Skip to main content

Don’t expect to see the new Dell XPS 15 with OLED display until April

Dell XPS 15-2-1 review
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends / Digital Trends

At CES 2019, Dell targeted a March launch for versions of the XPS 15, Alienware m15 and G7 15 laptops with brighter and vibrant OLED screens, but it appears as though that there could now be a delay in release. A new tweet from Dell executive Frank Azor suggests that these new devices might not come until a month later.

April is the target

— Frank Azor (@AzorFrank) February 9, 2019

Responding to a comment made about a customer looking for a specific date to expect the new OLED laptops, Azor revealed that April is now the target. Though the tweet doesn’t explain which specific laptop will be coming in that month, it’s quite possible that he was referring to the entire range of products promised with the new display. The one month delay is also not much cause for concern, but there still remains the possibility that Dell could be dealing with supply shortages or other issues.

OLED panels typically offer up more value than traditional LCD displays because the individual pixels can be turned off when needed. That often leads to brighter image quality, but it comes at a price. As we previously noted, some laptop makers and other manufacturers have found that OLED panels can pull a lot of power or cause image retention issues, which is why there weren’t many announced in years past.

Dell, however, indicated it was committed to bringing OLED technology to more of its products. “Dell was the first to offer OLED on a 13-inch gaming notebook and used that success to drive 15-inch panels into our premium notebooks giving customers better contrast ratio and color, and faster response times for gaming,” explains a press release from January. Dell even pulled a surprise at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2019 and announced a massive 55-inch 4K OLED monitor.

At CES 2019, there was a resurgence of products with OLED technology, including the Lenovo Yoga C730, and the HP Spectre x360 15. Samsung is also working on new 15-inch 4K OLED panels, which comes in with 3,840 x 2,160 resolution, an astonishing brightness range of 0.0005 to 600 nits, and a spectrum of 34 million colors. These will be coming to 15-inch laptops this year and Samsung promises its display can get up to 200 times darker and twice as bright as traditional LCD panels in order to help maximize HDR for the best quality video and images.

Arif Bacchus
Arif Bacchus is a native New Yorker and a fan of all things technology. Arif works as a freelance writer at Digital Trends…
Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 vs. Surface Pro 8: New competition
Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 lifestyle image showing tablet, Folio keyboard, and pen on a table.

Microsoft's Surface Pro 8 has reigned supreme as the best detachable 2-in-1 laptop around and made its way to our list of best laptops overall. It's a redesign that brought slimmer display bezels and a larger 13-inch display, along with faster components and Thunderbolt 4 ports.

The Surface Pro 8 has some new competition, though. Dell has announced the first detachable tablet in its XPS line, replacing the previous 360-degree convertible design. The XPS 13 2-in-1 offers Intel 12th-gen CPUs and a competitive design. Can it overtake the Surface Pro 8?

Read more
How the new Dell XPS 13 borrows phone tech for its radical redesign
The internals of the old XPS 13 compared to the new one.

"We didn't want to wait for PCs to catch up to smartphones."

According to those at Dell I spoke with, that was the motto behind the sweeping internal changes to the new Dell XPS 13. As laptops like the new MacBook Air rush toward thinner designs and more efficient, phone-like processors, companies like Dell are being forced into a corner. Wait for its manufacturing partners and chip suppliers to catch up or push the technology forward on its own terms.

Read more
Dell powers up XPS 15 and 17 with Intel 12th-gen chips
Woman on couch with XPS 17 on her lap.

Dell's latest XPS laptop models are now official, featuring the 12th-gen Intel Core H-Series processors.

The new versions include the XPS 15 and XPS 17, which are now available starting at $1,449 and $1,849 respectively and selling at Dell.com.

Read more