Dell Studio XPS 13 and 16 - Coming Soon?

The slides never said the current XPS line would get new processors. It alludes to the Studio XPS.

 

I guess it depends on how you interpret the last two lines. "New: Montevina processors from August! Chipset on Studio from Oct!"

Also from what the OP said in an earlier post.

 

We're one week into September. Not all the way through.

 

The first point on the first slide says:

Code:

Latest Intel Montevina processors from August on 1525, Studio 15, 17 and XPS.

Although, the very next line seems to contradict this:

Code:

Latest Montevina chipset on Studio NB from Oct

 

Well if they are going to be called the Studio XPS line that makes sense. The wording is stupid though, instead of from August they need to say introduced in August, as Montevina was fully introduced in August.

 

So fake then, as it seem like a crappy phrasing

 

where exactly did this powerpoint slides come from?

 

Why do we even have to argue about whether it's fake or not? We'll know in two short months.

 

correction: Why do we even have to argue about whether it's fake or not? We'll know in two LONG months.

 

:yes: two agonizing long months if you're waiting to buy.

 

and even longer if your like me and don't already have a laptop.

 

I blame everyone who keeps buying the current faulty XPS. If everyone stopped doing that and bought other, better, laptops for the same price with Centrino 2 then dell would feel a need to put Centrino 2 out. However people on this forum still are buying XPS so I guess we are in for a long wait as long as dell can make great profit selling yesteryear's hardware.

 

I doubt Dell is just withholding it because they can. Companies just don't sit on new products, especially not technology products because it is such a fast pace market. They are either waiting for the entire platform from Intel with WiMax or they are having technical issues with their new product.

 

They really can't be waiting for WiMax, because that makes zero sense as we're talking about their Home & Office notebooks here, while they're already offering Business Montevina notebooks.

There is a couple of reasons I can think of at the moment, being:

- Intel is now selling Santa Rosa processors and chipsets at big discounts, or at least much cheaper than comparable Centrino 2 chipsets + processors. Plus, compared to Santa Rosa's offerings, people might be more inclined to add Dell's own wireless modules, which makes profitability higher for Dell. All this makes it so that they can offer their notebooks with big discounts for back to school season as students probably care more about money than about the latest technology.

- Availability of chipsets / processors is still low. Dell already updated their business notebooks, updating their Home notebooks at the same time, would made demand for the chipsets even higher, making the wait a lot longer for many people. And I don't expect big announcements of the Centrino 2 update, they'll probably update the site at the same time they announce it, as they're not releasing new models, just hardware updates. They'd be crazy to announce it upfront, people would stop buying them.

 

I didn't say waiting for WiMax made sense, I don't run Dell.

If they were just going to drop the new technology in an existing product, they would not have waited this long. The chipset is different so most likely the entire motherboard is new and smaller. A new product release is most likely the result.

 

Or they could put the new hardware in the existing chassis and add a better graphics card and efficient cooling with all the additional space.

I think the Studios will definitely see a direct upgrade to Montevina - maybe even the Inspiron 13. It would be stupid to release these notebooks without considering the new chipset and processors. I think Dell is slowly renaming its products so that it can release new versions with newer hardware easily. The Inspiron is now the Inspiron 13, 14, and 15. If they put in new hardware, they could still use the same name. Kind of like how Apple works.

EDIT: Also, clearly, none of us run Dell else we'd be enjoying our Centrino 2 laptops by now.

 

lol, the funny thing is that in Australia other companies centrino 2 laptops are almost the same price as our dells. This is ridiculous.

 

Basically what I was trying to say.

 

Yeah, I'd love them to announce new products and the long wait (in addition to many competitors annoucing new models) could point at that, but the points I made assume that the leaked slides are true, although no proof of that is out there it seems.

I also think they wouldn't have waited this long normally, but I think they may sell more notebooks daily than there are Centrino 2 chipsets / processors available to them at the moment. Of course I'd love them to just update one Home line (XPS please) and gradually update the others, that should perhaps have been possible demand wise, but oh well.

 

I believe they are holding out because they are just clearing stock. They still just have a lot of Santa Rosa left. I mean even if they don't they make more profit selling Santa Rosa with the amount of people I read here buying them that the people who demand Centrino 2 are not going to hurt them.

The back to school season is cheap laptops for Christmas it's all about performance and things that we don't need. Releasing a new line in November for Christmas makes sense although I definitely doubt those slides are what they are releasing. Wood panels? How about leather like Asus.

