Next Generation Latitude/Precsion Speculation Thread

Any speculation on next generation models of Latitude or Precision lines? Will dell introduce the Latitude 'F' series, or will the 'E' series be continued with another iteration?

Will Dell finally start innovating with their products like adding oversized screens and higher resolutions. Wouldn't it be a smart business move for them (considering their market share decline, and quarterly results as of late) to beat their competitors to the market with products like a Latitude series with a precision like chassis in a 14" size footprint with a 15" retina grade screen. Or a 15" chassis with a 17" screen. (they really need to get a handle on their bezels. They could have easily done this with the current line of Latitudes considering how big the footprints are and the oversized bezels).

They could/should do this type of config with the next precision models at least. I think most enthusiasts, and business class users would upgrade (even if they didn't really need to) for a 15" precision with a 17" IPS retina display option.

Or how about a 14" precision with a 15" IPS retina Display. Anyone think that would sell?

Haswell will be a given I'm sure. DDR4 perhaps? If it becomes mainstream in the next few quarters.

Instant on boot times?

It's funny that Dell "listened to their customers" and got rid of the orange keyboard trim in the E6x30, but didn't do anything about the bezel, or the screen quality. Which was a much bigger complaint.Tsk tsk Dell.

It's getting close to the end of the year. Hopefully there will be some leaks as to direction for the product lines coming soon.

 

I've been following Precision for a few cycles. I followed the MX700 very closely during pre-release and had the chance to talk directly to Dell_Mano-G (one of the head guys on the Precision project) and get a feel for how they decide what new stuff to include. I think there won't be many surprises with the next Precision. Naturally a refresh won't be available until two or three months or so after Haswell launches. They'll include whatever drives, video cards, and memory are appropriate at the time, incremental upgrades over the current generation. Maybe there will be some tweaks like four USB 3.0 ports instead of two, or SATA-3 support for the mSATA drive — that just depends on the capabilities of Intel's chipsets that launch with Haswell.

I think some more interesting bits that we might possibly see on the next Precision are a Thunderbolt port and a high-DPI display. Thunderbolt depends on how mature the technology seems at the time. It was not included in the MX700 series because they didn't want to burden everyone with the cost of a port that very few people would have use for. As for the high-DPI display, I don't think they'll go out of their way to make a deal with some manufacturer to build a custom screen like Apple did for the retina MacBook Pro. Once standard options are available from screen manufacturers, they'll include them.

I think there's a little more room for surprises on the Latitude side though of course they will offer a basic refresh of the current models with Haswell.

DDR4? If the Haswell CPUs/chipsets support it. Not really up to Dell.

Instant on? Just use the sleep feature, it's been available for years.
That's really up to the OS to provide. M4700/M6700 blast through the POST process if you have UEFI with fastboot enabled.

 

I loved the Dell 6400 and e6410 keyboard.
Top right, there are two rows of buttons for :
insert/home/page-up
delete/end/page down
I use those buttons a lot and I dislike how they changed those in E6430. Hate it. Hope they get back to 6400/6410 layout.

 

It took me a couple of weeks after getting the E6420 last year to get used to having page up and page down in the same corner as the cursor keys. Since getting used to it, however, I really, really prefer it. Way more convenient, way less motion!

 

DDR4 is very unlikely due to lack of support from Haswell. I think Haswell-EX is supposed to be the first chip to support DDR4. It's good old DDR3 for at least another gen.

 

Make it thinner and lighter. Also the touchpad should be larger made out of glass and smooth across the top. Lose the extra buttons.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Wish list for next generation:

• Thinner/lighter body
• Slimmer bezel
• No CD/DVD drive
• Higher res & better quality (read: IPS) screen
• Wireless dock/charge
• LTE mobile broadband option for non-US markets

 

I'm not sure thinner/lighter is going to be practical for a fully spec'd workstation like the Precision series. Dell has upgraded the XPS series to be 'MacBook' thin, which resulted in throttling issues and heat issues.

You can only go so thin before you start limiting what the cooling system can handle CPU/GPU wise.

I've tried posting suggestions for higher resolution screens, thinner bezels, and oversized screens (ie. precision m4x00 series with a 17" screen) on the ideastorm website, but didn't seem to get much support. A previous poster stated they participated in the on -line chat with Mano-G (Precision line product manager), but I think the whole issue is Dell executives, or whoever they have in charge of product development, just don't seem to have any incentive to think outside the box. They only seem willing or capable of envisioning small little incremental changes and improvements, because...they can play it safe and still collect their paychecks.

Dell currently only has HP as competition in the mobile workstation market. Lenovo has the W series, but no 17" offerings. So they can sit back and just keep turning out the same ole same ole, without any real incentive to get creative.

I think most consumers would love to have better quality laptops available to purchase. But with razor thin profit margins (according to manufacturers), manufacturers will continue to decide what is available in the market, rather than consumer demand dictating what is available.

Just look at 16:10 screens being replaced by 16:9 format. That wasn't done because the market demanded or preferred 16:9 screens, it's because it allowed them to increase their margins. And they really didn't give a crap what customers really wanted. THey know that we will pretty much be forced to buy whatever they decide to give us.

 

Thinner can be done, but only slightly for the cooling requirements mentioned above.
Slimmer bezel: yes please!
Higher res: can be done, but they can't sacrifice gamut, so the panel will have to be able to cover the full NTSC gamut range, something retina displays cannot do. It might take a while until we see higher res displays with the required gamut for a precision. I doubt they will offer a higher res option of lower quality and a 1080p premiercolor display, they'll probably wait until they can offer both at the same res.
No CD/DVD drive: it's a mobile workstation, if you remove legacy compatibility options, you're doing it wrong; so no. The optical drive isn't dead enough yet to remove it.
Wireless dock/charge: I don't see the point, wireless has crippled bandwidth for a decent dock and wireless is something I see as more of a gimmick than anything until it can charge at the same speed as wired without having a massive power draw.
LTE mobile: I'm with you there.

 

thunder, Thunder, THUNDER BOLT !!

10GBE.