Dell XPS 15 2020 ('Fiorano')

[Falhófnir]

Under normal circumstances the new XPS 15" would be launching soon. It might have been pushed back or not, but thought I'd put together some of the info I could find floating around about it. This has caught my eye as Dell recently updated the 13" and brought 16:10 displays, which makes me hope they might do the same for the larger model (along with a much anticipated design refresh). Additionally it is meant to be running Comet Lake 10th gen (still 14nm) which could mean up to 10 cores if they can make the cooling work with that! For the right price/ specification this might be a tempting machine against the MBP 16".

 

[jrichards1408]

Under normal circumstances the new XPS 15" would be launching soon. It might have been pushed back or not, but thought I'd put together some of the info I could find floating around about it. This has caught my eye as Dell recently updated the 13" and brought 16:10 displays, which makes me hope they might do the same for the larger model (along with a much anticipated design refresh). Additionally it is meant to be running Comet Lake 10th gen (still 14nm) which could mean up to 10 cores if they can make the cooling work with that! For the right price/ specification this might be a tempting machine against the MBP 16".

Keeping an eye on it

 

[grmlin]

16:10 screens yes please!

 

[TSE]

It's still going to be a Dell XPS 15. It's going to ride the thin line between the perfect laptop for you and one that should be at the bottom of your list if you are considering it.

It will always have throttling issues and be outclassed performance-wise with a midrange GPU that can't compete with even the thin-and-light gaming laptops that weigh and cost just about the same, if not less. It's always going to have Dell's nagging QC and driver issues.

BUT, what it does have is a lot of the things that aren't necessarily counted on the spec sheets... fantastic battery life that is close to what Dell says they are (I get about 8 - 9 hours with normal use a year later), great build quality, and some of the best screens on the market.

If you need a thin and light laptop with JUST enough performance to do some gaming and/or graphic intensive applications, a laptop that is JUST thin and light with enough battery life to be convenient, and with intangibles such as a great screen, clean design, and the best Windows trackpad, then it's the perfect laptop.

I tend to think the small update coming up isn't going to change that.

 

[sbarton]

i bought my xps 7590 with oled screen on blowout for $1499. coming from a mbp 15 i have no regrets. Build quality is excellent and i've found that for the games i play, the gtx 1650 is perfect for my 1440p screen.

I've been so impressed over the past 3 months, that i just sold my desktop Mac (2013 mac pro) and bought a tb3 dock with nvme slot and 3.5" drive for backups and now use the system as my desktop as well. My biggest use beyond MS productivity applications is Lightroom and Photoshop for photograpy, so those app function identically on windows as they do on OSX.

The hardest thing about moving to windows 10 was:
a.) I had to put in a lot of work tweaking to get temps under control by undervolting which once done is perfect.
b.) The lack of time machine type backup capability. I've got something close thought using a product called AOMEI backupper.

I play mostly mmo type games so EvE Online, GW2, World of Tanks, World of Warships, Halo MCC, etc. This system pushes 60fps on my 1440p display on med/high settings for all of these. For AAA titles, i would recommend more of a gaming laptop like the razor blade 15 advanced with 2070 max-q.

All of this said, my next system in the next couple of years is looking more and more like a hackintosh depending how that path looks after Apple deploys all T2 enabled macs and how difficult it will be going forward. I also have a small hope they will release a reasonably affordable mid range desktop mac.

Looking forward to what the next XPS 15 will look like.

 

[Falhófnir]

From a leaked roadmap, there is (was?) also meant to be a 17" XPS ('Stradale') launching in summer, which will be a very interesting formfactor if it's also 16:10 with the bare minimum footprint... That one I maybe could see with a 10 core i9 plus RTX 2060 and still managing reasonable to good thermals!

 

[TSE]

From a leaked roadmap, there is (was?) also meant to be a 17" XPS ('Stradale') launching in summer, which will be a very interesting formfactor if it's also 16:10 with the bare minimum footprint... That one I maybe could see with a 10 core i9 plus RTX 2060 and still managing reasonable to good thermals!

That would be a fantastic device

 

[mac_evangelist]

To me the whole MacOS thing wins, we can always run Windows on top of MacOS and use eGPUs etc with the Mac which makes it the ultimate computer to many. It's hard for Dell and HP to compete whatever they do in this respect against consumers like me.

