It’s hard to let go of a popular brand. After their acquisition of Alienware, it was long thought that Dell would abandon their XPS (subsequently Studio XPS) line in order to make the most out of Alienware’s high-end, gaming profile. However, it looks like the XPS brand will live on in the form of a premium laptop lineup targeted at enthusiast consumers and media professionals. But they won’t be useless for gaming, either.
NOTE: Dell has now released a refresh of the 15- and 17-inch XPS laptops, while discontinuing the 14-inch model. Check out the new Dell XPS 17 and 15.
Dell just released three new laptops with the recognizable XPS logo; a 14-inch model configurable with Core i5 or i7 CPUs (including quad core variants) and Nvidia GT420M or GT425M graphics, a 15-inch laptop with the same CPU options, but also an Nvidia GT435M alternative, and last but not least a heavy 17-inch variant configurable with an Nvidia GT445M.
It’s fairly obvious that Dell isn’t targeting gamers with these new laptops – in that department they are comfortable with the current Alienware lineup. Instead, the new XPS line is marketed as premium entertainment laptops, which is a pretty good designation.
It feels like the Nvidia 400-series video cards that Dell picked out for inclusion are at the lower end of the scale of what would be possible in these relatively bulky casings, especially the new 17-inch model, which could defenitely handle a more powerful GPU than the GT445M. On the other hand, Dell has to balance the XPS line as not to compete openly with Alienware in the gaming department.
More info over at Dell.com
