The LPDDR4 3733MHz RAM is the same Intel used in gaming benchmarks to beat AMD Vega graphics by 5% while AMD was using DDR4 2400. So Intel's next gen 10nm needs 55% higher bandwidth and expensive memory to beat AMD 12nm current gen graphics.
Not sure, where you get that "intel needs....". They support it, AMD does not (max supported memory for Ryzen U is 2400MHz as far as I know). Thats all. There's no reason to use slower memory in high-end notebook if platform supports it. To the contrary to what you say - at least historicaly intel GPUs were less memory dependent than AMD ones (look for memory OC tests for IGPs).
That's why I explicitly specified "high-end" in reference to this article and Dell XPS series. But one thing is using 3733MHz RAM, other thing is using something faster than 2400MHz which will be common even in lowend and will not be cost prohibitive.
The "high-end-ness" of this laptop is directly contradicted by the 4GB (and, of course, single channel) memory option and the dual core option of the base model(s). That is just as insane as putting a Fiat engine into a Ferrari and then wonder why it doesn't run like a Ferrari.
LPDDR4 will not only be used because of the high bandwidth. It will be used because og the low idle power. And if they use LPDDR4, they will come with 3733 MT/s. There is almost no slower LPDDR4 available. There might be some devices with DDR4, but beside low cost area, I bet most use LPDDR4.
Any word on CPU TDP? Previous XPS 13 2-in-1s have used Y-series CPUs, but these don't look like that.
Also, that 16:10 display is _fantastic_. 3:2 would have been even better, but I'll take any increase in vertical screen area I can get.
Regarding RAM speed: This is LPDDR4x. Any word on interface width? I sincerely hope they're sticking to PC-standard dual 64-bit channels, and not going for some smartphone-like narrow channel approach for power savings. That could explain the speeds (a lot of phones have seemingly ridiculous RAM clocks), but wouldn't bode well for actual performance. Then again, dual 64-bit channels at that speed would be a real boon for the iGPU.
Thanks! 28W in that chassis would likely struggle, given that they keep doing the "MUST BE THINNER" idiocy, even if they did cTDP-up the previous XPS 13s to ~25W. Heck, the 15W chip in my work-issued Latitude 7390 2-in-1 is power limited to something like 12W, but admittedly it has a single, tiny fan vs. the two larger fans in this. I suppose the smaller motherboard would allow for good cooling even in a thinner chassis. All in all, this might (emphasis: might) be the product that tempts me into buying a non-AMD product for the first time in a while. Just hope it has active pen support.
As notebookcheck tested, the current XPS13 chassis can dissipate ~27W of heat and the processors are the power hungry "15W" Whisky lake parts. So , this one , with similar dimensions, could probably do the same.
8MB of L3$ on an i3 SKU? Then 6MB and 4MB of L3$ on the higher end i5 and i7 SKUs? Seems like they've been listed backwards.
Is there now a difference in branding for 10th Gen processors between "Intel Core i3" and "Intel Quad Core i5" and "Quad Core i7", or is Dell just telling us what we already know regarding recent U-series Intel mobile chips?
It looks like the G1 and G7 indicate graphics configuration, with G7 being an Iris Plus configuration.
Also what is Windows 10 Home Ultra? And are we seriously still doing 4GB of RAM in what will be late 2019 by the time this launches?
"And are we seriously still doing 4GB of RAM in what will be late 2019 by the time this launches?" Dell apparently think they can sell the "base" (memory starved in both space and bandwidth) model to utter idiots.
I guess the battery life is for the FHD display? Would be nice to know how long the thing runs with the better display, this always was one weak point of the XPS (you can have a decent display or decent battery life, but not both). I'm looking forward to a real review, it definitely looks like a nice machine.
The FHD display is remarkably good, and a better choice for such a small screen. So many complaints on 4k screens on laptops due to battery life and scaling issues. Why bother?
Especially now that Killer Wifi is just Intel hardware with custom drivers. Theoretically, you should be able to install the Intel drivers if you don't like the Killer software.
Despite it being AC 9260 hardware, the PCI ID is probably different and official intel driver will not support it. So still requires installing Killer garbage, which I won't do.
Ice Lake products probably aren't coming before Q4, and apple usually puts GT3 Iris Plus versions into their 13.3" macbook pros, which could be coming only in 2020.
