Menu
Dave Miller – Tech Enthusiast & Security Expert – February 6th, 2021
Advancements in technology have drastically changed our daily lives. More and more tools and resources have become available, ensuring that critical information is always available. Computers and laptops are good examples of this like Dell XPS 15 vs MacBook Air M1.
The U.S. market and global market offer a wide selection of excellent laptops. However, if you have been searching for a productive laptop, you should read this article. One of the hottest new models is Apple’s MacBook Air, which boasts incredible performance thanks to its M1 SoC. In contrast, we have the Dell XPS 15 9500, which is minimalistic in design.
I will be reviewing two top laptops that meet those requirements in terms of power and is portable enough to carry around daily.
MacBook Air (M1, 2020) | Dell XPS 15 9500 |
Apple M1 Chip for Better Performance! | Display with 16:10 InfinityEdge redefined |
Longer battery life up to 18 hours! | 10th Generation Intel Processors: Powerful and Efficient |
Introducing Image Single Processor and FaceTime HD camera | Next-generation graphics from NVIDIA |
Support for P3 wide color on a better display! | Windows Hello Face Authentication with Infrared Camera |
No more noise from the fan or heat | Trackpad is now 62% larger |
The best value for money | Bigger key caps on keyboard |
This blog describes the specifications of the Dell XPS 15 9500 and the MacBook Air M1. I will discuss each CPU, RAM, storage, battery, display, and so on to give you a better idea of which one to buy. The following features are the key differences between the Dell XPS 15 9500 and MacBook Air M1:
In November 2020, Apple updated the MacBook Air with the M1 processor. The MacBook Air M1 is available in two versions with a price of $999 & $1199, respectively. However, a basic version costs just $899 for academics. This version of the Apple M1 comes with 8 G.B. of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 7-core GPU. The second variant has a GPU with eight cores and 512GB of SSD storage. Apple released the MacBook Air with M1 on November 17th, 2020. Apple’s MacBook Air comes in three colors: Space Grey, Gold, and Silver.
The Dell XPS 15, however, started at $1,079 instead. Those prices include a 10th Gen Core i5-10300H processor, 256GB SSD, Intel UHD graphics, and a 15.6-inch screen with 1920 x 1200 pixels resolution. Purchasing the $1,305 (usually $1,659) configuration gets you the faster Core i7-10250H CPU. You can also benefit from discrete Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics. If you spend an extra $180, you can also get a 512GB SSD and 16 G.B. of RAM. This laptop was released on May 13th, 2020.
Compared to earlier models of the MacBook Air, the M1 has no external design changes. It is made from an aluminum alloy designed by Apple that uses 100 percent recycled aluminum. With the latest MacBook Air, you can choose from gold, silver, or space grey machined aluminum chassis. The M1 MacBook Air measures 12.4 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches and weighs 2.8 pounds in terms of dimensions.
Almost five years after the Dell XPS launched, the design hasn’t changed. Even with all the advancements that the XPS 13 has gained over the years, a redesign is long overdue. The XPS 15 is an evolution of one of the best laptop designs ever made. The silver lid of this keyboard has crisp 0.71-inch corners, making it as elegant as it gets. The XPS 15 weighs 4.5 lbs and measures 13.57 x 9 x 0.7 inches, about the same as a 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Performance is excellent on the MacBook Air M1, thanks to its M1 processor and 16 G.B. of RAM. With the Apple M1 SoC, the MacBook Air has some unusual performance features for a laptop. The CPU and GPU both use big.LITTLE architectures with four energy-efficient Icestorm cores. Therefore, they can handle low-resource tasks seamlessly. It features four high-performance cores that trigger D.C. fans when necessary. Even when I opened many applications in the background, I never noticed any hiccups.
