The 12inch looks interesting, especially for the price. Yet the Surface Book actually managed to cram s a dedicated GPU into it, which makes it far more appealing to me at least.
If you are a gaming enthusiast and are looking for a beast of a machine which would give you an immersive experience, Dell Inspiron version deserves serious consideration. See from: http://www.consumerrunner.com/top-10-best-laptops/
It's not officially a GTX 950M because it's a custom design (just like the GPU in the Alienware Alpha wasn't officially a GTX 860M), but based on the reported specs (Maxwell GPU with 1GB GDDR5) and advertised use cases (Adobe Illustrator, Lightroom, and League of Legends) the speculation is that it's based on the GTX 950M.
At any rate, it's definitely less powerful than the GTX 960M (with 2GB GDDR5) in the XPS 15, though more powerful than the integrated graphics in the XPS 13 and 12.
That's probably a higher configuration. It's not like AUS has a corrupt government like the Philippines that taxes you almost 100% of the price you paid for electronic devices. Making the i5 8GB 256GB SSD non-touch configuration sell at 75,000 PHP (~$1,650 USD). Lulz.
Dell has been on a tear lately. All three of these look very good. I never thought I'd buy another laptop over 14", but that XPS 15 might convince me. I'm not sure about the pricing on the XPS 12 though, I'd have to play around with the different configs vs. the SP4. But nice updates all around, and excellent to see them embracing Type-C connectors. I assume RAM/storage is user replaceable on the XPS 15?
REALLY? I'm so in for the base model then, I have a spare 850 EVO SSD and 16GB RAM I've been looking to use and I'll slap an M.2 Samsung PCLE NVME SSD in there when it comes out. U sure you aren't talking about older models?
Beneath the bottom plate, there's room for a SATA HDD, an M.2 SSD, and two RAM slots. Plus the battery and M.2 wifi. But remember that Skylake uses DDR4, so you can't reuse old DDR3 RAM.
Is this confirmed? I'm looking to replace my Gigabyte P34G V2 which has a i7 4710HQ, 2TB HDD, 512GB 850 Evo mSata SSD, GTX 860M (4GB) and 16GB RAM all under 1.7kgs. What I am really missing is a 4K display (I edit video/photo) and way better build quality (this Gigabyte is crap).
This XPS 15 definitely looks like a fit replacement if it has m2 + hdd bay!
Is there a configurator up somewhere we can see the pricing? Their xps-15-9550 page doesn't seem to have one yet. I'm curious what the i5 quad, base PCIe (or SATA if all SKUs come with the m2 slot), 960m configs come out to.
Don't feel bad, they obviously aren't done updating their site since there is no damn "buy" link from the main marketing page for this thing. If you search for XPS 15 9550 it shows up. Even then the spec details for the various configs don't seem complete yet.
And like nerd1 said, the $1200 config is pretty nice. Everything above the base i3 model comes with the 960m and 3x3 WiFi. If the small 32GB SSD cache is a PCIe capable M.2 slot and not mSATA, I'd probably buy that one and upgrade RAM and storage over time myself. I might want the bigger battery too...
The 15 specs look great. I wish it wasn't 4.4lbs though. I guess that's to be expected from the size and dedicated gpu. I guess the 13" will be the way to go at 2.9lbs.
I was thinking about going for Surface Book till now but XPS 15 refresh has completely changed my decision, First of all i get a big 15.6 display in an awesome 14inch laptop chassis, less than 2KG weight and much more powerful components compared to Surface book's Ultrabook parts:
1. CPU Differences: The Intel i7 H 45 Watt part used in Dell XPS is a much more powerful than the Surface book's intel i7 U 15 watt part.
2. GPU Difference: XPS 15 gets a powerful Nvidia GTX 960M with 2GB VRAM compared to cut-down, neutred Surface Book custom GPU which is most probably a cut-down Nvidia 950M with 1GB VRAM.
Then the most important thing is price, XPS 15($1000-2150) costs much less than Surface Book($1500-2700) and at the same time uses much more expensive Intel and Nvidia parts. People have option of getting a XPS15 with 1080P matte display or 4K Glossy touch, 1TB basic HD or 1TB SSD, 32GB ram and bigger battery.
XPS 15 is more compelling for those that don't need a large tablet for reading magazines, annotating etc. Having said that. 960m is quite close to 950m and miles away from, say, 970m. I have read strange things about configuration possibilities (no SSD with the full HD version etc.). Let's hope they turn out to be false...
EXCEPT that the SurfaceBook probably has a cut-down crippled variant of 950m, closer to 940m level of performance (aka crap performance) and thus miles away from the regular full-power 960m in XPS15 ...
I've seen plenty of rumors that say the Surface Book has either a 950m, a cut-down 960m, or some "ultrawide" low clocked maxwell variant that isn't directly related to either. I haven't seen anything that suggests one is more likely than the other (except that I doubt nVidia would fab a new/custom chip for such a low number of units). It does seem that everyone expects 1GB vram, though.
In this thread, I've seen "probably a 950m ...", "most probably a cut-down Nvidia 950M", and "probably has a cut-down crippled variant of 950m, closer to 940m level of performance ...". I would really like a link to the information behind these comments. I'd love to join in on the speculation. [joke]It seems the Surface Book is getting worse by the hour. At this rate, by the end of the week, I expect the discreet graphics chip will perform worse than the Intel integrated graphics while halving the useful battery life.[/joke]
Joking aside, it would be good to get some confirmation on this one as I know more than a few people who apparently have more dollars that sense who are looking to get a Surface Book. The "it's not even close to worth the money" argument doesn't seem to work. The 12" Dell here looks really nice and has some possibilities, but I'd be able to sell the idea better if I had better information on what exactly they are giving up.
