Dell Precision 5690: What Real Users Say About Reliability

Connect everything to the dock and then you should have only one connection to the PC which simultaneously charges and connects you to your mouse and monitor. If you don't need the laptop monitor as a second display, I'd get a keyboard and put the laptop in a vertical stand for more desk space.

I ordered and received a 5680, then a few days later the 5690 was announced. I'm returning the 5680 and the 5690 is scheduled to arrive in a couple days. They look to be very similar except for the new core ultra processors, wifi 7, bluetooth 5.4, and all three ports are now Thunderbolt 4. The similar spec 5690 was about $350 more. I liked the 5680 for the limited time I had it. Powerful, solid build, and battery life was reasonable.

I've received. I haven't done battery testing, but the battery life seems good (much better than my 3 year old Precision 5750). It should get a several hours of run time. I was concerned that with the 165W power supply I would need higher output to charge. However, I used it with a 65W charger on a plane and it maintains the battery level. I also briefly connected an external battery pack and it was able to charge.

I bought one in late 2023, motherboard blew out within 40 days and I asked for a new model to which I was told I miss the cutout by 10 days. Dell used to be good, it sucks now.

I have a Precision 7670 from work. The motherboard and battery have already been replaced and I'm still having issues. The battery life is awful — about an hour. The industry is screaming for quality machines.

The 3000 and 5000 series are thin and light designs that are not really meant for prolonged high GPU or CPU usage. I bet a lot of the failures that are being seen are thermal related. Even the 7000 series is too thin now.

Looks like just a spec bump from the 5680, which is already known to be a very good laptop. I myself own it.

If anything, my i9 doesn't throttle at all, doesn't even get that hot. Even without the vapor chamber (only on 5000 Ada), the thermals are impressive.

I did, it's objectively a great machine. It will feel very comfortable and familiar to you if you're used to the XPS pre 2024 changes (so, up to the XPS 15 2023). The build, keyboard, and screen are as great as ever (the trackpad bigger, the keys slightly bigger than on the XPS 2019).

What you've shared looks like a great machine. Take a look for it in the factory refurbished Dell Precision workstations section on the Delloutlet.com site. You can get some screaming deals there AND they come with full factory 3 year warranties. I swear by them and have only bought these machines as my CAD machines for nearly 20 years.

In 20 years working IT this is honestly the worst machine I have ever worked on. On paper, this should be a speed demon but the hardware doesn't seem to play nice together. User has now asked if we can return this to Dell (we can't) and I am getting him the standard Latitude.

I have the Precision 7680 and I can't say this strongly enough... I HATE this laptop. On paper it looks like a beast but in real life, it is so disappointing. It runs hotter than my previous Dell Latitude. I have also had issues with the monitor blacking out and requiring a series of power supply changes.

I had precision 5560, 5570, 5760, 5480 — it's basically XPS with different video card, so if you like XPS like me it will be nice. Newer model 5680 has soldered ram and one M.2 slot and is overpriced which is not good so I don't want to upgrade.

The touch screen really has no value for me and they're both locked at 60hz so I am debating whether to go with the much lower res FHD or the OLED. My OLED concerns are from a lot of the varying feedback I have read about burn-in and battery — I intend to replace an old desktop tower with the 5690, so it will likely be used as a second monitor with a dock and external display as the main driver for work (8-10 hours daily).

I need to upgrade my work computer as well, but need the 5690 to get SolidWorks certified first.

At first, I opted for the regular FHD display, but could not bear looking at that pixelated screen for too long... I had gotten used to 4K since my old XPS 15, and honestly, going back is impossible! It was a mistake. Anyway, I returned the machine, ordered the same one with the 4K OLED, and all is well. My advice: Go 4K, your eyes will say thank you.

I got the Precision 5690 with almost maxxed out specs and Ubuntu. Really liking it so far. Very relieved they didn't do the horrible touchbar at top of keyboard like the new XPS machines. Crazy Dell can't see what a flop that was for Apple who reverted. It is heavy though — support told me this one would weigh between 2.03kg and 2.17kg depending on the specs.

I switched from 7550 to 5690 with 185H, 64GB RAM, Ada 2000. It's good, light high performance laptop. It has great cooling, tried to play Stalker 2 (4xxx series has Frame Gen), it's on 2K great. Only problem I got when enhancing videos with max performance mode in Dell Power Management, it's slowly discharging on WD19S dock with 240W charger in it.

Yep, it's really big step — just CPU has +100% speed up. I had to do some things on 7550 and I was thinking like WTF how I could work on slow machine like that. You don't know it until you know faster one.

Just got one, coming from a Precision 5530 it seems less soft and smudgy than that fake carbon fiber rubberized coating. I mostly just use mine on the dock though when I do take it off I usually wipe it down at least once.

I like it a lot. I was also deciding between the two (5690 vs XPS 16), but went with the 5690 for a few reasons: real function keys, visible track pad, more customization, higher spec available, and supposedly better Precision over XPS quality.

