New Dell XPS L521X (Ivy Bridge)

ah ok yeah there will prolly be no coupons for a while but you cant look at it like that you gotta compare SB release price/current price vs IB release price. obviously there will be a premium but not by much

 

Just checked the Dell Pressroom and they did in fact reveal the refreshed Alienware series (M14x, M17x, M18x), but no news relevant to the XPS 15...

Alienware Press Release 04/30/2012

 

Yeah, I'm a little frustrated. "All will be revealed?" All it is is a confirmation of the changes to a couple of Alienware systems. Nothing pertaining to L521X at all.

 

I also checked the configurator and it shows that estimated shipping is on May 28th, a month from now. So I wouldn't expect XPS 15's to be shipped prior to mid-june.

 

Just received a tweet back from @BillatDell and it looks like XPS laptop refreshes aren't coming until sometime in June =(.

@BillatDell Is the Dell press release on Monday morning going to cover information on the refresh of the 15 and 17 in XPS laptops?

@erichchan3 No. That will come in June sometime. Dates are fluid at this point, so I can't even give you a hint other than "June"


https://twitter.com/?iid=am-1500230...id=264029947&utm_content=profile#!/BillatDell

 

Meh, june is so far away

 

Sound logic. If the current offering works for you, and you can't wait until this summer, you should compare the current 15z to the competition and buy what makes the most sense to you, be it Dell or otherwise.

Hi, All.

I'm here. I'm mostly just dropping in a post now to get this thread on my radar. I don't have much I can say at this point, as we're a little ways off from the launch of the next XPS laptops.

Today's blog post and press release were (obviously now) related to Alienware. XPS news is nowhere nearly baked enough to start talking or hinting at what's to come. You've all seen the leaked photos sourced from Tweakers.net. I'll say this: that's one butt-ugly picture that does not do this thing justice. I'm partial, but the new models are truly gorgeous. You will be able to decide for yourself as we get closer to launch, and pictures get leaked or posted by Dell.

Don't let me over-hype anything, though. I respect our competition and their ability to produce fine hardware themselves. I'm not a sales guy, or one who publicly bashes the competition as a practice. I'm all about talking about my company and my products. If you ask me to compare anything to the competition, I'll take a shot, but just know I'm not the greatest source for comparative analysis. Reason for that is two-fold- I'm biased, and as a professional courtesy I don't bash the competition.

 

Some nicer teaser photos will be nice gesture

 

Well, my last 2 laptops have been Dells and I've been waiting to hear about the new XPS 15 and 17 til deciding what to buy, but if they are waiting until June to come out with new models then Dell can go screw themselves!

Who is going to want to buy these old tech machines when the competition has IB and new gen graphics cards? IDK why Dell would do this.

 

Self edit.

 

Thanks, Bill.
I was disappointed with the lack of XPS news this morning, but I suppose I shouldn't have been. I misunderstood what it was going to be about. I had originally thought that the new XPS models wouldn't be revealed until June, anyway, so everything's just...back to normal now.

You don't happen to know if the L521X display will retain the 1080p/B+RGLED technology of the L502X, do you? Or the subwoofer? Or is it all still speculation at this point?

 

Seriously?

 

Self edit.

 

Thanks for the update Bill! Really looking forward to the refresh.

What "competition" are you referring to? Most laptops competing with the XPS 15z probably won't be refreshed until after June or possibly later.

 

We have the specs for the display and speakers locked in now, but we're too far away from launch to confirm or deny anything at this point. We generally don't talk about unreleased products at all, but I'll work with PR to let you know what I can when I can.

 

Bill, will Dell be making an effort to solve the fan issues that have bugged the last series? I am concerned as the XPS 13 suffered the exact same problems on launch. Also what about MSata SSD?

 

I worked this issue on the XPS 13. We think we nailed it in the end. There are limitations with that platform around thermals- mostly size and lack of air volume within the chassis- that will not be as severe on the 14/15. I'm not saying everyone will be happy with the fan when it launches, but we'll work with customer feedback as best we can to get it as user-friendly as possible if it turns out to be a pain point.

 

Seriously as in that's a pretty arrogant response for a Dell rep. It's not like your company has a legion of zombies following you around willing to buy anything you slap a Dell sticker on (as Apple does).

As for other brands: Asus, HP, Sager, MSI, Samsung, Lenovo all have new models out. Surely you know this, yet you choose to respond to your customer's disappointment with a snarky comment. Thanks.

