2048.

Battery:38.5 Whr Lithium Ion rechargeable.

Performance:2.26 GHz dual core Apple A9X CPU. 4 gigs RAM, 32 or 128 gigs internal storage.

Size:12.00 x 8.68 x .27 in. Weight: 1.6 pounds.

Network: Wi-Fi model: Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac with MIMO; AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon models add 3G and 4G LTE for data. All models have Bluetooth 4.2 and use Apple's new Lightning 8 pin connector for USB.

GPS: Cellular models have GPS with GLONASS as well as digital compass. WiFi models use WiFi-based location triangulation.

Cameras: Front and rear cameras. Back 8MP camera can record up to 1080p video and front 1.2MP camera can record 720p video. Both cameras have a BSI and face detection. Rear camera has HDR for photos.

Ports: 3.5mm combo audio and Lightning port.

Software: iOS 9.1 with Garage Band, Photos, iMovie and iWork suite (Pages, Keynote and Numbers). Email, Safari web browser, Calendar, Contacts, Photo Booth and more.

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Lenovo Yoga 900
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Home> Laptop Reviews> Lenovo Yoga 900

Lenovo Yoga 900
What's Hot: Versatile convertible. Very slim and light. Distinctive watchband hinge adds a touch of class. Good performance, high res display.


What's Not: Fit and finish could be a bit better for the price, display has weak contrast.

Reviewed November 6, 2015 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief (twitter: @lisagade)

Lenovo's Yoga design has been copied by many manufacturers over the years, and if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then their industrial designers are geniuses worthy of the highest praise (in fact they are pretty awesome). But that imitation poses a problem for Lenovo since you've now got a host of similarly designed laptops to choose from--the HP Spectre x360, Toshiba Satellite Radius models and Asus Flips to name a few. Can Lenovo fend them off with their 4th generation model, the Yoga 900 Windows 10 convertible Ultrabook? The Yoga 900 replaces the Yoga 3 Pro, a machine whose industrial design was definitely praise-worthy, but whose Core M CPU felt less than Pro. The 900 brings back the power with Intel 6th generation Skylake dual core CPUs, and at launch the Yoga 900 is available only with the more powerful Intel Core i7. The design is very similar to the Yoga 3 Pro, and that's a good thing because it's one of the thinnest and lightest convertibles on the market. The watchband hinge is attractive and unique. Better yet, it's robust and last year's Yoga 3 Pros with the same hinge have held up well.

DESIGN AND BUILD

The Yoga 900 is a premium Lenovo laptop aimed at consumers (ThinkPads target business users). Thus it's more daring and stylish than the unassuming black rectangle that is a ThinkPad. The machine is available in gold and my old favorite Clementine orange as well as the duller and more conventional silver. The sides and keyboard deck are rubbery black that feels great and is grippy. Those rubbery sides are also good for absorbing impacts--if you're like me, and manage to bump door jambs and airline seat backs when toting the laptop, then this is a wonderful thing. They also create more grip and stability when using the Yoga in tent mode. Unlike a ThinkPad, the Yoga won't double as a self-defense weapon, and it will likely dent, rather than the hardwood floor, if you drop it. Again, it's not business rugged, it's consumer chic. It's not delicate, just typical of consumer oriented construction.



This isn't a seriously classy unibody machine carved from a block of aluminum like the 13" MacBook Pro or magnesium alloy like Surface Book. While it's unfair to expect a Yoga to be like a ThinkPad (different model lines, different promises), with a starting price of $1,200 and an as-reviewed price of $1,400, the Mac and Surface Book are fair competition. The Yoga looks great, but it doesn't look like the quality piece that those two do. In fact, the similarly priced HP Spectre x360 looks and feels more high end too. It's not that the Lenovo looks cheesy--anything but! It's just that materials and a high end finish (at least on our silver model) aren't where your money is going. Instead, Lenovo puts the chic into the once lowly hinge. They started with the Yoga 3 Pro that introduced the watchband hinge, and it's back here and better--it's tighter and is now silent when you open and close the laptop. It's interesting that hinges are becoming a thing--first the watchband hinge and now Microsoft's snaky fulcrum hinge. Anything is fair game when trying to jazz up a laptop without compromising ergonomics or sturdiness. The watchband hinge certainly is distinctive and striking, and more important--it works well.



