Items tagged with (nyse:dell)
Alienware is fast approaching its 25th birthday, and in celebration of the special occasion, Dell is gifting the iconic brand a visual and functional makeover for the new Alienware Aurora desktop. Yes, when you reach adulthood, it's typically a good time to consider a new look. The revamped desktop still maintains its trademark design language, mind you, but in a different mold aimed at vastly improving airflow while reducing noise output at the same time. Dell says it designed (or re-designed, really) the Alienware Aurora from the inside-out, with an aim towards harmonizing performance, easy upgrades, and optimized acoustics. What it came up with is another uniquely shaped chassis with 1.5x...
Read more...
Thin and light gaming laptops are a bit of an enigma. They essentially aim to defy the laws of physics, eschewing size and thermal dissipation area in an effort to strike a more portable, stylish design while still maintaining respectable gaming chops. Let's face it, no one really likes the bulk and chunky demeanor of most high-end gaming laptops that are designed for all-out performance. It's a difficult, fine line to walk, but a worthy, noble one to develop a compelling, quality thin and light gaming laptop, and that's exactly what Dell went all-out for with the new Alienware X15. The new Alienware X15 laptop we're looking at here today is only 15.9mm thick and weighs just 5.2 pounds,...
Read more...
17-inch laptops are becoming somewhat of a rarity these days. Every manufacturer has a couple of models in their line-up, but they don't get a ton of attention because they're typically quite bulky and harder to tote around than sleeker, smaller machines. However, the system we'll be showing you today isn't just any run-of-the-mill 17" notebook. Dell's XPS 17 series has been cramming as much display real estate into as small of a frame as possible for a while now, and this year's model doesn't make any concessions in that regard. The newest XPS 17's footprint is just barely big enough to hold that panel. That's not to say that the XPS 17 is all pizzazz and no performance, or places form...
Read more...
A lot can happen as a system is under development, especially with a relatively new family of hardware. Maybe the drivers and BIOS aren't quite tuned for the best possible performance or power efficiency, and sometimes early reviews aren't completely indicative of what a user will experience when they first purchase a laptop, even a new one that's just hitting the market. That's the case with Dell's Latitude 7320 Detachable PC, a speedy tablet hybrid that makes the current lineup of Surface Pro 7s look seriously outdated. When we first published our review of the Latitude 7320 Detachable, Dell had just announced the system and told us early on that they didn't think the battery life would necessarily...
Read more...
When the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe in early 2020, millions of people that were used to working in an office setting in close proximity with coworkers were forced to work from home. With that switch to a home-based work environment – and daily Zoom/Google Meet video calls -- it quickly proved how horrible most built-in webcams are that come with today's laptops. Before COVID-19, most manufacturers treated integrated webcams as an afterthought and are just now starting to boost image quality. However, Dell is going one step further by introducing the UltraSharp Webcam, a standalone camera that you can use with any laptop or desktop PC. Unlike the 720p or 1080p shooters that...
Read more...
Security researchers have sounded the alarm on four BIOS vulnerabilities affecting 129 different Dell models, including various laptop and desktop systems, as well as some tablets. In total, it is estimated that around 30 million Dell systems are susceptible to the vulnerabilities and should be patched right away. Fortunately, Dell has issued updates for all affected models. If left unpatched, an attacker could execute malicious code without having physical access to a system, and it would run in the pre-boot environment. This is how rootkits normally operate—they corrupt the BIOS, so if a user wipes their system clean with a fresh OS install, or even swaps out the physical drive (SSD or...
Read more...
Dell first announced the Alienware m15 R5 gaming laptop back in April, and we got a chance to review the "Ryzen Edition" late last month. What makes these Alienware m15 R5 so compelling is that you can pair AMD's most potent Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000 APUs with NVIDIA's powerful GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs. Our review unit, for example, came loaded up with a Ryzen 9 5800H processor and a GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile GPU. Although we didn't encounter any issues during our testing, some new owners of the m15 R5 report some disturbing findings regarding the GPU inside their gaming laptop. Several users configured their rigs with a GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, which is just one step down from the current flagship...
Read more...
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Dell over its Alienware Area-51m laptop and the limited upgrade path available to consumers. According to the lawsuit, Dell "intentionally misled and deceived" customers into thinking there would be more robust upgrade options for what had been its flagship gaming laptop at the time of its release. It is a somewhat unique case, and definitely an interesting one. For the most part, laptops at best only allow for relatively minor do-it-yourself upgrades, like adding more RAM or storage, or swapping out the wireless card. But even those parts are sometimes off limits, let alone core components like the CPU and GPU, which can rarely be upgraded (there...