It is not good to say "more money than sense" for people's personal preference, some people may not need powerhouse specs and may be they like the sleek, magnesium chassis of surface book and the versatility of 360 degree hinge and ability to use as a tablet for some time. Many people won't even need any dGPU and should be perfectly happy with intel HD graphics version which costs $1500 (128GB SSD) or $1700 (256GB SSD).
I actually got that "more money than sense" from one of the people I'm referring to. He's watching me type this right now. He has money. He wants what he wants. He understands that there are cheaper and (in many ways) better alternatives. His use case doesn't really call for a surface book. He doesn't think it makes sense to by the surface book. However, that is exactly what he's going to do. He does actually really like the build quality of the surface lineup, which is probably why he's going for it. However, he has found a few others that he likes as well.
I wasn't suggesting that there isn't a use case for the Surface Book. Just not for the people I'm referring to. I actually have a use case myself that justifies it quite well. I just don't see myself parting with that much cash to do it at the moment. There are other ways to meet my use case if I need to do it now. Currently, I plan to keep saving until either I can afford it comfortably, it comes down in price, or a cheaper (equal or better) alternative presents itself. I'd like to get my hands on a Core M system for a week to see if it has enough muscle for my tastes. I need at least 8GB or RAM, though.
If your friend can afford it then he should go for it because in the end affordability, expensive and cheap are all relative terms which differs from person to person. The Surface Book does look awesome and has very good and widely appreciated Magnesium chassis and not to forget that awesome display with 3:2 aspect ratio and the 13.5 inch size means it has very good vertical display space too, i will say the display itself warrants the purchase as almost everyone is sick of 16:9 displays.
Hope you can get it too after few months but i think you are looking at Surface pro 4 as Surface Book does not come with Core M CPU, the base model of surface book has an i5.
if compared to an intel HD card, it's very capable, compared to 950m it's just a slight increase, it's not even much of a boost compared to my old 650m, compared to a 970m it's night and day
GTX 960M is a Good GPU, it will definitely murder the cut-down 950M 1GB version of Surface Book designed to be in a thin chassis and why believe strange and absurd rumours about SSD/1080p when you can check the exact configs at Dell website: http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?~ck...
The 15-inch looks like a great machine and I might get one.
That said, is this really a "14-inch" ized laptop? That description is a huge stretch! It doesn't seem that different in size than the Macbook Pro 15. More like a "15.6 inch laptop in a 15.0 inch chassis". Still, it's quite compact for a machine with a display that large and with quadcore CPUs and discrete GPU option.
15-inch Macbook 14.13 x 9.73 x 0.71 inches. Weight: 4.49 pounds
15 inch Dell 14.06 x 9.27 x 0.45-0.66 inches. Weight 3.9-4.4 pounds.
You are forgetting that MBP 15 itself is one of the smallest 15 inch laptops due to it being a 15.4 incher with 16:10 aspect ratio, compare XPS 15 with any 14 inch laptop(all of them are 16:9) in the market and you will get your answer.
If we are talking business class ultraportables, lenovo X1 carbon is only 13 x 8.9 inches. The boxier T450s has same footprint as the X1. I would consider those reasonable comparison points. I don't see someone cross shopping this with a cheap, clunky behemoth.
Again, a nice compact machine with a lot of power, but let's not exaggerate the size differences. It's still considerably larger than similarly priced 14 inch machines. And almost the same size as the market leader has been for a long time now (MBP).
I will not compare this with a 15.4 inch MBP 15 as its an unfair comparison due to MBP's 15.4 inch display size and 16:10 aspect ratio, Show me any one 15.6 inch 16:9 laptop with similar size as Dell XPS 15. Anyway an Apple customer will not look at Dell irrespective of size difference and vice versa for a Windows customer like me, so their so called market leader position and smaller screen is of no consequence to me.
There are plenty of people who buy the best laptop for their needs regardless of brand. I had an HP laptop back in the pre-intel Macbook days, then an early unibody Macbook, and now a 15 inch rMBP. When I bought my most recent Macbook I wanted a high resolution screen (with good scaling), 16GB RAM, 512GB PCIe SSD, and a powerful CPU, all in a small package. There was nothing on the Windows side that had what I wanted at the time. With the new XPS 15, there finally is, and I'd consider it if I was in the market now.
You are more an exception than the norm and anyway the topic i was discussing with him was Laptop size and the fact is that MBP 15 uses smaller 15.4 inch display in 16:10 ratio when compared to 15.6 inch 16:9 XPS 15 which results in a larger footprint but still XPS 15 is smaller and lighter than MBP 15.
Note: 16:10 at 15.4 inches would be similar in display area. More square equals larger display for a given diagonal size. So it is *directly* comparable. And has a very similar footprint. And has been out for a long time.
And the 14 inchers I mentioned are much smaller in footprint than either one.
Summary: nice machine, but let's not pretend it has the footprint of a 14 laptop in the same price and portability class. It's still bother than
> That said, is this really a "14-inch" ized laptop?
I own a Dell m2400, which was sold as a 14" (14.1" in reality) laptop. This XPS 15 (15.6" in reality) is about 20mm wider, but the front to back of keyboard dimension is 20mm less (if you include the m2400's battery bump). So it's about the same. Dell's claim it's a 15" laptop in a 14" case sits well with me.
Oh, and that MacBook's display is 15.4" vs 15.6" in the XPS 15. So the MacBook manages to be a little bigger in every dimension, while having a smaller screen. Granted the differences don't sum to an inch, but they do get over 1/2 way there.
Does the XPS 15 really support 32 GB of RAM? (I know the i7 CPU support 64GB) I can't see that anywhere on Dell's site, but a I've seen the same claim a couple of other reviews.
I wonder does the XPS 13 still support DisplayPort via its USB-C port? I always read Thunderbolt and HDMI, but not DisplayPort.
And if so, does it have a separate charging port? I'm asking because I want to connect it to my Dell Monitor via DP but still at the same time want to run it on a charger.
"Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) port: Supports USB 3.1 Gen 2, DisplayPort 1.2 , Thunderbolt 3 and also allows you to connect to external display using dongles."