The Yoga 900 feels fairly sturdy and the frame is rigid with no flex, though the removable bottom aluminum panel has some flex and the keyboard deck sounds slightly hollow when typing or thumping on the very pleasant trackpad. Again, it's not a cheaply made machine, but it doesn't exude high end. There's a payoff for the lighter and thinner panels though--this is an insanely light and thin laptop. In fact, since convertibles, aka 2-in-1s weigh even more than laptops due to more complex mechanisms and required extra reinforcement, we're even more impressed with the 2.8 lb. weight (yes it gained a few ounces vs. the 2.6 lb. Yoga 3 Pro, and that's fine with us). The Yoga 900 is so slim you might mistake it for a pure tablet at first glance. The charger is even more compact and light vs. traditional laptop bricks. It's a portable lover's dream.

COOL CUSTOMER

The two internal fans and airy spaces inside mean the Yoga 900 is a fairly cool laptop. The bottom gets warm but never burning hot, and it's noticeably cooler than the Spectre x360 with Core i7 when both are pushed hard with gaming or video export. The fan is silent when doing productivity work and is audible when gaming, should you push it to the limits with GTA V or Battlefield 4, but it's not vacuum cleaner loud and any slim laptop will run the fan at max speed when gaming.

PORTS: USB-C IS HERE

The Lenovo tapers with a faint hint of a curve toward the front, and the rear needs to be thicker to house the USB ports (it's still slim at the rear). Most ports are on the left: charging (using Lenovo's dual purpose charging + USB 2.0 port), USB 3.0, USB-C 3.1 and a full size SD card slot. The right side has another USB 3.0 port, the power button, 3.5mm combo audio, Novo button (for OneKey Recovery) and screen rotation lock. Note there's no HDMI or mini DisplayPort, so you'll need to source USB-C to HDMI or DisplayPort cables, just like 12" MacBook owners. Happily, unlike that Mac, USB-C isn't your only port!



13.3" QHD DISPLAY

There's good news and bad news. First the good news: the Lenovo Yoga 900 has a very high resolution 3200 x 1800 display, as did its predecessor. Windows 10 and many desktop programs now handle hi-DPI displays well, so you'll enjoy sharper images with less zooming out in Photoshop and in video editors. The display is made by Samsung, and from what we can tell it's a PLS (like IPS display but with a Pentile matrix). There are no skewed yellows here as with the Yoga 2 Pro and its older generation Samsung QHD panel, and color gamut is good at 96% of sRGB and 75% of Adobe RGB. Color calibration from the factory favors increasing perceived brightness and blues, as do many laptops in this price category (calibration brings it nicely in line). Brightness is good at 300 nits, and the ambient light sensor isn't too twitchy (you can disable auto-brightness if you like).

The bad news: at first look, particularly after reviewing the very high end display panels used in Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, the Yoga's panel didn't impress. Our usually colorful and sharp desktop backgrounds and test photos lacked a little clarity and pop. Once we ran tests with our Datacolor Spyder colorimeter the culprits were clear: unimpressive contrast and an astronomically high black point. Contrast is just 300:1 and black levels registered at 1.36--I can't remember testing a panel with a black level above 1.0. Lower numbers are better here since it indicates how much light transmits when displaying black. Competing products range from 0.28 to 0.56, with most hovering around 0.39. What does this mean to you? Blacks look gray when brightness is turned up and contrast isn't high because that requires not just high brightness (which we have here) but deep blacks. Text loses a bit of its sharpness when contrast isn't high, but at 50% brightness, it still looks fairly crisp.



Where does that leave you? If you're not a graphics pro, hobby photographer or content producer, then the display is pleasing enough. Photos and videos look colorful and bright. They're simply lacking the contrast and crispiness of the better panels in the $1,000 and up Ultrabook space. Our other complaint? The bezels are large, particularly the bottom bezel. I actually don't like tiny bezels on tablets because they leave no room to hold the machine, but that bottom bezel is simply unattractively large.

The display supports 10 point multi-touch but it does not have an active digitizer for pen use. You can use a capacitive stylus like those made for the iPad and Android tablets, but it's not as precise as a display purpose-built for pen use, and you won't get palm rejection (the ability to rest your hand on the glass while writing and drawing).

LENOVO YOGA 900 VIDEO REVIEW


BENCHMARKS

PCMark 8 (Home, accelerated): 2697

wPrime: 16 sec.