 

[TSE]

To me the whole MacOS thing wins, we can always run Windows on top of MacOS and use eGPUs etc with the Mac which makes it the ultimate computer to many. It's hard for Dell and HP to compete whatever they do in this respect against consumers like me.

And that's respectable. But to some people, Windows and MacOS are a tossup, and to others, like me who need certain app support (Solidworks), Macs just don't cut it. I tried the Boot Camp and/or Parallels routes and they just aren't quite as refined as they should be.

 

[Falhófnir]

And that's respectable. But to some people, Windows and MacOS are a tossup, and to others, like me who need certain app support (Solidworks), Macs just don't cut it. I tried the Boot Camp and/or Parallels routes and they just aren't quite as refined as they should be.

Yep, the thermals under Windows, even on the 16" are meant to be less than great, crippling performance. I've always maintained buy a Mac if you want to run Mac OS, and/or buy a Windows machine if you're going to be using Windows more than very sparingly.

Anyway, back on topic, I wonder if there's any chance of AMD CPUs (options at least) in the new model? They're some seriously powerful chips from first testing, but even more tantalisingly the nominally lower 35W TDP is attractive in a machine which has historically had problems with throttling.

 

[TSE]

Yep, the thermals under Windows, even on the 16" are meant to be less than great, crippling performance. I've always maintained buy a Mac if you want to run Mac OS, and/or buy a Windows machine if you're going to be using Windows more than very sparingly.

Anyway, back on topic, I wonder if there's any chance of AMD CPUs (options at least) in the new model? They're some seriously powerful chips from first testing, but even more tantalisingly the nominally lower 35W TDP is attractive in a machine which has historically had problems with throttling.

It would be foolish for Apple to not consider it, but... no Thunderbolt 3 is an automatic disqualifier in many of their products.

Is it possible for an AMD MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt?

 

[grmlin]

It’s of course possible but needs an extra chip, and Asus probably wanted to save some money.

 

[sbarton]

i think i heard that the newer intel chips are/will include tb3 on the cpu and thus provide lower latency than a separate chip. Assuming that translates into better egpu performance but not sure.

 

[Falhófnir]

It would be foolish for Apple to not consider it, but... no Thunderbolt 3 is an automatic disqualifier in many of their products.

Is it possible for an AMD MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt?

With The MBP yes I think it's possible to have AMD with a separate TB3 controller, or eventually just use USB 4 instead. But I was wondering if the new XPS would get AMD chips when it arrives!

 

[sbarton]

With The MBP yes I think it's possible to have AMD with a separate TB3 controller, or eventually just use USB 4 instead. But I was wondering if the new XPS would get AMD chips when it arrives!

not likely as that refresh has been in the works for quite some time but fingers crossed?

 

[grmlin]

If it’s Apple goal to build MacBooks with ARM CPUs it’s hard to believe, that they’ll switch to AMD for the time in between

 

[Falhófnir]

not likely as that refresh has been in the works for quite some time but fingers crossed?

I guess it depends on if they've been working with AMD behind the scenes, as I assume Asus was for the ROG 14" they've just released? They're forfeiting not only a lot of performance, but potentially a solution to thermal constraints by going with Intel this year. (Particularly if they try to cram a 10 core i9 in there!)

If it’s Apple goal to build MacBooks with ARM CPUs it’s hard to believe, that they’ll switch to AMD for the time in between

With macOS being quite a finely tuned OS compared to Windows which is designed to get on well with as many platforms as possible, I think it would be quite a lot of effort to get AMD Macs up and running well, and if they're starting to move away from x86 this year anyway almost certainly not worth it. That's even before anything third party software makers might have to do to get their software fully taking advantage of AMDs platform. I think a lot of Windows machines will have AMD options in the coming months though. Especially H series based machines where Intel really only seems to have another core bump to 10 core i9s lined up for the next 12-24 months.

 

[grmlin]

Oh a 17” in 16:10 would be tempting if it has good thermals.

