Dell's XPS branding for premium PCs has faded into the background lately, but the company is bringing it back to the fore as a part of its image makeover with three new high-end laptops.
With these new machines, the manufacturer is trying to deliver excellent performance across the board, and even the base configurations are fairly well equipped. The 14in and 15in models both come with a dual-core 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 460M, 4GB DDR3 and a 1GB GeForce GT 420M GPU as standard. While the graphics chip isn't the most powerful in the world, it should provide decent performance. As well as supporting Optimus graphics switching tech to help extend battery life, the GT 400-series GPUs all support 3D TV Play for watching 3D content on a capable TV.
Continuing the premium theme, the laptops are packed with a pair of high-quality JBL speakers and a 2MP webcam that has been certified for HD video in Skype. Both also feature an LED-backlit display with a standard resolution of 1,366x768px.
The 17in model will feature all of the same basic specs except for the graphics chip, which is bumped up to GeForce GT 435M, and the display, which has a 1,600x900px resolution.
It's not just the internals that have been given some extra attention, though. The display lid and plamrest are now forged out of aluminium, though unfortunately it doesn't extend to the rest of the chassis. The laptops will also make use of Dell's increasingly common hinge-forward design.
Obviously the manufacturer is now pushing its focus on customisation, so all three of the laptops can be tweaked and upgraded with faster processors, better GPUs, extra storage, custom designs and more.
The XPS 14, XPS 15 and XPS 17 are shipping now from Dell in the US starting at $899, $849 and $949, respectively (£701, £662 and £740 inc VAT). As of yet, there are no details on UK availability.
