Dell Studio XPS 1340/1640 now available for purchase on Dell's site !!!

I tried to chat with Dell today, but nothing special happened. They keep their mouth shut.

16:17:03 BE_RR_Rep_Jackie How may I assist you today?
16:17:06 Kamil Cichy hello
16:17:18 Kamil Cichy I'm going to buy a 13" laptop
16:17:31 BE_RR_Rep_Jackie Hi Kamil,
16:17:38 BE_RR_Rep_Jackie Great,
16:17:41 BE_RR_Rep_Jackie How can I help?
16:17:45 Kamil Cichy and I have red on the internet about M1340, which is just about to come
16:17:49 Kamil Cichy is it true?
16:18:08 BE_RR_Rep_Jackie I actually don't have any information on products yet to be released
16:18:51 Kamil Cichy Because the problem is that I have to choose between Sony Vaio Z11 and M1340, however I cannot wait ages
16:19:13 Kamil Cichy so it would be good to know at least some approximate date
16:19:38 BE_RR_Rep_Jackie We would love to have your business, but I don't have any information regarding that system
16:20:00 Kamil Cichy And is there anybody who has?
16:20:30 Kamil Cichy Or the official policy is to say nothing :/
16:20:54 BE_RR_Rep_Jackie Nobody in our company is allowed to give information about unreleased products
16:21:04 BE_RR_Rep_Jackie Wish I could help more!
16:21:23 Kamil Cichy Ok, I wish you good luck and patience among your clients!
16:21:29 Kamil Cichy Bye
16:21:44 BE_RR_Rep_Jackie Thanks
16:21:44 BE_RR_Rep_Jackie Bye!

Sony Vaio Z11 WN/B seems to be the alternative.

Supposing everyone put pressure on Dell, maybe they will give up :>?

 

Buy the Vaio.

 

Isn't the sony z more expensive?

Hopefully competition provided by the 1340 will get the prices for both lowered.

 

Probably.

I was in store today and saw a 16.4" 'True Widescreen' Sony. This made me think. If the branding 1640 correlates to a similar screen size on this new Dell, does this imply that the 1340 would be a 'True Widescreen' notebook aswell?

I've only seen 13's ship with the 16:10 ratio. So a 16:9 1340 would be a first.

 

Yes, Sony is more expensive, that's not a secret.

Well, to take part in competition one has to exist.

 

something for December Jayson? Give us some info please...we have waited for 4 months...

tell us if we are going to wait after Christmas, and we will have a happy holidays!!no stress!

 

He's already said that there won't be anything out till january..

 

True but some people have a price limit so the Sony isn't in the competition yet either.

 

Guys, PLEASE stay on topic. This is the Dell Forum. For Sonny discussions please visit the Sonny section. For "What notebook should I buy instead of Dell" discussion please visit "What Notebook Should I Buy" section.
Thank you.

 

Yup you are correct but I am not sure how it is in the states, but here in canada, we get a dell flyer in the local papers almost every 2 weeks with deals on the current stock. I don't think people will buy something else, some will wait for sure, others who need a laptop right away will not wait and purchase what is on the market currently.

Although I am not sure on the details, did apple get an exclusive to launch the new gpus from nvidia? I know other brands have them as well but perhaps the apple/nvidia deal is preventing others from launching as well?

unless others have already launched then ignore the above statement. Who knows why dell is waiting. your guess is as good as mine.

 

That's a pretty stupid thing to say. "Everyone" will have purchased something else? Right, because in the new year NOONE will be buying laptops, right? With the current financial situation, Dell is leaving their older but cheaper laptops around for longer, which is what most people are looking for. Lots of people are still buying the XPS and Studios. Dell's fiscal year ends in January, and that is when they tend to release new products (according to an ex-Dell salesperson's blog). The only people sitting around waiting for the new models are people on this forum. Most other normal peolpe have gone out and bought their laptop, and are currently enjoying it. And meanwhile, the deals on their website will attract more and more buyers.

 

Ahem.. "older and cheaper"

Well they're certainly older, but unless you have a coupon they're definitely not cheaper - I just priced the same 1530(that I bought 3 months ago for 1450 euro) it now costs 1520 euro.

Thats certainly not a good deal.

It would be one thing if they slashed the prices for the systems, but they aren't.

 

supply and demand, the price drops when demand drops. Demand will drop for the older models when the new ones come out. If demand is still strong, it makes good business sense to keep going, but not for too long. Perception is everything, and while it's mainly folks in the know that realize the innards are not the most current, that will trickle out to others, and Dell will then unveil their newbies before they are seen as technically behind by mainstream buyers.
I don't like this reality, because I want the new ones, and I'm willing to wait- but I, like (I believe) most others here, wants to know are they worth waiting for? Are there real specs anywhere? It is frustrating.