I’m still waiting to upgrade my laptop. So Dell, here you go:
- Take out Intel CPU. Put Ryzen 3rd gen in. - 51 Wh battery isn’t enough. How about 200 Wh. 2 or 3mm thicker is fine. - Take out Killer WiFi. Put Intel in. - OLED display. One of those super AMOLED from Samsung is great.
Doesn't matter, its the brand. I just don't want it, as its always been associated with snakeoil and disgusting gamer trash. (Oh, and shitty drivers). Unless I can load intel wifi 6 drivers on that thing and the device shows up with Intel PCI ID and works without any killer-shit installed, I'm not interested.
I can literally feel my brain cells dying off as I read this comment. 1. Ryzen 3rd gen for laptops isn't even announced yet 2. 200Wh means you can't bring it onto a plane (100Wh limit). Also because a 200Wh battery would make it 2-3x thicker and at least 2x heavier. You think batteries are made out of air? 3. Killer WiFi is fine. Have one on my XPS 15, and as long as you don't install the Killer suite software it's exactly like a normal Intel wireless card. The "kILlEr WIfI suCks" is way overblown 4.Samsung doesn't make super AMOLEDs for laptops. Also OLEDs for laptops are generally a bad idea because OLEDs have way higher power consumption (vs an LCD) while displaying white content, which is probably going to be a large proportion of the usage scenario e.g. document processing in Word/Excel, web browsing etc. And not to mention burn in on the task bar area. Have a 2 year old Samsung S8+ and there is noticeable burn in on the nav bar and status bar areas.
Are they seriously going to offer DRAM options starting from 4GB in mid 2019 in such a machine? 4 freaking GB?! And unless I'm mistaken are they actually offering dual core versions of Ice Lake-U (not Y, *U*)?! Since the base clocks (the only guaranteed clocks, particularly in so thin devices) are not disclosed in the "technical specifications" that must mean they are quite low, i.e. at least 200 to 400 MHz lower than their 14nm++ U equivalents. Intel are always hiding the embarrassing parts. That would point to the rumored thermal and frequency problems Intel's 10nm node still suffers from, and why H and S 10nm CPUs are not expected anytime soon. By the way, why does this article read like an Intel press release?
I think, it is more like: 'lets advertise our laptop as more affordable than competitors, and priced at x dollars (when proper configuration will cost buyers x + y).
The XPS 13 2in1 has been the flagship fanless Y-series notebook for years. This version is no longer the case. Does Dell plan to have another fanless platform or that Y-series CPU line is gone and 15W is the lowest Intel TDP going forward?
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Gemuk - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Ice Lake!Still no SKU info on Ark!
Cache?
Dual core + 4GB DRAM for $1000!
But most importantly: proper 16:10 display!
sgeocla - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
The LPDDR4 3733MHz RAM is the same Intel used in gaming benchmarks to beat AMD Vega graphics by 5% while AMD was using DDR4 2400. So Intel's next gen 10nm needs 55% higher bandwidth and expensive memory to beat AMD 12nm current gen graphics.qap - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Not sure, where you get that "intel needs....". They support it, AMD does not (max supported memory for Ryzen U is 2400MHz as far as I know). Thats all.There's no reason to use slower memory in high-end notebook if platform supports it.
To the contrary to what you say - at least historicaly intel GPUs were less memory dependent than AMD ones (look for memory OC tests for IGPs).
ksec - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
>There's no reason to use slower memory in high-end notebook if platform supports it.Cost, and I would not be surprise many Laptop won't be using those top speed memory.
qap - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
That's why I explicitly specified "high-end" in reference to this article and Dell XPS series.But one thing is using 3733MHz RAM, other thing is using something faster than 2400MHz which will be common even in lowend and will not be cost prohibitive.
Santoval - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
The "high-end-ness" of this laptop is directly contradicted by the 4GB (and, of course, single channel) memory option and the dual core option of the base model(s). That is just as insane as putting a Fiat engine into a Ferrari and then wonder why it doesn't run like a Ferrari.KarlKastor - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
LPDDR4 will not only be used because of the high bandwidth. It will be used because og the low idle power. And if they use LPDDR4, they will come with 3733 MT/s. There is almost no slower LPDDR4 available.There might be some devices with DDR4, but beside low cost area, I bet most use LPDDR4.
brakdoo - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
It won't beat ryzen either way. They just cherry picked a few benchmarks...desiredderised - Saturday, July 20, 2019 - link
red cherries are best...Jorgp2 - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
The AMD laptop only supports 2400MHz.IGTrading - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
@sgeocla That's a very valid point.AMD's Vega would certainly benefit from 50% extra memory bandwidth ... So would the CPU.
