Dell XPS 15.6" 9510 2021, Core i7-11800H, 16GB, 512GB SSD, RTX 3050, Gray

The Dell XPS 9510's 4K OLED touchscreen is the star here, landing in the 97th percentile for display quality. The 8-core i7 and RTX 3050 handle everyday and light creative work fine, but 4GB VRAM kills gaming and AI ambitions. At CAD 2,240 refurbished, it's a premium screen with dated internals. Buy it for the display, not the performance.

The Core i7-11800H is a solid 8-core chip that can boost up to 4.6GHz. In our database it lands at the 64th percentile for CPU performance, which is about average for laptops overall but respectable for a 2021 machine. For everyday multitasking, photo editing, and even some video work, it'll keep up fine. The 16GB of RAM is enough for most creative tasks, though it sits at the 37th percentile, so heavy multitaskers might feel the squeeze.

The RTX 3050 with 4GB of VRAM is where things get interesting. It's at the 75th percentile for GPU performance, which is well above average, but that 4GB VRAM buffer is the real constraint. Modern games at 4K will choke on that, and even 1080p gaming with high textures can exceed 4GB. The 4K OLED display is gorgeous, but you won't be gaming at native resolution on this GPU. For creative apps that use GPU acceleration, the 3050 helps, but it's not a rendering powerhouse.

Against the Apple MacBook Pro M4 Max, the XPS 9510 gets absolutely demolished in performance, battery life, and efficiency. The M4 Max is a different class of machine entirely, and if you have the budget, it's the obvious choice for creative work. But the MacBook Pro M4 Max costs a lot more, and the XPS 9510's OLED touchscreen is something Apple still doesn't offer.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and Lenovo Legion Pro 7i are gaming-focused machines that will run circles around the XPS 9510 in GPU-bound tasks. The Legion Pro 7i especially has far more GPU horsepower and better cooling. But those machines are thicker, heavier, and don't have 4K OLED displays. The HP OMEN Transcend 14 and MSI Prestige are closer in spirit to the XPS, but the MSI Prestige is more of a productivity machine without the gaming pretensions. If you want a thin laptop with a great screen and light gaming capability, the XPS 9510 holds its own. If you want real gaming performance, look elsewhere.

At CAD 2,240 for a refurbished unit, the value proposition is tricky. You're paying a premium for that 4K OLED screen and the XPS build quality, but the underlying hardware is from 2021. A new laptop at this price in 2025 would likely have a newer CPU, more RAM, more storage, and WiFi 6. The 512GB SSD is particularly stingy for a machine marketed toward creators who work with 4K content.

That said, if you specifically want a 4K OLED touch display in a premium chassis, this is one of the cheaper ways to get it. New machines with comparable screens often cost significantly more. The refurbished angle means you're rolling the dice on battery health and overall condition, though the 4.8 out of 5 rating from existing buyers suggests the refurbisher is doing decent work.

The Dell XPS 9510 is one of those machines that makes you do a double take when you see the screen. A 15.6 inch 4K OLED touch display on a laptop from 2021, and it still lands in the 97th percentile for screen quality in our database. That's the absolute best right now territory, and it's the main reason this thing still gets attention a few years after release. The rest of the package is a mixed bag, but that display is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

This is a refurbished unit, so the price tag of CAD 2,240 comes with some context. You're getting an 11th gen Intel Core i7-11800H with 8 cores, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an RTX 3050 with 4GB of VRAM. For a creator or someone who wants a gorgeous screen for media consumption, that's a compelling combo. For gaming or AI workloads, the 4GB VRAM is going to feel tight fast.

The XPS 9510 sits in a weird spot. It's not a gaming laptop, not a workstation, and not an ultraportable. It's a premium multimedia machine with a discrete GPU that's just powerful enough to matter. If you're editing photos, watching 4K content, or doing light creative work, this could be a sweet spot. If you're training models or pushing high-refresh gaming, you'll hit walls quickly.

Gamers should skip this. The RTX 3050 with 4GB VRAM is not a gaming GPU by modern standards, and the 4K display means you'll be running games at non-native resolutions with compromised settings. If gaming matters, look at the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 or Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, both of which offer far more GPU horsepower for similar or less money.

AI enthusiasts and anyone running local LLMs should also look elsewhere. The AI LLM score of 27.5 out of 100 is a real letdown, and 4GB VRAM simply can't hold meaningful models. If you need AI capability, prioritize machines with 12GB or more of VRAM. And if you need lots of ports for peripherals, the XPS 9510's port selection is disappointing, landing in the 20th percentile. You'll be living the dongle life.

For someone who wants a stunning 4K OLED touchscreen for media consumption, photo editing, and light creative work, the XPS 9510 is still a compelling option. The display alone justifies a lot of the price, and the 8-core CPU keeps things responsive. Just know that you're buying a 2021 machine in 2025, and the storage and RAM are on the lean side.

For gamers or anyone interested in AI workloads, this is not the machine. The 4GB VRAM on the RTX 3050 is a hard ceiling, and the AI LLM score of 27.5 out of 100 in our database is one of the worst we've seen for that use case. If you need GPU muscle, put your money toward a machine with at least 8GB of VRAM. If you need a beautiful screen and a premium feel, the XPS 9510 delivers.