14 DAY TRIAL // Although it never went away and was just merged together with the Studio and Adamo series, XPS notebooks were missed by many of Dell's customers, but this isn't the case anymore since the company has just announced us they will be bringing back the XPS brand with three new stylish anodized aluminum offerings ranging in size from 14 to 17.3 inch.
And since XPS originally stood from “Xtreme Performance System” these new multimedia laptops are available with the latest Intel Core family processors, going all the way up to Core i7, as well as Nvidia GT 400 series graphics cards that can be configured with anywhere between 1GB and 3GB of video memory and come with Optimus support.
Users can also get up to 16GB of DDR3 memory, dual hard drives or solid state disks as well as 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless, WiMAX, Intel's WiDi technology being also available to top things off.
And wait, cause we still didn't get to the best part since, these new XPS notebooks also come with JBL designed and certified speakers with integrated Waves MaxxAudio 3 processing technology, the 15 and 17 inch models featuring up to 22W peak audio performance while also adding a 12-watt subwoofer to the mix.
According to Dell, these speakers should provide users with the loudest and clearest sound ever produced by one of their notebooks, the Round Rock, Texas based company complementing the great sound with integrated webcams capable of HD video streaming that also come Skype-certified.
Moving over to the display options, I am glad to report that apart from the usual low res 1366x768 panels, Dell's XPS notebooks can also be configured with HD+ as well as Full HD displays, the 14 inch model being the only one that is limited to 720p resolution.
Other features include a spill-resistant keyboard, 1GB Ethernet, Bluetooth 3.0, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, a media card reader, two USB 3.0 ports while optionals include stuff like a 9 cell battery, internal TV tuner, a Blu-ray combo drive as well as keyboard backlighting.
Prices start at $899 for the 14 inch model, $849 for the 15 incher while the 17 inch version starts at $949, all of them coming equipped with Intel Core i5 460M processors, 1GB NVIDIA 420M graphics, 500GB 7,200rpm hard drives, 4GB of RAM and Intel WiDi.
Although all these units sound really nice, when it comes down to personal preferences I would most likely go with a 15.6 inch 1920x1080 display as well as a 9 cell battery, but I am sure that everyone will have where to choose from, Dell offering a wide range of options in these new XPS multimedia notebooks.