The XPS lineup of laptops is Dell’s answer to the Macbook and Microsoft Surface, and if you’re not particularly interested in either the Apple or Microsoft ecosystem, then the XPS is a great alternative. So, if you’re looking for great laptop deals for a desktop replacement, then the Dell XPS 17 will get you there, and you can even pick it up for a discount from Dell for $1,899, rather than the usual $2,600 it goes for.
Why you should buy the Dell XPS 17
The Dell XPS 17 is a gorgeous portable workstation with a strong build, as you’d expect with such an expensive laptop, and a sleek overall design. The bezels on the screen are minimal, and even better, it’s a 4k touchscreen with 500 nits of peak brightness, meaning you can use it anywhere, barring direct sunlight. But, of course, it is a little bit heavy with a weight of 5.34 pounds, especially when comparing the Dell XPS 15 vs. XPS 17, but that’s pretty low for a 17-inch laptop packed with a lot of stuff under the hood. For example, you get the powerful 12th-gen Intel i7-12700H and 16GB of DDR5 RAM, giving you a buttery smooth experience whether you’re working, editing, or just watching shows and browsing the internet.
That said, you aren’t going to get a lot of gaming done without a dedicated GPU, but you can get away with some casual gaming if you want to. Luckily, because this is a version without the RTX graphics card, the battery life is much better, netting you about 10 hours of use, maybe a bit longer if it’s only 1080p video watching. It’s also got a 720p camera for meetings and whatnot, and the inclusion of Wi-Fi 6 means you’ll have an excellent wireless experience if you don’t like hooking up an ethernet cable. We also appreciate that it has four Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports and an eDP port.
Overall, the Dell XPS 17 is a great desktop replacement and a relatively portable 17-inch laptop that won’t cause you to bump into performance issues like lower-end laptops. That said, if you care about things like gaming or graphics design and therefore need a graphics card, it might be worth looking at our comparison between the Dell XPS 17 vs. MSI Creator Z17, as well as checking out these gaming laptop deals, all of which come with a dedicated GPU.