XPS

The market for premium laptops has been growing in recent years, with thin and powerful 15-inch laptops like the Dell XPS 15 or Apple MacBook Pro 15 as one of the growth-segments. Reason enough for HP to release the new EliteBook 1050 G1, which offers a hexa-core CPU and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 in a thin 15-inch chassis.

Although those who purchase the Dell XPS 15 9575 2-in-1 can already choose to have it in black, Frank Azor has recently confirmed that the Dell XPS 15 9570 laptop will not get such a color option anytime soon. The XPS 15 9570 is only available in a platinum silver finish and starts at US$999.99.

The service manual for the Dell XPS 15 9570 has been posted online and it looks like the notebook will sport a similar heatsink design with 2 heat pipes as its predecessor. This raises concerns about the possible throttling issues as the previous XPS 15 9560 had to be undervolted and thermal pads applied to the VRMs in order to prevent performance drops due to thermal throttling and power limits.

Based solely on our two XPS 15 9575 samples, the presence of Hyper-Threading for the Core i5 series has allowed the 65 W i5-8305G to perform much more closely to the 65 W i7-8705G than one would expect. This is in stark contrast to the older 45 W i5-7300HQ where the 45 W i7-7700HQ and even the 15 W i7-8550U can outperform it in multi-threaded workloads. Shoppers now have one less reason to buy the more expensive i7 over the i5.

Responding to a question on Twitter, Frank Azor bluntly stated that the likelihood of a dedicated GPU making its way into Dell's XPS 13 2-in-1 is slim to none. "Don't hold your breath," said Azor, effectively squashing any hope of a variant of the convertible with a dGPU. However, is that such a bad thing?

Less than two days after two more powerful XPS 15 9570 configurations were listed on the official Dell website, two cheaper variants join the lineup. Starting at US$999.99, these models come with 8 GB of memory and 8th generation Intel Core processors (i5-8300H with a 5400 rpm 1 TB hybrid drive and i7-8750H with a 256 MB PCIe SSD).

Frank Azor has confirmed that the much anticipated Dell XPS 15 9570 notebook is likely to launch this week. This would be highly welcomed by those eager to lay their hands on the laptop as the ongoing Cashstar pre-order promo met with sharp criticism from prospective buyers.

Dell has been number one in monitor sales for 17 straight quarters, and they are looking to continue this trend with the announcement of seven new and refreshed monitors. Three of the new models stand out because of their USB-C connections, giving us an indication of future trends as we move towards possible universal usage of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 replacing various other non-compatible data and display standards.

Dell could be looking at offering new aspect ratios aside from the standard 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio in future notebooks. This was confirmed in a conference call by Frank Azor during the new XPS and Alienware reveal. Opting for non-standard aspect ratios can greatly enhance the tablet mode experience especially in 2-in-1 notebooks.

Gamers planning a trip to Panama City may just want to book a stay at the local Hilton hotel. Alienware has teamed up with the hotel’s management to create a gaming-themed room that is awesome enough to bring tears to the eyes of gamers who can’t bear the thought of a day away from their preferred battle royale title. The cost for such gaming-room luxury? US$349 a night.

The Dell XPS 15 9570 could be available by the end of April according to Dell's Frank Azor. Pre-orders seem to be live at the moment but they require a purchase of a pre-order gift card via Cashstar, which has caused quite a flutter among prospective buyers.

The Dell XPS 15 9570 is certainly one of the highly anticipated refreshes both fans and reviewers were eager to catch hold of. In the wake of the 'Coffee Lake-H' launch, Dell has unveiled what could be its most ambitious XPS 15 yet. Sporting CPU options up to the Core i9-8950HK and GPU options up to the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, the XPS 15 9570 has everything a multimedia enthusiast would require and more. Prices start from US$999 for the Core i5-8300H variant with expected availability sometime in May 2018.

The Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 finally gets a listing on Dell's website. The convertible notebook comes with a choice of Intel 'Kaby Lake-G' Core i5 and Core i7 processors and offers a few other configuration options. Prices start from US$1,499 with financing options directly from Dell.

Dell's much-awaited 15-inch convertible, the XPS 15 9575, went on sale yesterday. Although Dell originally touted up to 32GB of RAM, it seems that this configuration is impossible to attain for the time being. The XPS 15 9575's RAM is all soldered, and the 32GB SKU will not be available for some time.

