Dell Updates its XPS 15 and XPS 14 Notebooks

Alongside the company’s announcement of its new P and E series displays today, Dell also unveiled an update to its XPS 15 notebook and XPS 14 ultrabook. These follow in the footsteps of the well-received XPS 13 released earlier this year (which, in my opinion, is one of the best-looking notebooks ever released), so they have some big shoes to fill.

The XPS 15 is designed to be a relative powerhouse for its price-point, great for content creation, movie watching and even some gaming. The base model retails for $1,299, and includes a third-gen Core i5-3210 dual-core (four threads) processor, 6GB of DDR3-1600 memory, an NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M 1GB graphics card, a 500GB hard drive + 32GB mSATA SSD for Intel’s Smart Response Technology, a slot-loading DVD drive and a 65WHr 9-cell battery.

Dell XPS 15 Notebook

In addition to all the above, each XPS 15 model includes a 1080p display, which makes some of the better configured models a little more attractive, for the sake of both gaming and enjoying Blu-ray movies. The $1,699 model, for example, boosts the CPU to a quad-core i7-3612QM, adds in some extra memory to make it 8GB, adds a Blu-ray drive and gives a minor boost to the graphics (630M > 640M).

Aesthetically, the XPS 15 and 14 models look almost identical, featuring a sturdy but attractive design. The base XPS 14 model retails for $1,099, includes Intel’s dual-core i5-3317U processor, Intel HD Graphics 4000 graphics, 4GB of DDR3-1333 memory a 500GB hard drive + 32GB mSATA SSD once again, and an 8-cell 69WHr battery. The resolution on this model isn’t quite as impressive as the XPS 15, but should prove suitable for most, at 1440×900.

Both the XPS 15 and XPS 14 are expected to ship July 5th.