It looks like the XPS 15 2020 refresh is almost upon us, complete with a new XPS 17. As we covered separately, the XPS 17 9700 will be a new form factor for Dell and the XPS series, with up to an RTX 2060, 64 GB of RAM and dual M.2-2280 drive bays. Dell has included vapor chamber cooling too, another first for the XPS series. Sadly, it does not seem that the XPS 15 9500 has not received quite the start treatment that the XPS 17 9700 has.
While we were unable to view the XPS 15 9500 listing on Dell France some clever folk on r/Dell have given us a look at what it contained. We want to thank u/stblr for uploading multiple images on Imgur, which we have included below. The same goes for u/DerRoedie, who exported the HTML and re-uploaded it.
Thanks to u/stblr and u/DerRoedie we can confirm several aspects about the XPS 15 9500. Firstly, Dell will offer it with the same four Comet Lake-H processors that we saw with the XPS 17 9700 64 GB of RAM will be offered too, as will a 4K touchscreen. Likewise, the GTX 1650 Ti will be featuring, too.
However, the XPS 15 9500 misses out on multiple innovations that the XPS 17 9700 has, and one that previous XPS 15 machines had. Dealing with the latter first, Dell will only offer the XPS 15 with up to an 86 Wh battery this year, no doubt a disappointment for some XPS fans. Additionally, it will not be coming with an RTX 2060 GPU, as the XPS 17 will. Moreover, the spec sheet suggests that the XPS 15 will only have one M.2 2280 drive bay, compared to the two in the XPS 17 9700 Furthermore, the XPS 15 will not include the Windows Hello IR camera that Dell has included in the XPS 17. The XPS 15 also has one fewer Thunderbolt 3 port than the XPS 17 does, for some reason.
The final differences we have noticed relate to cooling, a bugbear of the XPS 15 for several generations. Nowhere in the spec sheet does Dell refer to the XPS 15 having its “Dual Opposite Outlet fan”, a fan system for which it boasted that it had filed several patents. The same applies to vapor chamber cooling. Comparing the disassembled images of the XPS 15 and XPS 17 confirms that the latter has a large element below the fan assembly that the former lacks. Presumably, this is the vapor chamber cooling system.
All in all, the XPS 15 9500 seems like it will be a step up from the XPS 15 7590 in many ways. The 16:10 display, more powerful chipsets and the inclusion of more modern ports all suggest so anyway, even if the reduction in battery capacity will draw some complaints. However, we cannot help but feel that the XPS 15 9500 is a step down from the XPS 17 9700, and an unnecessarily steep one at that. It almost seems like Dell has reserved its best innovations for its flagship XPS model, with the XPS 15 now the forgotten middle child.