 

Hi Bill

I don’t know whether you’re allowed to answer my questions.
Are L521x will retain the old B+RG LED LCD and still 2.1 sound system (or better)?

And lastly, the GT640M in L521x is really GDDR5 version as rumoured?

Thanks.

 

Self edit.

 

The competing models to the XPS 15(z) refresh, the HP Envy 15, Asus N56, Samsung Series 7 15.6", and Lenovo Y580, have not yet been released. AFAIK, Sager and MSI's offerings compete with Dell's Alienware line, not the XPS 15z. The ASUS N56 and Lenovo Y580, as larger notebooks, are arguably not directly competing with the XPS L521X as well.
I would guess that Dell and other manufacturers are waiting for the dualcore Ivy Bridge launch in June.

 

Your original reply may have been apropos, as you say, had my comment been directly leveled at you, but until now I have not been aware of any company unleashing its forum police to use personal insults against anyone having something negative to say about said company on a 3rd party forum.

 

Asus- Zenbook, right? Tech specs show QS67 chipset. Sandy Bridge.
HP- Envy, right? All I see are Sandy Bridge under tech specs.
Sager- Gaming notebooks, right? See Alienware M14xR2, M17xR4 and M18xR2. I believe we are competitive.
MSI- X Series, right? (for the gaming comparison, see above) The 2 most expensive models on the X Series landing page are both Sandy Bridge.
Lenovo- their page keeps crashing on me, but if they have an Ivy Bridge Y Series with the lastest Nvidia and AMD GPU's out, let me know.

 

Well, in my mind a product doesn't have to have the exact same form factor to compete against another. I'm thinking in terms of price and function. I'd like to spend $1200 to $1500 on a new laptop with a nice screen and ability to do some gaming, and those ones I mentioned fit the bill. I left out Alienware because I don't want to spend that much money.

I guess I was expecting at least an announcement today, as I was already a bit frustrated at Intel's IB embargo.

 

Sorry, but I can't say right now. I promise I will as soon as I'm allowed.

Self edit.

 

Asus- G55 ~$1300
HP- dv6/7 ~$1200 yes also waiting for new Envy line
Sager- P151EM1 ~$1300
MSI- GE60/70 ~$1200 or GT60/70 ~$1500
Lenovo- Y580 I think it's just announced but not on the shelves yet, but same price range.

I'm sure your Alienwares are fine computers and I'd love to have an M17x, but I'm just not looking to spend that much money, nor am I not looking to buy the balls to the walls $2000 version of the Sagers or other maxed out gaming laptops.

 

I seriously think the HP dv6 is a better competition for the upcoming dell l521x, the envy is a higher league more in the price range of the MBP. And the HP dv6 is out by now with ivy bridge and gt650(the same GPU as the m14x and it's not even a gaming notebook, i'd love to see a gt650 or better in the xps but that's not happening is it?), and it will be shipped may 8th.

 

That is good to hear, I would be very disappointed if I had to wait 10 revisions of the bios in order to get a fix for what is otherwise and excellent laptop.

 

haha thanks for joining us bill. as from the leaks, the xps 15 looks nice to me. so if thats supposed to be bad looking in the leaks compared to the actual, then it must be a really sexy machine .

I had a couple questions: can you tell us anything about the xps 14? Is it going to get the same time of refresh?

Also, since the xps 15 is going to be skinnier than the current 15z, is the z line going to be discontinued or we got even slimmer sexiness to wait for?

as for all the other people complaining that the release date is so far away in june, I would be willing to bet that most of the competitors are also releasing their notebooks during that time. (I am guessing computex. any confirmation on that bill? ) the only mainstream notebook out there (not specifically for gaming) with ivy and kepler/gcn is the dv6/7 with gt 650m but it is much less of a premium book than the xps line ( I think so anyway)

finally, another question for bill: anything else that we should get excited about (that you can tell us) that would encourage us to wait for the xps refresh to come out?

 

Are those actually on sale? Any links?

http://dell-lab.posterous.com/dell-xps-l521x-preliminary-info
GS = http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-640M.71579.0.html
GV = http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-620M.72198.0.html

The difference between GT-650m GDDR3 and GT-640m GDDR3 is slim. The GDDR5 version (GT650m+ only) should be faster, but the usage of GDDR5 is opional...

