XMG DJ 15 Review The laptop designed for DJs

This is a detailed review of the XMG DJ 15, the first laptop built for DJs. Low DPC Latency, tested by DJs, flexible connectivity reliable and heat-resistant. You will find my full review, tests, and the questions I asked XMG. This review will clear your buying decision.

State of the MacBooks

For over a decade the laptop of choice to run DJ’s software was dominated by the MacBook specifically the MacBook Pro. When software like Serato scratch live started to mature apple’s notebook computer became the predominant choice amongst DJs for its reliability build quality power as well as aesthetics.

For the non-tech-savvy DJs it was simple it just worked. While some windows machines at the time could match or exceed the power specs of the MacBook.

The number of choices on the market made the decision-making a bit convoluted. While hardware could range from low-cost notebooks to high-powered gaming machines.

The windows operating system from a decade ago was full of bloat and it sometimes caused reliability issues when running DJ software. If you’re not that comfortable getting under the hood and optimizing your machine you could sometimes run into some problems.

Windows has come a long way ever since and windows 10 today is much more reliable but still the number of choices out there can still make choosing a windows laptop still a little confusing.

Because what a lot of people don’t know it’s not just the operating system that affects the way the DJ software works. It’s also the parts of the hardware that can affect the performance and latency of audio processing. At this time apple is going through a paradigm shift with the mac platform. There are actually two shifts there’s:

A shift from mac os 10 to mac os 11 which is known as Bigsur. Another shift with the type of processor that the computers run is going from intel to apple silicon. Many DJ software and hardware companies are doing what they can to scramble to get their gear and software ready to work with big sur.

Recently Pioneer DJ announced compatibility with big sur with a list of items that can both work with the operating system and the M1 MacBooks. Serato just recently released a beta version of Serato DJ Pro that is big sur compatible but it’s not ready yet for the M1 MacBooks.

With many applications and hardware still waiting on big sur and M1 compatibility. It’s not really a wise time for DJs to buy a new mac machine. Even if it’s intel equipped and that’s because brand new macs are always equipped with the latest operating system and it doesn’t allow you to go back. So what is the alternative?

The XMG DJ 15

Is there a windows laptop out there that can meet or exceed the performance demands of both running DJ software and using it with DJ hardware? This is the XMG DJ 15. It’s the first windows notebook computer designed to be used with DJ software.

Who exactly is XMG?

They are a computer company that is based in Germany and they specialized in gaming laptops. Unofficially xmg stands for extreme multimedia and gaming. XMG is actually part of Schenker. The XMG DJ 15 is one of the recent products and it’s not a gaming laptop and it’s also not a lifestyle laptop.

It’s a laptop specifically optimized to run smoothly with DJ software. It achieves a less than one millisecond DPC latency. The way they did that was that they did tests of different hardware combinations and chose the ones that produce the least amount of DPC latency. Also, the bios were modified as well as windows. This version of windows on this laptop is bloat-free. It’s the closest thing you can have to vanilla windows installation.

It allows for smooth DJ software operation at the lowest buffer settings. With just about no glitches that are caused by background operations.

The best stress test that I’ve actually seen on this machine was the one done by RK from XMG. It’s actually what caught my attention to the laptop. He ran four different DJ software applications simultaneously and was triggering something in each one of them. When you actually look at the meter the resource usage remains stable and relatively low.

Laptop configurations

For the configurations the processors come in two choices: You either get a 4 core i5. It’s 1.6 gigahertz with a turbo boost of 4.2 gigahertz. Or you have also the 4 core i7 and it’s 1.8 gigahertz with a turbo boost of 4.9.

16-gigabyte ram is the standard but you have your option to go up to 32. For storage, you have all-solid-state options with a choice of SATA or PCI express. You can start at 500 gigabytes or one terabyte or two terabytes.

The graphics it’s integrated graphics only it doesn’t come with an option for a dedicated GPU.

Price

What exactly is the price of the DJ 15? It can vary from country to country so what the numbers I’m going to give you is what they are priced locally where they came from which is Germany. The reason for this is because in Europe they have the vat (the value-added tax) and the price of components like the SSD can vary.

The price for a XMG DJ 15 containing an Intel i5 with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB storage is 1100 euro.

Tmax configuration which is the i7 with the 32 gigs of ram and 2 terabytes solid-state that’s no more than 1500 euro. For you, mac users out there keep in mind this laptop a solid-state drive and the ram are user-replaceable.

You can start out with standard configurations and upgrade later. One of the things that are mind-blowing about XMG is they actually have a really really amazing warranty. The included standard warranty is good for 24 months with quick repairs for up to six months. If you’re willing to pay extra for extended warranties there’s a total of six tiers of warranties. The platinum warranty which is the highest warranty option is 89 euro. That’s covered for 36 months with 36 months of quick repair.

