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00:00This is the brand-new Dell XPS 17 9720 and it is so good. I bought it twice
00:07Seriously, but given this looks identical to last year's model and the one the year before that
00:13Is this just a case of Dell Javoom?
00:17Hey guys, I'm Tom on Tech Chap
00:18And if you saw my first impressions video of this then you'll know that I basically bought the wrong spec
00:24I skimped on a CPU the GPU but paid was way too much money for like 64 gigs of RAM
00:29so I returned that one and bought this which is the top spec version with the i9 with the
00:353060 so you can really see what this new XPS 17 can do
00:39Now I always look forward to a new XPS laptop
00:42Especially the 17 and from what I read in the comments on my first impressions video
00:46Those of you that have a 17 seem to love them as well and I totally get it
00:51It's an absolutely gorgeous laptop with this big 17 inch 16 by 10 screen with these super thin bezels
00:57It's all squeezed into a lovely slim and compact aluminum chassis with Dell's trademark carbon fiber palm rest
01:03and of course that lovely and massive trackpad and
01:07Performance is no slouch either. You can spec this with up to a 12th gen i9
01:1112900HK CPU an RTX 3060 GPU up to 64 gigs of DDR 5 RAM and up to 2 terabytes of
01:19PCIe for SSD storage and of course the optional 4k touchscreen
01:24Then there's the vapor chamber cooling a chiclet keyboard
01:27That's as nice to use as ever and while there is still no numpad
01:30Which I know frustrates some of you guys instead Dell has shoehorned in some actually pretty good speakers
01:39Up top there's a 720p webcam with Windows
01:42Hello
01:43Plus we get a fingerprint reader in the power button and also having four Thunderbolt 4 enabled USB C ports and a full-size SD
01:50Card reader. I pretty much have all the ports I need except of course for USB a and HDMI
01:55Which is where this comes in Dell bundles this little dongle adapter in the box
02:00So as long as you carry that with you, you will set all good stuff then but except for the CPU and the RAM
02:06Everything else is pretty much the same as the cheaper
02:102021 version and actually for most people I think that's going to be a better buy if you can find one and the other issue
02:16With this is that the RTX 3060 graphics card?
02:19I have in here is actually the same one as last year, but with a lower TGP
02:25It's a 65 watt part rather than 70 watts. Also the entry-level 17 starts at
02:302100 pounds in the UK or in the US
02:33It's about eighteen hundred and fifty for the base model because that actually comes with a lower spec i5 and also no GPU
02:39It relies on the integrated graphics alone, but then on the other side top spec models like this will cost you about 3700
02:46So for the best part of four grand if you want the super duper top spec model
02:51Well, it's worth considering if your money is better spent elsewhere
02:56So the main upgrade this year is the fact that we get Intel's 12th gen h-series
03:00CPUs which have a slightly redesigned architecture and also this comes with faster onboard Iris Xe graphics
03:07The other change for this year is the fact that we get DDR 5 RAM
03:10This is the new standard for high-end laptops
03:12Although the faster speeds aren't really something you probably notice in everyday use and as I say, that's pretty much it
03:18Which does feel disappointing when we look at laptops from say a soothe where there's some pretty big
03:23Innovation and we're getting high refresh and OLEDs and fancy asus dials
03:27They you know really pushing the boat out with this
03:29I think maybe if we had Wi-Fi 6e which bizarrely we still don't or maybe even a 90 Hertz or 120 Hertz refresh or
03:36Just something else. It would be easier to recommend upgrading to it for me
03:40I was kind of hoping for an XPS 17 plus style upgrade along the lines of the new XPS 13 plus
03:47Hopefully though that's more of a sign of things to come and fingers crossed. We get a big revamp next year
03:53Now the Dell does have a slightly bigger 17 inch versus 16 inch screen on the MacBook
03:57But you can see it's a little bit wider. It's a little bit thicker
04:01Although it's about the same weight with that 4k screen, which does add a little bit to the way
04:05It's a little bit lighter if you go full HD the build quality is still top-notch
04:10There's no creaks
04:11There's no flexing and the tapering edges around the base give the sides a much slimmer appearance than it actually has
04:16And I do still really like the carbon fiber. It almost has a soft touch feel to it
04:21Although it does still get smudgy over time
04:25Not sure about this webcam though
04:27Look at that noise
04:28The quality really isn't very good and certainly not as good as what you get on the MacBook Pros or even the new
04:33Asus Zenbooks with their upgraded PDP webcams. This is still 720p
04:38It's on top bezel and even with this really good lighting
04:42Quality is a bit naff if I'm honest, but while I have you I want to show you this
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05:30Let's talk about this screen though
05:32Because there are still two options same as last year either a full HD plus non touchscreen or a 4k plus
05:39Touchscreen which is not only sharper
05:41But it's also a bit more color accurate and the 4k version gets the niceness of edge to edge glass bezel
05:47We got this one. This is actually the XPS 15, which I'm working on a video for
05:51This is a full HD version and you might be able to see what the bezels are still very thin
05:56They are actually a little bit proud of the screen and they are plastic
06:01It doesn't look quite as premium as the 4k version, which you'll also see is a glossy rather than matte screen
06:06But we do get an anti reflective coating. You can see obviously
06:11The difference in the reflectivity. This is the 15, but you'll get the same experience on the full HD with the 17
06:17So well, I think for me I would go 4k because I want the extra sharpness
06:20I want the extra color accuracy because I do photo and video editing
06:23I think particularly on the 17 inch with the bigger size
