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Dell’s new XPS 15 will put the webcam above the screen where it belongs

Dell’s new XPS 15 will put the webcam above the screen where it belongs

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Dell is also announcing new laptops in its G-Series and Alienware lines

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Dell’s XPS line has some of the best, most well-rounded Windows laptops you can buy, and the 15-inch variant is about to get even more versatile. Alongside announcements of new models in its gaming-oriented G-Series line and from its Alienware subsidiary, Dell is also revealing that a new XPS 15 is on the way, and it will come with improved graphics that let it double as an entry-level gaming laptop.

Even better: the new XPS 15 will also finally get the proper webcam design fix that we saw pop up on the refreshed XPS 13 from earlier this year, Dell XPS (and Alienware) boss Frank Azor tells The Verge. That means the webcam is no longer positioned beneath the Dell logo at the bottom of the screen — where it captures an upward shot of your nose and mouth and can be blocked by your hands typing on the keyboard — and is back at the top of the screen where it belongs.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Unfortunately, we don’t yet have a photo of the new design to show you what it looks like, but Azor says the chassis should otherwise be much the same as before — including the excellent array of full-size ports and optional beefy 97Wh battery — and should cost roughly the same as today’s XPS 15, which starts at $1,000. He says it will come with a 9th Gen eight-core Core i9 CPU and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU to start, with an OLED screen option as well. Dell says the new XPS 15 will be available in June.

Meanwhile, Dell’s newly refreshed G5 and G7 gaming laptops are available to buy today. Those models will take advantage of Intel’s 9th Gen CPUs and Nvidia’s GTX 16-series graphics chips, specifically the newly announced GTX 1650 and the more powerful 1660 Ti alternative. Both of these are the Max-Q Turing-based GPUs optimized for laptop gaming. So they’re not quite up to par with Nvidia’s new RTX line of laptop GPUs announced back at CES and not as powerful as the full-fat mobile parts, but they should still be quite a jump over the GTX 1050 Ti and 1060 models in most mid- to high-end gaming laptops today. Additionally, the same Intel and Nvidia chips are coming to Dell-owned Alienware’s new m15 and m17 laptops.

Dell says all of the above mentioned models will be getting proper (and pricier) RTX upgrades come June. The G7 15 will also be getting a 4K OLED display option starting in May, as first disclosed back at CES. But for now, if you’re looking for a solid gaming laptop, Dell says you’ll be able to get your hands on the latest Intel processors and Nvidia mobile graphics for as little as $1,329.99. Considering Dell says the GTX 1660 Ti is only around 5 percent slower than the GTX 2060, and likely considerably less expensive when packed into a laptop, that’s not a bad option for more budget-conscious PC gaming fans.