Last year, Dell's Precision 5520 brought high expectations that were ultimately left unfulfilled. While the machine aimed to realize the dream of a thin-and-light workstation, performance hiccups and CPU instability poisoned the well and left a bad taste in our mouth. With that in mind, we approach the Precision 5530 with some trepidation. After all, the Precision 5530 is externally indistinguishable from the 5520. Has Dell made the internal changes needed to pack workstation performance into a highly portable chassis? We shall see.

The Precision 5530 is a carbon-copy of the Precision 5520, which is itself a copy of the Precision 5510. As the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it; the design language remains elegant and striking three years on, leaving little room for improvement. While we would like to see more ports, the Thunderbolt 3 connection opens up a world of peripheral options. Since the case has remained unchanged, we will skip discussion of the build quality, port selection, and input devices. For details on these pieces, please refer to our Precision 5520 review here.

The Dell Precision 5530 sits in a unique space in the laptop world. While it uses similar components to mid-range workstations, it fits them into a case similar to ultrabooks. As such, we will compare the Precision 5530 to a variety of other workstations. Some manufacturers have picked up the "thin-and-light" design language and translated it to their workstation lines with varying success. These include the Lenovo ThinkPad P52s and the MSI WS63VR. We will also compare staples in the workstation world, including Lenovo's ThinkPad P51, the HP ZBook 15 G4, and Dell's Precision 3530. Let's dive in.

