Friday, August 3, 2018
Dell XPS 13 2019
The Dell XPS 13 has been one of the best Ultrabooks for the last few years in a row now, and the 2018 version especially blew us away with its sleek redesign and powerful components. However, we think it's time to look into the future, and create a sort of wish list for the Dell XPS 13 for 2019.
The current model is rocking 8th-generation Kaby Lake-R processors, plenty of ports and a 4K touch display. Still, that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. We would love to see a beefier processor, and with Whiskey Lake supposedly around the corner, the Dell XPS 13 2019 could be one of the first laptops to use the new mobile Intel platform.
However, the current Dell XPS 13 isn't without its flaws. We would love to see an improved webcam for one, as we're currently stuck with a camera that looks up our nose, and we'd love to see a cheaper, entry-level model like the 2017 entry enjoyed.
Now, we don't have any concrete information about the successor to the best 13-inch laptop, but that doesn't mean we can't dive into a bit of speculation. So, be sure to keep this page bookmarked, as we'll update it with any new information or speculation that comes our way.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? Dell's next XPS 13 Ultrabook
- When is it out? Probably around January 2019
- What will it cost? Likely starting at $1,099 (£1,099, AU$1,869)
Dell XPS 13 2019 release date
Right now, there is no information about the Dell XPS 13 2019 release date. However, we can take a look at past releases to try and decipher when we can expect the next XPS 13.
The 2018 Dell XPS 13 launched just eight months ago in January of 2018, so it's likely Dell will follow the same release window for the 2019 model. The second we look further into the past, this release window seems more nebulous.
The Dell XPS 13 2016 came out in October 2016 with 7th-Generation Intel Core processors, and when it was refreshed in October 2017, nothing changed but the CPU inside. This refresh was simply a move from Kaby Lake to Kaby Lake R. We could see something similar happening when Intel pushes out its rumored Whiskey Lake U-series chips, which are supposedly launching later this year.
However, that wouldn't make it a new XPS 13. Instead, we might be waiting quite a while for a redesign as drastic as the one we saw earlier this year. Only time will tell, though, we may even be in for a brand new XPS 13 sooner than we thought.
Dell XPS 13 2019 price
Right now, the Dell XPS 13 starts at $1,059 (£1,099, AU$2,199), and we wouldn't expect the 2019 iteration to cost any less.
However, we could see Dell reintroduce a more budget-minded entry model again, similar to the Dell XPS 13 2017 with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD.
Either way, the Dell XPS 13 is an extremely popular laptop, so Dell doesn't have a lot of motivation to drive the price of its flagship any lower than it already is – it's already selling well enough. Either way, keep this page bookmarked, and we'll add more accurate pricing information as soon as we know more.
What do we want to see from Dell XPS 13 2019?
The Dell XPS 13 is already a fantastic device, and we have a hard time finding much wrong with it. However, there's always room for improvement, so we went ahead and created a sort of wish list for the beloved laptop's sequel.
A better webcam
The webcam in the 2018 Dell XPS 13 isn't awful on paper, with a 720p resolution and a pretty decent picture. However, it's still not at the same level as some of its Ultrabook rivals like the HP Spectre x360 and the Microsoft Surface Book.
It's not all about the sensor quality, though. The next iteration of the XPS 13 needs to have a better webcam placement. In the past we were willing to overlook its odd placement, due to the bezel-less InfinityEdge display, but if the Lenovo Yoga 920 can have a reasonably placed webcam, why can't the Dell XPS 13?
Punchier processors
We're not going to sit here and say that the processors in the Dell XPS 13 2018 aren't good – they absolutely are – but, that doesn't mean that we can't hope for even faster CPU performance in next year's model.
Over the last few months, we've been awash in Intel rumors, from HEDT platforms like Coffee Lake-X to Whiskey Lake, which will likely be behind the 2019 Dell XPS 13. We likely won't see the same massive leap in performance gained from Kaby Lake to Kaby Lake-R, but we could see up to a 500MHz boost to clock speed. That's enough to make us want it.
A cheaper entry-level modelWhile the XPS 13 is absolutely worth the price of admission, we would be lying if we said we didn't want a cheaper model. Now, we wouldn't necessarily recommend the 4GB of RAM found in the base 2017 Dell XPS 13, but it's a nice option for someone who doesn't have a ton of cash lying around and doesn't necessarily need cutting-edge performance. Perhaps Dell could release an entry model featuring a Core i3 CPU under $1,000?
Razer Blade 2019
For the last few years, the Razer Blade has enjoyed an enviable position among the best gaming laptops. Thin and portable without sacrificing power, it represents what some may say is the ideal when it comes to gaming laptops.