And yes, most Ice Lake laptops will not have DDR4 therefore the performance will be bellow AMD Vega.
skavi - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
LP RAM has half the bus width.Valantar - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Any word on CPU TDP? Previous XPS 13 2-in-1s have used Y-series CPUs, but these don't look like that.Also, that 16:10 display is _fantastic_. 3:2 would have been even better, but I'll take any increase in vertical screen area I can get.
Regarding RAM speed: This is LPDDR4x. Any word on interface width? I sincerely hope they're sticking to PC-standard dual 64-bit channels, and not going for some smartphone-like narrow channel approach for power savings. That could explain the speeds (a lot of phones have seemingly ridiculous RAM clocks), but wouldn't bode well for actual performance. Then again, dual 64-bit channels at that speed would be a real boon for the iGPU.
Gemuk - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
These are 15W U-series, possibly 28W for the G7 Iris Plus. DRAM interface is 4x32-bit.https://fuse.wikichip.org/news/2370/intel-announce...
Valantar - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Thanks! 28W in that chassis would likely struggle, given that they keep doing the "MUST BE THINNER" idiocy, even if they did cTDP-up the previous XPS 13s to ~25W. Heck, the 15W chip in my work-issued Latitude 7390 2-in-1 is power limited to something like 12W, but admittedly it has a single, tiny fan vs. the two larger fans in this. I suppose the smaller motherboard would allow for good cooling even in a thinner chassis. All in all, this might (emphasis: might) be the product that tempts me into buying a non-AMD product for the first time in a while. Just hope it has active pen support.Liad3441 - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
As notebookcheck tested, the current XPS13 chassis can dissipate ~27W of heat and the processors are the power hungry "15W" Whisky lake parts. So , this one , with similar dimensions, could probably do the same.Byte - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
This is more XPS 13 "yoga" so it has different chassis altogether. I'm looking for something to replace my Yoga 1 and this might finally be it!tmr3 - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
There's some weirdness in that tech spec sheet.8MB of L3$ on an i3 SKU? Then 6MB and 4MB of L3$ on the higher end i5 and i7 SKUs? Seems like they've been listed backwards.
Is there now a difference in branding for 10th Gen processors between "Intel Core i3" and "Intel Quad Core i5" and "Quad Core i7", or is Dell just telling us what we already know regarding recent U-series Intel mobile chips?
It looks like the G1 and G7 indicate graphics configuration, with G7 being an Iris Plus configuration.
Also what is Windows 10 Home Ultra? And are we seriously still doing 4GB of RAM in what will be late 2019 by the time this launches?
Santoval - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
"And are we seriously still doing 4GB of RAM in what will be late 2019 by the time this launches?"Dell apparently think they can sell the "base" (memory starved in both space and bandwidth) model to utter idiots.
jospoortvliet - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Just to keep the minimum price low, they don’t expect to sell any of those.DigitalFreak - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
First I've heard of a Windows 10 Home Ultra SKU. Googling brings up nothingToTTenTranz - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
"The Ice Lake CPU is accompanied by up to 32 GB of DDR4-3733 memory (which is a rather whopping capacity and speed bin for an ultra-thin laptop)".It would be if this was DDR4, but it's using LPDDR4.
uhuznaa - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
I guess the battery life is for the FHD display? Would be nice to know how long the thing runs with the better display, this always was one weak point of the XPS (you can have a decent display or decent battery life, but not both). I'm looking forward to a real review, it definitely looks like a nice machine.Dug - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
The FHD display is remarkably good, and a better choice for such a small screen. So many complaints on 4k screens on laptops due to battery life and scaling issues. Why bother?timecop1818 - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Earth to Dell: Please stop fucking adding Killer Wifi to your otherwise decent products. You are killing the brand, literally.Liad3441 - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Why?phoenix_rizzen - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Especially now that Killer Wifi is just Intel hardware with custom drivers. Theoretically, you should be able to install the Intel drivers if you don't like the Killer software.timecop1818 - Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - link
No, you can't: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/ar...Despite it being AC 9260 hardware, the PCI ID is probably different and official intel driver will not support it. So still requires installing Killer garbage, which I won't do.
