Dell's Spring Range: New 8th Gen Alienware, Laptops, and Monitors
by Ian Cutress, Anton Shilov & Joe Shields on April 3, 2018 8:00 AM ESTDell’s XPS 15 2-in-1
Earlier this year Dell introduced its first 15.6-inch 2-in-1 convertible PC targeting people who need a relatively big screen in a relatively unorthodox form-factor. The XPS 15 2-in-1 (9575) runs Intel’s 8th Generation Core i5/i7 processors with Radeon RX Vega M GL GPU, thus offering a combination of rather interesting features and uses cases. As a part of its Spring 2018 Update, the company announced availability of the products as well as their final specs and prices.
Just like its non-convertible XPS 15 brother, the XPS 15 2-in-1 comes in 16 mm thick CNC-machined aluminum chassis featuring a carbon fiber composite palm rest. The systems also happen to use similar 15.6-inch 400-nits anti-glare InfinityEdge display panels: an FHD IPS supporting 100% of the sRGB color gamut as well as a 4K UHD IPS panel covering 100% of the sRGB color gamut. Obviously, in case of the convertible, both panels support 10-point multi touch technology and are compatible with Dell’s Active Pen using Wacom AES2.0 technology. Similarities between the two products that formally belong to the same family end here.
The XPS 15 2-in-1 model 9575 is based on quad-core Intel Core i5/i7 CPUs featuring on-package Radeon RX Vega M GL GPUs with 4 GB of HBM2 memory. These graphics processors are supposed to deliver noticeably more graphics oomph than the GeForce GTX 1050/1050 Ti used inside the XPS 15 (more on that one in a bit), thus clearly separating positioning of the systems, making the convertible more suitable for gamers and somewhat entering the Alienware territory. By contrast, the new XPS 15 can be equipped with a six-core Core i7/i9 CPU as well as 32 GB of faster DDR4-2666 memory (the convertible comes with up to 16 GB of DDR4-2400), delivering higher performance in professional non-GPU-accelerated applications. Storage sub-system of the XPS 15 2-in-1 model 9575 only uses M.2 SSDs featuring a PCIe x4 3.0 interface and 256 GB – 1 TB capacity (the cheapest model with a SATA drive was listed originally, but it is not sold), no hybrid storage options are offered.
Since the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 is a convertible PC, it has sensors commonly found inside tablets, including gyroscope, magnetometer, and an accelerometer. Meanwhile, physical connectivity of the system resembles that of regular laptops: it has two Thunderbolt 3 ports (so, if everything is implemented properly, they carry four DP 1.2 streams), two USB 3.1 Type-C headers, a micro-SD card reader, and a TRRS audio jack. It is noteworthy that the XPS 15 2-in-1 has exactly the same set of ports as a modern MacBook Pro 13” (keep in mind that its right-side TB3 ports don’t have enough PCIe bandwidth and while they support feature set of TB3, performance-vise they are USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C headers). When it comes to wireless I/O, the XPS 15 2-in-1 features two options: Rivet’s Killer 1435 2×2 802.11ac WiFi + Bluetooth 4.1 controller, or Intel’s Wirless-AC 8265 device, also 2×2 with vPro.
| Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 (9575) Base Configurations | ||
| Core i5-8305G | Core i7-8705G | |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-8305G 4C/8T 2.8 GHz - 3.8 GHz 6 MB LLC 65 W TDP |
Core i7-8705G 4C/8T 3.1 GHz - 4.1 GHz 8 MB LLC 65 W TDP |
| GPU | Radeon RX Vega M GL | Radeon RX Vega M GL |
| Memory | 8-16 GB DDR4-2400 RAM (on board) 32 GB will be supported post RTS |
|
| Display | 15.6" IPS 1920×1080 sRGB 400 cd/m² brightness 1500:1 contrast ratio 10-point multi touch |
15.6" IPS 3840×2160 Adobe RGB 400 cd/m² brightness 1500:1 contrast ratio 10-point multi touch |
| Storage | 256 GB PCIe SSD, 512 GB PCIe SSD, 1 TB PCIe SSD |
|
| Networking | Killer 1435 Wireless-AC 2x2 + Bluetooth 4.1 Intel Wireless-AC 8265 2x2 + Bluetooth 4.1 |
|
| I/O | 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C with PowerShare 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C w/Thunderbolt 3 (4 lanes PCIe) MicroSD card reader TRRS audio jack Microphones 720p webcam |
|
| Sensors | Gyroscope, eCompass/magnetometer, accelerometer/FFS | |
| Dimensions | Height: 9-16 mm | 0.36 - 0.63 inches Width: 354 mm | 13.9 inches Depth: 235 mm | 9.5 inches |
|
| Weight | 2 kg | 4.36 lbs | |
| Battery | 75 Wh | |
| Price | $1500+ | |
Dell’s XPS 15 2-in-1 systems in grey and brushed onyx colors are now available from Dell.com at $1500 - $2200 price-points.
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DanNeely - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
What'd you put pads on? I looked at the Ifixit teardown and it shows thermal grease on the CPU heatsink. A decent grease should perform better than thermal pads, was yours missing grease entirely, or did you add cooling to something else?willis936 - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
Thermal pads between the heat pipe and the case. I also put some thermal pads on the SSD (I put in a 950 pro though I'm not certain if it sees thermal throttling on heavy PCIe 2x loads). I had recently done a regrease (NT-H1) out of necessity when I swapped the SD card board (I did something dumb to break it). I never looked at the temperatures before that point so I can't say how much the regrease did for temperatures. If you search the internet you'll find some reports that match with what I'm saying and have pictures.HStewart - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
I decided to go for the XPS 15 2in1 - I was not sure about Vega graphics - but I will give it a try. I purchase the i7 model with 4K screen and 16G of memory and upgrade the ssd to 512G. It was almost $2500 for this unit.I really like the technology that they put in this 2in1 - just not sure about graphics on it - but I love the fact that the 2in1 has a PIN with 4096 levels - this should be perfect for graphics on 4k screen. Pin should actually arrive any minute today.
I am going out on limb on this one - it been over a decade since I used AMD graphics - but the EMIB is an impressive design and want to give it a try. Does any body know if the XPS 2in1 can support the 6 monitors that Vega supports and will it support Free Sync.
Spede - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
That's cool and all but will the new XPS still be plagued with coil whine ?akula2 - Thursday, April 5, 2018 - link
Which is most effective chip for laptops? (Business/Development). An i5?HStewart - Thursday, April 5, 2018 - link
For code development GPU does not matter unless programming games and such, but I would think most important is to add more memory and make sure everything is SSD if possible.akula2 - Thursday, April 5, 2018 - link
One more: which one is the successor of G4560 chip? ThanksHStewart - Thursday, April 5, 2018 - link
Well G4560 is lower end CPU - all of these products are superior to it - Including Y chips.Fiebre - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
So would the xps 15 2 in 1 be ok to use with an egpu or is the thunderbolt not powerful enough?HStewart - Wednesday, April 11, 2018 - link
XPS 15 2in1 has the bandwidth to handle external GPU's - but I not sure since 8 of PCIe channels go to AMD Radeon chip - that external GPU gets full amount. But Thunderbolt should not be the issue since it handles 40G and XPS 15 2in1 has 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports which is nice.I did find the following site that has interesting information about eGPU
https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2018/#tb...
It looks like from other information on the that site - it looks like the XPS 15 2in1 with it 4 lanes of PCIe supports the full range available for eGPU's. So it definetly powerfull enough.