Am I the only one surprised that Dell has not released ANYTHING of interest this season?

So far Dell seems to have relied upon its current dated stock of XPS, Studio, and Inspiron laptops. The XPS line is over a year old with little innovation. Dell did release their mini 9/12 recently and both seem ok, but no real innovation, the prices are at the top of the market, and for what? Everything else is just ok. Where is the innovation in function or design?

I look at what HP has released, the TX2 for example, and others and all seem much farther along in the development cycle. Almost all other brands either have them in price or design..Whats up? How can they not have a major release during this critical time of the year?

 

Nope, you aren't the only one. They are mysteriously absent, which is not good for being one of the leading manufacturers. They are losing their edge.

 

where are you dell. where are your new laptops

 

I'm right with you. Dell's released nothing but garbage recently.

 

at the rate dell is going they are quick (very very quickly) becoming a thing of the past.

 

forget the all new redesigned E series? yeah, thats just a "little" one

 

yup....and all the precisions. Just about the most powerfull laptop you can get. There might not be much going on in the consumer range but business lines are doing fine i think

 

Also forgot all the new lcds too.

 

If Dell so chooses to shoot themselves in the foot, so be it.

 

Lol...i do agree with u guys on the gaming front maybe but do realise there's a whole world uot there besides gaming ....and in that world Dell users have been getting some VERY nice treats...quad core cpu's, 16gb RAM, RGB LED screens etc. etc....as said in the XPS 13/16 speculation thread Dell is still selling loads of the "old" XPS and Studio lappies and they probably won't release anything new if their stock is too large...they do continue to give good deals on those systems to get rid of them faster.

The thing you could maybe have on Dell is that they maybe expected to sell more XPS and Studio laptops and produced too many of them which they still have lying around now.

better things are surely coming

 

They've sure got a lot of unexplained delays for having such a large stock....

 

hmmmm...you're right there.
ok, reconsidering reasons for it

 

Oh you guys also forgot about the dell mini!

 

....how is 16GB of RAM a good thing? I don't ever use more than 80% of 2GB, 4GB is a nice number to have, 16 seems totally ludicrous. That just seems like Dell making you pay for something you don't need. Plus with Dell's RAM upgrade costs in the configuration... that's an insane amount of extra money you have to fork over.

 

Well that's exactly my point. You might've never had the need for that much RAM but other users do. Those laptops are aimed at people doing 3d animation, movie editing, that kinda stuff. You would be amazed to see the taste apps like 3dsmax have for ram when it comes to rendering. I agree that 4gb dimm's are very expensive but the m6400 has 4 dimm slots so you can get 4x 2gb sticks giving you 8gb for about $ 180,- not bad

I just mean that though it might not be special for the masses Dell hasn't been sitting still for the pro market

 

:S

I'm still more to the opinion that for things that require a lot of system resources like the examples you've listed, Desktops would be a better choice, though I guess being able to bring your system/work with you is a huge plus.

Still... I'd never let Dell upgrade my RAM for me. I'd much rather do it myself. Much cheaper. T_T

Them offering portable solutions that have an upgradeable capacity like that is nice, however, there are just some parts letting them install isn't worth the cost. On the other hand, not everyone knows/wants to upgrade the ram themselves... and some care even less about costs due to companies covering those costs. o_o.

Ehhh... still... It would be nice to see Dell care about the everyday consumer.

 

The business line got completely revamped, the Studio line is quite recent and also got edged up to Centrino 2, all those new Dell Mini releases and the updated Desktops with i7. It is just the XPS line that is left waiting a bit.

lol if 16GB of RAM isn't interesting I really don't know what would be!

 

What could be interesting:
New NVIDIA 9000M series GPUs
New ATI mobile GPUs
More lightweight laptops, preferrably Centrino 2s (...5 lbs for a Inspiron 13? old tech XPS M1330 that probably has to have integrated GPU otherwise it'll kamikaze?)
Faster RAM (timings, clockspeed, etc...) rather than more RAM.
More use of Low-Voltage Penryns (they're practically the same price as the current Penryns... don't know why everything these are in has such a premium *cough*Latitude E4300 and E4200*cough*)
More SSD options (preferably cheaper too... but hey... whatever.)
Hybrid SLI/Crossfire (that's still in development over at ATI and NVIDIA isn't it though?), or Switchable graphics (Sony and Apple are already out the gate here...)
***Better Worldwide Simultaneous Releasing***
***Better Discounts for regions not called the USA. T_T***


That's off the top of my head. I'm sure I have more complaints... but meh.

 

I have 8 gbs on my desktop and i have seen it get up to 6.5 gbs used. Some of us run multiple monitors with multiple virtual machines

 

Not to mention that RAM >4GB is useful for photoshop/graphic design users as well. I am in the architecture line, and we also do vastly on AutoCAD, 3D Animations/Rendering, Sketchup, Photoshop, Maya, and all the other hardcore programs. I'm always hitting 5.5 out of 6GB all the time on my 1720.