 

Being up there in the Air Force IT purchasing world, I asked the Dell Air Force reps about the possible release date of the xps studio. (sometimes the dell folks are a bit more free talking with us government big spenders..Haha)
But I struck out, since we mostly buy the business machines our rep didn't know much about the Studio line.

Another thing to consider is margins and profitability. The XPS 1530 has been out a while, and I am betting the margins are much better on it than a new model. Dell routinely reviews its processes and makes cuts or renegociates as needed, just for that .1% more profit margin. These add up over time on an existing product. A new product doesn't have these same cost savings. So it is logical from a business stand point to keep selling the existing system as long as possible.

Thats my take on it.

 

Here is a possible reason for the delays of the M1340/M1640:

theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/11/29/nvidia-heat-causing-macbooks
(sorry, cannot post URLs, please copy & paste this, it works)

Apparently, even with the 9300/9400 chipset allready out in Apple's products, things are not going too smoothly. TheInq reports parts barely meeting heat and power limitations. And you have to admit, there's really not a lot of PC-Mainboards with those chipsets out there, I found only a single one with the 9400 and two with the 9300 that really are available.

So IF Dell is planning to use those parts in the 1340/1640, this might explain why we're still waiting

And regarding:

Well, this forum and many other forums. Also, for every active participant in a forum there are at least 10+ silent readers. And: Everyone of those is probably tech-savvy and get's asked for notebook recommendations a lot. Personally, I'm involved with about one laptop-purchase a month on average, even though my own laptop is only replaced every 12-48 months (and of course I'm currently having a hard time recommending Dell's outdated technology at premium price).

 

I'd wait for someone more credible than Charlie "I hate Nvidia" Demerjian of The Inq.

 

In any case, I'm sure Dell knows that they're doing. After all, they've been doing this for years.

 

If & When Dell decides to release a new Studio XPS line, what are you guys expecting the 16" model to run price wise? Also, do you think the Studio 15 price will drop significantly after the new Studio XPS is released.

 

It doesn't matter how much Dell knows, it depends on how much the Asian company manufacturing their notebooks & the companies supplying components for those notebooks know. Dell basically tests, approves & markets the notebooks. It's possible that the delay could be blamed on a switch from Nvidia to ATI cards.

 

*smack smack* on you all for not clarifying this.

The new Studio XPS 13/16 models are NOT USING and NVIDIA chipset. Only the new macbook and macbook pro are.

To clarify:
Dell's new Studio XPS 13/16 are expected to run on Intel's newest Centrino 2 platform (this means chipset, processor, network card, integrated graphics), with the ability for Hybrid SLI (using Integrated to conserve power, Integrated + NVIDIA dedicated to maximize processing power).

The new macbook/macbook pro is using NVIDIA's new mobile chipset (not an Intel Centrino 2 platform, so the chipset is NVIDIA, it uses an Intel Penryn core, utilizes their own Integrated GPU option which is said to perform 4x better than Intel's Integrated X4500, but not close to the level of a dedicated GPU), plus a discrete NVIDIA GPU and uses SWITCHABLE graphics for alternating between use of Integrated to conserve power and Dedicated to maximize processing power.

This is possible. There's been no explanations as of late, but it's possible delays are attributed to design changes from the slides Jayson originally posted.
It seems highly unlikely that Dell with not be using Intel's Centrino 2 platform. So all you hoping for NVIDIA integrated... I don't think so. However, it is possible that Dell is switching from Hybrid SLI to Hybrid Crossfire, but other than acquiring stock, I don't see how this really affects production.

PS. Does anyone even have news from NVIDIA or ATI regarding a mobile video card that does support Hybrid SLI/Hybrid Crossfire? I mean like... I haven't seen a single bit of news on Hybrid graphics other than how it theoretically works. All we have right now is switchable, which is good, but hybrid would be far superior.

 

x4500hd+nvidia gpu is not hybrid sli come on

 

...I never said it had to be Intel's integrated option, however, the original slides claimed that Centrino 2 would be on these laptops, and thoe only way for that to happen is to have Intel's Montevina Chipset/Penryn Core2Duo Processor/Intel Wireless Card/Intel IGPU. Anything else is 'faux' Centrino 2 so to speak (according to Intel).

Assuming NVIDIA is smart... they would design Hybrid SLI to function with both their own integrated GPUs along with Intel's X4500 integrated GPU.
Obviously, Hybrid SLI with their own Integrated GPU would offer superior performance, but when you look at the market share of Intel and their Centrino platform, to allow Hybrid SLI to function only with NVIDIA's integrated GPU which only Apple is using, is marketing suicide. (Not to mention ATI can then step up, fill in the gap, and steal almost all of the mobile gamer market share.)