Geekbench 3:  3163 single core, 6778 multi-core

3DMark 11: P1587, X426



PERFORMANCE AND HORSEPOWER

It's all good here: the Lenovo Yoga 900 runs on the new Intel Skylake 6th generation platform. At launch, it's available only with the 2.5 GHz Core i7-6500U with Turbo Boost to 3.1 GHz, and we imagine Core i5 models might come later. This is no underpowered Core M, and the laptop is fast. This is a ULV, 15 watt dual core i7 notebook, like most Ultrabooks. It's not a quad core powerhouse like Lenovo's ThinkPad W541 workstation or the Dell XPS 15. Those are much larger machines so we don't expect a 45 watt quad core here, but I know some of you are still confused about the different flavors of Core i7 on the market. The laptop uses Intel HD 520 integrated graphics that shows a nice performance boost compared to the outgoing 5th gen Broadwell lineup. There is no dedicated graphics option. Lenovo offers ThinkPad Yoga models with NVIDIA 940M graphics if you need that in a convertible.



RAM is soldered on board and you can get it with 8 or 16 gigs (you can't upgrade it yourself since RAM is permanently attached to the motherboard). The SSD is upgradeable and it lives in an M.2 slot. Lenovo went with mSATA SSDs rather than the faster PCIe, which surprises us given the price. Of course, most users won't notice the speed difference between the two in daily use. Lenovo sent us their high end model for review with 16 gigs of RAM and a 512 gig Samsung SSD (Lenovo also uses Hynix and Liteon SSDs). The Intel 8260 dual band WiFi AC card with Bluetooth 4.0 card lives in another M.2 slot on the motherboard. Speaking of upgrades, if you remove 10 Torx T-5 screws on the bottom panel, you can remove the base cover to access the 66 Whr battery, SSD and wireless card. That's typical of Ultrabooks and Yoga style convertibles and clearly much better than most pure tablets like the Surface Pro 4.



The Yoga 900 feels fast and responsive and it benchmarks similarly to the few other dual core 15 watt Skylake laptops currently on the market. It's a bit faster than the last gen Broadwell Intel CPUs, but by a small margin. Intel has focused instead on reducing heat and battery consumption in their last few generations, and on boosting integrated graphics performance. The HD 520 does benchmark appreciably faster than the outgoing HD 5000 graphics in Broadwell, and that means a more enjoyable experience when playing cutting edge 3D games, driving a high resolution external monitor and playing high bitrate video. You'll have to stick with 720p and very low settings for 2014 and 2015's demanding games, but older games and casual games will play fluently. If gaming with today's hot titles iis a requirement, I'd look at something with dedicated graphics. The laptop performs very well in Adobe Photoshop CC and it can handle RAW files from dSLRs and TIFFs with 10 to 20 layers easily. It's fast enough for Visual Studio, SQL server and light CAD work for school.

KEYBOARD AND TRACKPAD

If you've tried the Yoga 3 Pro, then you already know what the Yoga 900 keyboard feels like. One important change is that Lenovo added a 6th row up top for dedicated multimedia control keys. Lenovo makes some of the best keyboards in the business in their ThinkPad models, but the Yoga, formerly a member of the IdeaPad consumer line before Lenovo dropped that moniker, gets a different keyboard. It still has the island design and ergonomic smile-shaped keys, but there's less travel, a bit more noise and less crispness. It's not a bad keyboard by any means, but it's not among my favorites. The keys have short travel, necessitated by the extremely thin chassis, and they feel a tad mushy compared to the best keyboards on the market like the ThinkPads, some HPs, Dell XPS, MacBook Pro and Surface Book. The keyboard is backlit and you can turn it on by hitting the Fn and spacebar keys, just like ThinkPads.



The glass trackpad is smooth and responsive. It handles two-finger gestures like scrolling nicely and shows little lag. Like the keyboard, it's not at the top of the heap, but it's better than many Windows 8 laptop trackpads. Microsoft's new focus on trackpad quality might not have eliminated the gap between Mac and Windows trackpads, but it is narrowing in fits and spurts.