The much anticipated Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 will launch this week if a tweet by Dell's Frank Azor is anything to go by. The launch of the Intel 'Kaby Lake-G'-powered convertible has eluded fans ever since it was announced at CES 2018 and Azor's tweet could offer some respite for those looking to lay their hands on one.

The highly anticipated Dell XPS 15 (9570) could feature a discrete Max-Q GPU. This was confirmed by Dell's Frank Azor in reply to a question asked on Twitter. Azor, however, did not reveal what the exact GPU is but expect to see a GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q at the minimum.

Dell’s gaming-hardware subsidiary, Alienware, has teamed up with the Miami Heat and Misfits Gaming to help enhance the NBA team’s eSport development program. Video-game competition has become big business with total eSports revenue streams being estimated at US$660 million worldwide for 2017. Alienware will be providing laptops and other hardware for training and streaming purposes.

A report created by research company TrendForce has revealed a total of 164.7 million notebooks were shipped in 2017. This compares to 161.2 million units shipped in 2016 and a forecast of 163.8 million units expected to be shipped in 2018.

Some early benchmarks of the new Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 taken at CES 2018 show some impressive power from the new Intel Core i7-8705G CPU paired with on-board AMD Vega graphics. While these benchmarks should be taken with a grain of salt, game performance hovers just below Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1050.

[Update: The preliminary temperature measurements are of an early unit unrepresentative of the retail model.] Thinner, lighter, and more powerful than the XPS 15 9560, the XPS 15 2-in-1 features a 65 W Kaby Lake-G processor and new Mag-Lev keyboard. Something has to give, however, and we believe it will be in warmer temperatures.

Dell has announced a compact TB3-based portable SSD that should deliver transfer rates up to 2650 MB/s. It won't come cheap, however, as the 500 GB and 1 TB models will retail for US$439 and US$799 respectively.

Asus has put forward another eGPU offering this CES. With an external 330W power supply and all-aluminum chassis, the XG Station Pro aims to be quieter and sleeker than competitors.

The upcoming iteration of the Dell XPS 15 will finally have full speed 4-lane Thunderbolt 3 along with possibly a 5K display option according to Dell's VP Gaming and XPS, Frank Azor, who also confirms that Dell is waiting for Intel to ship its 8th generation H-series processors.

A user on Reddit was browsing the XPS 15 section of the Dell Canada website, where they claim to have seen some important specifications such as the inclusion of a GTX 1060 option, QHD+ (touch enabled) and 5K screens, and the apparent absence of 4K.

It's the holiday season, which means Black Friday deals are coming. Dell is kicking things off with some enticing deals on XPS and Alienware notebooks and desktops. The sale is on now until 8 AM EST on November 3.

Dell showed off a sneak peak of the upcoming XPS 13 way ahead of its official CES 2018 announcement. The new XPS 13 seems to sport new color choices and ditches all legacy USB ports in favor of USB Type-C.

Dell's premium business offering, the Latitude 13 7370, is currently available on Dell's eBay store for just US$599 — more than 50% off its original price of US$1,300. The discounted price also includes a US$100 on-page discount.

There were problems with batches of 84Wh batteries in the XPS 15 9550 that led to the battery bulging and pushing against the trackpad. Once the swelling was bad enough, it not only hindered the trackpad function but also posed a safety hazard. Users are now reporting that Dell is now finally accepting out-of-warranty battery replacements for the XPS 15 9550.

Using a combination of hardware and software, Dell designs its XPS lineup of notebooks to dynamically adjust power inputs to the various components to ensure that the system operates within specified temperature limits. We explain how Dell implements its Dynamic Power Policy to maximize performance within design constraints.

Dell is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Precision business workstation line with a cool "limited edition" Precision 5520, sporting new packaging, special wallpapers, and (most importantly) a cool dark anodized aluminum finish.

Many are eagerly awaiting Asus's new ZenBook Pro UX550 as a powerful but portable multimedia workhorse, but initial reports suggest the same kind of issues that have caused users to look to the UX550 may cause them to again have to look elsewhere for their dream machine.

Dell has rolled-out BIOS update version 1.3.4 for their popular XPS 15 9560-series notebooks. The BIOS update fixes include the recently discovered microcode bug with Intel's Skylake and Kaby Lake architectures.

Gigabyte has released a firmware update for their new Aero 15 laptop that fixes a bug preventing certain key combinations from registering. The 1.1.5 update is available through the Gigabyte Fusion application.