New Leaks Give an Almost Complete Picture of Dell’s Upcoming XPS 15 and 17 (2024)

Earlier this year, Dell refreshed its excellent 13-inch ultra portable laptop, the XPS 13, with faster components and an updated design. Now, thanks to leaks spotted on Dell’s French website, it appears the XPS 13's larger siblings, the XPS 15 and XPS 17,are due for updates soon.

While the original leaked product listing has since been taken down, an eagle-eyed Reddit user (u/stblr) managed to save a number of photos and screenshots that included a ton of info about Dell’s upcoming systems.

It looks like Dell is giving the XPS 15 9500 a makeover similar to what we saw with the newXPS 13, including a display with a significantly smaller bottom bezel, which has allowed Dell to shrink the XPS 15 proportions slightly. The biggest impact of this is that a standard XPS 15 with a 56 Whr battery will now weigh in at 4 pounds flat, down a full half pound from the current 4.5-pound model.

The other major change on the XPS 15 is that Dell has added speakers to the left and right of its keyboard, replacing the downward-facing speakers Dell used in the XPS 15 7950. This should allow for a much richer and more direct audio experience, which should be good for movie watchers and mobile content creators alike.

Specswise, the leaks indicate that the XPS 15 will sport a range of refreshed components, so buyers can go up to an 8-core Intel Core-i9 10885H CPU, Nvidia GTX 1650Ti graphics, 64GB of RAM, and 2TB of SSD storage. The one small disappointment is that while the XPS 15 will include a range of 16:10 displays available in either full HD or 4K resolutions, it doesn’t look there will be the option to upgrade to an OLED screen. It’s LCD or bust.

As for the XPS 17 9700, the leaks mark the welcome return for a system that Dell dropped from the product lineup a few years ago, while also fueling the trend of larger 16- and 17-inch systems like this one and the 16-inch MacBook Pro 16. Like the XPS 15, the XPS 17 sports a familiar carbon fiber and aluminum design, with extremely thin bezels and top-firing speakers. However, in addition to both full HD and 4K display options, the XPS 17 offers support for slightly beefier graphics with up to an Nvidia RTX 2060 GPU.

The obvious trade-off with the XPS 17 is its size, which will measure in at 14.7 x 9.8 x 0.8 inches and weigh o5.5 pounds, a full pound more than the heaviest XPS 15, which weighs 4.5 pounds when equipped with an 86 Whr battery.

Finally, one potentially major change for both systems is that Dell may be streamlining the ports on the XPS 15 and 17, removing the HDMI and USB-A ports found on previous models and going full USB-C. The XPS 15 looks like it will feature three USB-C ports (which for me is one short of ideal on a 15-inch system) with two offering support for Thunderbolt 3, along with a full-size SD card reader and a 3.5mm audio jack. Meanwhile, the XPS 17 will come with four USB-C ports that all support Thunderbolt 3.

While this could be a small issue for people still hanging onto peripherals that require USB-A ports, according to the leaked specs, it looks like Dell will also be throwing in a USB-C to USB-A cable plus HDMI dongle in the box for free.

While Dell has yet to officially announce new versions of the XPS 15 or 17, based on this leaked info and my experience with the latest XPS 13, the next refreshes to Dell’s flagship laptop line could be seriously impressive.