The Dell has the RTX 2000 ADA, not the A2000. They are vastly different GPUs, and while the RTX 2000 ADA is most definitely built for productivity over gaming, you will absolutely not find a laptop for less than $1,000 new that would even come close to the gaming performance of the 5690 with even the RTX 1000 ADA. The Dell has two NVME slots that support up to 8TB drives in each.

The Mac port of BG3 is not as well optimized nor is it updated with patches as quickly as the Windows version. So the RTX card would be the better option for overall performance in that specific title. The Dell might be available with a high-resolution OLED touchscreen — that would absolutely put it over the top.

just got a precision 5690 and its a piece of shit. the track pad is insanely sensitive, i have Bluetooth and audio issues, the fan goes into jet engine mode often and ive had the mobo replaced once also.

I did return the laptop and got Macbook Pro 16 M4. Dell was glitching every 15 min from random freezes to blue screen. However, I did change something in the BIOS menu for display output — in BIOS you can search 'Display' or 'Monitor' and it gives you the option to enable it.

I'm starting to suspect the HDMI 2.1 port doesn't support full 48Gbps bandwidth. I've got one of these running Ubuntu for work, connected to a Samsung Odyssey G9 57 inch monitor, and it's maxing out at something like 5120x1440 and 60hz. I didn't see before that the HDMI port was tied to the iGPU — I just saw that it had HDMI 2.1, and figured I'd be good to go.

I am facing something very similar with my Dell Precision 7680 (RTX 3500 Ada). The laptop is only 1.5 years old, and it has already failed four times. Dell has replaced the motherboard three times, plus memory, heatsink, battery, and cables. Even with Pro Plus support, which is supposed to be next-business-day, every repair has taken 5–30 days.

Since making this post we've probably replaced about 5-10 more. My coworker has a pile of them on his desk waiting to go back to Dell. It's pathetic. Thankfully, we're moving on from the Precisions (only took 2 years). Gonna see how the Lenovo P16's fair.

I got a 5680 and it's been a shitshow. Powerful specs - yes; useless in every other aspect. Looking to sell it asap and get a Macbook.

Within the first month this computer crashed and went into an endless booting system over and over with no end. Screen didn't work. Couldn't do anything to it. Sent it back and within a week, got the same issue, and sent it back again. The speakers of the computer cut out within the second month, and it's been nothing but audio problems since.

Keep in mind the RAM is soldered on the Precision 5000 series so you can't upgrade later despite the misleading 2x16GB description. If you prefer this form factor I would drop the GPU down a little and up the RAM — the RTX 5000 is limited in its power draw in this model anyway.

SW 2024 + RTX 1000 Ada needs the certified driver not NVIDIA's latest. Grab it from the SolidWorks Hardware Certification page then in NVIDIA Control Panel + Windows Graphics settings set SW to High Performance. In SW disable enhanced Graphics Performance — fixes most new Dell Precision crash issues.

I also have the Precision 5690 and the internal webcam suddenly stopped working. I'm sending it out to Dell as I have it covered under my warranty, but am curious if they fixed it for you.

I'm only speaking from experience, but my 5680 can't really do 8-9 hours with web browsing, and I have the 4K display. When I had the 1080p one sure, I think 8-9 hours were doable but with very light use. If you care about battery life, Macbooks are still the best option (or maybe some Ryzen laptops).

The only thing I'm a bit concerned about is potential thermal throttling with the Core Ultra 9... I hope some thorough review will talk about that.

Yes, we're seeing major issues with SK Hynix SSDs that come with the Dells. After a lot of back and forth with Dell, we discovered it was actually CPU related and they released a driver to fix it + a BIOS patch to disable C-States.

Can anyone with the 5690 confirm if the HDMI 2.1 port supports full 48Gbps bandwidth? I'm concerned because Dell indicates the HDMI port is connected to the Intel iGPU.

From the reviews, I'm seeing that the laptop can survive up to 9 hours or so. Hopefully with undervolting, I'm able to get close to 12 hours? Plus, all the snapdragon laptops do have issues with their drivers and stuff. So, probably need to wait for another year for all of it to be stable. I guess I am getting the Precision after all then.

Dell Precision 5690 vs XPS 16 (2024) — really tough choice. I checked out the XPS 16 in person and the larger screen is nice, but the mousepad is weird. Still a $800 difference with the Precision being higher in the configuration I'm looking at.

I am looking to replace my XPS 9500 and I absolutely hate the soft/rubber/carbon material that is impossible to keep clean because of the softness. Is the palmrest of the 5690 harder material?

I have the same issue with mine (just acquired) Dell Precision 5690. I have only one monitor Dell Ultrasharp 27 U2723QE with USB-C Hub. And... nothing is working from Thunderbolt ports, only charging. Only video signal works from the right USB-C port (USB-C with DisplayPort Alt mode).