What we liked

Let’s talk about the fun part what do I like. I like the fact that it’s light it’s actually lighter than my equivalent-sized MacBook pros which is a 15 inch and older 15 inch from 2013 and the recent 16 inch. This is a light laptop. One of the things I noticed is it seems like it has a soft bottom because it has a resin bottom cover but it doesn’t actually flex. It’s very sturdy the aluminum actually keeps the body pretty rigid. It has really large thermal vents and it includes a fan control utility built-in.

Touchpad

The trackpad is very smooth it doesn’t make any mistakes and the fingerprint security is right on the trackpad. It has two dedicated buttons for your left click and your right click and it does do multi-gesture.

Keyboard

I love chiclet keyboards and I love the one that’s on here especially since it’s backlit. It’s not individually backlit but you can change the colors just like a gaming laptop. I usually keep it at teal or blue. There is a utility to control the colors and the brightness and when the backlight actually activates.

Display

The display is a matte finish to reduce glare. We know why we gotta reduce glare because if we’re in a dark nightclub or event and dance lights are going everywhere we don’t want to be blinded by the reflections coming from your laptop. Macbooks are generally made in gloss for contrast but they can be a little bit above pain when you have a lot of light especially coming from behind you.

It’s not the brightest screen I’ve seen in the world but it’s pretty good it’s more than bright enough for an indoor event or a nightclub. One of the things about a notebook computer that a lot of reviewers like to do is can you do a one-finger open of the screen. Unfortunately on the XMG DJ 15, the bottom half is not heavy enough to stay put when you’re opening the screen. So it does require two hands. However, for a DJ laptop, I’m actually cool with that because that means the hinges are a lot more stable.

One of the things I hate is when the desk is moving or the room is vibrating from the subwoofers is a constantly wobbling display. The DJ 15 seems to have a more rigid lid. The framerate is spot on even at 60 frames per second it looks super smooth. One of the other things I like is the fact of how it’s optimized.

The hardware parts that were picked the modified bios and the modified windows all to reduce DPC latency. Keep in mind DPC latency isn’t exactly related to how little buffer size you can set it to. It’s more about whether the computer can actually maintain a smooth operation at low buffer settings. Dj apps like Rekordbox and Serato DJ Pro open relatively fast but more importantly the bootup and the shutdown of this laptop are also relatively fast. It actually shocked me how fast it could go from on to off and then off to on.

Ports

The other thing that’s awesome about this laptop is the number of ports that are on it. It’s a thin laptop it’s a light laptop but it’s very for pro use for the application that it was built for. On the right side, we got our power supply, USB 3.0 USB 2.0 and then we got our microphone and headphones.

On the left side, we have USB type c with a thunderbolt, we’ve got a mini DisplayPort output, we got HDMI, sd card reader and we got ethernet. You can also use the USB type-c port to charge which is how I normally use it in my setup.

To finish up where I like like I mentioned earlier the parts are upgradable the SSD and the ram so you can start out at a lower spec and then upgrade it later.

What we don’t like

Touchpad dislikes

While I do like the smoothness of the trackpad, I am used to the apple trackpad, which is a single click multi-touch pad there are no buttons on it. I can use it by tapping it but I do prefer feeling the haptic feedback or the click of the trackpad. That way I’m not always going down looking for the buttons but I know that’s just my spoiled apple side.

You can just Bluetooth your trackpad to the XMG. Which I did when I first opened the laptop.

Also here’s another thing the trackpad is actually slightly offset to the left but it’s not centered to the keyboard. Because of that I always find myself going into the keyboard, one key to the right just a little too far and not being centered with it. I wish the trackpad was just centered with the keyboard so that way it’s easier to align yourself with the proper way your fingers are supposed to line up with the keyboard.

Keyboard Dislikes

While I do like the chiclet-style keyboard I don’t like the fact that it has a number pad because I don’t really find much of a use for having it. Maybe there are uses for it but with controlling DJ software I don’t really find myself needing to go that way.

What would be cool is to just take the keyboard center it and you’re going to have space on the left and right and have a centered trackpad. Then use the remaining space for some speakers.

Speakers Dislikes

My next point the speakers are actually firing from basically underneath the laptop off to each side. when you first see these you think this is part of the cooling system, no these are the speakers.

Do you know how good they sound?

Let’s just say my iPhone’s speaker when playing back music sounds better than what’s coming out of the laptop speakers. In fact, I’m comparing it to an iPhone 6s a really old iPhone and it sounds clearer for my phone than it does coming out of the XMG DJ 15, the only advantage is it’s in stereo.

While DJ laptops you would be using it with DJ gear anyway. DJs will still tend to use their speakers on their laptops when they’re organizing their library, especially when they’re previewing tracks from sites like direct music service.

Display Dislikes

The display is an HD display it’s 1920 by 1080p but for me who’s kind of spoiled with a retina display, it doesn’t look that crisp with Serato. This is most especially in the settings menu of Serato. For myself, while I do like the matte finish to reduce glare I think I’m actually okay if it was there was a gloss option.

