Dell has accidentally published near-final specifications of its upcoming XPS 15 notebook due to be released early next year. The Dell XPS 15 computers are designed for performance-demanding users seeking near bezel-less laptops with above-average performance at a moderate price with a plenty of upgrade options. The new XPS 15 9560 will receive Intel’s Kaby Lake processor, NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1050-series graphics as well as some other optional upgrades not available on current-gen, but will retain the internal architecture and external design.

According to the listing (now removed from the website) Dell’s upcoming XPS 15 9560 notebook will use either a dual-core Intel Core i3-7100HQ, a quad-core Core i5-7300HQ or a quad-core Core i7-7700HQ CPU. The aforementioned chips are not yet formally announced, but it is known that they are based on the Kaby Lake microarchitecture and will thus offer improved performance compared to predecessors due to higher frequencies, Speed Shift v2 technology and other refinements. For those who opt for iGPU rather than a discrete model it is important to note that the Kaby Lake CPUs also has an improved video encoding/decoding engine.

The next key enhancement of the XPS 15 9560 over the current-generation XPS 9550 will be NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1050 GPU with up to 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. NVIDIA has yet has to announce a mobile version of the GeForce GTX 1050, but it is highly likely that the product is based on the GP107 GPU featuring the Pascal architecture and up to 768 stream processors, similar to the desktop version. The new graphics chip should offer a decent performance upgrade when compared to the GeForce GTX 960M used in the current-gen XPS 15. Meanwhile for those planning to play demanding games it makes sense to look at the GeForce GTX 1060 or 1070, which means the Alienware 15.

Since the new Dell XPS 15 9560 will retain the chassis of its predecessor, it will support similar InfinityEdge 15.6” display panels: an IPS FHD (1920×1080) or an IGZO UHD (3840×2160) with 100% AdobeRGB color gamut and touch support. Physical dimensions of the unit also remain intact with the predecessor: it weighs around 1.8 kilograms and is up to 17 mm thick.

For storage, the new Dell XPS 15 will use either Seagate’s SSHDs or PCIe SSDs with up to 1 TB capacity. Meanwhile, due to improvements of Kaby Lake’s memory controller, the new laptops should be compatible with DDR4-2400 memory, offering an additional performance boost over DDR4-2133 used today.

As for connectivity, the XPS 9550 uses Rivet Networks' Killer 1535 802.11 2×2 Wi-Fi + BT 4.1 controller, has one Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.1 Type-C port, two USB 2.0 headers, an HDMI output, a 720p webcam and an SD card reader, which essentially means that there is nothing for the XPS 9560 to upgrade here (at least, not without a major redesign of the whole PC). However, since the XPS machines are often used like workstations, Dell decided to add a fingerprint reader with Windows Hello support as an option.

Since Dell has already taken down the XPS 9560 product page (technically, it is there, but without any data), so prices and exact final configurations / availability dates remain under wraps. Still, being a close partner of Intel and NVIDIA, Dell is typically among one of the first to release PCs based on the new CPUs/GPUs. Therefore we expect the new systems to arrive shortly after CES in the usual XPS 15 price range that starts at $999 and ends at ~$2500 for high-end models.

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Sources: PCMag, WindowsCentral.

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  • Pneumothorax - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    The XPS 15 keyboard is godly compared to the 2016 Macbook Pro with it's POC keyboard.
  • mtalinm - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    ugh, I absolutely hate the keyboard on my XPS15. my son has an XPS13 and its keyboard is not as bad. I hope but don't expect they will fix it
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    Word. That thing sucks ass.
  • ddriver - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Because it is not a problem. Typing experience is great for a device in that form factor.
  • Benbush - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    1. Its 9650, not 9560.
    2. You're very late on the news; it's obvious you copied from another news site.
    3. When you copy, please give credit, not just "sources" right at the bottom of the article.
    4. When you copy, get the details right.
    I'm so disappointed to find these kind of pages. I won't be returning to anandtech.
  • negusp - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    1. What makes you think it's a 9650? Straight from the site: http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-...
    2. Makes you think it's that late/copied? I don't see explicitly copied text.
    3/4. Next time you troll, get your details right.
  • Meteor2 - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Lol
  • cheinonen - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I'm going to assume that should be 2x USB 3.0 headers and not USB 2.0 headers in the text.
  • taisingera - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    So there is no USB3.0 type A port, but 2 USB2.0 ports? I can't stand when Dell only puts 1 USB3.0 on their laptops, and 2 USB2.0 ports. Also, is that i3-7100hq a typo? How does the dual core i3 have a Q in the model number?
  • sharath.naik - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    4k on a 15 inch display for windows is a terrible mistake. I am saying this becuase i have a thinkpad p50 4k. So, for the summary before the long rant. 4k makes for a blurry experience, that eats battery life, plays games really slow, and makes external monitor a bad experience. 1440p would solve every one of these issues and be the sharpest screen you will get.
    1. Native 4k is unusable/unreadable, even 125% DPI is unreadable.
    2. It only becomes readable at 150% DPI. Though does strain when used for longer duration. 150% DPI is essentialy 1440p screen equivalent.
    3. AND HERE IS THE WORST PART DPI SCALING IS BLURRY IN WINDOWS,EXCEPT FOR SELECT APPLICATIONS LIKE THE BROWSER. Even some of the windows right click menus are blurry. Sad part is there is no fix for this. Changing the native resolution to 1440p. Makes everything evenly blurry and helps with some of the glarring changes in sharpness.
    4. Some applications does not follow DPI settings and show in tiny unreadable text. Wish windows has option to override as and force scaling per app, but they dont have that option.
    5. Lastly, if you want to use an external monitor together with this the DPI scaling difference between the screens makes windows even more blurry when moving between them. I think this is pure windows issue

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