XPS 15 L502x -> L503x. Same design, GT650m or GT650m, same price as XPS 15
XPS 15z L511z -> L521x. New design as leaked on tweakers.net, GT640m, same price as XPS 15z

i guess.

 

HP dv6/7 are nice, but I don't feel they are direct competitors for the L521X if that product existed (sorry, I have to stick with the line that it doesn't for now. This may change.) Those are nice competition for the current L502X, and definitely we're at a competitive disadvantage....for now. I'd be lying or trying to sell computers if I said differently. I think we have a product you might see as a more fitting competitor coming later. In fact, watch this space tomorrow for a press release about what I have in mind. I can expand on that after the press release goes live tomorrow.
The Sager is nice. I think we have advantages over that one in some areas-keyboard, build quality (not because theirs is bad, but because we emphasized this on the L521X that may exist someday), looks, keyboard maybe. If you're purely into speeds and feeds, that Sager looks really nice on paper. I'll take the Dell, though.
The MSI's are targeted at 2 different markets. The GT's are gaming systems and compare with the M14x as far as target market, but we have a blind spot there on screen size when you go above 14". You have to go up to the M17x to be competitive on specs, but then we are way past them on price. We've pretty much decided to take the high end gaming configs to the 17"+ space, and left the 15" market for our competitors...for now anyway. The GE is a better match for this comparison, but I feel about the same as the Sager here.
I still can't get to the Lenovo page, but as a rule, their stuff is killer. I'd think their box is the one I'd be most concerned with if I owned the P&L for XPS.

If you have to buy before June, I'd say you have plenty of choices, and we missed your business this time around. If you can wait until June, you might like what you see, but I'd hate to rev you up to wait only to be disappointed if we don't float your boat. I just know on a superficial first pass at specs and pics at the competitor websites, I like my XPS over any of those that compete with it.

That guess makes sense, but if you take XPS>dv6/7 as a given, which you don't have to, then Envy is more the XPS's competition, and I think we have nothing to be ashamed of. Watch for that press release tomorrow to get a little preview of what I think is a better competitor for dv6/7.

We saw the GPU's in the dv6/7, and took note. Not sure how we'll respond yet.

 

Hi Dell-Bill. Thanks for joining and commenting in this thread. I was wondering if you could comment on whether both the XPS 15 and 17 will be getting redesign tweaks or just the XPS 15?

I am currently more interested in the XPS 17 version so I am very curious about that information. I really like the XPS 17 design in the L702X for the most part except for the placement of the front speakers but not a really big deal. I would love the next XPS 17 to have the L702X design with Ivy Bridge and GeForce 600M graphics.

 

I think 14 and 15 launch the same day. There are going to be some changes to the lineup. I don't think I can get into those changes yet, but I will as the days go by. There's a lot to digest here, and I can't reply just yet. I hate to be wishy washy, but we don't want to tip our hand just yet.

Maybe I can talk to my team mates about providing a little information about the line up and naming conventions. It will all shake out pretty much the same- gaming laptops (current Alienware), high end laptops (current XPSz), high mid-range (current XPS), mid-range (Inspiron) and value (Inspiron). There will just be a little tweaking to the names and some of the branding- like where we use "z."

 

Can't touch this one right now. I promise I will though. I keep my promises. The ones I don't are because no one reminded me when I forgot. So, remind me later in May or June, and I will.

 

ok wait. so you guys are releasing a dv6/7 competitor tmrw? and the leaked specs are for 15z not 15? and the 640m isnt dd5? (it can have it thepost up thereiswrong)

 

Bill, can you see if the powers that be will let you post a little teaser of the upcoming laptop? Something like this:

 

I was just thinking about this after work. You're right. I apologize. I should have shown a little class. I will from now on.

 

Thank you.

I wonder if you have the POWER to maintain the B+RG LED LCD option for L521x
Everybody is willing for pay extra $$$ just for that gorgeous screen.

 

In this case, I think it's Intel who is holding everyone up since they either can't (22 nm troubles) or won't (clear out Sandy Bridges first) release the full line of Ivy Bridges until June.

Anyway, since the next XPS line will last until after Windows 8 presumably, I wonder if they will add a 1080p touchscreen. Or even a higher than 1080p monitor for the 15"+ seeing as high res is the new thing since iPad 3.