The Dell XPS 15 9500 is a true multitasking machine compared to this. The system comes with an Intel Core i7-10750 processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. It features an eight-core processor and 16 threads and has a 45-watt power consumption. Furthermore, it offers a discrete graphics card option and loads of memory and storage. Using Dell’s powerhouse, I navigated effortlessly between multiple Chrome tabs in a split-screen mode without pausing.
As I tested, the MacBook Air gave up the 8-core GPU capability, so some gamers may no longer consider it. In addition, Apple claims that the integrated GPU will benefit graphics-intensive tasks like video editing and gaming. I have experienced no problems running video editing programs and games on the Mac.
The XPS 15 managed to run Shadow of the Tomb Raider with high settings at 1080p at a playable 29 frames per second. Our MacBook Pro (16-inch) with Radeon Pro 5300M beat this by just 0.1 fps. When playing Dirt 3 in 1080p, the Dell laptop managed 134 frames per second.
Battery life on the previous MacBook Air was more than adequate, lasting well beyond an average working day. Despite M1’s same battery capacity, Apple claims even better numbers. Based on my experience, the MacBook Air can run for up to 13 hours on the Web and up to 17 hours on Apple T.V.
With a single charge, Dell’s XPS 15 9500 will last you most of the day, but you will need a charger nearby. The battery lasted 8 hours, 1 minute on our battery test over Wi-Fi when constant web browsing was performed. The screen is suitable for a 4K laptop, but it doesn’t compare to other essential competitors.
The MacBook Air uses a Retina display, which is more shaped, crisper, and clearer than the non-Retina display it replaced. As for the display, it features the same resolution as the previous generation, 2560×1600. Two Thunderbolt 3 and USB ports can drive up to a 6K display. The MacBook Air’s display supports True Tone, which allows it to match the display’s color to the light in the room.
Compared to the XPS 13, the Dell XPS 15 2020 features an accurate 4-sided Infinity Edge display. With a 16:10 aspect ratio, the XPS 15’s screen is slightly taller. For me, this is a good choice. There is no bulky lower bezel to distract from what you’re doing, watching, or playing on the display. The XPS 15 has an average brightness of 434.2 nits, making it bright enough for work and pleasure.
When I was viewing videos on my laptop, syncing my personal and work emails in Mail and using the laptop in my lap, I noticed that the MacBook Air got a little warm. However, it was nothing too unpleasant. On the touchpad, the keyboard, and underneath the MacBook Air, I found low-temperature readings below 95 degrees.
Meanwhile, with a discrete GPU squeezed into such a small body, the XPS 15’s fans can be pretty noisy. My laptop would periodically sound like a little jet plane if I ran several applications simultaneously, but this didn’t happen very often. The keypad and underbelly can also get hot. My heat gun registered temperatures near 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Stereo speakers on the MacBook Air enable users to watch Apple TV+ content or play iOS games in wide stereo sound. With this phone, you can make FaceTime calls using a three-array microphone with directional beamforming. When I’m sitting in my living room and listening to the stereo speakers on my MacBook Air, I’m amazed at their volume.
Despite this, the stereo speakers on the Dell XPS 15 are some of the best I have heard on a laptop and fill my living room with vivid sound. Dell’s XPS 15 includes an 8-watt peak performance Waves N.X. quad-speaker design with two 2.5-watt woofers and two 1.5-watt tweeters. The Audio Pro and Nx 3D audio features of Waves Maxx Audio Pro power this system. With Waves, the XPS speaker’s sound became much louder and richer. Presets like these were especially reliable for boosting genres such as Rock and Pop.
Apple’s MacBook Air M1 has two Thunderbolt 3 USB 4 ports on the side, just like its Intel-based predecessor. There is a headphone jack, too, as opposed to the XPS 13, which has two USB-C ports on the left side. You can connect devices on your right side more efficiently since the ports are split between the left and right sides.