06:26You're gonna sort of really appreciate the 4k resolution a bit more than on the 15
06:30But as I say full HD is cheaper
06:32It's matte and it's also going to give you a much better battery life
06:36Now flipping it over and unscrewing the base
06:39We can get a much better look at that vapor chamber cooling system
06:42Which is much beefier than the system we get on the XPS 15 and also of course
06:47Unlike a MacBook Pro you can upgrade the RAM and the SSD if you want as for temperatures
06:52Well last year's 17 did get pretty toasty around the keyboard, especially under load
06:56But I'm pleased to report things do seem to be cool this year
07:00Whether it's the efficiency gains with the CPU or just because we're having a lower TGP GPU
07:04And I ran a 20 minute times by stress test which showed no appreciable drop in performance
07:09And it was the same story when I ran firm arc and prime 95 together for another 20 minutes
07:14It's also silent for most of the time with the fans only really wearing up during sustained loads to be fair
07:21It's no MacBook Pro, which is pretty much silent all the time. But for a Windows laptop, it's mostly unobtrusive
07:27It's no surprise that this top spec model that costs nearly four grand is pretty quick and in my everyday use with raw photo
07:35Editing and editing 4k 10-bit 422 footage in Premiere Pro. It performed really well and for the most part
07:41It's the premium experience you would expect at this price
07:44But the big surprise for me was just how much faster this new CPU is versus last year's i9 in Cinebench
07:51The new 12th gen i9 was 21% faster in single-core and a whopping 44% faster in multi-core
07:57And it's a similar story in the Geekbench 5 single-core test while in multi-core. It was a full 50% faster than last year
08:05However, as I mentioned earlier on there is a compromise and that is the GPU which is the same
08:10RTX 3060 in the higher-end model like I have here is the same graphics card
08:14But with a 65 watt rather than a 70 watt TGP
08:18So it's actually gone down in power
08:20Which results in a 5% slower score in an OpenCL Geekbench test and a 6% slower score in Time Spy
08:27Which is not exactly what you want to see
08:30Now this really is designed as a sort of creator laptop a semi workstation if you will
08:34But you can of course still play games on it and by dropping the resolution to a more
08:39Sensible full HD plus you can max out graphics settings and still hit 60 FPS and frequently a lot more than that
08:45But we are still limited by that 60 Hertz panel and actually results were pretty similar to what I saw with last year's model
08:51Mainly because we're more CPU bound at this resolution and less subject to the lower TGPs
08:56but importantly the 3060 is anywhere from 25 up to 33% faster than the
09:023050 and it comes with an extra 2 gigs of VRAM which will come in handy at the higher 4k resolution
09:08So I reckon the 3060 is definitely worth paying the extra for
09:11But also as my benchmarks show there really isn't a big difference between the i7 and the i9
09:17Given that basically the same chip just with a small base and boost clock difference
09:21So the takeaway is if you're thinking about buying this I would go with the i7 with the 3060
09:2716 gigs of RAM or maybe 32 if you are doing more intensive like video editing
09:32But you can always upgrade it yourself later and also a 1 terabyte SSD. That is the configuration
09:37I would recommend
09:39battery life is actually pretty decent although obviously it varies depending on your use and also the spec you go for and of course whether
09:45You have the full HD or the 4k screen
09:47But unlike the XPS 15 all models of the 17 come with a larger 97 watt hour battery
09:53Which means the full HD plus XPS 17 is going to give you the longest battery life
09:581 hour of YouTube used around 13% of the battery compared to 15% on last year's model and actually
10:0419% on the 2020 version
10:06So the battery life is actually a little bit better and on average you can expect around 7 or 8 hours of everyday use
10:12So the big question should you actually buy this? Well, yeah, I think it's still worth considering
10:18I do like that in the US and I guess some other countries there is that i5 non GPU option
10:23Which is actually a lot cheaper. So if you just want a big premium 17 inch laptop, but for me
10:29I always consider the 17 a bit of a work laptop
10:31I can edit on this at home or when I'm traveling and it does pretty much everything I need
10:36The elephant in the room though is that it's just a bit boring. There is not that much new here
10:41The CPUs are a good deal fastest
10:43So if the programs you're running are very sort of CPU demanding then that may be worth the upgrade
10:47but then the compromise is that lower power graphics card and it really is long overdue either an OLED or a mini LED option and
10:54Of course a high 90 or 120 Hertz refresh rate
10:57What I would consider though is if you can find it
10:59If you don't mind the slightly older 11th gen i7 and slower DDR4 RAM
11:04You can get otherwise an identical
11:062021 XPS 17 with an RTX 3060 and 16 gigs of RAM and 1 terabyte and a 4k screen for almost
11:13$700 less than this as an alternative
11:15I would definitely take a look at the new Asus ZenBook Pro 16 X which I think gives you a lot more for your money
11:21I personally would suggest getting the MacBook Pro 14 or 16
11:25Instead the performance with the M1 Pro and Max even on battery life. It stays cool and quiet constantly
11:32You never hear the fans. We get the promotion screen as well as better speakers a better webcam
11:36I just think it's a better all-around laptop
11:40Laptop, but what about you?
11:42Would you consider buying the new XPS 17 and also if you've got any questions at all?
11:46Let me know in the comments below and if you enjoyed the video a cheeky little like and subscribe would be very much appreciated
11:51And I'll see you next time right here on the tech chat
11:54Oh and don't forget to check out Surfshark VPN click the link below or use the code tech chap to get 83% off and
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