X51

manub · 06-18-05, 04:44 AM

Yup folks it's official, the new X50 is to be called the X51, and it's due out in October, that is according to Dell.

I'm fortunate enough to work for a large corperate, so get invited to all the tech tours that Dell do, letting thier customers know what changes are comming, and when. As well as get to get your hands on some of the kit before it's released. This time there was no X51 to hand although i did see a number of new desktops and other pretty neat kit (including a new untra portable projector thats the 'mutts nuts' as we'd say here in the UK)
Other details are sketchy at present as even the product managers didn't know exactly what spec's etc it was except the obvious inclusion of WM2005

Anyone else got more info?

Jukov · 06-18-05, 04:59 AM

:headscrat

06-18-05, 05:06 AM

if this is true what inprovements could it have over the x50v all i can think of is inpproved battery life and more ram.

psionandy · 06-18-05, 05:08 AM

There have been rumours floating about since the X50 was launched about the new one. Until someone can produce some hard facts then I'll be sceptical

symphony · 06-18-05, 05:11 AM

Maybe a 4Gig MD built in?

Jukov · 06-18-05, 05:13 AM

Well I mean , of course there will be a new Axim... I, personaly, do not really care if it's called x51, x501, x5000000000000001 or "papa don't preach" as long as we see improvements and innovation...

manub · 06-18-05, 05:23 AM

Originally Posted by psionandy

There have been rumours floating about since the X50 was launched about the new one. Until someone can produce some hard facts then I'll be sceptical

This is not a rumour, as i said it was a Dell tech tour, so Dell employee's, managers of the different product lines and services, including partners like EMC, Microsoft, Legato, VMWare etc etc.
I've not only seen the presentation slides (incidently it looks almost identical to the X50), but seen the product life cycle (all other Axim's are going end of life before the release or at the same time, with a small transition period). And spoke to the product managers.
The only way i could get more concrete information would be to go to Dell design HQ and speak to the design team!!

psionandy · 06-18-05, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Rumor :A piece of unverified information of uncertain origin usually spread by word of mouth.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=rumor

I'd say it is a rumor (well really more of a rumour). Just because it's a rumour doesn't meen it can't be true. But unless I can get you to testify under oath.. or someone can provide something official from Dell- it does remain in rumour status.

Jukov · 06-18-05, 05:30 AM

Originally Posted by manub

(all other Axim's are going end of life before the release or at the same time, with a small transition period).

Pardon!?
Are they going to commit a group suicide?

:uglyhamme

:headscrat :icon_lame

06-18-05, 05:42 AM

Originally Posted by symphony

Maybe a 4Gig MD built in?

THAT WOULD PE PRETY COOL :approve:

manub · 06-18-05, 05:42 AM

They are looking to consolodate thier product line because they don't think there is any price/performance advantage with any other line. The X5 is the first to go (as you probably already know).
They are also offering more in the way of WWAN access (GPRS being the first implementation, with a progression onto other technologies as they are seen to be widely available), as well as the updated 802.11i stack comming in at some point - basically the X50 is to evolve not be replaced.

There is also a move to reduce the size of thier laptops, with the Latitude X1 being dropped and the new *20 range (420, 520, 620, 820) being smaller and lighter, the 420 taking over the place as he smallest in the range (should be as small and light as the existing X1, but with better processors, memory and video performance)
The desktops are also getting a makeover. The range now has a similar style accross the range and will offer smaller chasis', with better and quieter cooling.
There is a longer term goal of moving to 2.5" drives (2.5" drives are getting SATA interfaces and higher spindle speeds) to reduce size further and cooling/power needs.

As well as introduce the Intel muti core processors in both laptops and desktops, mmm multi processors laptop :p

There were plently of other things but i won't bore you ;)

Manub

Mart · 06-18-05, 06:02 AM

Please do bore us!!

manub · 06-18-05, 06:10 AM

No, really, i did mean bore. Most of the other things i made a point of learning more about concerned NAS, DAS, SAN, iSCSI and printing etc etc.

Unless you're likely to use such things (and thats not meant to be an insult, but who here has 4TB+ raid devices, or large high capacity printing solutions at home?) Then i doubt it would be of interest :p

Of course if you really do want to know then let me know :p

b2thrill · 06-18-05, 06:17 AM

So aside from WM2005 and possibly a hard drive, there's essentially no difference between the X50v and X51?

manub · 06-18-05, 06:36 AM

There was no indication of a hard drive. The only confirmed difference is the inclusion of WM2005. There is likely to be an update to 802.11g and USB support but it's not confirmed.

I personnaly have no problems still buying the X50 for staff as there doesn't appear to be any great moves as far as new technologies. More of a subtle evolution.

The short of it all is that long term there are a lot of new technologies that are going to make things a whole lot more interesting as the product evolves but for the time being, certainly for the next release (X51), don't worry about it ;)