Dell XPS 15 has three USB-C ports. Two of them are Thunderbolt 3 ports, which are optimized for ultra-fast connectivity, charging, and connecting to external displays and peripherals. The box also contains a full-sized S.D. card reader, a headphone jack, and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
The available functions keys on Apple’s M1 MacBook Pro have been changed. There is an Emoji Fn key, and Spotlight search has replaced the launchpad and the keyboard brightness controls. Using the Magic Keyboard on the MacBook Air, I typed 74 words per minute on the 10fastfingers typing test. The MacBook Air features a 4.8 x 3.2-inch Force Touch trackpad that can accurately recognize the input and scroll smoothly.
Contrary to this, the XPS 15’s keys are extremely comfortable to type on because of their soft coating, 9.7% larger keycaps, and 1.3mm travel. It features a wide, comfortable layout with keycaps that are larger and provide plenty of travel. The touchpad is much larger as well. Due to this, I never had hand fatigue when I typed for hours. I achieved a 99 percent accuracy rate on the 10FastFingers typing test while typing 90 words per minute. Now, I have been using my XPS 15 as a primary laptop for several days without any problems.
Apple decided to upgrade its MacBook for the Zoom era by adding a higher-resolution camera rather than adding a higher-resolution camera. The company claims the new ISP (Image Signal Processor) has improved the quality of FaceTime H.D.’s 720p camera. If you compare side-by-side, you can see a noticeable difference in dim lighting. MacBook Air laptops based on the M1 produce less grain and have better exposure. Even though it is still a 720p camera, the quality has improved, making it more useful.
Due to the XPS 15’s incredibly thin bezel, its 720p webcam is something of a miracle. This webcam is capable of Windows Hello. The webcam is of reasonable quality, but it is darker and fuzzier than the webcam I normally use. Even though the colors of the Spider-Man poster in my background are perfectly captured, my face looks pixelated and blotchy. Yet, I must credit Dell for fitting the webcam in the impossible-to-fit top bezel last year. You can still make regular calls with the webcam. When it comes to being seen clearly by your colleagues, you should get one of the best webcams as an add-on.
The above artcile gives you a detaild comaprison between Dell XPS 15 9500 and MacBook Air M1 and we found that MacBook M1 Air demonstrates the combination of its incredible endurance and startlingly fast speed that propels it to new heights. I would give the new MacBook Air 5 stars if it had more connectors and thinner bezels. People who live and work within the Apple ecosystem will find the MacBook Air to be the easiest purchase they’ve made in a long time.
While the Dell XPS 13 has a reduced bezel, it does not match the MacBook Air for performance or battery life. You could save $650 and add a few ports with the $999 Asus ZenBook 13, but you’d sacrifice battery life and performance.
The Dell XPS 15 9500 and MacBook Air M1 laptops perform well in real-world use, and both of them can maintain many browser tabs at once. However, the new MacBook Air with its M1 processor is the fastest in terms of sheer performance. The MacBook Air M1 is still my preferred choice, as it is less expensive and offers more features than the Dell XPS 15.
**Onlinecloudsecurity.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a way for websites to earn advertising revenues by advertising and linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate we earn affiliate commissions from qualifying purchases.**
Dave Miller is an IT Consultant for Online Cloud Security and has over 7 years of experience in the Information Technology space. He also specializes in repairing laptops & computers. In his spare time, he loves to talk about new technologies and hosts monthly IT and Cyber Security meetings in the Houston area.
Click any button down below to share this article on the following channels:
Online Cloud Security is here to recommend you the most secure devices, from laptops to smartphones, we only want to provide you with products that we have tested and used ourselves for online security. Every product that we recommend is heavily inspected and tested for security against hackers, viruses, malware, and any other intruders that may want to steal your information.
Online Cloud Security is here to recommend you the most secure devices, from laptops to smartphones, we only want to provide you with products that we have tested and used ourselves for online security. Every product that we recommend is heavily inspected and tested for security against hackers, viruses, malware, and any other intruders that may want to steal your information.
Your Trusted Source for Online Security