Not to sound snarky, but at times I started wondering If i was reading a review or a sales pitch with the number of marketing 'catch-phrases' scattered about. Aside from that.. they look nice. :)
When are the OEMs execs understand 16:9 is not good for laptops and tablets? It seems that they are only targeting movie/media craving people.Too bad I had interests in this.
Almost all the laptops are 16:9 and will be continue to have 16:9 displays, you will get some exceptions like Surface Book with a 3:2 display but that will be an exception not the norm.
A few notes: 1. The price for 15" seems to start from $1,199, not $999. 2. Screen upgrade to 4K is $450 (!) 3. 4K screen only available as touch (I personally have no interest in touch on a laptop). 4. It does not appear to be a unibody style metal design (from looking at the pictures). Can anyone confirm?
There's a $999 variant of the new XPS 15 with relatively low specs (Core i3 and no Nvidia GPU) that was online yesterday, but it seems to be missing at the moment.
Regarding the chassis, Dell says: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15-9550-lapt... > Artfully constructed from premium materials > > Maximum durability: The XPS 15 is cut with precision from a single block of aluminum for a sturdy, durable chassis in a beautiful design. The Corning® Gorilla® Glass NBT™ 4K Ultra HD display option is up to 10 times more scratch resistant than soda lime glass.8 > > Cool under pressure: The palm rest is made from carbon fiber. It's strong and thin like aluminum, but lighter and cooler to the touch.
So it looks like it's an aluminum and carbon fiber hybrid.
I think the $999 option is actually quite nice for people who is looking for larger ultrabook alternative. The cpu has descent 2.7Ghz clock speed (without turbo though) and You can spend extra $80 to swap the HDD with m2 SSD.
And you'll get a very nice dualcore 15.6" machine with sleek design and only 1.72kg weight. at around $1100.
1. There is a $999 version with i3 H, should be good enough for many people, the product page is changing every hour so you may not have seen it.
2. Premium product, premium price, this is Sharp IGZO panel with thin bezels branded as infinity display by Dell and they have exclusivity deal for few months too!!
3. Once you go touch , you can never go back to normal laptops but if you are adamant then No need of using touch screen, just leave it as it is.
4. Machined from a Single Aluminium block and carbon fibre is also used.
It was there yesterday, they are changing and chopping a lot on that webpage, every variant should be available within few days, the i3-6100H (2.7 GHz dual-core 35W Skylake) version is the one which costs $999.
I wonder if there will be possible to add a second battery to the 56Wh models (to get 84Wh) by removing the 2.5" drive.
I hope in the coming weeks true configurability is possible (CPU, RAM, Discrete Graphics, SSD, battery/HDD, screen). Or at least more preconfigured models. It's a bit silly I can't get an i3, 16GB, no Nvidia, 256 GB SSD, 84Wh and FullHD for instance.
There is no "secondary battery", this laptop can only have one battery, either the 56 or the 84Wh. The 84Wh battery has the same dimensions as the smaller one (56Wh) but it is approximately (10cm longer and +100grams heavier) and when using it it occupies the HDD-bay space, therefore one can't have a configuration with 84Wh+HDD(or regular SSD), only 84Wh+PCIeM2SSD is possible.
I'm interested in getting the XPS13 for my wife to replace her 14 inch Asus time line with a more portable unit. Any sense whether the smaller battery will be good enough with Skylake efficiency or is it worth paying more and making it heavier to get the 84wh?
I can only speak for myself but for me it's worth it to get it with the bigger battery, It's true that it is 100grams heavier in comparison with the 56Wh battery but on the other part you also shave some grams from ditching the HDD in favor of the lighter M2SSD ...
Yea, but in most cases what they claim is based on very light workloads and even on that they exaggerate a little bit. I always shave 1-2 hours from their "official claims", to get the real battery life.
I always go for the larger battery, especially when it doesn't break the form factor (laptop height/width). Being 100grams heavier it's nothing for me, and I also don't use HDD's anymore, only SSDs. So yea, imo it's totally worth it to go for the largest battery size, the downside in this case are non-existant.
I'm a little disappointed that they turned the XPS12 into a detachable, I personally prefer the yoga style flipper design since for my use case I need a keyboard 90% of the time so I would rather just have it attached and have a proper ultrabook that I can temporarily use as a tablet the few times I need it. It also dilutes the brand since the XPS machines have always been laptops, but now there's a tablet in the mix. This really should have been released as a Venue product.
I'm also a little disappointed since I have an Inspiron 11 2-in-1 and was hoping Dell would do something like the Lenovo LaVie Z 360 (minus Lenovo's baffling design decisions) and release a high end compact ultraportable 2-in-1 (the current 13 inch model is still a little big).
Otherwise it looks like a nice refresh, I'm glad to see Dell finally doing away with the wasted bezel space laptops have had for too long.
Now that you mention it, I do remember seeing something about it awhile back. Apparently it died quietly due to just how bad the keyboard was (it's not even listed on the dell website, it says to call for pricing). Such a shame they had to ruin it with one bad design decision. Hopefully they'll refresh it soon and put a proper keyboard on it.
I love my XPS 12, it is like the forgotten 2-1, no one ever mentions it. I have the Haswell i7, 8gb ram, 256 ssd, and I can eek 8 hrs of video playback on long flights. I think they really nailed the 2-1 design with the XPS 12. Its a full no-compromise ultrabook with the addition of a tablet-mode and stand-mode when you need it. And unlike the Yoga or similar laptops, the keyboard isn't exposed when you use it as such. I think if they kept iterating on that design, it would be the 2-1 to beat. Every year make it a little thinner, lighter, longer battery life. To bad they abandoned that design
Can you run Linux on the XPS 13? I really wanna get one but I would like to be able to dual boot it with Ubuntu or something (I find it easier to code in PHP on Linux--which is what I will be using this for most of the time).
