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The Dell XPS 17 (2023) is the best 17-inch laptop on the market. It's really that simple. Part of the reason for that is because 17-inch laptops are somewhat rare, and a lot of them cater to more specific markets, such as gaming.
So when it comes down to just making a beautiful laptop that's powerful, has a best-in-class display, great audio, and an excellent keyboard, Dell is really the only one that did it. Indeed, this screen is as good as many OLED displays in a lot of ways, and the 45W CPU and 60W GPU is powerful enough that it can handle creative tasks like video editing.
The bad is what you'd expect. Dell continues to stick with a 720p webcam in a market that has moved on to 1080p, and unsurprisingly in today's market, this thing is expensive.
But truly, if you want a great laptop, the XPS lineup is the best of what Dell has to offer, and the XPS 17 is the biggest and most powerful.
Dell XPS 17 (2023)
Best 17-inch laptop
The Dell XPS 17 is back in 2023 with a new model. It doesn't bring many design differences; it's the under-the-hood tweaks that matter, like the switch to 13th-generation Intel CPUs and RTX 40-series graphics. This helps make Dell's most powerful laptop even more powerful.
- Brand
- Dell
- Storage
- 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB PCIe 4.x SSD
- CPU
- Up to 13th-generation Intel Core i9-13900H
- Memory
- 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB DDR5
- Operating System
- Windows 11
- Battery
- 97Wh
- Ports
- 4x Thunderbolt 4, 1x SD Card reader, 1x 3.5mm headphone/microphone jack, 1x wedge-shaped lock slot
- Camera
- 720p Windows Hello IR Webcam
- Display (Size, Resolution)
- 17-inch 4K UHD+ 3840x2400 resolution touch, or FHD+ 1920 x 1200 resolution non-touch
- Weight
- 5.10 or 5.37 pounds
- GPU
- Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 12GB GDDR6
- Network
- Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6 1675 (AX211) 2x2, Bluetooth 5.2 Wireless Card
- Speakers
- Quad-speaker design with 2.5W x2 woofers and 1.5W x2 tweeters
- Price
- Starting at $2,449
- Adaptor and Battery
- 97Wh battery
- Power
- 120W USB-C AC Adapter included
- Finish
- Aluminum, carbon fiber
- Absolutely the best laptop display
- Lots of power under the hood
- Full size SD card reader
- Powerful audio
- Battery life is just OK
- It's pricey
- 720p webcam
Dell XPS 17 (2023) pricing and availability
The Dell XPS 17 (2023) is available now from the usual suspects, including Dell.com and Best Buy. The big difference is that Best Buy only has one configuration, which includes a Core i7-13700H, a 60W Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, 32GB DDR5, a 1TB SSD, and a UHD+ display. It comes in at $3,199.99.
If you head over to Dell.com, however, you can get a much less expensive base model. For $2,049, you'll get a Core i7-13700H, an RTX 4050, 16GB DDR5, a 512GB SSD, and an FHD+ display. Note that upgrading that model to a UHD+ screen is an extra $300, since that's almost certainly something you'd want to do on a 17-inch laptop. Unfortunately, there are no QHD options.
Design
It's the classic XPS style
Dell's XPS lineup has historically had a very distinct design. Over the last couple of years, that's been totally overhauled in the XPS 13, and the newer XPS 13 Plus, but the XPS 15 and XPS 17 remain the same. That means that you get a silver laptop made from a single block of aluminum, and unlike other XPS laptops, the XPS 17 comes in one color.
The Dell XPS 17 was first introduced in 2020, being the first 17-inch model of the product in a decade. The design hasn't changed since, so if you closed your eyes and imagined what a 17-inch Dell XPS laptop would look like, this is what you'd get.
It weighs in at either 5.1 or 5.37 pounds, which is fairly light for something this large and powerful. As I noted in the beginning of this review, a lot of 17-inch laptops are specialized. The LG Gram 17 (up until 2022) actually weighed in at under three pounds. Of course, that product has an ultrabook processor, no dedicated graphics (that's changed with the 2023 model), and it's made out of magnesium, so it doesn't feel as premium or perform as well.
