This post is more than 5 years old
2 Posts
0
40563
Is it worth waiting for the 2019 XPS?
I’m hoping to get a laptop soon and I was wondering if I should get the 2018 Xps 13 right now, or wait a few months for the 2019 version. Also, does anyone know the approximate release date and price?
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
24.7K Posts
0
August 31st, 2018 14:00
Dell doesn't pre-announce - so you will have an indefinite wait. The processors likely to be in the next XPS aren't due until early October -- so you may well be waiting into 2019 before ready availability of the next generation systems (there's usually a lag between the announcement and ship dates - and then a lag due to early demand). If you need the system this year, don't expect to be ordering the next generation.
jphughan
9 Legend
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
0
August 31st, 2018 16:00
It'll be based on when Intel has their 9th generation chips ready. The lower power U-series chips used in the XPS 13 tend to come first, followed by the higher performance H-series chips found in the XPS 15. Normally the XPS 15 tended to launch toward the end of the year, but the XPS 15 9570 was pretty significantly delayed, so as ejn63 says, you might be waiting. I personally am holding off buying a new laptop until I can get one that has the new Titan Ridge Thunderbolt controller that Intel announced back in January but which hasn't made it into any shipping products yet. That will bring DisplayPort 1.4 support and therefore support for HDR displays, maybe 5K displays if Intel's GPU lineup starts supporting that resolution, and higher overall bandwidth display configurations. I think the reason Titan Ridge hasn't shown up yet is that Intel's current GPUs don't support DisplayPort 1.4, and even among the laptops that have dGPUs, very few of them wire those directly to the display outputs.
And even if display futureproofing doesn't matter to you, if you're looking at the XPS 15 in particular, I would definitely wait. I have no insider info here, but I suspect the next XPS 15 will be a fairly significant redesign just as the latest XPS 13 was, particularly in port selection. The XPS 15 9570 is basically the same as the 9560, which was the same as the 9550.
s-plus
44 Posts
1
September 25th, 2018 01:00
So that would probably mean a thinner laptop with significantly smaller battery and no USB A ports and no SD card, just like the change from 9360 to 9370... I'd take the "old" XPS 15 any day over such a change.
Btw, some more noticeable changes of XPS 15 9570 over 9560 are:
- much brighter display with 50% higher contrast over 9560 (which already had a very good contrast), which at the same level of brightness consumes less power than 9560. According to notebookcheck.net review the screen brightness goes up to 500 nits, much higher than the official 400 nits.
- much faster 6 core CPU and a better GPU. 8th Gen CPU allows for even more undervolt than the 7th Gen CPU, which gives almost 70% better multicore CPU performance than XPS 9560. That's a lot!
- HDMI 2.0 (4K at 60Hz) over the HDMI 1.4 on 9560 (4K at 30Hz)
- much less reflective display coating
- no VRM issues for power throttling that bugged 9560 (not that 9570 doesn't throttle, but it throttles less, and the software undervolt helps much more than with 9560, so no need for any hardware mods)
- better battery life of 9.5 hours of medium use with 4K display (I usually get around 8-9 hours with lots of multitasking between 7-8 programming and office apps and light browsing). Full HD version should last 5 hours longer. That's a great battery life for a powerful 15 inch laptop!
- fingerprint sensor integrated in power button
That's definitely not "basically the same" as the last year's XPS 15...
Back to the original question @Jackrpenner - I think it'll be a long time before the XPS 15 2019 comes out, you'll probably have to wait another 8 months. If you're OK with that and are not in a hurry to get a new laptop then just wait. But even then there'll be the "next one" and the question whether to wait again...
But if the XPS 13 and its refresh with 9370 (with smaller battery and less connectivity options) was of any indication, then the new XPS 15 2019 might not necessarily be a better laptop than the 2018 version. But you can always wait and buy a discounted 9570 when the 2019 version comes out, if it isn't good enough...