It's possible but will require a bit of fiddling, Skylake support is a lot better with Linux 4.3, but the 15.10 Ubuntu release comes only with 4.2. I also don't know if the installer plays well with NVMe. Unless you have no problems building a kernel and perhaps doing a manual install I'd suggest waiting a bit.
Anyone know if Dell got rid of (or made optional) the aggressive adaptive brightness setting on the XPS13? Most annoying "feature" I've ever seen in a laptop...turned out to be a deal-breaker for me. Would love to try out the new 15" if they're gotten rid of that crap...
I am thinking now is the good time to replace my old XPS L501x. Am a developer and was thinking if battery benefits will be significant if we choose i3 instead of i5 with 56Whr Cell ?
I have used several models (older and newer) of the XPS 13 and one lousy feature that I hate prevents me from buying this promising laptop, and it is that you can only open the screen just very little past vertical (upright 90 degree) so it makes using it very impractical. It is horribly and stupidly designed and until stupid Dell fixes this bad shortcoming I will never consider buying this laptop. I have also had bad experiences with the irritating touchpad, and I hope this new model has fixed this issue.
Seriously, all laptops should do 180 degrees. I need to replace my yoga and use it at 180 in bed way more than any other config. The surface book is so nice but also doesn't have much hinge freedom. That and it crashes just touching it at the MS store
I'm trying to figure out if there is a meaningful difference between the i3-6100U model and the i5-6200U? There is a $100 upcharge for the i5, at the 4GB RAM level. Apparently you need to buy the i5 to get the 8GB RAM option which adds another 100 or so if I remember correctly.
Wondering on the i3 vs i5 how much real world difference we would see. This will be a working machine for wifi, productivity, etc. Won't be for gaming.
Appears that the i3 and i5 are the same exact chips, but Intel probably disabled TurboBoost on the i3 so your speed will be capped at 2.3ghz there instead of 2.8/2.5ghz on the i5. Will we feel any real difference?
I would like to see this 1GB HDD, just for the sake of curiosity. Haha
But really though, Dell has stepped up their game lately. I could see myself buying one of these over an MSI or Gigabyte model at this point. Can't even install a 802.11ac card in my MSI GE60 and have it work right, so that's pretty infuriating.
Full review incoming or are you guys just not doing deep dives anymore?
Frankly, the deep dives are all I care about and I wish all this "quick look" stuff was clearly segregated from the core of the site, which isn't news at all, but deep technical analyses.
I just took delivery of a Skylake xps13 16gb/1TB Touch, mainly due to the review here. I am getting around 4-5 hours of battery with light browings and some email at 50% screen brightness. How did you get 15 hours? They are specifically advertising "up to 18 hours" for my model. I have barely started to add software to it.
My colleague has a Dell Latitude Notebook, occasionally connects to a projector and has been using it since couple of years, never got an opportunity to avail Dell Engineer Services.
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Sttm - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
The 12inch looks interesting, especially for the price. Yet the Surface Book actually managed to cram s a dedicated GPU into it, which makes it far more appealing to me at least.WorldWithoutMadness - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Yeah but with extra 1.1k, unless you're loaded SB isn't really the option for dGPU.So XPS 12 doesn't get stylus support? I thought everybody would hop on the stylus craze train by now.
Gigaplex - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Pretty sure the XPS 12 does has stylus support, you just need to get the pen separately.nerd1 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
It has wacom AES pen support.michellebrowne - Saturday, November 14, 2015 - link
If you are a gaming enthusiast and are looking for a beast of a machine which would give you an immersive experience, Dell Inspiron version deserves serious consideration. See from: http://www.consumerrunner.com/top-10-best-laptops/nerd1 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
SB is 1.6kg, $1899 and only has 950m with 1GB VRAM. Really bad choice for gaming.sorten - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Where did you get the info on the dGPU?naretla - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
It's not officially a GTX 950M because it's a custom design (just like the GPU in the Alienware Alpha wasn't officially a GTX 860M), but based on the reported specs (Maxwell GPU with 1GB GDDR5) and advertised use cases (Adobe Illustrator, Lightroom, and League of Legends) the speculation is that it's based on the GTX 950M.At any rate, it's definitely less powerful than the GTX 960M (with 2GB GDDR5) in the XPS 15, though more powerful than the integrated graphics in the XPS 13 and 12.
Sources:
- https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/microsoft-surface/...
- http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/10/microsoft-surfac...
- http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2015/10/06/surface-bo...
Gigaplex - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Base XPS 13 is $800USD. The Aus site has it at $1800AUD (~$1300USD). Ouch.jospoortvliet - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
I hope that that isn't the exact same model then 😎rgin - Monday, October 12, 2015 - link
That's probably a higher configuration. It's not like AUS has a corrupt government like the Philippines that taxes you almost 100% of the price you paid for electronic devices. Making the i5 8GB 256GB SSD non-touch configuration sell at 75,000 PHP (~$1,650 USD). Lulz.Bob Todd - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Dell has been on a tear lately. All three of these look very good. I never thought I'd buy another laptop over 14", but that XPS 15 might convince me. I'm not sure about the pricing on the XPS 12 though, I'd have to play around with the different configs vs. the SP4. But nice updates all around, and excellent to see them embracing Type-C connectors. I assume RAM/storage is user replaceable on the XPS 15?nerd1 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
XPS 15 has two DIMM slots, one 2.5" hdd bay and one m2 slot AFAIK.nickgofly - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
REALLY? I'm so in for the base model then, I have a spare 850 EVO SSD and 16GB RAM I've been looking to use and I'll slap an M.2 Samsung PCLE NVME SSD in there when it comes out. U sure you aren't talking about older models?IanCutress - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
It'll be DDR4 SO-DIMM. They're still hard to source at the minute.nerd1 - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Im 95 percent sure. They have Hdd plus m2 cache plus 56wh battery option, and ssd only and 84wh battery option (larger battery in place of 2.5in hdd)naretla - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Yes, check the service manual: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-...Beneath the bottom plate, there's room for a SATA HDD, an M.2 SSD, and two RAM slots. Plus the battery and M.2 wifi. But remember that Skylake uses DDR4, so you can't reuse old DDR3 RAM.
josephradhik - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
Is this confirmed? I'm looking to replace my Gigabyte P34G V2 which has a i7 4710HQ, 2TB HDD, 512GB 850 Evo mSata SSD, GTX 860M (4GB) and 16GB RAM all under 1.7kgs.What I am really missing is a 4K display (I edit video/photo) and way better build quality (this Gigabyte is crap).