The XPS 17 has that classic XPS style
But that's the balance that you need to strike with a 17-inch laptop. At some point, a decision has to be made about why you actually want something this big. If you're going to do the same thing you would with a 13-inch laptop, just on a bigger screen, you simply don't need the power that's under the hood here, even if you get the base model with the RTX 4050. On the other hand, if you're doing some creative work, that's probably a better reason to go this big.
While it's certainly an industry trend to ditch USB Type-A in smaller laptops, Dell takes it a step further by not including it in larger premium laptops either. Indeed, this thing has four Thunderbolt 4 ports, and that's all you'll find, at least when it comes to USB.
On the right side, you'll also find a full-size SD card slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. Indeed, if you're doing any kind of work that involves a camera, that SD card slot will certainly come in handy.
Display
It's the best 17-inch display there is
Unlike the XPS 15 and the XPS 13 Plus, the Dell XPS 17 doesn't have an option for an OLED display, and that's actually OK. I've been saying this since I attended the pre-briefing where I was shown the first OLED XPS 15: Dell's non-OLED displays are so good that it doesn't even make much of a difference, at least in the higher end panels. I'm not going to make any promises for the FHD one.
The reason that there's no OLED variant isn't because Dell isn't interested. 17-inch OLED laptops just don't exist because it's a much smaller category. I keep coming back to how 17-inch laptops tend to be more niche, and how that makes the Dell XPS 17 stand out even more as the best in its class.
From my testing, the screen supports 100% sRGB, 99% NTSC, 100% Adobe RGB, and 98% P3. If it were any other manufacturer, I'd say that to get those numbers, you'd need an OLED display, although even OLED screens hardly come in that high. This isn't just the best display on a 17-inch laptop; this is one of the best displays on any laptop. Of course, if you go for the UHD option on an XPS 15, you get similar results.
If you're a creator that needs color accuracy and power, the Dell XPS 17 is the only choice
But for sure, if your work flow includes things that require accurate colors and power, the Dell XPS 17 is the only choice.
Brightness maxed out at 537.4 nits, which is excellent. The black level does go up as brightness is increased, the one thing that OLED do better, since OLED screens have true blacks. That all results in a 1,660:1 contrast ratio at max brightness.
The display is considered to be edge-to-edge, with Dell still prioritizing narrow bezels above all else. That means that in the top bezel, you still get a small 720p webcam sensor. It's a shame since working from home and virtual meetings have become a staple of work in 2023, and just about every premium laptop has moved on to a better webcam by now. The low-res camera really is the one main flaw in this product.
Keyboard and touchpad
Like the design of the product, the keyboard and touchpad haven't changed a bit since the Dell XPS 17 was reintroduced in 2020. First of all, everything is great here. Like I've been saying all along, this is a fine product.
The keyboard is comfortable and accurate, as always. I would say it's the best that Dell has to offer, but I actually think the new keyboards on the Latitude 9000 series are a little better. Hopefully they show up on XPS at some point. After all, while XPS keyboards are good, Lenovo and HP still do better on the Yoga 9i and Spectre x360, respectively.
The touchpad is giant, which is what I like to see. Placing larger Precision touchpads on bigger laptops is something that we've seen more of in recent years, but the charge has been led by Dell. In fact, when the XPS 17 was reintroduced in 2020 and the XPS 15 was redesigned, it took a lot of cues from Apple's MacBook Pro, also including the lack of USB Type-A and going all-in on Thunderbolt.
You'll also notice that the keyboard is flanked by large speakers. In fact, this laptop has a total of four speakers, with two 2.5W woofers and two 1.5W tweeters, tuned by Waves MaxxAudio Pro and Waves Nx 3D. All of that adds up to an excellent sound system. Combine that with the beautiful screen, and this isn't just a great laptop for work. It's great for streaming content, and even some gaming.