Unfortunately, Razer is no longer alone in the ultra-portable gaming laptop world anymore – with devices like the MSI GS65 Stealth and the Gigabyte Aero 15X stealing some of Razer's limelight. However, this just makes us more excited for what the Razer Blade 2019 will look like, because if one thing drives innovation, it's competition.
So, what will Razer do with the Blade 2019? In short, we have no idea – but we can still sit down and hash out a wish list of sorts. So, sit back, relax, and we'll dive into boundless speculation about the next ultraportable, ultra-premium gaming laptop from the storied gaming brand. And, while you're here, be sure to bookmark this page, as we'll keep it updated with all the latest information.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? Razer's 2019 ultra-premium gaming laptop
- When is it out? Likely around May 2019
- What will it cost? Probably around $1,899 (£1,989, AU$2,899)
Razer Blade 2019 release date
We know the Razer Blade 2019 is coming, we just don't know when. We can still speculate based on past releases, though. The last two models of the Blade have released in May, so it's likely that Razer will follow the same pattern with the 2019 Razer Blade, too.
We're still not completely sure this is the strategy Razer is going to take, but we're confident that we'll find out more information throughout the next few months, and even early next year. Either way, stay tuned, and we'll update this article as soon as we hear more.
Razer Blade 2019 price
One of the biggest drawbacks of the Razer Blade has always been its high price. Unfortunately, we don't think it's going to change with the 2019 model – people are still buying the Razer Blade, right?
The 2018 Razer Blade starts at $1,899 (£1,989, AU$2,899), which will net you an 8th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a GTX 1060. This is about the same price as the 2017 model with similar specs, so we don't expect Razer to move the price much one way or the other. Especially since we might not see much improvement from the next generation of H-series laptop CPUs.
What we want to see from Razer Blade 2019
The Razer Blade 2018 is already one of the most powerful gaming laptops on the market today, and while it doesn't stand out as much as past Blade laptops, its still an incredibly solid laptop with very few notable flaws. However, that doesn't mean Razer can't improve upon its formula, so we went ahead and created a list of all the things we want to see in the Razer Blade 2019.
Better cooling, please
For all the powerful hardware shoved inside the Razer Blade, it doesn't have the best ventilation, and while gaming, it can quickly get unbearably hot. If Razer plans to implement even more powerful hardware into the next Razer Blade, and we think they will, we can only see this problem getting worse, especially if Razer doesn't tackle it head on.
We're not sure how Razer could improve on it, but we think the conversation of thinness vs thermal performance is going to be prevalent among the best gaming laptops of 2019.
Unlimited power
Right now, we're sitting at a crossroads, waiting for the next-generation offerings from both Nvidia and Intel. We're not sure what either tech behemoth is going to bring to the table but we do have a ton of rumors to go off of.
We've seen a leaked roadmap that suggests Intel is planning to kick off its 9th generation early next year, and Nvidia is rumored to be bringing 11-series mobile GPUs to market later this year. This could mean a world of difference for the Razer Blade in terms of performance, and we hope Razer takes advantage of all of it – as long as it keeps the temperatures in check.
Better battery
Razer keeps making the Blade thinner and more portable but with its short battery life, it's still not as easy to travel with as it could be. The Razer Blade needs a bigger battery – we're not sure how Razer would implement this without sacrificing its status as the 'smallest 15-inch gaming laptop,' but there has to be a way.
With the exorbitant price that the Razer Blade carries, we feel like we can reasonably expect longer battery life. We're counting on you, Razer.
Lighten the load
For as thin as the Razer Blade is, it's still a quite a heavy machine. Weighing in at 4.63 pounds (2.10kg), its probably one of the heaviest gaming laptops in its class, and even the power brick is a chore to carry around.
Dell XPS 15 2019
The Dell XPS 15 of 2018 came out a couple of months ago, strapped to the nines with 8th-generation H-series Intel processors, lightning fast SSDs and gorgeous displays. And, while we haven't had a chance to do our full review on it, our hands-on time with it has left an extremely good impression.
However, with all the rumors swirling round about new processors and GPUs, we want to look towards the future, and figure out what the Dell XPS 15 2019 is going to look like. Will it feature faster Whiskey Lake processors? Will Dell implement a better cooling solution?
