This isn't a laptop, but a high-end gaming desktop PC that happens to fold in two.
Acer Predator 21 X
"Thin and light" isn't compatible with a laptop that features a curved 21-inch display, dual GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs, and room for five storage drives.
Yeah, try cramming that into a MacBook chassis.
Acer used CES 2017 to unveil a crazy new gaming laptop aimed at people with deep pockets and strong backs to carry the laptop.
The Predator 21 X takes what is essentially a gaming desktop and crams it into a folding laptop-type shape. It starts with a 21-inch 2560 x 1080 resolution curved IPS display with a 120Hz refresh rate.
But this is just the beginning.
Powering this monstrous display is Intel's 3.9GHz seventh-generation Intel Core i7-7820HK silicon powerhouse, dual GeForce GTX 1080 X graphics cards, four DDR4 slots that can hold a maximum of 64GB of RAM, up to four 512GB solid-state drives (two of which can be NVMe PCIe SSDs which are five times faster than SATA SSDs), and a single hard drive bay which is home to a 1TB unit.
But that's not all. There's a full-sized mechanical keyboard featuring Cherry MX Brown key switches with customizable backlight options, a numeric keypad that flips over to reveal a precision touchpad, four speakers and two subwoofers, two power supplies, five AeroBlade cooling fans, and nine heat pipes.
All this is packed into a black shell that looks like it's been hacked out of granite or marble, which brings the total weight of the package to 19.4 pounds.
All you need is a spare $8,999 and this beast can be yours. The system is built to order and available in February.
The 14-inch Blade gaming notebook gets upgraded to GeForce GTX 1060 graphics, while the Stealth Ultrabook will sport a seventh-generation Core i7 processor.
Razer Blade gaming laptop
It may not have done anything as crazy as launch a $5,000 21-inch notebook with a curved screen, but Razer continues to refine its gaming laptop lineup, announcing updates to its Razer Blade and Blade Stealth systems at this week's IFA tradeshow in Berlin.
While the Blade received a graphics boost, the Blade Stealth sees a processor refresh -- but neither laptop gets both upgrades. The bigger Blade is the latest gaming system to upgrade to Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 graphics based on its new Pascal architecture. The boost in performance would seemingly make up for the fact that the Blade is otherwise unchanged. It still offers an Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor, 16 gigs of RAM, solid-state storage, and the option of a 3200x1800 14-inch touchscreen. The new GeForce card not only should improve traditional game performance, but also prepare the system for VR applications.
Razer rolled out the Blade Stealth as an ultraportable, so gaming is just one of its priorities. So while the Blade pumps up its graphics, the Stealth gets the latest and greatest from Intel to improve its performance as an all-around laptop. It will now ship with the seventh-generation Core i7 processor, code-named Kaby Lake. The new 14nm chips promise particular performance gains in media performance, which is especially important for the Stealth as it relies on Intel's integrated graphics (though you can add an external card via its Razer Core solution).
The one other key difference for the Stealth is a bigger battery, which the company says will provide 15 percent more capacity, allowing 9 hours of battery life between charges. The starting price remains $999, which is clearly more than most laptops, though the Blade Stealth is decently spec'd for a 12.5-inch notebook that tips the scales at less than 3 pounds. Given its pricier components (processor aside), the Blade is more expensive, remaining at $1,799.
Dell recently redesigned its popular XPS 13 laptop, which it claimed was "the smallest 13.3-inch laptop on the planet". Not content with that, Dell has followed up with a new version of the larger XPS 15, which is also, apparently, the world's smallest laptop in its size class.
The XPS 15 doesn't simply offer a larger 15.6-inch screen. As well as enhanced 4K resolution and touch-screen controls, it includes a quad-core Core i7 processor and a discrete Nvidia GPU. All of this will appeal to business and creative users who need a more powerful laptop for tasks such as high-definition photo- or video-editing.
The 15.6-inch XPS 15 is slim, compact and well built, but weighs a relatively hefty 2kg.
Image: Dell
Edgy design
At first glance, the XPS 15 looks very similar to its 13-inch stablemate. It has the same edge-to-edge glass panel for the display, with only a very narrow black border running around the edges of the screen. There's a similar matte-black finish for the keyboard panel, and the XPS 15 measures just 17mm thick compared to 15mm for the XPS 13, which is pretty good going for a 15-inch laptop.
The XPS 15's keyboard is backlit, while the trackpad is a good size.
Image: Dell
The build quality is impeccable too, with a firm, comfortable keyboard and a large trackpad, while the thin screen panel -- just 5mm thick -- still feels firm enough to provide plenty of support when you're carrying the laptop around with you.