BATTERY LIFE

Lenovo increased battery capacity by 50% in the Yoga 900 compared to the Yoga 3 Pro, in part due to reviews that complained about thoroughly average battery life and also because the Yoga 900 is using more powerful CPUs. The 66 Wh battery is sealed inside, though it's easy to access and replace if you remove the bottom cover. The charger is a big wall wart model rather than the usual small laptop brick with two cord sections. It's light, fairly small and easy to throw in a bag. As with most PC makers, Lenovo is optimistic in their battery life claims. They say it can run up to 9 hours on a charge, and perhaps it could if you set brightness to 20% and set the power management and processor state to extreme energy saver. In more typical real world use with brightness set to 50%, WiFi on and keyboard backlighting off, we averaged 7 hours on a charge. This is in mixed productivity work--email, web, MS Office, some photo editing in Photoshop and streaming an episode of House of Cards via the Netflix Live Tile app.



CONCLUSION

It's hard to not love the Lenovo Yoga 900's style--it's impossibly thin and light and that watchband hinge literally shines. This is a tablet, laptop and presentation/movie watching PC in a single package, with the usual caveat that 13.3", 2.8 lb. tablets are best used resting on a table rather than your arm. It's stylish, reasonably well built and it has a high resolution display. It's not one of the better high res displays on the market however, though it will suit non-graphics oriented users. The Yoga is fast, and the internals are reasonably within reach for upgraders. The laptop keeps its cool and never got hot to the touch or noisy. Given the price tag, we wouldn't mind more rigid body panels and more contrast in the display--the Asus Zenbooks, HP Spectre, Surface Book and MacBook Pro look and feel classier, though none are as light and portable as the Yoga 900.

Specs:

Display:13.3", 3200 x 1800 PLS touch screen display. Intel HD 520 integrated graphics. USB-C port.

Battery:4 cell, 66 Wh Lithium Ion rechargeable, sealed inside.

Performance:2.5GHz Intel Skylake 6th generation Core i7-6500U processor with Turbo Boost to 3.1 GHz. Intel HD 520 graphics. 8 or 16 gigs DDR3 RAM soldered on board. 256 or 512 gig M.2 SSD (mSATA).

Size:12.75 x 8.86 x 0.59 inches. Weight: 2.84 pounds.

Camera:720p webcam (does not support Windows Hello)

Audio:Built-in stereo speakers, mic and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack.

Networking:Integrated 2 x 2 dual band Intel AC 8260 WiFi 802.11b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.0.

Software:Windows 10 Home.

Expansion and Ports:2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB-C 3.1 port, 1 USB 2.0 port (combined with charging port), 3.5mm audio and SD card slot.


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iPad Pro vs. Microsoft Surface Pro 4
They're so different, yet they're after the same market. The iPad Pro is a huge iOS tablet that Apple believes can replace your laptop with the optional keyboard. Throw in the new Apple Pencil and it's clear that Apple is jabbing at Microsoft's Surface products. The Surface Pro 4 is a mature tablet that can replace your laptop and even work as your main computer. It runs Windows 10 and can do everything you'd expect from a PC. How do they compare? Watch our video to find out!
Home> Laptop Reviews> Dell XPS 15 9550

Dell XPS 15 (Infinity 9550)
Editor's rating (1-5):
What's Hot: Oh, that Infinity display! Small and slim for a 15" quad core laptop. Runs relatively cool and quiet. Decent battery life. Powerful with good NVIDIA GTX 960M dedicated graphics.

What's Not: We'd have liked more ports.

Reviewed November 17, 2015 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief (twitter: @lisagade)

When Dell launched their dramatically redesigned XPS 13 in January 2015, the laptop-loving world went crazy (in a good way). It was smaller and lighter than other 13.3" laptops on the market yet it made no concessions to build quality, performance and materials. Of course, we couldn't wait for Dell to remake the XPS 15 in the new XPS 13's image, and now it's finally here. The Dell XPS 15 9550 has Dell's Infinity display-- there's nearly no display bezel, the glass reaches to the very edges. That makes the XPS 15 and XPS 13 look futuristic and clean. Since this is a conventional laptop that doesn't flip, separate or twist, there's no need for larger bezels to act as grab points as with a tablet. Dell claims this is the smallest 15" laptop in the world, and it's the size of a 14" model. That's even more impressive since the XPS 15 is as ever a powerhouse portable in the mobile workstation category--it has a quad core i7 CPU, dedicated NVIDIA GTX 960M graphics, two RAM slots and a 15.6" display. Machines with that much power are generally chunky, though there are a few thin and lights that compete with the XPS 15 like the 15" Retina MacBook Pro, Asus ZenBook Pro UX501 and even the 15" MSI Ghost Pro and HP Omen 15 gaming laptops.



