We've got some news that'll make a PC gamer or two weep: the Wall St. Journal is reporting that as of next month Dell will be dropping four models of XPS performance PCs to focus solely on pushing Alienware. Certainly no surprise though, we've been waiting for this move since they
picked the company up back in 2006. Of course, there will be certain challenges, namely how Dell will keep its Alienware brand separate (read: pristine) -- as its done since the acquisition -- yet be able to offer performance PCs on its site alongside the rest of its machines. It's also unclear what will happen to is XPS line of laptops, since those are big sellers as well, but we'll all have to wait patiently for the bomb to drop before knowing for sure what Dell's cutting and what they're not. [Warning: subscription required]
Update: Not true
says Dell -- XPS systems and gaming rigs will live on.
posted May 12th 2008 10:02PM
Why drop the laptop line - those look so much classier than the plastic-y alienware junk. Sorry - not all of us want a laptop that looks like a glossy alien s***. Besides - the XPS laptops were some of the few dell's with any style at all... Not to mention they were pretty thin compared to the huge alienwares...
agree alienware's are ugly and the smug little alien head is lame i would rather see them drop alienware and focus on xps...
my poor m1710 isn't going to have another xps 17incher to replace it in a couple years *tear*
When I order an Alienware, I'm going to pry that alien head off. It looks so annoying.
I Agree, not only gamers wanna look cool will purchase high performance computer Alienware. Computer programmers, graphic designer will carry those as well.
It would look suck seeing a glowing green alien head in the office. It just doesn't make the employee look professional.
Plus, not all people like Alien anyway, it creeps me out.
I believe it should work out this way:
Alienware: Performance Desktops.
DELL: Performance Laptops and the usual DELL fare.
The difference between a XPS laptop and an alienware one is that the XPS has style and look far more professional then a stupid looking alien logo
May I be the first to say "I like how the AlienWare laptops look" (except for some of the newest ones)
Classy? No, but I don't like classy things.. I prefer sporty/informal
Tired? Yes, it's definitely a tired design... But for those of us who have never had one it still works :-P
-As for AW's quality vs. XPS quality I can't speak because I've never used one of either, will take your word for it..
I have nothing against Alienware's look (god awful freaking hideous pile of plastic crap so what), I do however take issue with their extreme lack of durability, crappy build quality, poor design/usability, and unfrakking believable pricing.
Alienware's weigh a ton, are bloody huge, and cost astronomical amounts. I forgot to tack these on to my other complains: bad durability, poor usability. I suggest trying to customize yourself a decent gaming laptop here, just so you can laugh at the insane price:
http://www.alienware.com/Configurator_Pages/area-51_m15x_ai1.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M15X-AI1&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
$1500 base
$300 display upgrade
$500 for a video card upgrade ( !!!!!! )
$250 for a real CPU
$150 to meet Assassin's Creeds minimum RAM requirements
$300 blu-ray
I realize gaming laptops arent going to be cheap, but literally $3000 for an OK gaming laptop that weighs half as much and looks half as good as a cinderblock is really pushing it. The XPS laptops were cheaper, lighter, smaller, better usability, more durable, equally performant, looked better, and had far better support.
hate me, but i actually love that alien head
i love my xps m1330 too
I've had an XPS 1210 lappy for almost 2 years now. Small, powerful, stylish and reliable. They better not scrap this one, I am perfectly happy buying the 1330 and future upgrades of this laptop indefinitely.
@rektide:
You have obviously never owned an Alienware. I on the other hand have two of them, both laptops. I believe the build quality is amazing...well, I won't even go into the rest of your comments but say, I disagree.
XPS, I hardly knew ye, oh well Dell blows and forget their shitty Indian customer service "How is english" "Um, I'm sorry was that supposed to be english,because I didn't understand anything you said."
To be fair, a lot of companies outsource their tech departments to Indian now a days.
Dell's XPS and business system support is North American based. Only the consumer lines of business are based overseas.
