Dell announces a new XPS 17 and a redesigned XPS 15 with 16:10 edge-to-edge displays, only USB-C ports, and Intel 10th-gen CPUs, starting at $1,300 and $1,500
Often imitated. Never duplicated. Gordon Mah Ung / PCWorld : Alienware Area-51m upgradability: How the Holy Grail of laptop features eluded us Sean Endicott / Windows Central : Is the Dell XPS 15 (7590) available with a touchscreen 4K display? Igor Bonifacic / Engadget : Get the 2019 Dell XPS 13 with touchscreen for under $850 FP Trending / Firstpost Tech : Dell launches redesigned XPS 15, new XPS 17 with 10th Gen Intel Core Processors Joe Fedewa / XDA Developers : Dell announces new XPS 15, XPS 17, and Alienware laptops with 10th Gen Intel chips and InfinityEdge displays Tyler Lee / Ubergizmo : Dell Brings Back The 17-inch Laptop With Its New XPS 17 Steven Hung / Micky : Dell XPS 2020 series delivers almost perfect upgrades on the laptop series Stan Schroeder / Mashable : Dell's new XPS 15 and XPS 17 laptops have razor-thin bezels, tons of power Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat : Alienware beefs up its gaming rigs with the latest cooling, processors, and graphics Kevin Lee / IGN : Dell Brings Back the XPS 17 With Intel Core i9 and Nvidia RTX Power Tweets: Chaim Gartenberg / @cgartenberg : The Alienware Area-51m was supposed to be a different kind of gaming laptop, one that could offer the upgradability of a desktop for a longer life cycle. But just a year in, that dream is unfortunately dead: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Damian Edwards / @damianedwards : The new XPS 15 and XPS 17 look sick AF. 🤯 https://twitter.com/... @saradietschy : The new Dell XPS 17" looking STUNNING with the thin profile, shrunken bezels, 4! USB C thunderbolt 3 ports WITH an SD CARD SLOT. touché Macbook touché https://twitter.com/... @dell : Announcing the strong, durable XPS 15 and XPS 17, with an all-new lightweight design. Both are equipped with 4-sided InfinityEdge displays giving you the ability to see and do more. Available now: XPS 15 Coming this summer: XPS 17 https://blog.dell.com/... #DellXPS Brian Tong / @briantong : Dell. You have my attention. The XPS 17's 17-inch edge-to-edge screen and it's body is smaller than 48% of 15-inch laptops out today?!?! 🤤🤤🤤 https://twitter.com/... @snubs : 🙌🙌🙌 Only my favorite line of travel friendly professional laptops! 😍 New XPS 15 and 17 Are Here - Direct2Dell https://blog.dell.com/... Mark Guim / @markguim : The XPS 17 is “smaller than 48% of 15-inch laptops available today” https://blog.dell.com/... Dan Seifert / @dcseifert : i'm normally not interested in big laptops, but I kinda like what Dell is doing with the new XPS 17: *17" (16:10!) screen in a 15" size chassis *Beefy 45W processor *RTX2060 graphics *A full size SD card slot https://www.theverge.com/... Tom Warren / @tomwarren : This is Dell's new XPS 17 and redesigned XPS 15. They come with 16:10 screens and only USB-C. Dell has squeezed some impressive specs into small form factors for 15- and 17-inch laptops. Details here: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This launch extends a design language Dell had already validated on its smallest machine: the XPS 13's January 2020 redesign introduced the 16:10 screen, larger touchpad, and 10th-gen Intel silicon, and the new XPS 15 and first-ever XPS 17 now scale that template up to larger workloads.
The move also completes a size ladder — 13, 15, and 17 — at entry prices of $1,300 and $1,500, which matters because the same two models were later repriced far higher in the 2023 refresh with 13th-gen H-series CPUs and RTX 40-series GPUs before the lineup was restructured entirely.
First-order effects
- Buyers of large premium Windows laptops gain a 16:10 edge-to-edge option in two new sizes, but the USB-C-only port selection means every existing dock, external display, and peripheral purchase now runs through adapters or a new dock.
- Dell's XPS line becomes a three-size family on one shared chassis-and-display formula, letting the company amortize the InfinityEdge design across 13-, 15-, and 17-inch price tiers from $999 to $1,500-plus.
Second-order effects
- Rival premium laptop makers face pressure to match the taller aspect ratio and minimal-port aesthetic on their own flagship lines, since Dell is now selling the big-screen version of the look that reviewers praised on the XPS 13.
- The dock and adapter ecosystem gains a forced upgrade cycle: a flagship laptop with no USB-A or HDMI makes Thunderbolt docks a de facto required accessory, shifting some of the purchase decision toward whichever vendor bundles or discounts one.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, premium laptop lines converge on fewer, more expensive, design-unified models — exactly what happened when Dell later collapsed the size spread into an XPS 14 and XPS 16 structure at higher base prices than today's $1,300–$1,500 entries.
- USB-C-only flagships normalize a port standard where laptop makers shed legacy I/O and push connectivity cost onto accessories, a structural shift regulators and buyers have since had to absorb industry-wide.
The trend: Premium consumer laptops are consolidating around tall-aspect, minimal-port designs whose entry prices ratchet upward as each generation refreshes, with Dell's XPS line as the template others copy.