Performance
Lots of power for creators
The Dell XPS 17 (2023) comes with a Core i7-13700H standard, and you can upgrade to a Core i9 if you want. The Intel processor used is a 14-core 45W CPU, with six performance cores and eight efficiency cores. On top of that, Dell offers a 60W GPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 in this case. It's worth noting that the wattage of the GPU is the main thing that differentiates the XPS 17 from the XPS 15, aside from the screen of course. The XPS 15 has a 40W GPU, so while the components are the same, you do get a bit more power with the larger model.
I used the Dell XPS 17 for everything from editing some somewhat basic video, to editing photos, to just writing articles. It's really great for everything. It's got the power to do the heavy tasks, the fundamentals like a great keyboard for the simpler tasks, and great audio and video for consumption tasks.
The Dell XPS 17 has no competition
The tricky thing here is, the Dell XPS 17 really has no competition. We could compare it to other creator laptops, like the Lenovo Legion Slim 7 or the HP Envy 16, but neither of them come in 17-inch flavors. We could compare it to other 17-inch laptops, but those are either geared toward gaming, toward productivity, or simply aren't made to be as premium as an XPS. The XPS 17 stands out on its own.
Dell XPS 17 Core i7-13700H, RTX 4070 60W |
Lenovo Legion Slim 7 Ryzen 9 6900HX, Radeon RX 6800S |
||
---|---|---|---|
PCMark 10 (AC / battery) |
7,557 / 6,839 |
7,376 / 5,950 |
7,128 / 6,888 |
3DMark: Time Spy (regular / Extreme) |
8,793 / 4,182 |
8,907 / 4,037 |
7,430 / 3,709 |
Geekbench 6 (single / multi) |
2,628 / 13,993 |
2,084 / 9,795 |
2,477 / 12,814 |
Cinebench R23 (single / multi) |
1,889 / 13,583 |
1,593 / 13,102 |
1,801 / 13,679 |
VRMark (Orange / Blue) |
11,182 / 2,681 |
10,249 / 2,135 |
8,871 / 2,198 |
As you can see, the higher wattage GPU in the XPS 17 gives it a little bit of a boost over the XPS 15, and as always, when not connected to power, Intel's processors don't take as much of a performance hit as AMD's do.
As for battery life, it's about what you'd expect from such a powerful machine. Generally, I got between four and six hours, with the power slider on 'balanced' and the brightness at 50%. You'll probably want to set the power slider to best performance at times if you're doing creative work, although this is also solved by just connecting to power. But still, if that's your workflow, you should take from the lower end of my results.
The most time I was able to run the XPS 17 for was 370 minutes (6 hours and 10 minutes), with the least being 253 (4 hours and 13 minutes). In-between, results were 292, 313, 347, and 353 minutes.
Should you buy the Dell XPS 17 (2023)?
You should buy the Dell XPS 17 (2023) if:
- You edit photos and/or videos
- Your workflow relies on color accuracy
- You stream a lot of content
- You occasionally play games
You should NOT buy the Dell XPS 17 (2023) if:
- You're only in it for the big screen, meaning you don't care about the extra power
- You're carrying your laptop in a backpack a lot
The Dell XPS 17 (2023) is the best 17-inch laptop on the market. Between the premium build, powerful internals, best-in-class display, and everything else, you can't beat it. However, there's no one laptop that's right for everyone. If you're looking for the use case of a 13-inch laptop but you just want a bigger screen, this is not for you. Something like an LG Gram is a lot lighter and will get you better battery life.
But if you're doing things like editing photos and videos, or even playing some games once in a while, you can combine those powerful internals with the best laptop display on the market for the perfect machine.
Dell XPS 17 (2023)
The Dell XPS 17 is back in 2023 with a new model. It doesn't bring many design differences; it's the under-the-hood tweaks that matter, like the switch to 13th-generation Intel CPUs and RTX 40-series graphics. This helps make Dell's most powerful laptop even more powerful.