If you’re used to a laptop that’s already glossy it wouldn’t bother you if you had a new laptop that was gloss. The matte finish is great for rejecting glare but you also notice that the blacks don’t look as black on them. It would be awesome to have that second option for those who prefer glossy for the contrast or matte for the reduced glare.

Wish to see in the next model

For my wishes as I mentioned I wanted a 2.5 k higher resolution screen for more crispiness and also a gloss finish option as well as matte. It does not have a dedicated GPU but I think it would be important to have It. Now we’re in the time of live streaming. While a lot of folks use multiple computers in their live stream setup sometimes some folks just want one dedicated computer that can do it all.

Having a dedicated GPU if it can handle all this DJ software just having the GPU there for obs to live stream to twitch to youtube it would be great to utilize that power off one computer.

One other small thing I wish it had 2 USB type-c ports on it, instead of just one.

Here’s the reason why.

If you go off to a gig, and say you have an SSD and you only have the wire that’s USB type c to USB type c and you forgot your power supply, and the only power supply available that you could borrow from someone is a USB type c, now you should have a backup wire for your SSD but say you don’t you’re left with only one port when you need two devices on it.

I know if you prepared properly this wouldn’t be an issue but it would be cool and really useful to actually have 2 USB type C ports.

Questions I asked XMG

I actually got to have a conversation with R.K who was behind the development of the XMG DJ 15. Here are some of the questions that I asked them.

To what temperature can this laptop handle and still be able to be used smoothly?

If you’ve ever used a MacBook and it’s anything above 90 degrees and you’re using it outside. You start learning terms like thermal throttling. There are laptops out there that just can’t handle the heat. It starts throttling back performance and it results in glitchy audio with laggy performance on the laptop. That’s why you generally don’t see people using laptops on a festival stage especially if it’s outside and it’s hot out.

RK himself had to perform in a music festival in Egypt and what he told me converted to Fahrenheit it was 104 degrees Fahrenheit outside. He did a whole set where the XMG DJ 15 performed flawlessly with no thermal throttling. That’s well above the temperatures where I have seen two of my MacBooks actually start to glitch up, just because it’s too hot outside.

Do i need to follow dj software recommended optimization guides?

If you download Serato right on the download page. There’s usually a link there to help you optimize your operating system whether it’s mac or pc. So that operation of the software is smoother. The same goes for Rekordbox. Usually, these are guys that tell you to turn off your wi-fi turn off your Bluetooth and it’s just little tidbits of improvement to get the most when you’re performing on the edge with your machine.

The answer is no, you do not need to go through the optimization guide unless you want to.

The improvements on the parts the bios and the modification of windows are more than enough to make up for that little little bit much more that you would get out of following an optimization guide.

How did you pick the parts that resulted in the lowest latency?

I sort of answered this question as I talked about how they did the parts. Basically what they did was engineers at Shanker which is the parent company of XMG they basically test different combinations of parts, because you don’t actually know how fast each part is going to work with another part until they’re actually working.

So they put different combinations together and whatever gave you the best performance that’s actually what ended up being the XMG DJ 15.

That’s actually one of the things that Apple likes to claim and say that the reason why our computers perform well is that our parts work better together so apple has no excuse.

We also know that these notebooks from apple aren’t necessarily optimized specifically for DJ use.

Can you use the XMG DJ 15 for audio production software like pro tools logic or Ableton live?

The short answer is yes.

If you’re doing light to medium audio processing if you’re just creating a mashup or doing an edit. But for major audio production where you’re using heavy plugins or multiple tracks like big numbers of tracks, the answer is no.

It’s not optimized for handling audio software to that magnitude it might be misleading because it handles DJ software so well. The way audio editing software works it’s a little different in how it processes and the truth is it actually takes a beefier computer to do that. It would probably cost a thousand bucks more to get the XMG DJ 15 to be also optimized for audio production.

Do I have to reinstall windows periodically?

One of the things I had to do when I used to have a windows computer was every year or every year and a half. The operating system got so messy that I just had to reinstall windows. RK said if you use the XMG DJ 15 for just djing and you’re not visiting any websites that may be a little sketchy or downloading any pirated software you should be fine.

Windows defender has come a long way in maintaining protection from malware. You got to remember I know it’s thin it’s light but it’s not a lifestyle laptop it’s specifically made to be used by DJs.

Mojica’s mentioned this in his review of the xmg15 this laptop actually comes out faster than the 16-inch Macbook Pro at the lowest buffer settings when you’re using the same DJ software. That was a figure that was actually tested by professor BX. You might not notice the difference in small 2 to 3 milliseconds, what you will notice is Serato or Rekordbox’s resource meter will actually be lower on the XMG DJ 15 than the more expensive 16-inch Macbook Pro.

One of the bad news about the XMG DJ 15 it’s only available in continental Europe and the united kingdom. But there’s a growing interest in this laptop in the North American market.