Dell said readying slimmer XPS 15 with Ivy Bridge
updated 10:35 am EDT, Thu March 29, 2012
Dell XPS 15 to get 3rd-gen Core and GeForce 600M
New leaks have pointed to the full-size Dell XPS 15 getting much slimmer along with its 2012 revamp. The Netherlands' Tweakers.net provided both a photo and claims that the mid-size notebook would fall from a very thick 1.5-inch body down to a more MacBook Pro-like 0.95 inches. Its new design should have a 15.6-inch, 1080p white LED-backlit display with edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass on top.
Performance would accordingly be freshened to give it mid-to-upper-range hardware. Buyers would have the pick of Intel's Ivy Bridge-era processors in two trims that may be Dell-specific. A dual Core i5-3210 and a quad Core i7-3612 would both be available. NVIDIA's newly upgraded GeForce 600M line would come through with GT 630M and GT 640M options.
Storage would also be a specialty, with as much as a 1TB spinning hard drive or a 512GB solid-state drive for the main drive. Those who want a blend of performance will have the choice of as much as a 256GB micro SATA system drive along with a main storage drive.
Little is known about when the new XPS 15 would go on sale, although Ivy Bridge is expected to ship on April 29 and could see Dell time its release either for the same day or shortly afterwards.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2012
XPS for professional Audio?
It looks nice. If only DELL opens the XPS line by allowing one of the only true low latency connectors available. Namely; ExpressCard or Thunderbolt.
The former allows for plenty of existing third party Pro interfaces and soundcards that are necessary for such jobs. The latter is expected to be an important player not so far in time (see UAD's Apollo top of the line interface).
IMO if DELL brings both connectors to their new XPS, Vostro, Latitude and XPSz and a relatively small but relevant segment will embrace them quite fast. Remember that Apple did such with the Design and Visual segments long ago and they have been crucial in the firm's environment building process.