Unfortunately, the XPS 15 9575 2-in-1 has soldered RAM

Ever since the XPS 13 9343 kicked off the InfinityEdge form factor craze, Dell's XPS series has been one of the most sought after product lines in mobile computing. So, when Dell announced an XPS 15 2-in-1 in January this year at CES touting both a US$1299 starting price and up to 32GB of memory, it unsurprisingly become one of the most anticipated releases of 1H 2018. As we reported yesterday, the XPS 15 9575 is already up for order now on Dell's website. Unfortunately, however, there are a couple of small flies in the ointment.

First, although a starting MSRP of US$1299 for the US was given, no such option is available at the moment. The cheapest SKU of the XPS 15 9575 comes in at a meaty US$1499 despite its modest i5-8305G CPU, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, and FHD display. If Dell does eventually offer a version for US$1299, it's hard to imagine what specs it might have — the only possibilities seem to be an i3 CPU or perhaps a version without a dedicated GPU, similar to the i3 XPS 15 9560 SKU.

The second (and larger fly) is that the memory in the XPS 15 9575 appears to be completely unupgradable: The service guide on Dell's website doesn't list swapping RAM as an option, and the pictures appear to show a mainboard with soldered RAM and no open sockets. While 32GB options were announced, they are listed as "post-RTS", meaning after the initial shipping date of the system. In a recent tweet, Alienware and XPS head Frank Azor confirmed that 32GB SKUs would be available "later this year."

Therefore, if you had your eye on the new 2-in-1 for creative purposes and you need that 32GB of RAM, you have no choice but to wait for a new SKU with the 32GB on-board. Additionally, it should go without saying to make sure you buy the model with the amount of RAM you need, because you'll be unable to upgrade it afterwards — an unfortunate trend.

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