Not to mention that I do other stuff like video and music editing/encoding and VMware workstation.

And no, more RAM does NOT equate to faster rendering. It's a wrong misconception that people have in mind. A faster clocked CPU with more 2-4 cores or more can render significantly alot more faster, since 3D Max is written to use more than 4 cores as well. Tried and tested. On the viewport side, then yes, the RAM and GPU matters but technically more to the GPU. Rendering is CPU dependent only.

In regards to the topic, I always hoped for a Dell Precision M6400 for my needs, but they're ridiculously overpriced and I'm a gamer (Far Cry 2, COD4, Crysis, RA3, Fallout 3, etc.) as well. I hope it does have support to 8GB of RAM too. So day by day I was hoping for a new refresh of the XPS line but unfortunately no.

 

I'd personally like to see a new, better tablet-pc that can compete with Lenovo's x200 Tablet.

The current Latitude XT just doesn't cut it.

 

I am completely surprised Dell hasn't released anything interesting. Nothing at all. They really seem to be focusing on the business side, and letting HP and Apple have their day in the consumer notebook market. Evidently, they're not fighting for market share anymore but trying to stop the bleeding within Dell.

 

Exactly...those amounts of RAM can be very useful.

But rendering isn't just about CPU really....how fast it will render is determined by cpu but i was runnin out of RAM quite often when i was still using just 2gb....the render would just stop because it ran out of memory. I use a lot of high quality textures and they tend to eat up a LOT of it

I never said i would buy that RAM from Dell did i?

I'm not sure if i can say the m6400 is overpriced...it's too much for my budget but that doesn't mean it's overpriced. Next time i'm shopping i'll definetly go for a machine like that, maybe a revamped version with 2x quad core in 2 years?

 

LOL, well obviously. It'll stop rendering when it reaches it limits or when RAM is too little. That's why I opt for 6GB. What I'm saying is, there is a popular misconception that people mistake that "more RAM = faster rendering time." Which it isn't. Like how you said how fast it will render is determined by cpu, which is what I'm talking about.

I didn't ask you to buy that RAM either.

Price wise, this is rather a preferential thing to consider and to one's taste. This machine is particularly aimed at high-end professionals and corporate users... I'm not sure if there are any students like myself who are using it for personal use... Unless if someone wires me money. In Dell Singapore, where I am from, it seems like you'll have to sign up to be a Premier Member in order to purchase the M6400.

http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/precnnb?c=sg&l=en&s=lca

Hmm, I better get going... time to buy a 1TB external drive from SITEX exhibition.

 

No Some...u weren't but Temjin kept pointing out for how much Dell was selling RAM

And i agree, it must be seen as an investment that'll earn itself back, not many people will shell out that much just to toy around with it (not saying that's the case with you)

All in all i agree Dell is neglecting the gaming side a bit but, as discussed around the forum, they did acquire AW for that market. There will be an update to the XPS range at some point though, their focus just has been somewhere else for a while....good marketing i don't know....who knows it''l pay them off....Dell NEEDS their pro market though, an area in which HP is gaining share aswell so revamping that area was much needed

 

Yeah, I don't agree that Dell is becoming a thing of the past, and I wasn't really taking into account the business line. I just mean that as far as the Inspiron, Studio and Vostro lines, they're losing it.

 

Well... Dell's RAM prices are rather ludicrous... and I find that a lot of "casual gamers" fall for that misconception that more RAM = better. I mean, heck. I do light video encoding, and the most some friends of mine do with their "super computers" is game... and they've got 4x my RAM capacity. >_>

Of course, if you told them that if they wanted that RAM, they really should be ordering it separately, none of em would have a clue how to install it, and Dell just eats the money of these customers. I guess I'm arguing for equality for the uneducated/less computer or notebook savvy consumer.

...and I don't even consider AW good for gaming. Never. Ever.
Most of the money you spend on AW is for their name/chassis... the parts inside aren't honestly spectacular (an equivalent laptop from ANY other producer would probably be a great deal cheaper), and not to mention, their customer support is... less than exemplary.

I don't doubt that Dell needs investment in their pro market, however, if Dell is only capable of focusing on one market group at a time, I don't think they should even be in the competition at all, when other companies are capable of offerings simultaneously on all fronts of equal or greater quality to Dell. There's absolutely no reason why Dell can't churn out units for every market at the same time when Dell's quality is on par or worse than their competitors. >_>

 

Dell are pretty good at RAM pices compared to alienware . Look at M15x for example, UK site 1gb ->4gb = £200+

Off play,com two 2gb sticks are £30 with p and p

 

They're the same company to me now. Dell did buy Alienware IIRC.

Name = premium? ...Maybe if they listed more specific details about the parts like clockspeed and timings would I buy that kind of excuse.

