Dell M3800: Will they update again this year?

I'm a student looking at getting a Dell M3800 for programming, video editing, schoolwork, etc. I know they updated the display in January; However do you think they'll upgrade the processors to the latest generation? I'm looking to buy a laptop by September.

 

Broadwell CPUs are still rolling out and the higher-end mobile CPUs are not yet available. The timeline is fuzzy but they should be out sometime this year.

After the CPUs are available, Dell will begin refreshing their products. Precision is usually at the tail end of this process. They will probably release M4900 and M6900 first; followed not too far behind by M3900.

So; will they upgrade the processors this year? Most likely. By September? No telling :-\
Even if the CPUs became available right now I'd expect six to eight weeks at minimum before we had a Precision product announcement from Dell.

 

M3800 was early compared to the M4800/M6800 when Haswell came out, because it was a rebadged XPS 15 (9530). That could happen again, although with the Intel CPU announcement today, it looks like those of us who want a thin-and-light quad-core machine will be waiting a while longer.

Intel announced a bunch of 47W quad-core Broadwell processors today, but no 37W quad core to replace the i7-4710HQ/4712HQ. It's possible that such a processor will still be announced -- probably not for another month or two -- but it sounds more likely models based on this kind of processor will have to wait for Sky Lake.
Given this, I think it's more likely we'll see an M4900/M6900 before an M3900, since the newer video chips have been out for a while and these Broadwell CPUs are what has been delaying release for a lot of other machines --- hence the release a while ago of the Lenovo W541/W550s.

If an appropriate processor does release, I'd expect the new XPS 15 (whether or not there's an M3900) to be announced pretty quickly after the new CPU.

 

Personally, I wouldn't expect a refresh until skylake is out, so end of this year most likely. Aside from the GPU, there hasn't been much difference in processor performance for the last few generations, so the current M3800's CPU remains pretty competitive.

Personally, I'm hoping for a Skylake M3900 redesigned with a docking port.

 

It would be nice if there were a purpose-designed M3900 rather than a re-badged XPS, yeah.

 

Yes, with a real docking port, I'd be all over this. That's the one massive drawback of the current M3800.

 

No specs, but I think this shows the direction they are heading in - http://www.forbes.com/sites/brookec...social&utm_channel=Technology&linkId=14697168

 

I am really liking those ridiculously thin Bezels on the XPS 13 and that XPS 15. No loss of physical screen real estate, but overall smaller footprint for the entire laptop. The carbon fiber/metal construction is also pretty nice. That said, gimme my docking port Dell! I don't care if it's something you plug on the side or under the notebook, but please none of that USB 3.0 dock with limited abndwidth nonsense on a business notebook (I could do with thunderbolt though).

 

The current M3800 has thunderbolt. I am curious about USB Type C and the newer Intel Wireless docking options.

I can't find a large image with a clear view of the left side of the machine, so the ports are a mystery. The smaller image of the left side has a port that does not quite look like a DisplayPort, but it is too hard to see what it is.

 

However, there is no thunderbolt dock that I am aware of specifically from Dell, which is more what I was referring to.