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XPS 15 9560 official: GTX 1050, Kaby Lake, fingerprint scanner, and Windows Hello

The only physical changes seem to be the addition of an optional fingerprint scanner and Windows Hello camera. (Source: Dell)
The only physical changes seem to be the addition of an optional fingerprint scanner and Windows Hello camera. (Source: Dell)
Dell has gone official with the XPS 15 9560, and it does not disappoint. Changes include a GTX 1050, Kaby Lake, fingerprint scanner, Windows Hello, and Killer Wi-Fi card. Thanks to the updated Pascal graphics, GPU-intensive tasks should run approximately 50% faster than the previous generation.

One of the most anticipated laptop updates of the year has just been made official. Dell has gone live with the XPS 15 9560 on their website, revealing specs and changes—but not price or availability. 

The CPUs are naturally upgraded to their next-generation counterparts. CPU options will likely include the i3-7100HQ, i5-7300HQ, and i7-7700HQ. These chips are clocked slightly faster than their older Skylake siblings, with the i7 running at a base clock of 2.8GHz and the i5 at 2.5GHz, according to leaked Kaby Lake benchmarks. Kaby Lake doesn't seem to perform much faster than Skylake, but it should provide better video playback and more power-efficiency.

The GPU is rather interesting, as the XPS 15 previously shipped with a Nvidia GTX 960m, but now is now equip with the GTX 1050 with 4GB, according to Dell. The desktop 1050 comes equip with 2GB ram, while the 1050 Ti has 4GB, but Dell makes no mention of whether this is indeed the more powerful 1050 Ti. Whether it is the vanilla 1050 or 1050 Ti, we can expect performance similar to a 970m and a TDP of 60W, scoring between 6200-6800 on the synthetic Fire Strike benchmark. In contrast, the 960m in the current XPS 15 scores around 3900 in the same test—meaning this is roughly a 50% upgrade in performance. Thus, the addition of this new Pascal card should make the world's smallest 15-inch notebook also much more adept at playing games.

Other notable additions and changes include a Windows Hello-compatible camera, fingerprint sensor, and the replacement of the previous Broadcom Wi-Fi with a Killer 1535 Wireless-AC adapter. We can expect more information on pricing and availability around CES 2017 in January.

3DMark 11 - 1280x720 Performance GPU
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile
Aorus X5 v6
23723 Points
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile
MSI GE72VR-6RF
15204 Points
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
Asus Strix GL502VT-DS74
9824 Points
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Desktop)
Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB
8571 Points
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
HP Omen 15-ax007ng
7919 Points
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
Dell XPS 15-9550 i7
5279 Points

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2016 12 > XPS 15 9560 official: GTX 1050, Kaby Lake, fingerprint scanner, and Windows Hello
Douglas Black, 2016-12-20 (Update: 2016-12-21)