The late 2015 XPS 15 starts at $999, and the configurations most folks would want start around $1,200 to $1,700. The most expensive upgrade is the $400 4K gloss touch screen with 100% Adobe RGB coverage and 95% of NTSC. That can bring a high end XPS 15 up to the $2,000 mark. Fortunately, the 1080p matte non-touch display is no slouch, and those on a tight budget will by no means be suffering with it. That said, graphic designers, photographers and video editors will want that lush 4K high gamut panel that offers much wider color coverage than the outgoing XPS 15's 4K display.

DESIGN AND ERGONOMICS

Take the XPS 13 and a grow it a bit, and you literally have the XPS 15. The designs are that close. The lid is aluminum and the chassis is milled from a single piece of aluminum alloy (this is called unibody design). The aluminum bottom panel is removable after you unscrew several Torx T5 screws and two Phillips head screws under the service tag door. The keyboard deck is covered in Dell's signature carbon fiber for grip and softness. It's a sweet looking notebook, even if it lacks the flowing lines of the HP Spectre x360 or the MacBook Pro. All surfaces are extremely rigid and the XPS 15 Infinity feels robust and durable.



The XPS 15 Infinity is a surprisingly cool and quiet machine. And yes, Dell's coil whine is gone. Thin and compact laptops with this much horsepower inside are usually hot and noisy under modest to moderate load. Our quad core i7 model with 16 gigs of RAM, a 1TB Samsung 951 SSD and NVIDIA switchable graphics is silent when using MS Office, browsing the web and streaming video when unplugged. Like many Ultrabooks and slim laptops, the fan comes on when plugged into AC since charging generates heat and the laptop will run in higher performance mode. It's still a fairly soft whir that you'll only notice in a quiet room. When exporting 1080p long videos (like our YouTube video reviews) or playing Fallout 4, the fan is quite audible but not room-blasting loud. The bottom gets warm but not burning hot. When the laptop is stressed with heavy loads, the dual fan system manages heat well and the XPS 15 didn't exceed 103F at the hottest points on the bottom.

PORTS AND THE (FUTURE) JOYS OF USB-C AND THUNDERBOLT 3

The 4.4 lb. laptop is one of the lightest 15" laptops on the market and it's slim with a taper toward the front. Port selection isn't fantastic: two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, 3.5mm audio, a lock slot, HDMI 1.4 and a single USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port. A lot rides on that USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port, and it's a bit ahead of its time since USB-C adapter cables are still hard to come by and even Dell's Thunderbolt dock and small USB-C dock (HDMI, VGA and Ethernet) aren't yet available (the Thunderbolt dock is due in early 2016). I really wish Dell had included their usual mini DisplayPort rather than HDMI 1.4, or that they'd at least used HDMI 2.0. This machine is aimed at professionals who likely use high resolution external displays, including Dell's own lovely 4K monitors. The HDMI port can drive a 4K display, but at 30Hz rather than 60Hz. I tried a few USB-C to HDMI adapters, but apparently none supported HDMI 2.0, so I was again stuck with 30Hz. That slow refresh rate makes the mouse cursor look like it's stuttering across the screen (modest exaggeration) and movies look less smooth when not shown at their intended 60Hz. Fortunately, a few companies like Monoprice sell USB-C to DisplayPort adapters that will drive a 4K monitor at 60Hz (we tested it and it worked fine). If you have a 2K monitor, there's nothing to worry about since the HDMI port on the XPS 15 can drive a 2560 x 1440 monitor at 60Hz.



Ethernet? Not here. You'll need a USB to Ethernet, USB-C to Ethernet adapter or Dell's upcoming dock. As a consolation, these adapters are easier to find if you visit the Mac section of your local or online store since the 12" MacBook requires the same adapters.

The stereo speakers are incredibly loud but they sound distorted and buzzy at the default Dell EQ settings. Unless you've bought the laptop from a Microsoft Store and gotten the Signature Edition minus all Dell software, you'll have a Dell Audio control panel. Use it immediately to change the MaxxAudio Pro speaker enhancement setting to Music rather than the default MaxxSense. That will get rid of the over amplification of bass and treble that leads to distortion and compression. The audio software isn't all bad--when it's turned off the speakers sound anemic and timid. It's just a matter of getting the settings right.