Read more...
Early last month, Dell gave us just a tiny taste of its thin and light Alienware X-Series gaming laptops powered by 11th generation Intel Tiger Lake-H processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Ampere Mobile GPUs. The laptops are official today with the launch of the X15 and X17, so we're getting the full rundown on specs and available features. The X15 is perhaps the most impressive of the two, as it is billed as the world's most powerful sub-16mm gaming laptop and the thinnest ever produced by Alienware. As we previously reported, the X-Series uses an Element 31 thermal interface material (Gallium-Silicon-based) to improve cooling performance. There's also a Quad Fan arrangement that improves...
Read more...
Dell is looking to expand its Alienware gaming laptop family and is teasing the introduction of its new X-Series. With the new X-Series, a significant emphasis is being placed on improving overall performance and keeping the system cool at the same time. To this end, Dell says that the X-Series will feature an industry-first gallium-silicone thermal interface material for wicking heat away from the processor, which it calls Element 31. The new laptops will also bring another industry-first: a patent-pending, "Quad-Fan" cooling setup with extensive copper piping. Dell says that this design "Produces dedicated airflow using evacuative fans and dual opposite outlet fans," while "moving extensive...
Read more...
Dell is one of the most popular PC brands globally, selling millions of laptops, desktops, and server systems to everyday consumers and businesses alike each year. However, SentinelLabs researchers warned this week that five critical security flaws have been lurking in its firmware update driver since the early days of President Obama's first term. Attackers could have potentially exploited these flaws to conduct escalation of privilege attacks for kernel-level access on hundreds of millions of Dell and Alienware PCs. Multiple vulnerabilities were traced to Dell's firmware update driver version 2.3 (dbutil_2_3.sys) module. This module is responsible for Dell firmware updates using the Dell BIOS...
Read more...
We are no strangers to Alienware’s Aurora line of gaming PCs here at HotHardware. In fact, we have reviewed many Aurora systems over the years, and for good reason. Aurora desktops embody the essence of a powerful, mainstream prebuilt rig, with semi-custom, almost boutique styling, in a manner that makes them more attainable for the masses. Yet, every time we receive an Aurora in for review, it has something added we have not seen in the family before and this Aurora R10 Ryzen Edition is no exception. Strictly speaking, this is also not the first time we have had an Aurora R10 Ryzen Edition in our lab. Back in 2019, we tested Alienware’s first Ryzen-imbued iteration which housed a...
Read more...
The detachable hybrid 2-in-1 laptop category may sound somewhat exotic, but these convertible tablet PCs aren't exactly a new thing. Hybrid devices with keyboard docks -- either first-party or made by other manufacturers -- are available that run Android, iPad OS, and of course Windows 10. Perhaps the most well-known detachable hybrids are from Microsoft's long-running Surface Pro family, including the x86-powered Surface Pro 7 and Arm64-equipped Surface Pro X. Dell is now throwing its latest entrant into this arena with the new Latitude 7320 Detachable. At a quick glance, the Latitude 7320 Detachable is bound to draw some comparisons with the Surface lineup. The Latitude's taller-than-normal...
Read more...
We've always been big fans of the XPS 13 line of mobile devices (in both laptop and 2-in-1 form-factors), and now Dell is stepping up its game when it comes to displays. The XPS 13 was last refreshed in early 2020, and with that design switch-up came a shift to a 13.4-inch IPS 16:10 display panel available in 1920x1200 or 3840x2400 resolutions. Now, Dell is adding another display to the options sheet, and it's a beauty: a 13.4-inch Infinity Edge OLED touch panel with a resolution of 3456x2160. The company promises 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, 400-nit brightness rating, and a 100,000:1 contrast ratio to deliver inky blacks and "true-to-life color" in just about any scenario....
Read more...
Dell's Inspiron lineup is a solid class of laptops that can be used for work, school, or casual browsing from day to day. Now, the company is giving the lineup an update with the latest AMD and Intel CPUs, making these sleek devices quite impressive. Without further ado, let us take a look at what Dell has to offer… Inspiron 13 Starting at the bottom of the stack, we have the Inspiron 13 in a small and lightweight form factor with a fair amount of horsepower. It features up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11370H, 16GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 2TB of M.2 PCIe NVMe storage. The display is a 13.3” FHD+ or QHD+ display driven by either Intel UHD, Intel Iris Xe, or NVIDIA GeForce MX450...
