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Dell’s latest XPS 13 has a new design with a bigger display and Ice Lake chips - Circuit Breaker

Posted: 02 Jan 2020 07:01 AM PST

Dell's XPS 13 has long been one of the best Windows laptops around, and at CES 2020, the company is updating it yet again with a bigger 13.4-inch display that also shifts to a 16:10 aspect ratio. By adding the taller display, Dell has also completely cut out the bottom bezel to make the new XPS 13 look better than ever, too.

Despite the larger display, the new XPS 13 is actually 2 percent smaller overall than its predecessor. As part of the redesign, the 2020 model also has a larger keyboard (which now stretches across the entire device) and a larger trackpad. It's effectively all of the changes that Dell made with the XPS 13 2-in-1 last year, but they're available on the non-2-in-1 model.

Those changes may not sound too impressive, but compared to the old XPS 13 design, it's like night and day. The new model looks smaller, sleeker, and better than the old model by a huge margin. The taller display is also a welcome trend that will hopefully start to crop up in future laptops, too.

In addition to the new physical design, Dell is also upgrading the internal specs, offering Intel's latest 10nm Ice Lake 10th Gen processors in Core i3, i5, and i7 options. Dell also offers a plethora of configuration options: 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB of SSD storage. There are also three display options: a standard 1920 x 1200 FHD+ panel, an FHD+ display with a touchscreen, and a 4K 3840 x 2400 touchscreen with HDR 400.

Dell is also offering a Linux-based XPS 13 Developer Edition, which will be sold preloaded with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Some things are still the same from the old XPS 13, though, like they keyboard. Dell's opting to use the same switches on the old model instead of the more divisive low-profile keyboard on the XPS 13 2-in-1. The 2020 XPS 13 still uses the impressively small top-mounted camera that was introduced on last year's model, too.

The new XPS 13 will start at $999 when it comes out on January 7th, while the Linux-powered developer edition will release on February 4th starting at $1,119.

Correction: Dell has previously sold Linux-based XPS 13 developer editions. This article originally claimed that the new model was the first time Dell has done so.

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Apple will license Imagination's graphics tech once again after public spat - Engadget

Posted: 02 Jan 2020 04:01 AM PST

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The new year is a time to kiss and make up, and Apple and Imagination are taking that to heart. After months of public spats, chipmaker Imagination Technologies has been welcomed back into the Apple fold with the announcement of a new multi-year license agreement for Apple to use its intellectual property.

Apple and Imagination began working together way back in 2006, with the British company designing graphics processor chips for Apple and the company subsequently purchasing a stake in the chip maker. In 2017, though, trouble arose when Apple announced it would be building its own GPU and would no longer need Imagination's chips.

Over the next year there was a public and messy breakup including disputes over IP, the poaching of employees and Imagination losing 70 percent of its value and putting itself up for sale.

Now, though, the two companies have made their peace and will be working together once again. A brief announcement from Imagination said only, "Imagination Technologies ("Imagination") announces that it has replaced the multi-year, multi-use license agreement with Apple, first announced on February 6, 2014, with a new multi-year license agreement under which Apple has access to a wider range of Imagination's intellectual property in exchange for license fees."

Apple has yet to make an announcement itself, so these are all the details we have for now. It could be that this is evidence of Apple struggling to make its own graphics chips without Imagination's IP, which was the source of the dispute in 2017.

Via: 9to5Mac

In this article: apple, gear, imagination, mobile

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