There's no Windows Hello Infrared camera here for facial recognition login, nor is there a fingerprint scanner.

KEYBOARD AND TRACKPAD

The XPS 15's keyboard feels much like the XPS 13's. It's nicely damped, has white backlighting that contrasts nicely with the black keys and key travel is short. 1.6mm is standard key travel for (not skinny) laptops. The Microsoft Surface Book has 1.5mm travel and the Surface Pro 4 Type Cover has 1.4mm. The XPS 15 9550 has 1.3mm. As you might guess, if you're coming from a desktop keyboard, ThinkPad or older and thicker Dell laptop, it will take time to adjust to the short key travel. At first I double-pressed letters by accident on occasion and had to lighten my touch to avoid punishing my fingers. After an hour, I was on good terms with the XPS 15's keyboard. That cushioned key feel really does help, and unless you're one of those typists who literally bangs on the keys, you can come to enjoy the XPS' typing experience. That said, I wouldn't have minded if Dell made the laptop a millimeter or two thicker to improve key travel.



Some folks reported problems with the spacebar being slightly tilted with the top (display side) being higher than the bottom (closer to the trackpad). Ours was indeed slightly skewed and at first tapping near the bottom of the spacebar felt mushy compared to the top and it didn't always register a press. After literally banging out 5,000 words, the spacebar seems to have seated better and I haven't missed typing spaces. It does still feel a little soft along the bottom edge when pressing down.



The large glass trackpad is devilishly good. The surface texture feels just right--not too slick or sticky and the buttons hidden beneath the trackpad feel balanced in their force requirements. The new Skylake generation high end laptops and convertibles from Microsoft and Dell have improved so much that they rival the Mac's excellent trackpads. Cursor movement is precise and predictable and two-finger gestures work well. The laptop uses Microsoft's software and drivers, so customization is minimal. I noticed that some settings in Windows 10's modern settings did nothing, but the control panel mouse settings did effect change. Note that Windows updates and Dell updates improve trackpad performance, so be sure to do all available updates before passing judgment on the trackpad.

DELL XPS 15 VIDEO REVIEW


DELL XPS 15 VS. MICROSOFT SURFACE BOOK COMPARISON


DISPLAY - WIDE GAMUT 4K GOODNESS, MOSTLY

Dell offers the XPS 15 with a matte, non-touch 1920 x 1080 full HD display with near 100% sRGB color gamut and a 4K 3840 x 2160 glossy touch screen with 100% Adobe RGB gamut (Adobe RGB is a wider color standard, and laptops with 100% Adobe RGB are still rare). In fact, our Datacolor Spyder colorimeter measured 95% NTSC coverage (that's what TVs use and we've never seen a laptop measure this high for NTSC). The 4K display with wide color gamut adds $400 to the price tag, and I can understand if you forego it in the interest of saving money. The 1080p display is pleasing and that's a respectable resolution. Better yet, it is matte for less glare. Some folks don't want a touch screen, or feel it's a requirement only in 2-in-1s and tablets. But for those who can afford the 4K display or for those who work in graphics, video production or print production, the money is well spent. Images and videos are sharp and require less zooming when editing. Colors are simply incredibly vivid--it reminds me of Super AMOLED phone displays vs. LCDs. Contrast is good, though not as impressive as Microsoft's Surface Book, and brightness is high at 350 nits. In fact, the Sharp IGZO panels looks much brighter than they really are thanks to a very high white point. Cool whites look whiter and brighter to the human eye, and the 8500 degree Kelvin white point is so bright that I rarely raise brightness above 50% on the 4K panel. In comparison, the 414 nit Surface Book is even brighter according to the colorimeter, but I run it at 70% brightness much of the time (I like bright displays).



That high white point could be a bit off-putting for graphics and video pros. Though the included (unless you get the Microsoft Signature Edition from a Microsoft Store that's stripped of all Dell software) Dell PremierColor program does a good job of offering several built-in color calibrations including sRGB, Adobe RGB and Cinema DCI-P3 and color temperature settings, yet the display's white point is still high. This seems to be inherent to Sharp IGZO panels over the generations, and though it's still possible to get a good color calibration for color accuracy, the panel simply looks a little different than others on the market using IPS, TN or PLS. I also find it a little harsher on the eyes--those whites are searing. On a positive note, most folks have never seen colors this alive and rich! The display has good sharpness and text is very clear using 200% scaling (which I recommend over the factory default 250%). You can run it at native resolution with no scaling, but icons and text are really small.