On that note... does anyone really know if any GPU current even supports Hybrid SLI/CrossFire? Or is each company gonna have to churn out totally new mobile units just for this? Maybe this is the bottleneck in the Studio XPS's release... because I haven't heard a peep about Hybrid Graphics from anyone.

 

Expecting Hybrid SLI with a mixture of different graphics cards is pointless and illusive.

a) You cannot just "bundle" two totally different graphics cores from different manufacturers together, it's hard enough for parts of the same company. Also, for that to work with Intels graphics core, Intels drivers would have to support this. And I guess we all know how bad they have been for years even at straigtforward stuff.

b) Why should you? HybridSLI has questionable performance benefits even on a GF9600(external)/GF9400(integrated) solution. A "SLI" between a 9600GT and the even slower Intel GMA4500 would be totally pointless.

Hybridpower, of course, is something completely different and implementation of this based on Intels chipset is definitely coming IIRC (and makes MUCH more sense than HybridSLI anyway).

 

That's the kind of answer I was looking for.

I hadn't heard any news on Hybrid Mobile graphics, so I was kinda wondering if anyone was still even working on that. Your explanation makes sense... though now you've piqued my curiosity... what's this HybridPower you speak of?

Frankly, I'm not surprised if Hybrid SLI/Crossfire is just another selling gimmick... it seems to have many consumers hooked, line and sinker. Current SLI tech doesn't net 2x performance with 2 of the same GPUs... so I can't really see any performance gains by having an integrated work with a discrete GPU.

 

Hybridpower is nVidia's name for switching the discrete graphics chip on and off (manually or automatically) depending on what you're doing. Integrated GFX for maximum runtime in "normal" applications with limited 3D demands, discrete GFX - with the added power draw and fan noise - only while actually playing games.

If such a solution is based on an Intel or ATI/AMD chipset, then its name probably won't be Hybridpower, but it's the same principle.

Oh and by the way: How old are those "original slides" you are referring to? Perhaps Dell changed their plans in the meantime and went nVidia?

 

form nvidia.com:
NVIDIA Hybrid SLI technology combines the processing power of GeForce 9400M and a GeForce 9200M or 9300M GPU to boost graphics performance with GeForce Boost.

 

So. Hybridpower is basically already applied in things like the Vaio Z and the new macbooks. Or at least, something similar. Thanks for the clarification.

The slides I'm referring to are Jayson's original slides from back in September or so. Obviously things have changed since the Studio XPS were slated for November release while terminating the XPS M1330. They listed that these laptops would have Hybrid SLI. I think that they would be Centrino 2 was just widely assumed since the NVIDIA chipset hadn't even been considered at that point, but it's possible that they are going to use it.

However, that chipset was out in macbooks in October. Which still wouldn't explain this level of delay.

Engadget's article used the NBR topic as their source:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/26/dell-studio-xps-13-and-16-leak-out-due-in-november/

 

To clarify, Centrino does not include the GPU. You could do the ATI switchable graphics, Lenovo does this already.

 

We actually don't know if those slides were accurate or even real. u can flame me all you want and call me a hater but the truth is, the slides were never confirmed and nothing came true on the slides.

 

i just noticed something... In those pictures... it appears as if its not the dell logo on the lid. Dell uses the dell logo inside a circle for anything that's not business. I'm starting to believe this was all a hoax. :O

 

The CG image from the slides match the photo of a real model which was posted a while ago. If the model was built by Dell you can be quite sure that the render came from them as well.

 

You are right, and to be honest, I can't even believe most of you guys are buying this story. Even in the worst companies they can come up with better looking slides than these are.

 

I hope the slides were phony because that whole 'woodgrain' thing was not appealing to me.

 

...This is why this is a RUMOR thread. Not a FACTS thread.

>_>

Yes it would be nice to have some facts about these laptops, but seriously... you guys are totally defeating the purpose of this topic.

If we had FACTS. We'd probably not be posting in a rumor thread, but rather the "Official Thread" , right?

 

So some of you think this entire thing is a hoax. I thought Jayson was a credible source of Dell info. He stated from the start the details will likely change (boy did they ever), but that there are newbies coming. I'm new here, but it seemed as if Jayson was proven to be right (or close) before. Also, from an earlier post in this thread:
" I was installing a new driver for my Studio 1535 webcam today. I saw on the extract box "For Studio Laptop: 1435, 1535, 1536, 1537, 1735, 1737; Studio XPS Laptop: 1340, 1640"
Per Dell's own words, there will be two Studio XPS Laptops: a 13-inch and a 16-inch named 1340 and 1640 respectively (apparently they will both use Creative Labs' Webcams.)
This removes the myth about a 15-inch and 16-inch Studio XPS."

I'm sure something is on the way soon.

 

Where's that "photo of a real model"? I'd like to see... Thanks!