We don't have any concrete information about the Dell XPS 15 2019 at this point. However, we can't wait to find out what it's going to look like. So, to help tide us over until the Dell XPS 15's eventual 2019 refresh, we're going to dive into some speculation, crafting a sort of wishlist for what we want to see from next year's XPS 15.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The 2019 version of the Dell XPS 15
- When is it out? Likely Q1 2019
- What will it cost? Probably starting around $1,059 (£1,179 AU$1,699)
Dell XPS 15 release date
It's too early to eke out any solid information about the Dell XPS 15 2019 release date, but we can always look to past releases to try and figure out when we'll see the next-generation notebook. Things could shift a little bit either way, depending on when the next Intel mobile platform makes it to market – and there are all kinds of conflicting rumors on that front.
Over the last few years, the Dell XPS 15 has had a bit of an uneven release history. While the Dell XPS 15 2018 came out in May of this year, past XPS 15 models haven't been totally consistent.
In February 2017, we got the Dell XPS 15 2017, but before that, the 2015 model dropped in October. It's kind of all over the place, and it could mean we have to wait a very long time for the next one. However, we're sure that if a ton of new hardware comes out, Dell will be close behind with a hardware refresh for the Dell XPS 15.
Dell XPS 15 price
The current XPS 15 starts out at $1,059 (£1,179, AU$1,699) for a quad-core, 8th-generation Intel Core i5 chip, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB 5,400 RPM hard drive. However, you can spec it out for up to $2,959 (£2,279, AU$3,999) for a Core i9, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.
We think Dell is going to continue to follow the same model for the XPS 15 2019 – offer an entry-model laptop for around $1,059 and allow users to turn all the dials up to 11 if they so choose. That being said, we could see Dell raising the price a bit for the entry model, as it has for the last couple years.
Again, we won't know what the pricing is going to be until we get closer to launch, so stay tuned.
What want to see from Dell XPS 15 2019
The Dell XPS 15 is already one of the best Ultrabooks you can buy today, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have room to improve. So, we went ahead and created a wishlist of things we want to see from the Dell XPS 15 2019, to really elevate it into the laptop stratosphere.
Better cooling
The biggest drawback that the Dell XPS 15 has faced for the last few years is the thermal limitations introduced from its increasingly thinner designs. Don't get us wrong, we love having such a portable notebook with this much horsepower behind it, but if you're doing a lot of video editing or other workstation-class tasks, the Dell XPS 15 2018 likely won't last very long.
Because Dell is asking for so much cash at the high-end for the Dell XPS 15, we would love to see a more effective cooling design. If it comes at the cost of keeping the same thinness year over year, we can definitely live with that – it's already easy to carry around, we just don't want thermal throttle anymore.
More ports
For a 15-inch laptop, the 2018 Dell XPS 15 is a little light on port selection. It's more robust than the MacBook Pro, as it actually features USB Type-A and an SD card reader. But, for a laptop with this spec and size, we'd love to see some Ethernet and maybe even a DisplayPort. We know, we're entering the age of the dongle – we would just like to see a bit more flexibility out of such a premium device.
Move that webcam
At this point, it kind of feels like we're beating a dead horse, but that webcam has got to move. Nobody who uses their webcam on a regular basis for video conferencing, or even the occasional hangout with friends, is going to appreciate a webcam that perpetually gazes up their noses.
It's not an ideal situation for either end of the conversation, and it even makes Windows Hello kind of a pain. Please, Dell. We know you are all about that bezel-less design, but other laptop manufacturers have figured out a way to move their webcams to the top of the display with thin bezels. We have faith in you.
Unlimited power
We know we just gave Dell a hard time for its thermal solution, but we still want more power. This might be hypocritical, but with Whiskey Lake, Coffee Lake-S and Cannon Lake rumored around the corner, we're hungry for stronger performance. If there's a way that Dell can find a middle ground – include a beefier processor while still upping the cooling, we'd be infinitely pleased.
QLED? Samsung's latest television acronym explained
If you've been looking at TVs in 2018, you've probably come across the acronym QLED (either pronounced Q-L-E-D or 'cue lead'). It's incredibly common because it's a proprietary technology developed by the world's most popular TV maker by volume – Samsung – and includes all of its top-tier TV models.
If you've heard about it from a friend or a sales rep, you may have been lead to believe that QLED is some sort of opaque future technology that's come for the head of OLED and will radically shake up the TV industry. It's not and it hasn't.
Instead QLED is an LCD-LED TV with a metallic quantum dot film that enhances color and contrast, supporting technology like HDR and 4K by making QLED TVs brighter and more colorful than other non-quantum dot LCD-LEDs.
There's a little more to it than that (QLED models now include Samsung's Bixby virtual assistant and a nifty Ambient Mode to help them blend into your room better) but what you just read is the crux of what makes a QLED a QLED.
Of course, it hasn't helped matters that QLED sounds similar to OLED – which, either intentionally or not, that often causes confusion for most folks.
