Dell updates XPS 13 with Kaby Lake, 22 hour battery life

[Scorpus]

One of our favorite laptops of the past few years is Dell's XPS 13. It packs a slick metal and carbon fiber chassis, a beautiful near-bezel-free display, and more than enough battery life for everyday usage. Today, Dell has updated the XPS 13 for 2016 with all the latest hardware.

The biggest upgrade to the new XPS 13 is, as you might expect, Intel's Kaby Lake processors. The XPS 13 will come in three variants, packing either the Core i3-7100U, Core i5-7200U, or Core i7-7500U depending on the price point. All of these CPUs are 15W low-power parts with respectable performance and efficiency gains over Skylake.

With the upgrade to Kaby Lake and a slightly larger 60 Wh battery, the 2016 XPS 13 boasts up to 22 hours of battery life if you opt for the 1080p panel. As with previous models, the QHD+ variant comes with a significant battery penalty: Dell only claims 13 hours of life for the high-resolution model.

The only other notable change is the switch from Intel and Dell wireless controllers to a solution from Killer. This is possibly due to issues that Dell experienced with the wireless cards in previous models of the XPS 13, as the feature set of the Killer solution – Wi-Fi ac with 2x2 MIMO and Bluetooth 4.1 – is identical to past models.

Other key specs have remained the same on the XPS 13, including a single Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C port, up to 1 TB PCIe solid state drives, and up to 16 GB of memory. The new laptops will be available on October 4th starting at $799, in silver, gold, and a new rose gold color.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/66349-dell-updates-xps-13-kaby-lake.html

 

[oldikes]

Am I the only person who doesnt like these bezel-less displays? I mean technologically its awesome but its a bit jarring to me to have so little separation between the display and the wall behind it

 

[LNCPapa]

I think so. I really love the close to invisible bezels and anyone I've talked to about it feels the same way. I think there are few of you who feel there is too little bezel.

 

[NimbusTLD]

Am I the only person who doesnt like these bezel-less displays? I mean technologically its awesome but its a bit jarring to me to have so little separation between the display and the wall behind it

You and all the other Apple users methinks

 

[oldikes]

You and all the other Apple users methinks

Oh thats a low blow

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Am I the only person who doesnt like these bezel-less displays? I mean technologically its awesome but its a bit jarring to me to have so little separation between the display and the wall behind it

Yes I'm pretty sure it's just you, wonderful improvement. My 15.6" laptop is the same size as a 14" with ugly bezels.

 

[Uncle Al]

Dell lost me a few years ago when they revamped their docking station and computer so you couldn't use the computer on older docking stations. There was no essential single feature that required it; it was purly planned obsolescence .... which for our company was unacceptable and cost Dell 450 new units every two years. A drop in the bucket for them, but I wonder how many other companies did the same?

 

[fiskaratedrr]

If I got the QHD+ model and I lowering the resolution to 1080P, Whether I got the same 22 hours of battery life just like on the FHD model?

 

[Lionvibez]

Wow this would have been a guaranteed buy until I saw they switched out an Intel Nic for a killer one no thank you!

If I got the QHD+ model and I lowering the resolution to 1080P, Whether I got the same 22 hours of battery life just like on the FHD model?

I guess that would depend on if the display are the same just higher resolution or if its a complete different panel. My gut thinks it a different panel with higher power consumption.

 

[shirley donton]

I would like to update to windows 10 but I can't do it on my computer. This would be the solution

 

[Aaron Jones]

I was interested until I saw: "The only other notable change is the switch from Intel and Dell wireless controllers to a solution from Killer."

 

[ForgottenLegion]

Wow this would have been a guaranteed buy until I saw they switched out an Intel Nic for a killer one no thank you!

If I got the QHD+ model and I lowering the resolution to 1080P, Whether I got the same 22 hours of battery life just like on the FHD model?

I guess that would depend on if the display are the same just higher resolution or if its a complete different panel. My gut thinks it a different panel with higher power consumption.

I was interested until I saw: "The only other notable change is the switch from Intel and Dell wireless controllers to a solution from Killer."

What's wrong with wireless from Killer?
I often see them mentioned as a positive feature on reviews.

 

[Aaron Jones]

> What's wrong with wireless from Killer?
> I often see them mentioned as a positive feature on reviews.

I don't use Windows. Killer NICs on Linux have had spotty support in the past, and continue to do so today, even though they're using the ath10k chipset these days, the firmware is often unavailable at release and for the 6 or 12 months following -- they're not very cooperative.

Intel on the other hand maintains the open source iwlwifi driver in the mainline kernel themselves.

 

[HinTexas]

Just be aware that Dell continues to lack a solution to ongoing problems with the Thunderbolt 3 dock. Our company has been struggling with video issues, networking issues, and BSODs due to the dock. On our last support call (yesterday) they basically said they are working on a new model (not available yet) since ongoing driver and firmware updates have not resolved the issues in the current model. I just switched to a (non-Dell, just because I didn't want to "reward" Dell) desktop as my main PC, with a Macbook for my portable needs.

If you don't need a dock, then these are great laptops, but, for most business users, I doubt this is the case.

 

[Lionvibez]

What's wrong with wireless from Killer?
I often see them mentioned as a positive feature on reviews.

Just do a google search on Killer nics or ask anyone that owns a chipset with one. Most I know have turn it off or disable it due to instability.

Not to mention the snake oil of the killer nics is just bs if you understand basic networking.

 

[Aaron Jones]

> Just do a google search on Killer nics or ask anyone that owns a chipset with one. Most I know have turn it off or disable it due to instability.

Yeah, I have a Gigabyte Z170X Gaming-7EU which has an Intel I-219V NIC and a Killer E2400 NIC. I've disabled the latter because it was causing freezes and performs no better than the former.

> Not to mention the snake oil of the killer nics is just bs if you understand basic networking.

I don't think they push that as seriously as they used to anymore, the "this is better for gaming" thing (which it obviously isn't).

 

[WarpedTrekker]

Where is the 4K non-glossy(matte), non-touch version?

I prefer matte screens, for development and daily use. No developer except for Linus Torvalds is going to use a glossy screen.

 

[WarpedTrekker]

If I got the QHD+ model and I lowering the resolution to 1080P, Whether I got the same 22 hours of battery life just like on the FHD model?

No you would not get more battery life. The panel is still running 4k of pixels.

 

[WarpedTrekker]

Just be aware that Dell continues to lack a solution to ongoing problems with the Thunderbolt 3 dock. Our company has been struggling with video issues, networking issues, and BSODs due to the dock. On our last support call (yesterday) they basically said they are working on a new model (not available yet) since ongoing driver and firmware updates have not resolved the issues in the current model. I just switched to a (non-Dell, just because I didn't want to "reward" Dell) desktop as my main PC, with a Macbook for my portable needs.

If you don't need a dock, then these are great laptops, but, for most business users, I doubt this is the case.

Why did your company buy consumer XPS laptops? For businesses, there is the Latitude line.

 

[ET3D]

I'll envy people with the new XPS, but I'm sure the current model will serve me well for a while.

 

[Techtree101]

It looks like Kaby Lake is set to give us a nice boost to battery life for laptops! Kaby Lake combined with a GTX 10XX makes me salivate.

 

[ET3D]

It looks like Kaby Lake is set to give us a nice boost to battery life for laptops! Kaby Lake combined with a GTX 10XX makes me salivate.

Stick a 15W CPU with a 100W GPU? Doesn't do it for me.