 

Looks nice and appears to be pretty slim too. They just need to hurry up and actually get these out.

 

Well, I gave up waiting today and ordered a Latitude E6400. I'm without a laptop now and need one right away, not February. I would have been more patient otherwise. Good luck to everyone else here. I hope the rumors are true.

 

Finally. People actually siding with me.

Don't you guys see that maybe, just maybe, those slides are fake? Think about how much havoc they have caused. They have made people laptop-less for many months waiting for these laptops. They have claimed many things that haven't come true, crushing many people's hopes out there.

We don't even know if Dell are actually going to completely cut off the XPS line and merge the two brands together.

This thread and the other one (closed) right now are full of speculation, and are going no where.

Please Dell, release the goddam laptops and end this madness.

 

i hope those "real" pics above are not what it's going to look like in the end. The bezel around dell laptops are so unclean. Why have a silver chunk going up next to the screen? Only apple really make there screen borders nice and sharp, like they should be.

 

Looks pretty clean to me for a prototype picture. Keep in mind Dell's aren't Apple notebooks, thankfully.

 

I am not a fan of the 'real' pics either. I think they have a long way to go just to look as good as the Studio line, but it is a prototype and probably does have a long way to go from the way it looks in that pic. :smile:

 

PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR OPINION:

I need a laptop and have been waiting for the new Dell's. I like the Studio line, but I know as soon as I order one the new ones will come out with something new and cool. The most I will do with my laptop is work with website design software like Expression Web while running Zune software and maybe some MS Office 07', and be on the internet, all at the same time. I think the T9400 processor on the studio15 with 4GB of RAM should be fine for that kind of activity, what do you think? Also, what would be the advantage of waiting for the StudioXPS line? I mean what kind of benifits or new features are we waiting for if the Studio15 allready has Centrino 2? I don't do any gaming, so all the talk about the graphics cards doesent concern me so much. Do you guys thinks that the new Studio XPS line will have something for someone like me worth waiting for? OR Do you think it is worth waiting for the StudioXPS to come out just so the price of the Studio15 to drop and then order the Studio15? Thanks for your opinion!

 

Well qaz... like I said way way way back in the other topic, if Dell would just throw us a bone... I'm sure there'd be consumers willing to wait and buy their Studio XPS. I might've been one of those myself.

On the other hand... if Dell so chooses to shoot themselves in the foot. They can go right ahead. My new Z is very awesome.

 

Travis, I think you should go ahead and buy a Dell Studio. With all the deals out there, you can easily max out the configuration and still be in your budget. You can get the new Montevina setting (of which the new new Studio XPS, if it comes, will not have a newer one), get a LED screen, a backlit keyboard, a BluRay, even a 3 or 4-year warranty plan all for good money. Since you don't do gaming, you should not be concerned about the discrete graphics card in the Studio (which is perfectly fine, only not very capable IF you do gaming.)

Go ahead and get yourself a good deal now. The new Studio line might as well take until February until it comes out.

 

No one can prove they're fake or real, which is why this is a RUMORS thread. If people hold off on purchasing a laptop based on rumors then that is their decision. They apparently feel that none of the current laptops are perfect for them.

I think there's enough evidence that Dell has (or had) plans for a Studio XPS laptop line but until something is released officially, we won't know what all it will feature or what it will look like.

You may be right but I'm not sure why you feel the need to continue posting that you think they're fake. This is just a rumor thread afterall.

 

My point exactly. From the slides Jayson first showed us back in Sept or even before (I honestly can't remember when he posted them now) look how many people have held off buying the competition's laptops?

The fact that Dell wasn't able to make good on a November release date, which just keeps increasing the gap between themselves and their competition in a bad way is their fault.

Without those "rumors" and "leaks", I probably would have bought a laptop back in Oct... but I pretty much held off for two months just to see if Dell had anything to offer.

If Jayson was lying, well, he'll just become one of the most hated entities on the internets as you know it. XD

Regardless... what do you really have to lose?

 

It's possible that Dell is waiting for CES next month. I don't recall Dell announcing new products at CES, maybe someone does? Anyway, I'm waiting for Sony to refresh (slightly) the Z soon and once they do, Dell won't be selling me a M1340 next year. Now, they might get me to buy the M1640 as my primary notebook (the Z would be my travel/secondary notebook), but they better release it early next year. Maybe adding a ATI 4650/4850 would help me with my decision.

 

Well I'm just like TemjimZero just waiting for two months. So what else I can lose??? Actually nothing, I really like to customize my laptops as I do with dell. Others companies have so little to customize that disappoint me sometimes. So I've been waiting since july to see the new XPS line and then take a decision if I buy the new line or just the Studio 15.

Now I have a 17" laptop...and would like to have a 13" or 16" so...I'm just going to seat and wait, and read all that people says here.