Teckk - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
LPDDR4 finally. MacBook Pro updates were announced last week, they could've waited for Icelake with LPDDR4? 🤔🤔ToTTenTranz - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Ice Lake products probably aren't coming before Q4, and apple usually puts GT3 Iris Plus versions into their 13.3" macbook pros, which could be coming only in 2020.sorten - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Intel is only shipping the -U series Ice Lake chips in 2019, so they would've needed to wait too long.sonny73n - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
I’m still waiting to upgrade my laptop. So Dell, here you go:- Take out Intel CPU. Put Ryzen 3rd gen in.
- 51 Wh battery isn’t enough. How about 200 Wh. 2 or 3mm thicker is fine.
- Take out Killer WiFi. Put Intel in.
- OLED display. One of those super AMOLED from Samsung is great.
In time for Xmas this year I hope.
IntelUser2000 - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Lithium Ion batteries are limited to 100WHr because larger sizes are dangerous and present a fire hazard in air travel.The Killer WiFi is Intel WiFi 6 based.
timecop1818 - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
> The Killer WiFi is Intel WiFi 6 based.Doesn't matter, its the brand. I just don't want it, as its always been associated with snakeoil and disgusting gamer trash. (Oh, and shitty drivers). Unless I can load intel wifi 6 drivers on that thing and the device shows up with Intel PCI ID and works without any killer-shit installed, I'm not interested.
grahad - Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - link
Yo ucansorten - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
AMD won't have a competitive CPU at 15w until next year.Liad3441 - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
And it should cost 500USD and be 1KGPhynaz - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Mobile isn’t third gen dumbasspiroroadkill - Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - link
99WHr is the maximum allowed. Sorry. Nobody is going to build a laptop that can't be taken onboard an aircraft.Retycint - Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - link
I can literally feel my brain cells dying off as I read this comment.1. Ryzen 3rd gen for laptops isn't even announced yet
2. 200Wh means you can't bring it onto a plane (100Wh limit). Also because a 200Wh battery would make it 2-3x thicker and at least 2x heavier. You think batteries are made out of air?
3. Killer WiFi is fine. Have one on my XPS 15, and as long as you don't install the Killer suite software it's exactly like a normal Intel wireless card. The "kILlEr WIfI suCks" is way overblown
4.Samsung doesn't make super AMOLEDs for laptops. Also OLEDs for laptops are generally a bad idea because OLEDs have way higher power consumption (vs an LCD) while displaying white content, which is probably going to be a large proportion of the usage scenario e.g. document processing in Word/Excel, web browsing etc. And not to mention burn in on the task bar area. Have a 2 year old Samsung S8+ and there is noticeable burn in on the nav bar and status bar areas.
Hixbot - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
Super AMOLED is not ready for laptops. It will burn-in.Santoval - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Are they seriously going to offer DRAM options starting from 4GB in mid 2019 in such a machine? 4 freaking GB?! And unless I'm mistaken are they actually offering dual core versions of Ice Lake-U (not Y, *U*)?!Since the base clocks (the only guaranteed clocks, particularly in so thin devices) are not disclosed in the "technical specifications" that must mean they are quite low, i.e. at least 200 to 400 MHz lower than their 14nm++ U equivalents. Intel are always hiding the embarrassing parts. That would point to the rumored thermal and frequency problems Intel's 10nm node still suffers from, and why H and S 10nm CPUs are not expected anytime soon.
By the way, why does this article read like an Intel press release?
Martijn ter Haar - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
4 GB is the "the boss wants a shiny laptop with a great screen, which he only uses for Excel and watching YouTube" option.neblogai - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
I think, it is more like: 'lets advertise our laptop as more affordable than competitors, and priced at x dollars (when proper configuration will cost buyers x + y).Retycint - Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - link
And the worst thing is that it's going to be soldered, so you can't even upgrade itdesiredderised - Saturday, July 20, 2019 - link
Uh yeah you can! Buy a new laptop! That's called an upgrade!HStewart - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
If Intel has a quad core version of this with highest end Gen 11 graphics and place it XPS 15 2in1, it would likely beat the current XPS 15 2in1.wr3zzz - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
The XPS 13 2in1 has been the flagship fanless Y-series notebook for years. This version is no longer the case. Does Dell plan to have another fanless platform or that Y-series CPU line is gone and 15W is the lowest Intel TDP going forward?piroroadkill - Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - link
A new 16:10 laptop (8:5)???? YesssssHStewart - Wednesday, June 5, 2019 - link
Receive a Dell mailing in mail today that official had that new 10Gen XPS 13 2in1 is officially coming, Dell website does not have it up yetEnd of 14++++ ##$$#$#