Dell XPS 15 and XPS 17 Get Tiger Lake H and RTX 3050 Refreshes

With Intel's new eight-core, 35-65W Tiger Lake-H processors, Dell is rolling out updates to its most premium workhorses and some of the best ultrabooks, the XPS 15 and XPS 17. The pair will be available sometime this summer, with more exact dates coming soon.

The Dell XPS 15 (9510) will start at $1,199.99 with processor options going up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTTX 3050 Ti graphics card. Dell calls it the "smallest 15.6-inch performance class laptop," with a 92.9% screen-to-body ratio thanks to a 16:10 display and a new, thinner InfinityEdge bezel. Like the XPS 13, Dell is introducing a 3456 x 2160 OLED screen in the top end. 

Dell's ports are still minimalist, including two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, a headphone jack and a full-size SD card reader.

The new Dell XPS 17 (9710) will start at $1,499.99 and go a step higher with some components. It will go a step further with the processor, topping out at the unlocked Intel Core i9-11980HK with a boost clock of 5.0 GHz, while the GPU will go up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060. Potential customers will have the same storage and RAM options, but there is no OLED screen here - just a 4K touch version and FHD non-touch.

Dell says this is the smallest 17-inch laptop with a screen-to-body ratio of 93.7%. While that's impressive, there aren't that many 17-inch non-gaming laptops out there right now.  It has four Thunderbolt 4 ports and a headphone jack, with no SD card reader like its 15-inch counterpart.

On both laptops, Dell is touting quad-speaker designs with Waves NX audio. The company says those speakers were tuned by Jack Joesph Puig, a Grammy-winning producer who has worked with Green Day, U2, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Sum 41 and more.

The smallest in the lineup, the Dell XPS 13 last saw an update in April, when the Tiger Lake U-based system was updated with an OLED display option. 

Update, May 12: This article was updated to correct pricing on the Dell XPS 15.