 

As far as I know, Dell uses a "just-in-time" manufacturing model which means they usually keep little to no inventory. Plus, they knew when Montevina was coming and they must have formulated implementation plans well in advance. Here's a cool video explaining how a Dell is made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEhNkzdKyrw

 

i agree.. i think they are having technical difficulties to delay centrino 2. not to mention XPS & alienware with no new releases yet.

 

I don't really. A lot of people came to my school with XPS. They saw dell, saw XPS, and assumed it was a top of the line PC. Trying to explain to them that XPS is not top of the line with words like Nvidia, Montevina, and Centrino 2 just makes no sense to them. It's a fast pace market but the consumer doesn't know anything about it 90% of the time.

 

Hybrid SLI only works with 9200, 9300, 9500.

 

You mean Geforce boost, sli works for all the 9 series cards in conjunction with 9100m G

 

Do you think the new XPS's will offer ATI graphics? ATI also have hybrid graphics technology and the current dell studio's use ATI graphics so is it a possibility?

 

I kinda hope. nVidia hasn't been very trustforthy lately. A user in here has some problems with his M4400 Precision and the nVidia Quadro 770, when after about 20min of very smooth gaming the framerates start to drop dramatically. So ATI would be a better choice in my opinion.
Maybe that's why it takes so long for the XPS's to launch - they designed it for nVidia and now they're switching over to ATI and testing it with that one...?

 

The XPS seem to be designed with Nvidia in mind, though given their recent issues with reliability, I suspect that this is why Dell seem to be moving slowly over to ATI technology.

ATI used lead free solder from day one because it's well known about the cracking issue with leaded solder in temperature flux environments.

NVidia in some misguided bid to cut costs, went for cheaper leaded stuff. The problem is that leaded solder tends to crack if constantly heated and cooled unlike the lead free stuff. Graphics cards heat and cool constantly.

It's also the reason Microsoft had to set aside 1 billion dollars for the 360 defects. Strangely enough it was exactly this cheap leaded solder that caused the problems there too!

When are large companies going to uderstand that there comes a point when it's impractical to cut any more costs on a product without jeopardising logterm profits.

 

But the Xbox 360 uses an ATi chip!

 

So no more news concerning a possible release dates of the new XPSs?

 

The only Dell news I've seen has been about the Mini. These slides have been the only thing in a while.

 

I love Dell but maybe Dell doesn't need my money.

Come on it is falling a lot lot behind already, why would I buy your products when I can get Montevina and 9 series graphic card for a similar price with another brand?

I dunno if Dell is planning something or they are facing difficulties, but at least say something, or they truly think that not refreshing their product lines this late does not harm their profit at all?

 

Where and how much? I just want something that can handle SC2 when it comes out.

 

Then you wouldn't have to be hurry.

I am in Aus and HP dv5 has Montevina with 2.53G CPU, 4GB RAM and 9600M GT for like ~1800-1900 AUD, while M1530 with 2.5G CPU, 4GB RAM and 8600M GT is ~1800 AUD, and that's with the 12% off spring sale for only these 4 days.

 

I've been saying for awhile now that dell isn't worth buying at the moment. So many people at my school bought xps when there were better alternatives for the same price. It's funny when you see people with an XPS and they think that they have the top of the line gaming PC when that stuff is all last years hardware.

 

If it works, who cares? It isn't as if when the new stuff comes out the old magically doesn't work. Any performance increase between these two generations is marginal. If the price is right and the need is there buy it.

 

That's the thing. The current setup doesn't work.

A refresh with cooler chip will help the ugly heating problems with the Nvidia cards. The marginal performance increase is just icing on the cake.

 

A cooler CPU isn't going to affect the GPU. Since when don't they work? Tons and tons of people on these boards have M1330s and M1530s without a single problem. This affects MBPs too, but you don't see them freaking out either.

 

Don't believe everything you read... nVidia has a lot of speculation surrounding it, most are just rumours.

 

The large increases of batterylife to me are definitely worth it. You now see people hitting double digit battery life where before these computers are topping out at 3-4. Sorry but if you still think an XPS should be out competing with these Centrino 2 platforms some with hybrid graphics for even higher batterylife that is crazy. There should be a new xps with montevina and hybrid graphics from ATI. I mean it's long overdue and we all know it.
Old CRT monitors still work but you have a flatscreen I hope by now. My old 19 inch monitor works but I still upgraded to 37 inches.
Why buy an XPS at the same price as a new lenovo, sony, or asus when all those companies offer more features and newer tech than the XPS?

