This midrange HP laptop beats the Dell XPS 15 in one important way

Dell’s XPS 15 has found its place on a number of our best-of lists, including best laptops and best 15-inch laptops. There are a number of reasons for those accolades, including a robust, yet relatively thin and light design, as well as strong performance and lovely displays.

But that doesn’t mean it faces no competition. HP’s Envy 16 2023 is a 16-inch laptop that gives the XPS 15 a run for its money. It’s around the same price and offers similar or better performance. Is that enough to replace the XPS 15 on our lists?

Specs and configurations

Right now, HP only lists one configuration of the Envy 16 2023 on its website. But when I reviewed the laptop, there were several configurations available. The basic model cost $1,350 with a Core i5-13500H, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, an Intel Arc A370M GPU, and a 16-inch WQXGA IPS display running at 120Hz. At the high end, you’ll spend $2,685 for a Core i9-13900H, 32GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, and a 2.8K OLED panel also running at 120Hz. We reviewed a midrange configuration, priced at $1,750 for the Core i9, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an RTX 4060, and the IPS display.

The XPS 15 also has a range of configurations. As of when this comparison is being written, the low-end model is $1,299 for a Core i7-13700H, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, an Intel Arc A370M GPU, and a 15.6-inch FHD+ IPS panel. Fully configured, it’s $4,349 for a Core i9-13900H, 64GB of RAM, an 8TB SSD, an RTX 4070, and a 3.5K OLED display. We reviewed the laptop with a Core i7-13700H, 16GGB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an RTX 4070, and the OLED panel, and it costs $2,399.

You can spend more on the XPS 15 due to higher RAM and storage options, but the Envy 16 you’ll want to buy is more expensive than the equivalent XPS 15. That’s a bit of a surprise since the Envy 16 falls in HP’s midrange lineup while the XPS 15 is a premium laptop through and through.

Design

The XPS 15’s design hasn’t changed in several generations. That’s not a bad thing, really, because it’s an attractive laptop with its aluminum lid and bottom chassis, as well as a carbon fiber keyboard deck. It’s also built incredibly well, with no flexing, bending, or twisting, plus a hinge that’s dual-clutched and smooth as butter when opening the lid. Its hinge also opens smoothly, although not quite as nicely as the XPS 15’s, and there’s a bit more wobble in the display when you’re working hard.

The Envy 16 is also solid, although it doesn’t give off quite the same feel of quality as the XPS 15. It’s a simple design that’s attractive and doesn’t stand out, which is the trend among mainstream laptops today.

The XPS 15 has one of the best keyboards on a Windows laptop, with large keycaps and plenty of key spacing to go with switches that are snappy and precise. The Envy 16’s keyboard is almost as good, but just doesn’t provide quite the same confident feel when typing very fast. The XPS 15 also has a larger touchpad that takes up all available space on the palm rest, while the Envy 16’s is smaller than it could be. Both work well, with quite, confident clicks, so most users likely wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them.

Connectivity favors the Envy 16, which has several legacy ports to go with its Thunderbolt 4 ports. The XPS 15 has just USB-C and Thunderbolt 4, so you’ll appreciate the dongle that Dell includes in the box. The XPS 15 does have a full-size SD card reader versus the Envy 16’s microSD card reader, so that’s a plus. The Envy 16 also has the latest wireless connectivity while the XPS 15 is a generation behind.

Another win for the Envy 16 is its 5MP webcam, which provides a much better image for videoconferencing than the XPS 15’s 72op version. Both laptops have infrared cameras for Windows 11 Hello password-less login, and the XPS 15 also has a fingerprint reader embedded in the power button.

Performance

Both laptops equip variants of Intel’s 13th-gen 45-watt CPUs. The Core i7-13700H and Core i9-13900H are both 14-core (six Performance and eight Efficient), 20-thread processors, while the Core i7 maxes out at 5.0GHz and the Core i9 at 5.4GHz. At the same time, the Envy 16 used the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 while the XPS 15 used an underpowered version of the RTX 4070 running at just 40 watts.

The higher speed of the Core i9 in the Envy 16 gave it a leg up in our CPU-intensive benchmarks, although the difference in performance wasn’t drastic. In the PugetBench Premiere Pro benchmark that runs in a live version of Adobe’s Premiere Pro and uses the GPU to speed up a variety of processes, the laptops were evenly matched in their performance modes. The XPS 15 would have been faster if its GPU wasn’t underclocked so severely.

As it stands, both can handle the most demanding productivity tasks while also meeting the needs of creators. Neither stands out.

Display and audio

Dell sent us a review unit sporting its 3.5K (3,456 x 2,160) OLED display, which provides phenomenal colors and deep, inky-black contrast. It’s much better than the IPS panel that HP sent us on our Envy 16 2023 review unit. You can get a 2.8K (2,880 x 1,800) OLED display with the Envy that won’t be as sharp, but will provide similar performance in colors and contrast.

It’s worth the extra money to get the Envy 16 2023 with the OLED panel, and if you do, then its close to evenly matched with the XPS 15. Stick with the IPS panel, though, and you’ll be happy with how it performs with your productivity tasks, but disappointed with creative work and media streaming.

Both laptops have quad-speaker setups, with two downward-firing and two upward-firing speakers. But Dell’s implementation is much better, offering the best audio you’ll find in a Windows laptop. Mids and highs are crystal clear, and there’s enough bass to make a difference in certain musical genres and action TV shows and movies. Only Apple’s latest MacBook Pros have better audio than the XPS 15.

Portability

The XPS 15 is thinner and lighter than the Envy 16 2023, making it slightly easier to carry around. But both are large laptops that you’ll notice in your backpack.

In terms of battery life, the XPS 15 managed much better longevity, even with a more power-hungry OLED display. Both laptops have similarly sized batteries, and so Dell just did a better job of optimizing efficiency. Yes, the Envy 16’s CPU is clocked higher, but that’s not enough to account for the hours of difference in battery life.

The Envy 16 puts up a good fight, but the XPS 15 wins out

The Envy 16 is just as fast as the XPS 15, even while using a lower-end GPU, but that’s it’s only real win in this shootout. The XPS 15 is more solidly built, it’s more attractive, and it has a better keyboard and touchpad. It also gets better battery life and has a sharper OLED display.

If the Envy 16 were less expensive than the XPS 15 with the same configuration, then it would be a more compelling option. As it is, the XPS 15 is simply a more refined laptop that’s better worth its investment.