Dell XPS 17 9710 11th Gen Intel Laptop Review: Small Changes That Matter

New 70 W GeForce RTX 3060. The first generation XPS 17 9700 was one of the best-looking 17-inch laptops with Core-H and GeForce RTX graphics, but it had some under-the-hood peculiarities that needed to be ironed out. The new XPS 17 9710 addresses the underlying issues while boosting performance by quite the margin.

If you were interested in the XPS 17 but were hesitant to buy a first generation model, then this se...

faster and more consistent performance than XPS 17 9700; battery no longer discharges when running high loads; accessible 2x SODIMM + 2x M.2 2280 PCIe 4 SSD slots; very high screen-to-body ratio; plenty of Thunderbolt 4 ports;

slightly below average GeForce RTX 3060 performance; very warm core temperatures when under load; no integrated USB-A or HDMI ports; no improvements to battery life; still no webcam shutter;

Dell XPS 17 (9710) Review

Updated for 2021 with Intel's 11th Generation "Tiger Lake" processors and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs, the Dell XPS 17 is the best big-screen content-creator laptop you can buy if money is no object. The $1,549 starting price is palatable, but a decently powerful configuration like the one reviewed here is $2,949.99. If you don't need the extra horsepower that its Core i7-11800H CPU and GeForce RTX 3060 graphics chip offer, the less expensive but still excellent LG Gram 17 might be a better choice. Otherwise, it's hard to go wrong with the ultra-modern chassis and gorgeous 4K display that the XPS 17 offers. The XPS Lineup Explained Introduced last year and sharing a chassis design, the sleek XPS 17 and its slightly smaller XPS 15 sibling jolt new life into the niche category of large-screen laptops known as desktop replacements. While there are plenty of gaming rigs that offer Intel's most powerful H-series processors and GeForce RTX graphics, very few of them look nearly ...

Well-equipped (as it should be for nearly $3,000), the Dell XPS 17 is the standard-bearer for non-gaming 17-inch laptops.

Elegant design; Gorgeous 17-inch 4K touch screen; Available Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics; Large touchpad; Four Thunderbolt 4 ports

Pricey as configured; Shorter battery life than expected; No USB Type-A ports