Dell admits to wobbly trackpads on the XPS 15 (9500), will ship improved laptops going forward

By Sean Endicott
published

Dell's had to fix a trackpad issue in the XPS 15 that causes a wobble and pre-click.

Dell Xps 15 9500 Keyboard Trackpad
Dell Xps 15 9500 Keyboard Trackpad (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Dell has figured out how to fix the XPS 15 (9500)'s trackpad issues and will shipped fixed united going forward.
  • People with affected laptops can contact Dell customer support and have the situation "remediated."
  • Affected trackpads have a "pre-click" and a noticeable wobble when pressed.

Dell's new XPS 15 (9500) has a trackpad issue that causes some unit's trackpads to wobble. The issue can cause a noticeable rock back and forth when you press on the corners of the XPS 15's trackpad. The issue is common enough that Dell sent out an email to reviewers of the device. In its statement, Dell explains that going forward, XPS 15 units that ship won't have this issue and that anyone who purchased an XPS 15 affected by the issue can contact Dell customer support to "have it remediated."

Here's the complete statement from Dell:

Dell is aware that some XPS 15 9500 customers might be experiencing an issue with their touchpad. We have identified and resolved this issue on all systems shipping in June 2020 and beyond. While functionality is not affected, it does not meet the stringent quality and experience standards we set for ourselves. Any current XPS 15 9500 customers experiencing this issue can contact Dell customer support to have it remediated.

The issue was flagged up by popular tech reviewer Dave Lee, who discusses the issue in a recent video. You can jump to the 5:52 mark in the video to see and hear the issue. Lee states, "I think it's just a quality control thing from Dell. This shouldn't be an issue, right? This shouldn't be something that the users have to put up with," later adding, "On a device that is this expensive, and this premium, from a company like Dell, this really should not be a thing at all."

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Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com (opens in new tab).

7 Comments
  • How did this get past their quality control? I expect something like this from Acer, perhaps, but not dell.
  • Yeah it seems to me XPS is priced to expensive if this is the quality control (especially compared to e.g. Zenbooks or such). It seems the Inspiron is a better deal than (probably same quality control but lower price so its more in balance) or their business line like Latitude or Precision (slightly more expensive for much better quality control I would guess?).
    Still would probably consider the XPS 17 if I would be interested in clamshell laptops, that one is kind of an unique beast.
  • Dave was referring to the 17".
  • 4:40 mark of Dave's video he states that the issue affects both the XPS 15 and 17 but is "definitely more pronounced and more annoying on the XPS 15 unit."
  • Thanks for clarifying.
  • I had a xps 13 9300 (2020 model) that I returned because of this same issue. If you would pick it up from the side the deck would flex so badly that it would register clicks on the track pad. I really wanted to love the xps 13 but that was a deal breaker for the price of the machine. It also had allot of driver issues but those probably would have been sorted out over time.
  • They didn't improve anything. I ordered on July 10th, received July 17th and it still had the issue. Buyer be warned.