Maybe you should start calling the XPS support number. XPS has a seperate number for only english speaking reps. Usually if you call support for another brand they tell you, "you've reached x, i'll transfer you to the premium xps support line."
low ranked for expressing distaste in outsourcing? you're all monsters, and please read, I said Dell, not their XPS lines, because I was referring only to their consumer lines, which I had a few unfortunate experiences with long ago.
outsourcing ftw! to you fools anyways
theres more people in India that speak English than English speaking Canadians.... it would make more sense as a business to have tech support in India .... but who cares about other countries right?
You don't understand what "How is English" means yet at the same time complain about outsourcing? Now _that_ is irony.
I am used to this protectionist Bullcrap from where I grew up, Europe. But in America, it's a new and rather disturbing phenomenon. What ever happened to free markets?
Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've never had any trouble when I've called dell customer support. Sure they had accents, but they were still easy to understand and they were all pretty helpful. Just treat them with respect and they usually come through.
Perhaps this is why the new Inspiron laptops are re-styled to look more upscale like the XPS laptops... they'll be replacing the XPS laptops!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/08/dell-inspiron-1435-1535-and-1735-leaked/
You got a point.But still,it's not a Real xps laptop.
But maybe this will mean clearance sales for us.That would be good.
I dont think they make those with top of the line Geforce mobiles.
It really was overkill to have Alienware and XPS.
Dell's core business comes from producing business/ educational use laptops and desktops. For them to have a special marquee for high performance gaming while simultaneously owning a company that caters to high performance gaming is just redundant.
I'm glad, on a side note, to see HP focusing on capturing the High Performance gaming market from Dell/Alienware. HP machines are designed better so I have no doubt they will succeed.
The XPS machines were probably the best Dell will ever build. I personally don't like the Alienware case designs but, if you are selling me a $3000, liquid cooled, gaming rig which CAN play Crysis in VERY HIGH without shuddering, I'll take the best case design you can come up with.
A lot of university researchers use Dell XPS desktops. I work at a university as a computing consultant and I probably put together a quote for 3/4 XPS desktops a semester. As of this point, my university doesn't have a buying contract with Alienware and I wouldn't recommend it anyway. The pricetag of a Dell XPS is a lot more affordable than Alienware systems.
I would've killed off the piece of crap alienware systems before I went near XPS. All the XPS machines are INCREDIBLY well done, and come at only a marginal cost added. The Alienware machines are almost universally a bit on the junky plastic side, breakage prone (just search for alienware), badly designed, heavy, and astronomically priced. If anything got axes it should definitely have been Alienwares.
I too fail to see how this will work, unless the machines will be branded as Dells, which is not what I'm reading in the article. They mention that HP subsumed Voodoo, but Dell decided to go a different route, leaving Alienware intact.
I own an XPS720 and it is solidly built with all the bells and whistles. I would not buy an Alienware machine, unless they proved to me beyond a doubt that the build quality is identical and the support is of the same caliber.
The only alternative I see is to switch to the Precision line of desktops and laptops. I didn't like the XPS laptop (fugly) and I switched to a Precision 6300 for my laptop needs. It's held up so far, but I do concede it looks more like a research laptop running games, rather than a gaming laptop used for research.
@Flashpoint
I think you've hit the mark quite well on this one. Dell doesn't need XPS and Alienware. But personally I do not like the Alienware cases. I find them to be gaudy in appearance. Regardless, performance is where it's at and however they serve it up it's important. I'm not a gamer so I don't need it, but there is most certainly a need in the market for high performance for those who do use it.
I think they should go for a more simple yet elegant design and (God I hate to say this...) they could take a few tips from Apple. I'm not saying they should try to mimic Apple design, but there is a lot to be said for an understatedly elegant design. It would be an opportunity to "one up" Apple on the appearance.
First!
if by first, you mean first at failing, then yes
If you are going to be the idiot who does "First!", at least don't suck at your job.
please jump off a bridge, now!
You were first but we pushed you down. The senior members of this forum have the power to do things like that. Check the next article you try being first on.
If you can be first on the next three articles, I promise to send you a 3G iPhone with Steve Jobs fingerprints on it.
That is the lowest first ive seen in a while... it takes some skill to be this bad at commenting
If Dell is dropping XPS, I damn well expect the prices of Alienware PCs to drop dramatically. You can buy a similarly equipped XPS hundreds of dollars cheaper than an Alienware of the same class.