This XPS 15 definitely looks like a fit replacement if it has m2 + hdd bay!
eddman - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
"I never thought I'd buy another laptop over 14", but that XPS 15 might convince me."Since XPS 15 is physically no bigger than normal 14" laptops, you can make that choice easily.
nerd1 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
I really like the new pricing - $1199 one with 960m really is awesome.Bob Todd - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Is there a configurator up somewhere we can see the pricing? Their xps-15-9550 page doesn't seem to have one yet. I'm curious what the i5 quad, base PCIe (or SATA if all SKUs come with the m2 slot), 960m configs come out to.Bob Todd - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
D'oh, I see the configs/prices now.TheInternet1980 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Where? I feel retarded. I've read the marketing page like 15 timesBob Todd - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Don't feel bad, they obviously aren't done updating their site since there is no damn "buy" link from the main marketing page for this thing. If you search for XPS 15 9550 it shows up. Even then the spec details for the various configs don't seem complete yet.http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-...
Bob Todd - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
And like nerd1 said, the $1200 config is pretty nice. Everything above the base i3 model comes with the 960m and 3x3 WiFi. If the small 32GB SSD cache is a PCIe capable M.2 slot and not mSATA, I'd probably buy that one and upgrade RAM and storage over time myself. I might want the bigger battery too...nerd1 - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Im pretty sure it is. even older xps13 used m2 port which can utilize pcie ssds.mobutu - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
That link didn't work for me, but this one does:http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?~ck...
Dug - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
The 15 specs look great. I wish it wasn't 4.4lbs though. I guess that's to be expected from the size and dedicated gpu. I guess the 13" will be the way to go at 2.9lbs.jsntech - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Pretty nice designs, but with only 16:9 displays across the board, I have zero interest.elomire678 - Thursday, October 8, 2015 - link
Exactly! What is wrong with these companies. No one wants a 16:9 tablet.nerd1 - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
You will have enough vertical space with 15.6in display.Spuke - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
One word: eGPU.BMNify - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
I was thinking about going for Surface Book till now but XPS 15 refresh has completely changed my decision, First of all i get a big 15.6 display in an awesome 14inch laptop chassis, less than 2KG weight and much more powerful components compared to Surface book's Ultrabook parts:1. CPU Differences: The Intel i7 H 45 Watt part used in Dell XPS is a much more powerful than the Surface book's intel i7 U 15 watt part.
2. GPU Difference: XPS 15 gets a powerful Nvidia GTX 960M with 2GB VRAM compared to cut-down, neutred Surface Book custom GPU which is most probably a cut-down Nvidia 950M with 1GB VRAM.
Then the most important thing is price, XPS 15($1000-2150) costs much less than Surface Book($1500-2700) and at the same time uses much more expensive Intel and Nvidia parts. People have option of getting a XPS15 with 1080P matte display or 4K Glossy touch, 1TB basic HD or 1TB SSD, 32GB ram and bigger battery.
digiguy - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
XPS 15 is more compelling for those that don't need a large tablet for reading magazines, annotating etc. Having said that. 960m is quite close to 950m and miles away from, say, 970m. I have read strange things about configuration possibilities (no SSD with the full HD version etc.). Let's hope they turn out to be false...mobutu - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
EXCEPT that the SurfaceBook probably has a cut-down crippled variant of 950m, closer to 940m level of performance (aka crap performance) and thus miles away from the regular full-power 960m in XPS15 ...digiguy - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
what do you know?BurntMyBacon - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
I've seen plenty of rumors that say the Surface Book has either a 950m, a cut-down 960m, or some "ultrawide" low clocked maxwell variant that isn't directly related to either. I haven't seen anything that suggests one is more likely than the other (except that I doubt nVidia would fab a new/custom chip for such a low number of units). It does seem that everyone expects 1GB vram, though.In this thread, I've seen "probably a 950m ...", "most probably a cut-down Nvidia 950M", and "probably has a cut-down crippled variant of 950m, closer to 940m level of performance ...". I would really like a link to the information behind these comments. I'd love to join in on the speculation. [joke]It seems the Surface Book is getting worse by the hour. At this rate, by the end of the week, I expect the discreet graphics chip will perform worse than the Intel integrated graphics while halving the useful battery life.[/joke]
Joking aside, it would be good to get some confirmation on this one as I know more than a few people who apparently have more dollars that sense who are looking to get a Surface Book. The "it's not even close to worth the money" argument doesn't seem to work. The 12" Dell here looks really nice and has some possibilities, but I'd be able to sell the idea better if I had better information on what exactly they are giving up.
BMNify - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
It is not good to say "more money than sense" for people's personal preference, some people may not need powerhouse specs and may be they like the sleek, magnesium chassis of surface book and the versatility of 360 degree hinge and ability to use as a tablet for some time. Many people won't even need any dGPU and should be perfectly happy with intel HD graphics version which costs $1500 (128GB SSD) or $1700 (256GB SSD).BurntMyBacon - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
I actually got that "more money than sense" from one of the people I'm referring to. He's watching me type this right now. He has money. He wants what he wants. He understands that there are cheaper and (in many ways) better alternatives. His use case doesn't really call for a surface book. He doesn't think it makes sense to by the surface book. However, that is exactly what he's going to do. He does actually really like the build quality of the surface lineup, which is probably why he's going for it. However, he has found a few others that he likes as well.I wasn't suggesting that there isn't a use case for the Surface Book. Just not for the people I'm referring to. I actually have a use case myself that justifies it quite well. I just don't see myself parting with that much cash to do it at the moment. There are other ways to meet my use case if I need to do it now. Currently, I plan to keep saving until either I can afford it comfortably, it comes down in price, or a cheaper (equal or better) alternative presents itself. I'd like to get my hands on a Core M system for a week to see if it has enough muscle for my tastes. I need at least 8GB or RAM, though.