We'll cover the differences down below and highlight what makes QLED a neat evolution of basic LCD-LED TVs, but the basics are all laid out above.
What is QLED?
It's a bit of an enigma, to put it lightly. Literally QLED means – or we suppose it means – quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED, not to be confused with OLED TVs), but this Samsung-baked concept is basically just the latest set of enhancements to the same quantum dot technology that the company has been working on for the past few years.
Technically speaking, Samsung's QLED TVs are not QLED at all, well, at least in the way that we understand the term. A 'proper' quantum light-emitting diode element emits its own light – the clue is in the name – whereas Samsung's latest TVs use a separate LCD backlight (and an edge-lit backlight, at that) just like any other LED-LCD TV. So where the QLED moniker comes from, we're not sure.
How does a QLED TV work?
It's complicated, but hang in there with us. So, to start, all QLED TVs have a quantum dot filter. This year, there's a new refined aluminium compound that help make the dots more efficient (and therefore brighter) and more effective at passing pass light through, which creates wider and more accurate colour.
So what is a quantum dot filter exactly? It's a film of tiny crystal semi-conductor particles that can be precisely controlled for their colour output, which replace the red, green and blue colour filters that old TVs used.
Samsung says that its QLED TVs use the new filters to display 100% coverage of the DCI/P3 color space (read: much deeper black levels and sparkling HDR), and maintain that performance whatever the brightness.
They're so bright, in fact, that Samsung's QLED TVs can manage anywhere between 1500 nits to 2000 nits brightness. Considering 1000 nits is needed to produce HDR, that's proper bright, though exactly how anyone could stand the glare of 2000 nits, we're not sure. Sunglasses, anyone?
While the advances in brightness are intriguing, Samsung claims that the new QLED TVs have a newly designed pixel panel structure to allow better off-axis viewing. For a living room environment, that could be QLED's big selling point.
Vials containing quantum dots before they get put into a TV. © Jamie Carter
QLED vs LED
Beyond the 'paradigm shift' hyperbole of Samsung's marketing, it's really important to understand that QLED isn't really anything new at all. In fact, it's really nothing more than the latest – possibly among the last technically possible – tweaks to existing LED-LCD technology that's dominated bigscreen TVs for the last decade.
QLED's innovations – deeper blacks, better colours and wider viewing angles – tackle three traditional problems of LED and LCD technology, but they're the same problems that are addressed year in, year out by TV makers. Only upcoming reviews will reveal if, in fact, QLED is a significant step forward from traditional LED-LCD screens – but chances are good that we'll see some real improvements in these areas with Samsung's new sets.
QLED vs OLED
Perhaps a more important comparison is QLED vs OLED. The latter uses pixels that emit their own light, but OLED displays are manufactured only by Samsung's arch-rival LG, and now used by Sony, Philips and Panasonic, too.
There's no doubt that QLED, for now, has an advantage in terms of brightness (so in theory may better handle HDR content – though might just as easily overcook it), but if you're looking for a 'paradigm shift' in picture quality and the next-gen display technology, OLED is still the frontrunner. The latter uses individually lit pixels to achieve better contrast ratio and richer blacks that LED-LCD will never be able to hit, quantum dot filter or no.
At over 1500 nits. Samsung's QLED TVs are ultra-bright. © Jamie Carter
What happened to SUHD?
QLED and SUHD are essentially the same thing; the new messaging is more about marketing than technology, although the jump from 1000 nits on the top-end SUHD TVs to 1,500 to 2,000 nits on the flagship QLED TVs is perhaps more revolutionary than it seems at first. Put simply, for a buying public still getting to grips with what UHD is, SUHD just proved too confusing, so Samsung has dropped it. (It also probably didn't help that the 'S' in SUHD didn't really mean anything ... although we're not convinced that QLED is much clearer.)
Samsung's QLED TVs come with a swivel 'Studio' stand.
Should I buy a QLED TV?
Samsung's QLED TVs are claimed to be all about the brightest possible, most accurate coloured images pictures, which therefore work with all kinds of content in all kinds of lighting conditions. Although we can't yet confirm Samsung's claims that its QLED TVs are the brightest and best around – our upcoming reviews will confirm or deny that – they do appear to be as much about design and flexibility of installation as about picture quality.
That all seems a decent package for the living room, but whether you should buy a QLED TV will ultimately come down to price. And here comes the crux of the matter; will QLED TVs be cheaper than OLED TVs? They may need to be to stand a chance, but is Samsung really going to make itself a cut-price brand? We seriously doubt it. Expect oodles of marketing that make QLED seem a better option than OLED, though whether it is or not, only time will tell.
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