Studio XPS 13/16 standard Obsidian finish, no leather?

This was just pointed out as a side note in another thread...the Studio XPS series laptops now have an additional lid option: Obsidian Black High Gloss finish, which is a separate option from the Obsidian Black with Leather Accent, and the Merlot Red with Leather Accent. Is Dell actually selling this model without the leather now? If so, that's great news; my girlfriend really likes the Studio XPS 16, but she's not willing to buy one on account of the leather, which she finds hideous.

Can anyone confirm that this new finish option has no leather accent on the lid?

 

Yes, confirmed.

 

Awesome. I bet she'll be pretty excited to hear about this. She was so disappointed last week when she found out that it only came with leather accents...

I assume it's too early for pics of the new lids, seeing even Dell's own site uses the reference photo with leather?

 

I haven't seen any, but I imagine it's just a smooth glossy lid.

I like the leather, but only as it breaks up the finger-print prone glossy black. I would've loved a nice rubberized look, but that wasn't happening

 

Yeah, I think the leather looks really nice, but the girlfriend is just not having it. We were actually going to pull the trigger on a nicely configured Studio 15 later today, but now she thinks she's going to take another look at the SXPS 16, sans leather.

 

They should have at least lowered the base price if it's a no-leather one, in my opinion.

 

I believe they did. Now both start at $1,000 and requires a $40 upgrade to Leather (in the U.S. at least). IMO it would look kind of ugly if the leather portion was simply replaced with the obsidian black plastic and finger prints would be even more of a pain (the leather and aluminum accents are the only safe havens on the laptop).

The only downside of the leather is I worry in a few years it will become worn out due to heat (from part of it being near the exhaust vent) and moisture (hands and/or spills). That said, I probably wouldn't have gotten the leather option if it was available when I bought mine as I usually don't care about style as a whole and prefer spending that $40 to improved hardware, etc. . I wonder if the retail store models will have both options available....

 

But before they took away the standard leather, it was already $999 starting. They've reduced the specs while maintaining the same price.

Dell rarely actually reduces the prices on their hardware. They always lower the standard specs and lower the price disproportionately to the reduced specs.