BMNify - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
If your friend can afford it then he should go for it because in the end affordability, expensive and cheap are all relative terms which differs from person to person. The Surface Book does look awesome and has very good and widely appreciated Magnesium chassis and not to forget that awesome display with 3:2 aspect ratio and the 13.5 inch size means it has very good vertical display space too, i will say the display itself warrants the purchase as almost everyone is sick of 16:9 displays.Hope you can get it too after few months but i think you are looking at Surface pro 4 as Surface Book does not come with Core M CPU, the base model of surface book has an i5.
nerd1 - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
960m is very capable gpu and it can most aaa games 1080@60 with high settings, Oh it is more powerful than ps4 too.digiguy - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
if compared to an intel HD card, it's very capable, compared to 950m it's just a slight increase, it's not even much of a boost compared to my old 650m, compared to a 970m it's night and daymobutu - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
I have to repeat myself:SurfaceBook does NOT have 950m!!! the performance of the "discrete" vga card in SurfaceBook is lower than 950m
BMNify - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
GTX 960M is a Good GPU, it will definitely murder the cut-down 950M 1GB version of Surface Book designed to be in a thin chassis and why believe strange and absurd rumours about SSD/1080p when you can check the exact configs at Dell website: http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?~ck...digiguy - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
nobody has tested the custom GPU in the Surface Book. Having said that, SB with it's aspect ratio is not a good machine to game on anywayTrackSmart - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
The 15-inch looks like a great machine and I might get one.That said, is this really a "14-inch" ized laptop? That description is a huge stretch! It doesn't seem that different in size than the Macbook Pro 15. More like a "15.6 inch laptop in a 15.0 inch chassis". Still, it's quite compact for a machine with a display that large and with quadcore CPUs and discrete GPU option.
15-inch Macbook
14.13 x 9.73 x 0.71 inches. Weight: 4.49 pounds
15 inch Dell
14.06 x 9.27 x 0.45-0.66 inches. Weight 3.9-4.4 pounds.
BMNify - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
You are forgetting that MBP 15 itself is one of the smallest 15 inch laptops due to it being a 15.4 incher with 16:10 aspect ratio, compare XPS 15 with any 14 inch laptop(all of them are 16:9) in the market and you will get your answer.TrackSmart - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
If we are talking business class ultraportables, lenovo X1 carbon is only 13 x 8.9 inches. The boxier T450s has same footprint as the X1. I would consider those reasonable comparison points. I don't see someone cross shopping this with a cheap, clunky behemoth.Again, a nice compact machine with a lot of power, but let's not exaggerate the size differences. It's still considerably larger than similarly priced 14 inch machines. And almost the same size as the market leader has been for a long time now (MBP).
BMNify - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
I will not compare this with a 15.4 inch MBP 15 as its an unfair comparison due to MBP's 15.4 inch display size and 16:10 aspect ratio, Show me any one 15.6 inch 16:9 laptop with similar size as Dell XPS 15. Anyway an Apple customer will not look at Dell irrespective of size difference and vice versa for a Windows customer like me, so their so called market leader position and smaller screen is of no consequence to me.cfenton - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
There are plenty of people who buy the best laptop for their needs regardless of brand. I had an HP laptop back in the pre-intel Macbook days, then an early unibody Macbook, and now a 15 inch rMBP. When I bought my most recent Macbook I wanted a high resolution screen (with good scaling), 16GB RAM, 512GB PCIe SSD, and a powerful CPU, all in a small package. There was nothing on the Windows side that had what I wanted at the time. With the new XPS 15, there finally is, and I'd consider it if I was in the market now.BMNify - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
You are more an exception than the norm and anyway the topic i was discussing with him was Laptop size and the fact is that MBP 15 uses smaller 15.4 inch display in 16:10 ratio when compared to 15.6 inch 16:9 XPS 15 which results in a larger footprint but still XPS 15 is smaller and lighter than MBP 15.TrackSmart - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Note: 16:10 at 15.4 inches would be similar in display area. More square equals larger display for a given diagonal size. So it is *directly* comparable. And has a very similar footprint. And has been out for a long time.And the 14 inchers I mentioned are much smaller in footprint than either one.
Summary: nice machine, but let's not pretend it has the footprint of a 14 laptop in the same price and portability class. It's still bother than
TrackSmart - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Oops. Hard to reply via phone. But you get the idea.rstuart - Monday, October 12, 2015 - link
> That said, is this really a "14-inch" ized laptop?I own a Dell m2400, which was sold as a 14" (14.1" in reality) laptop. This XPS 15 (15.6" in reality) is about 20mm wider, but the front to back of keyboard dimension is 20mm less (if you include the m2400's battery bump). So it's about the same. Dell's claim it's a 15" laptop in a 14" case sits well with me.
Oh, and that MacBook's display is 15.4" vs 15.6" in the XPS 15. So the MacBook manages to be a little bigger in every dimension, while having a smaller screen. Granted the differences don't sum to an inch, but they do get over 1/2 way there.
Gard Vikingstad - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Does the XPS 15 really support 32 GB of RAM? (I know the i7 CPU support 64GB) I can't see that anywhere on Dell's site, but a I've seen the same claim a couple of other reviews.mobutu - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
yes, it supports 32GB DDR4 (check page 9 of the following .pdf spec):http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esu...