 

What ever happened to that ad that was floating around of an XPS with all-glass coating and 'redefined' HD? COME ON DELL!! Lol

 

As an enthusiast, I can honestly say that i am not going to be too impressed until we have quad-core CPUs, 64 bit OSes, LED screens that look good at more than one resolution, Lots of RAM and bigger hard drives - standard.

I won't be really excited until they get the temperatures down also, something that I think could be done with a little more consideration to hot air evacuation.

The longer it takes to get to the next big releases, the sweeter they better be . . .

 

I will be rolling sager or whatever is the top of the line desktop CPU 17in after the dell dies, or the wife and I decide to have kids.

 

mgh_a1, let me clarify... quad core CPUs... is not Dell's responsibility. >_>

When Nehalem goes mobile, you'll get to see your mobile quad core.

 

What about this one?
http://www.dell.com/content/product...station-precision-m6400?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

 

...I stand corrected... let me clarify.

When Nehalem goes mobile, you'll get to see your AFFORDABLE NOT UBER HIGH END mobile quad core that should be standard, and not a $900 extra option which will eat your battery like a mofo.

 

A person can dream can't they? My comment was more to say that I don't plan on buying another laptop for a good long time. I figure a good 2-3 generations of hardware improvements (CPU / graphics / RAM / Storage / Display) is usually where I start to notice an appreciable difference in overall performance. That is of course providing that the existing technology is not revolutionized (for example, solid state drives show up). Spare me the benchmarks . . . differences seen in a lab do not always translate into differences the average person would notice.

Hence the comment: "the longer it takes to get to the next release-the sweeter it better be." Given the economy that we are in, I'm not surprised that Dell seems to be more focused on their higher margin business products.

 

Exactly so mgh_a1.

In my opinion, unless you do a heck of a lot of encoding and the like... I see no purpose in anything above a dual-core. The majority of video games are optimized under single-core, and maybe some dual-core. I don't know of many things that can effectively use 4 cores short of video/audio encoding.

IMO, for notebooks... Nehalem and Westmere are just going to be small upgrades. Nehalem's real market is business servers, but that's not to say that everyday users can't benefit from it, it's just that the benefit is going to be minimal for the premium you'll be paying.

I got my new laptop now... and I don't expect to be buying another until Sandy Bridge's process shrink.

...and lets face it... there's only so many jumps in performance with the recent shift to DDR3 RAM, HDDs pretty much just increase in capacity, and mobile graphics will always be one or two generations behind desktop graphics. About the only area where you could have "revolutionary changes" anytime now would be displays or batteries IMO. (personally... I'd like to see batteries revolutionized. Battery tech has more or less been left in the dust, the only things that have really changed are the efficiencies of power draw of the equipment.)

 

Add in 3Ds Max rendering. They're also utilized to use more than 4 processing cores, so as the Sketchup Vray plugin.

 

So mostly video/graphical editing kinda of software? (not sure what that Vray plugin you mentioned is.)

Well at least the number of applications capable of using more than 2 cores has increased... though it would be nice if games and other apps really started to do that too. T_T

 

Yes I'm surprised about Dell not releasing anything yet, but I'm more surprised about the fact that we are in December and they haven't made any good offer or discount in the XPS serie here in Mexico.

I really like the 1530 and I would be more than happy to buy one, even if it is old technology (I'm more of a Console gamer) but the thing is really overpriced here in my country.

 

1340 ？ 1640？

when

 

I agree, They haven't released anything in the consumer range - I was expecting a 16 inch and/or 18 inch or something. Look at HP, ACER and Sony
I hope they are loading up for "09"

 

Stay tuned for battery upgrades. Lithium Ion is the future, and a lot of companies are actively researching a lot of new tech. Specifically, for the automotive realm.

But where they find a better chemical cocktail there I am sure it will find its way into other applications.

In the mean time, manufacturers could actually look for places where power draw / performance can be better compromised. Desktop cards drawing 300-350 watts all by themselves? If laptops can run as good as they do while drawing less than 100 watts . . . well, I am sure they could go lower still. I would like to see the equivalent of dynamic stepping applied to everything . . . cpu, gpu, hardrive, sound, wi-fi, you name it. If you don't need full capacity at a given moment, you shouldn't be drawing full power, period. And yes I am aware that this is already the case for some parts and some computers.

 

Amazingly, Dell and Sony with the FW are about the only mainstream lappies with BD Write drives. So they (Dell) put that with a fantastic screen on the XPS versus going to the newer CPU platform. Kind of strange having a mix of old and new technology, except I agree with LPTV that Dell wants to unload probably an excess supply of the old XPS series so they juiced up what they could. Good for non-gamers and that's their business strategy for now.

 

Yet with the Studio range they give them the Centrino 2, backlit keyboard, but Read only Blu ray.....