If you've read our other Skylake laptop and convertible reviews, you know that Intel has driver bugs that cause display driver crash messages and some strange transient color shifts in programs like the Microsoft Edge web browser. There's nothing wrong with your XPS. Download updates as available; Intel and Microsoft are working through the issues.

PERFORMANCE AND HORSEPOWER

The XPS 15 is Dell's highest performance mainstream laptop, with the Dell Precision line serving mobile workstation needs for CAD types. It has the same fast quad core Intel CPUs you'll find in serious gaming laptops, the 15" Retina MacBook Pro, Dell Precision, Asus ZenBook Pro and the HP ZBook 15. In fact, it has the latest 6th generation Skylake CPUs, while the Mac and Asus are still running on 4th generation CPUs. Skylake brings improved battery life and integrated graphics performance on the order of 10%. All but the $999 entry level XPS 15 have quad core CPUs, and these are 45 watt Intel HQ CPUs. The base XPS 15 almost doesn't make sense since it takes away most of the features XPS 15 buyers are looking for. It has no dedicated graphics, a dual core Core i3-6100H CPU and an HDD rather than SSD. But for those who want a big screen XPS at an affordable price, it's certainly a viable option. I wish Apple would follow suit--if you want a 15" MacBook, the price of admission starts at $2,000.

The $1,200 XPS 15 nets you a quad core i5-6300HQ CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2GB DDR5 graphics, 8 gigs of RAM and a 1 TB HDD with 32 gig caching drive. That's a respectably powerful machine that will be significantly faster than a dual core Ultrabook with a U series 15 watt CPU and integrated graphics. If you spend $1,400 you'll upgrade to a 256 gig SSD. These configurations have the smaller 56 Whr battery. The $1,700 model has a larger 86 Whr battery, Intel Core i7-6700HQ CPU and a 512 gig SSD; it's the sweet spot in the lineup. Note that if you want the 2.5" drive bay for a second HDD or SSD, you'll have to order a machine with the smaller 56 Whr battery (the big battery doesn't allow space for the 2.5" drive bay). All have Dell-branded dual band WiFi 802.11ac (Broadcom) and Bluetooth 4.1. The models we listed have a 1080p matte non-touch display--add $400 for 4K.



All except the $999 model have NVIDIA 960M switchable dedicated graphics, there are no other graphic card options. The GTX 960M is at the lower end of NVIDIA's high end GTX GPU lineup (960M, 970M and 980M). The 970M and 980M are usually only found in high end gaming laptops, and the more heat and power-friendly 960M is the typical high end option for mainstream slim and light laptops in the performance category. It's sufficient to make most games very playable and enjoyable at 1080p and 45 to 60 fps.

The machine comes with 8 or 16 gigs of DDR4 2133 MHz RAM in two SODIMM RAM slots. You could take it up to 32 gigs using Intelligent Memory's 16 gig RAM modules. The RAM slots, M.2 SSD slot, battery and wireless card are readily accessible when you remove the bottom cover, as is the 2.5" drive bay if the XPS has the smaller battery. The SSDs use the faster PCIe interface and our 1 TB SSD is a Samsung PM951 NVMe drive that benchmarks well. The SSD benchmarks are better than the Surface Book's, though still lower than the latest generation MacBook Pro SSDs (Windows NVMe drivers aren't mature).

So what does all this mean? If you get the quad core i5 or i7 model, you'll have one of the faster laptops on the market and it competes well with quad core gaming laptops like the HP Omen 15, lower end MSI Ghost (higher end Ghost Pro models have faster NVIDIA 970M graphics) and even Dell's own Precision line. The NVIDIA GPU is optimized for gaming and photo/video production, while the NVIDIA Quadro graphics in the Precision are optimized for professional CAD work. The XPS 15 Infinity can play current demanding games at 1080p resolution and medium or high settings--it's significantly ahead of Surface Book with its NVIDIA 940M equivalent graphics. It's the perfect laptop for those who work professionally in Adobe Premiere Pro and it rips through huge 20 layer big print graphics in Photoshop. It will be one of the quicker options if you crunch numbers in huge Excel spreadsheets, and software compile times are quick. It's seriously overkill if you only use MS Office, run Photoshop for home photos and web graphics, surf the web and stream YouTube and Netflix.