Gard Vikingstad - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Thanks! That's great, I need 32GB som this is important :-)theoriginalkage - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Just talked to Dell, while the XPS15 will support 32GB DDR4 (2x16GB) they are only selling it with 16GB (2x8GB) right now. Very unfortunate.Heavenly71 - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
I wonder does the XPS 13 still support DisplayPort via its USB-C port? I always read Thunderbolt and HDMI, but not DisplayPort.And if so, does it have a separate charging port? I'm asking because I want to connect it to my Dell Monitor via DP but still at the same time want to run it on a charger.
mobutu - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Yes, check page 9 of the following .pdf spec:http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esu...
"Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) port: Supports USB 3.1 Gen 2, DisplayPort 1.2 , Thunderbolt 3 and also allows you to connect to external display using dongles."
naretla - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
The XPS 15 can be charged via the USB Type-C port, but it also has a more traditional power port.KPOM - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
It's nice to see Dell embrace Thunderbolt. The XPS 13 looks sharp.HiroshiTrinn - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Not to sound snarky, but at times I started wondering If i was reading a review or a sales pitch with the number of marketing 'catch-phrases' scattered about. Aside from that.. they look nice. :)BMNify - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Who told this is a review?? This is just a launch report/press release. The review will take few weeks time and will be spread over multiple pages.other-guy - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
When are the OEMs execs understand 16:9 is not good for laptops and tablets? It seems that they are only targeting movie/media craving people.Too bad I had interests in this.BMNify - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Almost all the laptops are 16:9 and will be continue to have 16:9 displays, you will get some exceptions like Surface Book with a 3:2 display but that will be an exception not the norm.Byte - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Now all they need to do is release a 17" infinity display for all those who got burned when they killed the 17" macbook pros.p1esk - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
A few notes:1. The price for 15" seems to start from $1,199, not $999.
2. Screen upgrade to 4K is $450 (!)
3. 4K screen only available as touch (I personally have no interest in touch on a laptop).
4. It does not appear to be a unibody style metal design (from looking at the pictures). Can anyone confirm?
abrowne1993 - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
The outside panels are aluminum and the inside palm rest is carbon fiber. They claim the aluminum parts are machined from a single block.p1esk - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
Actually, scratch 4 - it says it is made from a single block of aluminium.naretla - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
There's a $999 variant of the new XPS 15 with relatively low specs (Core i3 and no Nvidia GPU) that was online yesterday, but it seems to be missing at the moment.Regarding the chassis, Dell says:
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15-9550-lapt...
> Artfully constructed from premium materials
>
> Maximum durability: The XPS 15 is cut with precision from a single block of aluminum for a sturdy, durable chassis in a beautiful design. The Corning® Gorilla® Glass NBT™ 4K Ultra HD display option is up to 10 times more scratch resistant than soda lime glass.8
>
> Cool under pressure: The palm rest is made from carbon fiber. It's strong and thin like aluminum, but lighter and cooler to the touch.
So it looks like it's an aluminum and carbon fiber hybrid.
nerd1 - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
I think the $999 option is actually quite nice for people who is looking for larger ultrabook alternative. The cpu has descent 2.7Ghz clock speed (without turbo though) and You can spend extra $80 to swap the HDD with m2 SSD.And you'll get a very nice dualcore 15.6" machine with sleek design and only 1.72kg weight. at around $1100.
BMNify - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
1. There is a $999 version with i3 H, should be good enough for many people, the product page is changing every hour so you may not have seen it.2. Premium product, premium price, this is Sharp IGZO panel with thin bezels branded as infinity display by Dell and they have exclusivity deal for few months too!!
3. Once you go touch , you can never go back to normal laptops but if you are adamant then No need of using touch screen, just leave it as it is.
4. Machined from a Single Aluminium block and carbon fibre is also used.
nerd1 - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
XPS15 has $999 option with i3-6300H CPU and no eGPU.patel21 - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
I checked Dell's Site, but couldn't find XPS 15 with i3 , did they skipped it or its just lateBMNify - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
It was there yesterday, they are changing and chopping a lot on that webpage, every variant should be available within few days, the i3-6100H (2.7 GHz dual-core 35W Skylake) version is the one which costs $999.comomolo - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
I wonder if there will be possible to add a second battery to the 56Wh models (to get 84Wh) by removing the 2.5" drive.I hope in the coming weeks true configurability is possible (CPU, RAM, Discrete Graphics, SSD, battery/HDD, screen). Or at least more preconfigured models. It's a bit silly I can't get an i3, 16GB, no Nvidia, 256 GB SSD, 84Wh and FullHD for instance.
mobutu - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
There is no "secondary battery", this laptop can only have one battery, either the 56 or the 84Wh.The 84Wh battery has the same dimensions as the smaller one (56Wh) but it is approximately (10cm longer and +100grams heavier) and when using it it occupies the HDD-bay space, therefore one can't have a configuration with 84Wh+HDD(or regular SSD), only 84Wh+PCIeM2SSD is possible.
Hogan773 - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
I'm interested in getting the XPS13 for my wife to replace her 14 inch Asus time line with a more portable unit. Any sense whether the smaller battery will be good enough with Skylake efficiency or is it worth paying more and making it heavier to get the 84wh?mobutu - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
I can only speak for myself but for me it's worth it to get it with the bigger battery, It's true that it is 100grams heavier in comparison with the 56Wh battery but on the other part you also shave some grams from ditching the HDD in favor of the lighter M2SSD ...nerd1 - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
They claim 10+hrs of battery life with 56Wh battery (w/1080p panel of course) so it may be sufficient.mobutu - Sunday, October 11, 2015 - link
Yea, but in most cases what they claim is based on very light workloads and even on that they exaggerate a little bit. I always shave 1-2 hours from their "official claims", to get the real battery life.I always go for the larger battery, especially when it doesn't break the form factor (laptop height/width). Being 100grams heavier it's nothing for me, and I also don't use HDD's anymore, only SSDs.