 

The only one that offers 'double digit battery' life is the Latitude because it has the option to run the special Latitude - an instant on embedded OS, not Vista or any every day use OS. Battery life is about the same, a little more maybe since there is a lower TDP on the new chips - but not that much. Definitely not enough to just scrap a notebook and go on to a newer platform. Secondly, Hybrid graphics on a Montevina system only works with nVidia GPUs. If you want the hybrid with ATI you would need to use the Puma platform.

Comparing CRT to a brand new LCD is irrelevant. If you want to compare the jump from Santa Rosa to Montevina think more along the lines of comparing a Dell 2407WFP and a 2408WFP and then you will see there isn't a huge jump between generations.

 

Lenovo Think pads hit double digits as well and a lot of laptops can do it with the 9 cell battery compared to on santa rosa where it wasn't possible. Also Lenovo offers hybrid grpahics with ATI cards and intel processors. But it's just the fact that montevina uses less power and is faster. No one else is using Santa Rosa and Dell is already in trouble due to lower than expected sales? Maybe it's because they do things like this...

 

There's also an HP Elitebook that apparently offers 24 hours of battery life, although I believe that was with a huge 12 cell battery or so? But still, with a 6 or 9 cell you'd still easily manage double digits as well then.

Fact is that for many people the many small advantages and improvements of Montevina are worth it. Personally I'm someone who won't buy any product if I know that there's something better out there (that doesn't cost much more).

My problem with other companies though is that none offer any customization in European stores or web sites. HP / Lenovo / Sony etc all have fancy US stores where I could configure my ultimate Montevina notebook, but not in Europe and none of the preconfigured models offer all I want in Europe. Dell does offer the customization options here and there I'd at least get as close as possible to all the specs I want in my notebook.

Also, it's not just Montevina, but I also want a graphics card that's more up to date than the GF 8 series. Man, how long has it been since the 9 series was released? Is it this hard to add a 9 series GPU to their existing notebooks?

Dell has disappointed me quite a bit with all this, I really liked them until like a couple of months ago, but now...

 

I think the phrase "hybrid graphics" is being misunderstood here because there are two implementations of it. Nvidia's solution uses the integrated and dedicated cards in SLI to offer a performance boost in demanding applications, and also allows you to switch to onboard for extended battery life. Although they worked with AMD, Lenovo's solution is just a switch - you can use the integrated for battery life, or dedicated for performance. AMD's actual hybrid solution is similar to Nvidia's.

Furthermore, the TDP on the Montevina T-series processors is the same as the T-series Santa Rosa Refresh processors. The P-series does offer a lower TDP but it alone cannot extend the battery life by several hours. Dell's claimed 19 hours on the Latitude E6400 comes from the main battery plus a battery slice - without the battery slice, people are getting about 5-6 hours which is a lot more realistic. Plus, we really don't know Dell's reasons behind this - maybe Intel could not guarantee adequate supply to Dell? Also, if the new laptops come out in November, Dell is clearly targeting the Christmas period and will more than likely make a killing then.

 

Aw, November?

 

You have a 37 in computer screen???!!!

 

I was thinking the same thing. that dell would launch new products ahead of the holiday season. i was expecting sept/oct, but november is really late.. almost risky, new product, new production lines, high demand, the holidays, any delay that could cause the systems to be late would send customers to other places where they could get products without waiting.

 

Some kid I play with online uses a 42 inch. 37 inches for 600 dollars? I couldn't let that go. Full 1080p. It's actually a TV with no tuners and since I'm at college and I only have cable I can't watch cable, can't use my 360 with it since both of those are at home in fact I really can't do anything with the TV until I go out to the store and get some cables to at least hook it up to my laptop. It's just going to be a big monitor until I get some consoles over here.

IMO here is why montevina is late for dell. Montevina wasn't ready in time for the back to school season. No one I know in school bought a montevina laptop. Everyone got santa rosa platforms practically since they got their laptops in late july. There was no point rushing to get montevina out since it would be very unlikely customers were going to wait till mid august to order their laptops. The best way to make the most sales would be to release it during November where it's christmas season. Waiting on montevina allows them to revamp at a time where they can make the most sales rather than releasing it late in the back to school season like most other companies did.

 

LaptopLogic.com is reporting the tentative release date for the new XPS 13 and 16 systems as November 11th.

http://laptoplogic.com/news/schedule-for-upcoming-dell-laptops-and-desktop-pcs-5425

I am hoping the new XPS 13 will be a competitor to the Sony Vaio Z, the slides at the first page of this thread list the XPS 16 as having a 16:9 screen but not the 13 model. I hope the 13 model can have an option for a 1600x900 screen like the Vaio Z does.

 

More dates! At least these align with the powerpoint slides. Maybe they are real after all.