 

Bill thanks for all your input It is nice to see someone from Dell on the front foot. I have bought dell xps laptops for the last 7 years or so but have been really disappointed with the build quality. I have the current model xps 15z and had horrible wireless problems (know this is intels fault) for quite a few months. I also find that the 'plastics' that dell use are quite easily damaged eg the chrome edge around the 15z rubbed away within a month of use. I am pleased to here it sounds like you will keep a premium Z line. I own an accounting practice and would be happy to pay $3k+ for a really premium windows laptop but there doesn't seem to be one out there (if there is someone please let me know). Will be tossing up between the new xps 15(z) and the samsung series 9 15 inch. Hopefully the new XPS has a 512gb ssd as that would be a clincher for me. Once again thanks for your input Bill as it mustn't been that nice jumping on here and copping criticism!

 

OK. Thanks for the update. I'll be sure to bug you again sometime in late May to early June for more info. I just hope my Inspiron E1505 can make it till then.

 

If I can't get the R+GB display, I can't get it anywhere else either. But If I can't get a core i7-3720qm, I may have to look elsewhere.

 

^ If I can get the B+RG display, I'm sold. If I can't, I may or may not be sold, and I may or may not look for something with a better GPU that is cheaper than an Alienware. I'll just say that.

 

LOL. If "you"=me, no. I have no power. I will talk screen specifics at a later date on this thread, but I'll say this: the screen offerings are looking good. On a planning call now talking XPS, and I can't stand the fact I can't say any of this stuff...yet.

Re: criticism, I deserved some of it for posting like a child instead of a communications pro representing his company. Oh well. Public apology made. Behavior corrected. Moving on...

I've played around with some of the pre-production builds, and I don't see any of the issues you describe above. Overall, it feels rock solid. No keyboard flex. They look thin, but not a "contrived" thin-ness if that makes any sense. As far as premium Windows boxes out there now, I think the HP Envy line looks pretty good, save the Spectre. I know everyone likes that one, but I personally don't. If they dropped the Gorilla Glass they bonded all over the thing (adding weight), that would be a laptop I'd really like. But, I'd personally wait for June and the XPS. Even if the Envy looks better to you at that point (and I don't see that happening), it's worth the wait to be able to compare the 2 side by side.

Pretty sure we got you covered on the SSD options, and then some.

 

thanks bill you have made my night (i'm in Australia) and at least unlike many companies you guy release stuff here at the same time as the US with same/similar features. I hate how we can't order customised HPs here which really ruins the envy line. I thought it was laughable last year when Samsung Australia put 8gb in the i5 series 9 then reduced it to 6gb for the i7 with no option to upgrade. Will wait for June

 

Ha, thank you!

Any thoughts to share RE speakers / sound?

 

Just curiosity...
In the leak on tweakers.net they spoke about the new XPS featuring a matte display, covered with Gorilla Glass...
Could be a stupid question, but how is that going to work, the glass will reflect anyway, right?

edit: Or did I misunderstood?

 

Until Bill confirms, that is correct based off what little sources we have. The glass reflects just as bad as a glossy screen.. at that point i think they didnt want to make it unbearable with glossy screen and gorilla glass.

Also thank you for telling us its not a concieved thinness like the envy series with the black curved bottom thats hidden, although it does allow HP to put a monster of a cooling system in there. Its also awesome your directly comparing the new xps 15 to the envy 15 because those are the only two lines of laptops id buy at the moment and with you trying to compete i hope we get a similar specced machine (mostly gpu).

Probably too early for you too tell but what about the disc drive, will it be staying with the new xps line or vanishing?

 

Same here, was trying to import an Envy15 to Europe, but after I heared about the screen issues, I canceled it. The IPS screen doesn't show red as it should, and I kind of need "true colors" for my job. So, hoping the new XPS does it's job well in that area

 

I haven't actually booted one up yet. I'll get a pre-production unit for some extended personal computing at some point. I can answer a few of these types of questions at that point. Some I can't, but I will answer what I can.

Can't speak to the veracity of that information at this time, but if you look at the screen implemented on the XPS 13, it's GG over matte. You will see a lot of chatter about the resolution and vertical viewing angles, which is valid criticism, and you will see some say "it's reflective, and I hate it." However, I don't know what they're looking at when they say its reflectiveness renders it useless in outdoor lighting. Sure, it's not as good as a purely matte screen is outdoors, but it's way better than the standard high gloss screen.

Can't talk ODD right now, as that's part of the marketing message on one of the platforms. We'll get to this later.