The new 16-inch MacBook Pro and Dell’s 2019 XPS 15 are arguably the two best big-screen laptops.
I have both laptops in-house and here are some brief impressions.
This is a short review which focuses on changes to the new MacBook Pro such as the display and keyboard.
Compared configs are:
16-inch MacBook Pro:
16-inch 3072‑by‑1920 pixel IPS LCD, 500-nit brightness
2.3 GHz 8-core Intel Core i9 processor, turbo boost up to 4.8 GHz
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with support for up to two 6K external displays
1TB SSD
32GB DDR4-2666MHz
Machined aluminum
4.3 pounds
Price: $3,199.00
Dell XPS 15 7590 OLED config:
15.6-inch 4K 3,840-by-2160 AMOLED display, 500-nit brightness
2.4 GHz Intel Core i9 8-core, turbo boost up to 5 GHz
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 mobile GPU
1TB Toshiba NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
32GB DDR4-2666MHz
Machined aluminum and carbon fiber palm rest
4.5 pounds
Price: $2,649.99
Keyboard: if you care a lot about about the keyboard....
The 16-inch MacBook Pro’s keyboard is a regression back to the old scissor-switch design. That said, it’s Apple’s way of saying that the newfangled Butterfly keyboard failed and the older keyboard design is, in fact, better.
I spent some time doing comparison typing on the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro (with the latest Butterfly keyboard) and the new MBP 16: the difference was stark. Stark enough that you might want to get the MBP 16 just for the keyboard if that matters a lot to you. In short, better travel and tactile feedback translate into a more pleasant typing experience.
The XPS 15 has the same keyboard Dell has been using for a while. It’s nothing to rave about (so-so tactile feedback) but it gets the job done. The carbon fiber palm rest is a great touch, setting it apart from the pack.
Trackpad: 2x the size
And for those who care about the size of the trackpad, you’ll notice in the photo at bottom that the MacBook Pro has a trackpad that is roughly twice the size of the XPS. To be honest, I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.
Display: Dell wins
This is huge for both laptops. For Apple, obviously because it’s upped the display size to 16 inches from 15.4 inches and shrunk the bezels in the process. For Dell because it comes with a drop-dead gorgeous AMOLED display.
Dell’s OLED wins.
AMOLED displays are a very different animal from LCDs. Colors pop, blacks are really black, contrast is astronomically higher, and AMOLEDs offer the potential for extending battery life by turning off pixels in dark mode. All of the above is why the world’s best smartphones now sport AMOLED displays.
Dell claims an astronomical 100,000:1 contrast ratio. Dell also claims 100 percent coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. Testing has also shown that the DCI-P3 color coverage is 97.6 percent and sRGB is 99 percent.
And Dell’s display is 4K, Apple still isn’t quite there.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro’s display has a wide DCI-P3-rated color gamut (97 percent), 100 percent of sRGB, and 91 percent Adobe RGB.
It’s probably one of the best LCD displays out there and the hardware supports up to two 6K displays. But it isn’t OLED, which is why, no matter how good Apple’s LCD is, it won’t top the XPS 15.
Performance: close
The performance of the MacBook Pro’s AMD Pro 5500M graphics chip is up to 2x better than the old Radeon RX 560X putting it in the same league as the Nvidia GTX 1650 mobile GPU (on the XPS 15).
And the two machines are pretty evenly matched on CPUs.
On Geekbench 4, the MBP 16 CPU test is showing Single-Core scores of around 5,400 and Multi-Core scores of roughly 28,000.
Dell’s XPS 7590 Geekbench 4 CPU scores are similar.
Sound: Apple wins
No contest, Apple wins. The 16-inch MBP delivers room-filling sound with the most fulsome, undistorted bass I’ve ever heard in a laptop. If sound matters to you, it’s reason enough to buy the new MBP.
The XPS 15 sound is good but, again, the MBP 16 is in another league.
Chassis / weight / design: Apple wins on weight, Dell on materials
Apple wins on weight. Despite boasting a bigger display and longer (front to back) chassis, it’s lighter at 4.3 pounds versus the XPS’ 4.5 pounds. The thickness of both laptops is pretty much the same.
Design comes down to personal preference. The 16-inch MacBook Pro design is an improvement over the 15-inch because of the smaller bezels = better screen to body ratio.