Dell XPS 17 9700 listing on Userbenchmark rekindles hope for a true productivity workhorse

Recently, a Dell XPS 17 9700 listing surfaced on Userbenchmark indicating that Dell would finally bring back the 17-inch form factor to the XPS lineup. The XPS 17 9700 in this listing is indicated as being powered by the Core i7-10750H processor and 32 GB of RAM. While there's no discrete GPU...

www.notebookcheck.net

[automerge]1585899209[/automerge]
Someone at reddit found this pic on the dell website. Looking good!!!

https://i.dell.com/sites/csimages/App-Merchandizing_Images/all/precision-mobile-workstations-best-performance-and-reliability.jpeg

 

[Falhófnir]

Oh a 17” in 16:10 would be tempting if it has good thermals.

Dell XPS 17 9700 listing on Userbenchmark rekindles hope for a true productivity workhorse

Recently, a Dell XPS 17 9700 listing surfaced on Userbenchmark indicating that Dell would finally bring back the 17-inch form factor to the XPS lineup. The XPS 17 9700 in this listing is indicated as being powered by the Core i7-10750H processor and 32 GB of RAM. While there's no discrete GPU...

www.notebookcheck.net

[automerge]1585899209[/automerge]
Someone at reddit found this pic on the dell website. Looking good!!!

https://i.dell.com/sites/csimages/App-Merchandizing_Images/all/precision-mobile-workstations-best-performance-and-reliability.jpeg

View attachment 903223

Liking those a lot!

 

[c0ppo]

17", 16:10... I never liked Dell, but even I am tempted.
I just hope it won't be USB-C only.

 

[grmlin]

On the picture it looks like it has at least a SD card reader or something. And we can't see both sides, so lets hope for some ports

Well, I'm using a 15" MBP, so I'm used to the USB-C life anyway.

 

[Falhófnir]

17", 16:10... I never liked Dell, but even I am tempted.
I just hope it won't be USB-C only.

Looks like it is, though at least there's an SD card slot, which is one functionality TB3 can't replace directly. I wonder if power delivery will be USB C only, that limits power draw to 100W, which is a cut from the 130W charger that ships with the existing model.
[automerge]1585910309[/automerge]

On the picture it looks like it has at least a SD card reader or something. And we can't see both sides, so lets hope for some ports

Well, I'm using a 15" MBP, so I'm used to the USB-C life anyway.

With the (large) assumption the 15" and 17" share the same port selection, it looks like it's 2x USB C plus something else (kensington lock, or proprietary power barrel plug?) on the left, with a headphone jack, SD and 2 more USB C on the right. I'm actually ok with that. If I was prepared to go with only USB C on a 16" Pro, getting the SD into the bargain is still one extra positive!

 

[c0ppo]

Looks like it is, though at least there's an SD card slot, which is one functionality TB3 can't replace directly. I wonder if power delivery will be USB C only, that limits power draw to 100W, which is a cut from the 130W charger that ships with the existing model.

Those are just rendering pictures. I really hope that they won't take the usb-c route only.
If they do, I'm really not interested. At the moment I have wide selection of ports on my laptop, from tb3/usbc, usb-a, full sd card, hdmi, and even ethernet port.

No way in hell I'm giving up on those.

 

[grmlin]

the one thats closed seems to have more ports. Maybe that's a successor of the thicker Precisions in the 7xxx line?

 

[Falhófnir]

Those are just rendering pictures. I really hope that they won't take the usb-c route only.
If they do, I'm really not interested. At the moment I have wide selection of ports on my laptop, from tb3/usbc, usb-a, full sd card, hdmi, and even ethernet port.

No way in hell I'm giving up on those.

Renderings, yes, but ones found on Dell's own site! They also look a lot like the recently released XPS 13, so I'm saying that's about what they will look like (more than fine with me!). I will also miss USB A (mainly for thumb drives) but that ship has already sailed with any MacBook, so I'm pretty accepting at this point. I can pick up a couple of dual USB A USB C drives and just go with it. For the rare occasions I connect to a display, I use mini display to HDMI, I can get a TB3 to HDMI cable easily enough, so that's fine. SD is still there, so that's a benefit over the Mac as well.
[automerge]1585911192[/automerge]

the one thats closed seems to have more ports. Maybe that's a successor of the thicker Precisions in the 7xxx line?

The two models on the left hand side seem to be different, yes probably precision workstations. The two to the right match up with the recently released XPS 13 quite nicely so I think the one at the top (facing right) is the 15" and the one below (facing left) it is the 17".