DELL G15 5521 SPECIAL EDITION GAMING LAPTOP REVIEW.
Dell G15 5521 special edition gaming laptop review offering some of the fastest scores ever seen with the new intel 12700H coupled with a full-on 130W RTX 3060.
UPDATE 17-12-20 DELL- cares team Vrishnika is NOW on the case please read all the way down.
Let us start by saying this has to be one of the fastest RTX 3060 laptops on planet earth in fact it even surprised us and benchmarks are topping it out on par with an average score of the 2080 super.
The build quality is the best we have seen in ages from dell and the only weak spot of the entire unit is the gen 3 SSD from WD its not a bad drive in its own right but the board is the gen 4 compatible so why install a cheaper drive seems too stupid to fully understand their logic here!
The good news is it’s very easy to upgrade to a gen 4 by cloning or new windows 11 install.
Ok, the way to prove our results is by showing them by the actual unit in question just be prepared to be astonished by the results.
Before we begin let us just say these are CPU and GPU stock clocks no overclocking or under volting was carried out.
Above is one of the fastest results recorded for the 12700H on CPU-Z.
Above was the result on the latest performance 10.2 as you can see not many 3060s can reach this result which shows how fast this Dell gaming unit really also notes the speed of the CPU in fact this unit has surpassed 31576 in recent testing of this unit. check the score below.
To prove this unit was not over-clocked above is the result on the user benchmark and once the SSD gets upgraded this laptop will fly even higher in the workstation benchmark.
Next, we have an amazing Geekbench score as seen above.
To prove just how fast this GPU is in this review check out the Novabench score above.
Cinebench r23 really shows what this 12700h is really capable of above, such a laptop powerhouse can keep its owner happy for years to come.
Next, we have PC Mark 10 and Time Spy results respectfully.
The Screen on this laptop is one of the best we have ever seen its a refresh of 240hz QHD and its quick response time is overkill but we are not complaining at its 430 nits brightness either.
Lastly, we have the weak point of this system, it is very functional but 2.5 times slower than it needs to be, users would not notice it was slow other than high data transfer users but is relatively cheap to upgrade and keep it as a backup drive.
Penny-pinching by Dell was not one of their best choices here, if they wanted to save money then don’t build a killer gaming laptop by saving themselves £10 on a £1600 laptop.
By the way, this unit was in fact a £980 refurbished unit that had no wear and was in pristine condition supplied directly by Dell outlet and paid in full without sponsorship.
After tweaking and updating to Windows 22h2 here is a good average score with zero overclocking on userbench https://forums.passmark.com/pc-hardware-and-benchmarks/53573-dell-g15-5520-5521-rtx3060-benchmark-not-registering-score
UPDATE ON the first of September 2022. I updated the latest bios and noticed it broke the AWCC trying to find a fix and Dell is aware and promising a fix soon.
Update 4th November AWCC critical AWCC driver – uploaded still broken and requires windows H22 update to kind of work but thermals still causing CPU to overheat reaching 100 c within 6 minutes on a stress test or high usage. Search on the web for permanent solutions before you buy going forward.
Update 15th of November 2022 Last Tuesday Dell sent out the first tech guy in yes 3 months after first reported, he tested the motherboard, and was reaching 106 c NOT GOOD he replaced both cooling fans and applied proper thermal paste initially came down 3 degrees but after a week it’s basically back to 105c.
He advised motherboard may be faulty as the CPU should not exceed 95 c but hitting 100c for a very brief time is OK. Dell who-cares emailed me yesterday morning asking if all was well, I stated it was NOT!
I love this laptop but not its heat or CPU throttling and fear it will one day either fail or melt or both, I have asked Dell to either Replace the UNIT or upgrade at my cost to the 5521 with the 12900h version as it seems to be error free or an Alienware upgrade at my cost.
Dell now wants to offer a full refund after letting me hang on for the solution that has taken them over 3 months is ridiculous in this day and age of tech.
Hopefully, the Dell Cares Team will see sense and act in a responsible manner but either way, I will report back to my loyal tech readers whatever way it goes, I will let you guys know.
Trumpy Aka Brian just for the dell cares team T0 READ this morning.
UPDATE 12-12-2022 Last night I was told, not asked that they were coming to get this faulty motherboard laptop and no exchange of any kind was going to be offered, tonight the Dell cares team has written and confirmed it has been passed to a replacement Dell Rep whatever that means as was pointed out by myself this is after 300+ messages 3.5 months and 440 hours logged so far is quite frankly disgusting on a personal level and most readers know I am a severely disabled and sick person, but I am not dead yet!
UPDATE 6-01-2023 Well it only took over 4 weeks to actually get a replacement unit and yes this one is fantastic with only a slight screen bleed at bottom of the screen temps now hits 99c but only very briefly and mostly at 91c tops.
Yes this 5521 is still worth it but Dell has got to get to grips with terrible customer care, I don’t think individually they are bad I just think there are far too many Indians with almost no chiefs to control or manage them. It must be costing Dell Inc a small fortune to run a worldwide business model like this and I fear for their future.