Dell’s design is getting long in the tooth but its carbon fiber palm rest falls into the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” category.
I have both laptops in-house and here are some brief impressions.
This is a short review which focuses on changes to the new MacBook Pro such as the display and keyboard.
Compared configs are:
16-inch MacBook Pro:
16-inch 3072‑by‑1920 pixel IPS LCD, 500-nit brightness
2.3 GHz 8-core Intel Core i9 processor, turbo boost up to 4.8 GHz
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with support for up to two 6K external displays
1TB SSD
32GB DDR4-2666MHz
Machined aluminum
4.3 pounds
Price: $3,199.00
Dell XPS 15 7590 OLED config:
15.6-inch 4K 3,840-by-2160 AMOLED display, 500-nit brightness
2.4 GHz Intel Core i9 8-core, turbo boost up to 5 GHz
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 mobile GPU
1TB Toshiba NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
32GB DDR4-2666MHz
Machined aluminum and carbon fiber palm rest
4.5 pounds
Price: $2,649.99
Keyboard: if you care a lot about about the keyboard....
The 16-inch MacBook Pro’s keyboard is a regression back to the old scissor-switch design. That said, it’s Apple’s way of saying that the newfangled Butterfly keyboard failed and the older keyboard design is, in fact, better.
I spent some time doing comparison typing on the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro (with the latest Butterfly keyboard) and the new MBP 16: the difference was stark. Stark enough that you might want to get the MBP 16 just for the keyboard if that matters a lot to you. In short, better travel and tactile feedback translate into a more pleasant typing experience.
The XPS 15 has the same keyboard Dell has been using for a while. It’s nothing to rave about (so-so tactile feedback) but it gets the job done. The carbon fiber palm rest is a great touch, setting it apart from the pack.
Trackpad: 2x the size
And for those who care about the size of the trackpad, you’ll notice in the photo at bottom that the MacBook Pro has a trackpad that is roughly twice the size of the XPS. To be honest, I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.
Display: Dell wins
This is huge for both laptops. For Apple, obviously because it’s upped the display size to 16 inches from 15.4 inches and shrunk the bezels in the process. For Dell because it comes with a drop-dead gorgeous AMOLED display.
Dell’s OLED wins.
AMOLED displays are a very different animal from LCDs. Colors pop, blacks are really black, contrast is astronomically higher, and AMOLEDs offer the potential for extending battery life by turning off pixels in dark mode. All of the above is why the world’s best smartphones now sport AMOLED displays.
Dell claims an astronomical 100,000:1 contrast ratio. Dell also claims 100 percent coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. Testing has also shown that the DCI-P3 color coverage is 97.6 percent and sRGB is 99 percent.
And Dell’s display is 4K, Apple still isn’t quite there.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro’s display has a wide DCI-P3-rated color gamut (97 percent), 100 percent of sRGB, and 91 percent Adobe RGB.
It’s probably one of the best LCD displays out there and the hardware supports up to two 6K displays. But it isn’t OLED, which is why, no matter how good Apple’s LCD is, it won’t top the XPS 15.
Performance: close
The performance of the MacBook Pro’s AMD Pro 5500M graphics chip is up to 2x better than the old Radeon RX 560X putting it in the same league as the Nvidia GTX 1650 mobile GPU (on the XPS 15).
And the two machines are pretty evenly matched on CPUs.
On Geekbench 4, the MBP 16 CPU test is showing Single-Core scores of around 5,400 and Multi-Core scores of roughly 28,000.
Dell’s XPS 7590 Geekbench 4 CPU scores are similar.
Sound: Apple wins
No contest, Apple wins. The 16-inch MBP delivers room-filling sound with the most fulsome, undistorted bass I’ve ever heard in a laptop. If sound matters to you, it’s reason enough to buy the new MBP.
The XPS 15 sound is good but, again, the MBP 16 is in another league.
Chassis / weight / design: Apple wins on weight, Dell on materials
Apple wins on weight. Despite boasting a bigger display and longer (front to back) chassis, it’s lighter at 4.3 pounds versus the XPS’ 4.5 pounds. The thickness of both laptops is pretty much the same.
Design comes down to personal preference. The 16-inch MacBook Pro design is an improvement over the 15-inch because of the smaller bezels = better screen to body ratio.
Dell’s design is getting long in the tooth but its carbon fiber palm rest falls into the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” category.
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