Read more...
Starting today, Alienware is taking its gaming notebooks to the next level with the arrival of optional Cherry MX mechanical keyboards on the m15 R4 and m17 R4. The Cherry name is synonymous with high-quality mechanical switches, and the latest evolution of that robust mechanism is ready for laptop duty. Cherry developed with its calls the MX Ultra Low-Profile switch, which is only 3.5mm thick. That's compared to 18.5mm for the original MX switch and 11.9mm for the low-profile MX switch. The switch employee a design that resembles the gull-wing doors that were first popularized on the classic Mercedes-Benz 300 SL. There's a sturdy spring mechanism, a two-piece keycap, a "gold-based" cross-point...
Read more...
Remember those leaked photos of an upcoming Dell gaming laptop that we wrote about last week? Well, they turned out to be real—Dell today formally introduced a new G Series gaming laptop, providing us some additional information that was not available last week, though most of the juicy tidbits will still have to wait a little bit longer. The reason for that is because Dell announced its new G15 laptop in limited capacity in China, and is holding off introducing it in the United States and the rest of the world until next month. Dell tells us it will provide more details soon, related to the upcoming global launch as well as "other exciting consumer launches happening this spring," whatever...
Read more...
It appears Dell is readying a new gaming laptop with a bit of an Alienware edge to it (at least in the external design language), but will not actually be part of the Alienware family. Instead, it will occupy a spot in Dell's ever-growing laptop family as the G15 5510, and a handful of leaked images give us a glimpse of the supposed upcoming model. We can't say for sure if the leaked images are legitimate, but they are certainly striking. The design motif is very similar to the Alienware m15 R4 we recently reviewed. This is evident in the above photo, which shows a thicker and different color exhaust system compared to the rest of the laptop, as well as the ventilation slits on the side and bottom....
Read more...
In late 2020, we took a long, hard look at Dell's XPS 13 2-in-1 (9310) convertible. The XPS 13 family -- in both laptop and 2-in-1 configurations -- have long been well-respected in the ultraportable segment, and the latest XPS 13 2-in-1 is no exception. We came away impressed with the machine’s 13.4-inch InfinityEdge display, its aluminum and carbon fiber construction, and its fast and efficient Tiger Lake processor. Today, Amazon is running a pretty sweet deal on the convertible, which knocks off $360 the price of a near-flagship configuration. The unit currently on sale comes with an 11th generation Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor, a generous 32GB of 4267MHz LPDDR4x...
Read more...
A powerful PC does not have to be loud or flashy, not in today's era of computing. Proving this to be the case is Dell's refreshed XPS Desktop Special Edition, available in two subtly attractive trims: Mineral White (as seen here) and Night Sky. While each are eye catching in their own right, neither one makes the same visually bold statement as Dell's Alienware desktops, which have evolved over the years and still maintain a distinctly different -- you might even say, otherworldly -- aesthetic. The XPS Desktop is dressed in more conservative garb, but still packs a punch. Or as Dell accurately puts it, this is where "beauty meets power." To that end, there is some overlapping in Dell's...
Read more...
A new generation of high-powered gaming laptops is on the horizon, so on the surface, it may not seem like the best time to buy. And that is true if paying full price. However, retailers have started to clear out inventory to make room for the new stuff, paving the way for some fantastic deals on current generation hardware. Like a hefty $400 discount on Dell's G7 with a 300Hz display (1080p). You can find Dell's G7 marked down to $1,299.99 at Best Buy right now (down from $1,699.99). That is an enticing price for the hardware and form factor—this one takes aim at people like myself who still appreciate and gravitate towards a larger 17.3-inch display. The fast refresh rate stands out and...
Read more...
AMD has not yet announced its next generation EPYC "Milan" server processors based on its Zen 3 CPU architecture, but they are coming, and presumably soon. Very soon, in fact, if the latest leak is any indication. For a period of time earlier today, a server listing on Dell's site in Canada highlighted a few different Milan options. The unannounced processors showed up within the configuration section for Dell's PowerEdge R6525 racker server system. It's a dual-socket 1U server system built for high performance computing (HPC), virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and virtualization workloads, and is currently available with EPYC "Rome" processors based on Zen 2. It looks as though at least...
Read more...
