Dell today overhauled its highend notebooks on Thursday with an entirely new XPS line.
The XPS line now has aluminum lids and palmrests, plus JBL 2.1-channel speakers. Now for the first time, the built-in webcams are officially appoved by Skype. NVIDIA’s Optimus live graphics switching and 3DTV Play over HDMI are both core features, and certain models support Intel’s WiDi (Wireless Display).
The 14-inch XPS 14, 15.6-inch XPS 15 and 17.3-inch XPS 17 all start off with a 2.4GHz Core i5, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive and a DVD burner. The two smaller models have GeForce 420M graphics at a minimum, while the higher resolution display lands a faster GeForce 435M.
There are options for quad 1.86GHz Core i7 chips on the XPS 17, as well as adding a GeForce 445M with a very large 3GB of video memory. The 17 mobel can have as up to 16GB of system memory and up to 1.28TB of storage on two drives. Dell’s well-known RGB LED display option remains intact, as does a Blu-ray drive.
Price and Availability
All of the systems are available today. The XPS 15 is the least expensive of the lot starting at $850, and the XPS 17 starts off at a $950 price point.