My thoughts exactly. The XPS brand has come to mean premium (yes, premium - at least relative to the rest of the Dell lineup) quality for the cheap gamer. The prices on the 420 and 630 and unbeatable after discounts.
I've always been a fan of XPS, and I'm really sad to see it die :(
I really liked the XPS M1210 notebook myself. Very compact and so full of power.
Overall, that was probably the best notebook I've ever owned. I wish I never sold that computer.
I really miss my m1210 too. The m1330 is nice and all, but vista and horrible heat management be damned!
so, will they launch Alienware in Brazil? (even with the absurd price tag, since higher-priced PCs don't have some tax reductions or exemptions that sub-3000BRL-or-so PCs have)
Finally. The PC as a game device is dead anyways - so why not dropping the whole XPS series? Dell should focus on energy effiecient PCs, Laptops, Nettops and Servers. That's not the future - that's where the present focus is on, whether you look at company or private interests.
What planet are you from? PC gaming is as strong as it ever has been.
WTF?
Crysis sold over 1 million copies. Thats over 1 million people that at least spent 1500 dollars on their PC to play games on (considering what the game needs to be enjoyable). Thats over 1 million possible custom builders. Were not even counting the pirates.
I think PC gaming is doing just fine. 1 million at 50 bucks is still 50 million dollars. Sure, that isnt GTA numbers, but its still decent, considering the added money spent by people just to get that game running on their PC.
Why would companies like Nvidia even bother if they werent making amazing profits?
Console gamers can enjoy their 720P games, and ill enjoy vertical resolution equal to their horizontal.
Damn straight Ruben!!!
Wow.
1 million Crysis sold. That's impressive.
How many Call of Duty 4s have been sold for the 360 & PS3? And how many for the PC?
And didn't Cevat Yerli (Crytek CEO, maker of Crysis) recently stated, that due to pirating-issues the Crysis successor won't be PC-only? And that piracy will eventualy destroy the whole PC-Gaming sector?
Yeah, you're right, he didn't.
http://www.pcplay.hr/modules.php?r=23
"We are suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis. We seem to lead the charts in piracy by a large margin, a chart leading that is not desirable. I believe that’s the core problem of PC Gaming, piracy. To the degree PC Gamers that pirate games inherently destroy the platform. Similar games on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more. It was a big lesson for us and I believe we wont have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future. We are going to support PC, but not exclusive anymore."
EA also said that they were impressed with the 1 million mark....
soo............. EA was happy with the numbers. Crytek wasnt.... sounds like Crytek just wants more money and less work so theyre going the console route. Fine by me, but i warn you that Crysis will look much better than their next release and theyre going backwards .
Anycrap, i still dont see why Dell hasnt changed the Alienware cases... things are awful
My "Impressive" statement was blank irony. 1m units for a AAA titel like Crysis ist crap. Total crap.
And if they're going backwards graphic-wise - why not? Optimise it for one or a max. of two hardware sets, and A LOT OF PEOPLE will buy it. It's simple math.
Why do you think GTA IV is first published on consoles? Exactly, 'cause it costed 100m bucks to get developed. And TakeTwo, as every publisher who spends horrendous amounts of money, wants to get their investments back and even earn some money.
I'll promise you - if the whole industry doesn't get rid of the piracy issue - bye bye Gaming-PCs. NVIDIA & ATI still earn enough with their console departments.
NOOO!!!!
I thought the XPS 1530 looked so awesome, and if I were to get a new laptop, that would definately be the one I would get, but now they're replacing it with the overpriced, clunky, un-stylish alienware laptops that you look like a total nerd if you have. Seriously, for a 14-year-old, if your friends see you have an alienware laptop, it looks much more nerdy than a stylish Dell XPS.
useragent
Googlebot/2.1
is fail.
Man, those read links don't care if you're google or not anymore, do they ;)
Good riddance to search result litter.
Well if they want their sales to plummit fine. I would only get rid of the desktop line just because they sell less now of days but I would like to keep the midrange stuff since I think the 720 chassis is a nice design. The 420 is simply ugly and the 210 already looks like an Inspiron 510s