Inevitably, though, the XPS 15 is quite a bit heavier than its smaller sibling -- Dell quotes 2.0kg for our touchscreen review unit, but our scales insisted on 2.1kg. You can't balance the XPS 15 in one hand, as you can with many 13-inch laptops, and you'll certainly notice the weight when you carry it around in your bag. Even so, the XPS 15 is slimmer and lighter than most 15-inch laptops -- especially high-end models with such a powerful specification. Equally inevitable are the comparisons with Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro, which has a similar price, weight and size. But, as we discovered, the XPS 15 manages to outgun its Apple rival in a number of respects.
4K display
Our review unit had an UltraSharp 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160) touch display, but a cheaper HD (1920x1080) option is available.
Image: Dell
The most obvious feature of the XPS 15 is, of course, its 4K Ultra HD display. This has a resolution of 3,840 by 2,160 pixels or 282 pixels per inch (ppi), which leaves the 2,880-by-1,800 (220ppi) of the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro's Retina Display now looking relatively modest. The image quality is superb -- in fact, it's so bright and colourful that we were able to turn the brightness level down to about 30 percent when watching streaming video on BBC iPlayer without any real loss of visibility.
The IGZO IPS screen's viewing angles are terrific too, with the image remaining clearly visible even when you turn the screen right away from you, so the XPS 15 will be ideal if you need to give an impromptu presentation when you're out visiting clients. The display is touch-sensitive too, although that still doesn't strike us as essential in a laptop display.
We were also glad to see that Windows 10 has finally got to grips with the scaling problems that affected 'high-dpi' displays such as this in the past. This means that interface elements within apps, such as tool icons and menus, now scale up in size to improve visibility when you're running the display at its full 4K resolution. The only glitch we encountered here was when running BBC iPlayer in full-screen mode, which reduced the playback controls to an almost unusable size. But, thankfully, scaling problems like that now seem to be the exception rather than the rule.
The XPS 15 has an SD card slot, a USB 3.0 port, a battery gauge button and a Kensington lock slot on the right side, and a power input, a second USB 3.0 port, an HDMI port, a Thunderbolt 3 port and a headset jack on the left side.
Image: Dell
Performance
The power-efficiency of Intel's 6th-generation (Skylake) processors is illustrated by the fact that the slimline XPS 15 still manages to house a quad-core Core i7-6700HQ processor running at 2.6GHz (3.5GHz with TurboBoost), along with a discrete Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M GPU with 2GB of dedicated VRAM. Our review unit also included 16GB of RAM and a 512GB solid-state drive for a total price of £1,599 (inc. VAT, or £1,332.50 ex. VAT).
Processor performance is good, although the XPS 15's GeekBench 3 multi-core score of 13,362 is only fractionally ahead of the ageing 4th-generation Haswell processor in the mid-2015 15-inch MacBook Pro (which scored 13,281). However, the £1,599 version of the MacBook Pro uses Intel's integrated Iris Pro GPU, which can only manage a score of 31fps when running the Cinebench R15 OpenGL test. In contrast, the XPS 15's GeForce GTX 960M cruises ahead with a Cinebench score of 83fps, which is more than enough to cope with demanding applications such as high-definition video-editing and even a spot of CAD.
The XPS 15 also has twice as much solid-state storage as the MacBook Pro, so there's little doubt which laptop provides the best value for money. Dell even sneaks in a Thunderbolt 3 port, while Apple -- which, of course, designed Thunderbolt in the first place -- is still using Thunderbolt 2 on the Mac range.
Battery life
The one area where the MacBook Pro did manage to come out on top was battery life. When using its integrated graphics option, the XPS 15 managed 5.5 hours of streaming video, compared to 7.5 hours for the MacBook Pro. But, to be fair, that was probably inevitable given the amount of power required to drive the XPs 15's pixel-packed 4K display.
If you don't need the 4K display then you can save a bit of money by opting for the entry-level version of the XPS 15, which has a more conventional HD 1,920-by-1,080 display. That model costs £1,149 (inc. VAT, £957.50 ex. VAT) with the same Core i7 processor and Nvidia GPU, but only 8GB of memory and 256GB of solid-state storage. You can also upgrade the 4K model to 32GB of memory and 1TB of solid-state storage for £1,899 (inc. VAT. £1,582.50 ex. VAT). There aren't many other build-to-order options, though, so users looking for even more powerful CPU or GPU options will need to consider Dell's Precision range of mobile workstations instead.
Conclusions
The 4K display and quad-core Core i7 performance of the XPS 15 will be overkill for business users who simply want to run standard productivity apps such as Microsoft Office. However, the XPS 15 will certainly appeal to creative users who need to work with high-definition photos and videos. It's good value for money too, and with its slimline design and elegant edge-to-edge display the XPS 15 shows that Dell is capable of taking on Apple at its own game.