So yea, imo it's totally worth it to go for the largest battery size, the downside in this case are non-existant.
gamer1000k - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
I'm a little disappointed that they turned the XPS12 into a detachable, I personally prefer the yoga style flipper design since for my use case I need a keyboard 90% of the time so I would rather just have it attached and have a proper ultrabook that I can temporarily use as a tablet the few times I need it. It also dilutes the brand since the XPS machines have always been laptops, but now there's a tablet in the mix. This really should have been released as a Venue product.I'm also a little disappointed since I have an Inspiron 11 2-in-1 and was hoping Dell would do something like the Lenovo LaVie Z 360 (minus Lenovo's baffling design decisions) and release a high end compact ultraportable 2-in-1 (the current 13 inch model is still a little big).
Otherwise it looks like a nice refresh, I'm glad to see Dell finally doing away with the wasted bezel space laptops have had for too long.
nerd1 - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
They did release XPS 11 with yoga hinge bit ago..... with crappy touch keyboard.gamer1000k - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
Now that you mention it, I do remember seeing something about it awhile back. Apparently it died quietly due to just how bad the keyboard was (it's not even listed on the dell website, it says to call for pricing). Such a shame they had to ruin it with one bad design decision. Hopefully they'll refresh it soon and put a proper keyboard on it.mherrick68 - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link
I love my XPS 12, it is like the forgotten 2-1, no one ever mentions it. I have the Haswell i7, 8gb ram, 256 ssd, and I can eek 8 hrs of video playback on long flights. I think they really nailed the 2-1 design with the XPS 12. Its a full no-compromise ultrabook with the addition of a tablet-mode and stand-mode when you need it. And unlike the Yoga or similar laptops, the keyboard isn't exposed when you use it as such. I think if they kept iterating on that design, it would be the 2-1 to beat. Every year make it a little thinner, lighter, longer battery life. To bad they abandoned that designzodiacfml - Saturday, October 10, 2015 - link
How I wish I could throw money on these three.rgin - Monday, October 12, 2015 - link
Can you run Linux on the XPS 13? I really wanna get one but I would like to be able to dual boot it with Ubuntu or something (I find it easier to code in PHP on Linux--which is what I will be using this for most of the time).theoriginalkage - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link
I would love to dual boot Win10 and Fedora on the XPS15.nils_ - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link
It's possible but will require a bit of fiddling, Skylake support is a lot better with Linux 4.3, but the 15.10 Ubuntu release comes only with 4.2. I also don't know if the installer plays well with NVMe. Unless you have no problems building a kernel and perhaps doing a manual install I'd suggest waiting a bit.RKF73 - Wednesday, October 14, 2015 - link
Anyone know if Dell got rid of (or made optional) the aggressive adaptive brightness setting on the XPS13? Most annoying "feature" I've ever seen in a laptop...turned out to be a deal-breaker for me. Would love to try out the new 15" if they're gotten rid of that crap...josephandrews222 - Friday, October 16, 2015 - link
RFK73 wrote about the aggressive adaptive brightness and whether it was a part of the new devices, too. I have the very same question.patel21 - Sunday, October 18, 2015 - link
I am thinking now is the good time to replace my old XPS L501x. Am a developer and was thinking if battery benefits will be significant if we choose i3 instead of i5 with 56Whr Cell ?JohnUSA - Monday, October 19, 2015 - link
I have used several models (older and newer) of the XPS 13 and one lousy feature that I hate prevents me from buying this promising laptop, and it is that you can only open the screen just very little past vertical (upright 90 degree) so it makes using it very impractical.It is horribly and stupidly designed and until stupid Dell fixes this bad shortcoming I will never consider buying this laptop. I have also had bad experiences with the irritating touchpad, and I hope this new model has fixed this issue.
Byte - Sunday, January 3, 2016 - link
Seriously, all laptops should do 180 degrees. I need to replace my yoga and use it at 180 in bed way more than any other config. The surface book is so nice but also doesn't have much hinge freedom. That and it crashes just touching it at the MS storeHogan773 - Monday, October 19, 2015 - link
I'm trying to figure out if there is a meaningful difference between the i3-6100U model and the i5-6200U? There is a $100 upcharge for the i5, at the 4GB RAM level. Apparently you need to buy the i5 to get the 8GB RAM option which adds another 100 or so if I remember correctly.Wondering on the i3 vs i5 how much real world difference we would see. This will be a working machine for wifi, productivity, etc. Won't be for gaming.
Appears that the i3 and i5 are the same exact chips, but Intel probably disabled TurboBoost on the i3 so your speed will be capped at 2.3ghz there instead of 2.8/2.5ghz on the i5. Will we feel any real difference?
Hrel - Monday, October 19, 2015 - link
From your table:500 GB - 1 GB HDD,
I would like to see this 1GB HDD, just for the sake of curiosity. Haha
But really though, Dell has stepped up their game lately. I could see myself buying one of these over an MSI or Gigabyte model at this point. Can't even install a 802.11ac card in my MSI GE60 and have it work right, so that's pretty infuriating.
Full review incoming or are you guys just not doing deep dives anymore?
Frankly, the deep dives are all I care about and I wish all this "quick look" stuff was clearly segregated from the core of the site, which isn't news at all, but deep technical analyses.
ThomasDahl - Sunday, December 27, 2015 - link
I just took delivery of a Skylake xps13 16gb/1TB Touch, mainly due to the review here. I am getting around 4-5 hours of battery with light browings and some email at 50% screen brightness. How did you get 15 hours? They are specifically advertising "up to 18 hours" for my model. I have barely started to add software to it.What am I doing wrong?
Regards
Thomas
Syed_Listening - Wednesday, January 25, 2017 - link
My colleague has a Dell Latitude Notebook, occasionally connects to a projector and has been using it since couple of years, never got an opportunity to avail Dell Engineer Services.