CES 2024 | Adieu XPS 15: Dell introduces XPS 16 9640 as its flagship premium laptop with 45 W Meteor Lake Ultra 9, RTX 4070, and Wi-Fi 7

Dell seems to be on a nostalgic spree with the new XPS launches at CES 2024. The XPS 14 makes a comeback after more than a decade while the XPS 13 9340 will be a consolidation of the XPS 13 Plus and the regular XPS 13.

Fans of the series will know that Dell offered a Studio XPS 16 way back in 2009. Fast forward to today, and we have a new 16-inch XPS 16 9640 that supplants the popular XPS 15 that defined the lineup for a long time.

Dell has been offering 16-inch laptops for quite some time now. Recent launches include the G16 7630, Inspiron 16 Plus 7630, and the Precision 5680. The XPS was the only lineup that didn't feature a 16-inch variant, and the XPS 16 9640 fills this lacuna.

Design-wise, the XPS 16 9640 follows the same design language as the XPS 13 9340 and the XPS 14 9440. This includes CNC-milled aluminum construction, Gorilla Glass 3 protection (Victus for OLED models), touch function row, and the invisible glass touchpad. Thus, the XPS 16 is essentially a larger XPS 14 with more power under the hood.

Speaking of power, the XPS 16 offers several CPU options including the 45 W Core Ultra 7 155H, Core Ultra 7 165H, and the Core Ultra 9 185H. On the GPU side, buyers get to choose between integrated Intel Arc graphics, 40 W/50 W RTX 4050, 40 W/50 W RTX 4060, and a 50 W/60 W RTX 4070 Laptop GPU. Dell says that a total of 80 W sustained performance can be extracted from the CPU and GPU.

Complementing the Meteor Lake processor and the RTX 40 series GPU is up to 64 GB LPDDR5x-7467 memory and up to 4 TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe storage. Only the top-end configuration with the RTX 4070 can make use of 7467 MT/s RAM — the rest have to make do with 6400 MT/s.

Dell also offers two display choices — a FHD+ InfinityEdge non-touch with 100% sRGB coverage and 500 nits brightness, and a 4K+ (3840 x 2400) OLED touchscreen with 100% DCI-P3 coverage and 400 nits brightness. The FHD+ option offers a 30-120 Hz dynamic refresh rate while the 4K+ OLED panel only does 48-90 Hz. Both panels are Dolby Vision-certified.

Port selection is similar to that of the XPS 14 9440 and includes three Thunderbolt 4 ports, a microSD card reader, and a 3.5 mm combo audio jack. Like the XPS 13 9340, the XPS 16 also features the Killer Wi-Fi 7 1750 (BE200) WLAN card with Bluetooth 5.4.

We also get to see a 1080p webcam, support for Windows Studio Effects, and biometric login using both fingerprint and IR. A 99.5 WHr battery powers the innards.

The Dell XPS 16 9640 will be available in Platinum and Graphite color options from Q1 2024. Prices start from US$1,899.99 and CA$2,549.99.

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