Thermal throttling hasn't been an issue on our powerful Core i7 model with 16 gigs of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Happily, Dell's issues with XPS throttling are well in the past, and the dual fan design keeps the CPU and GPU pumping despite the slim and compact design that leaves less room for heat sinks and cooling. When running Unigine Heaven and Fallout 4, the 960M reached 75C with no throttling. That's hotter than a GPU in a 17" gaming laptop but well below the thermal max. The CPU cores hit 70C in stress tests and ran at a cool 35C when doing simple tasks like word processing and streaming short 1080p video clips. When playing Civ V (a real time strategy game that uses the CPU heavily) the cores ran at a not terribly not 50C. Nice.

BENCHMARKS:





BATTERY LIFE

We have the larger 84 Whr battery in our review unit and haven't had the opportunity to evaluate the 56 Whr model. Dell makes some extravagant runtime claims for the XPS 15 Infinity--17 hours. Really? I don't think so. Even if you had one with the lowly Core i3, a 1080p display, SSD and the big battery I can't see how that would be possible. Our 4K display and Core i7 are at the power hungry end of the spectrum, and we've averaged 6.5 hours of use for productivity and video streaming. Long sessions in Premiere Pro, gaming and compiling code will shorten runtimes. In our tests we ran brightness at 40% (which is quite bright!) and had WiFi on and active. That's a respectable runtime for a 4K quad core laptop, but it certainly falls short of the record-holding 15" Retina MacBook Pro that manages 9 hours. Of course, we haven't seen a Windows laptop with these internals that comes close to the Mac's runtimes, and the Asus ZenBook Pro fared much worse at 4 hours, as did the HP Omen 15.

Dell ships the laptop with their unique looking rounded rectangle charger. The 130 watt charger's cord isn't as long as some traditional laptop chargers, though it's not as short as Microsoft's Surface chargers.

CONCLUSION

As with the XPS 13 earlier this year, Dell has hit a home run. This extremely powerful portable is smaller and lighter than any other 15.6" laptop in its performance class. Build quality and materials are top notch and the carbon fiber keyboard deck is as ever comfy and uniquely Dell. The Infinity display, be it 1080p or 4K is stunning looking thanks to the bright IGZO panel and the nearly bezel-less display. The only downside is the Dell ChinCam: the webcam is below the display because there's no room up top, so folks will get a jowls-first view of your lovely visage. Performance is excellent and the GeForce GTX 960M can handle serious gaming as well as pro apps. The machine is relatively quiet and cool, the trackpad is excellent and the speakers are loud though not terribly full. The backlit keyboard is very well done, but the short travel means it falls short of Dell's own deeper keyboards and thicker Lenovo ThinkPads. The XPS 15 Infinity isn't cheap, but here you do get what you pay for. It has cutting edge technology, a crazy good full Adobe RGB display and strong dedicated graphics, which is much more than we can say about the current 15" MacBook Pro with Retina display. It has longer battery life and newer CPUs than much of the Windows competition and it's small and light enough to travel with frequently. Highly recommended.

Specs:

Display:15.6" Sharp IGZO display. 1920 x 1080 matte non-touch and 3840 x 2160 UHD 4K gloss touch screen with full Adobe RGB options. Gorilla Glass NBT on 4K display. Intel HD 530 integrated graphics and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2BG DDR5 on most models. HDMI 1.4 and USB-C/Thunderbolt 3.

Battery:56 Whr and 84 Whr Lithium Ion rechargeable batteries available.

Performance:6th generation Intel Skylake 45 watt CPUs, all but Core i3 are quad core. Available with Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs. 8 or 16 gigs DDR4 2133 MHz RAM in two RAM slots. Available with HDD + caching 32 gig SSD or PCIe SSDs in a variety of capacities.

Size:14.06 x 9.27 x 0.45-0.66 inches. Weight: 3.9 lbs. with 56 Whr battery, 4.4 lbs. with 84 Whr battery.

Camera:720p webcam.

Audio:Built-in stereo speakers, mic and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack.

Networking:Integrated Broadcom dual band WiFi 802.11b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.1.

Software:Windows 10 Home and Pro available.

Expansion and Ports:2 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, USB-C/Thunderbolt 3, 3.5mm audio and SD card slot.


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