In a recent development, Dell has announced the expansion of its XPS laptop portfolio with the introduction of XPS 14 and XPS 15 laptops joining the family.

The successors of much acclaimed XPS 13 Ultrabook, the XPS 14 and 15 have been flaunted by the company to offer a better performance, good battery life, built-in security and thin enclosures as compared to the former.

Commenting on the development, Sam Burd, vice president, Dell Personal Computing Product Group was quoted in the company press release saying, "Following the success of our XPS 13, our customers wanted to see more of the XPS brand. The XPS 14 and 15 laptops offer powerful performance, thoughtful design, and a superb user experience, along with enterprise-friendly features so you can use them for work and for play."

If you are making up your mind for a laptop upgrade and want to weigh the specs and features between these two new laptops, here is a brief detailing on the duo offerings by Dell. Take a look.

Dell XPS 14

The Dell XPS 14 has been restyled to take on Intel's ultrabook specifications, and would come in two different configurations. Apart from everything else being similar, the main difference between the two models will be connectivity: the higher-end XPS 14 would come with integrated mobile broadband and would use Dell's NetReady "pay as you go" service to get online when Wi-Fi is out of range. Further key specs of both the models are detailed below:

Display: The XPS 14 ultrabook features a bright, 14-inch screen display of 1,600 x 900 pixels of resolution, accompanied by edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass. Further, the new ultrabook would boast an anodized machined aluminum backing and a magnesium alloy palm rest coated with a soft touch material usually found on phones.

Operating system: The new ultrabook will run on Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit).

Dimensions: Dell XPS 14 will come in the dimensions of 20.7 x 335.8 x 233 mm and would weigh around 4.6lbs (2.1kg).

Processor: Dell XPS 14 has been powered by the third generation Intel Core i5-3317U processor (3M cache, up to 2.6 GHz - TPM) accompanied with 4GB RAM. However the configuration can be bumped up to Core i7-3517U Ivy Bridge processor and also 8GB of RAM.

Storage: Storage options would include the 512GB SSD, 500GB hard drive, or the hard drive with a 32GB SSD with Intel Rapid Start Technology.

Graphics: There are two options of graphics - integrated Intel graphics or an Nvidia GeForce GT 630M graphics card.

Battery: The XPS 14 has a 69WHr battery; 8-Cell Li-Polymer built-in and non replacable battery. Dell has claimed the new ultrabook will deliver a whopping battery life of over 11 hours for the beefier Core i7 and Nvidia graphics configuration.

Connectivity: Ports for the laptop includes two USB 3.0, HDMI, DisplayPort, Ethernet, and an SD card slot.

Further, the Dell XPS 14 premium configuration is equipped with integrated mobile broadband, and has a stylish black leather back, which improves connectivity since it won't interfere with the built-in WWAN antennas.  

Dell XPS 15

Display: The Dell XPS 15 keeps the traditional notebook form factor, but it's still slim at the same time. The lid is milled from a single block of aluminum, with edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass, sporting a 15.6-inch screen display with 1,920 x 1,080 pixel of resolution.

Dimensions: It will measure under the dimensions of 24.68mm x 384.85mm x 260.37mm and will have a weight around 5.54lbs (2.51 kg).

Processor:  It will come powered by either a third-generation Intel Core i5-3210M processor or quad-core i7-3612QM, accompanied with 16GB of RAM and discrete Nvidia graphics processing-either the GeForce GT 630M with 1GB of dedicated memory, or the Nvidia GeForce GT 640M with 2GB of memory.

Storage: Like the Dell XPS 14 ultrabook, the XPS 15 pairs a mechanical hard drive (500GB, 750GB, or 1TB available) with a flash memory cache (32GB to 128GB SSD) for near instant boot and wake times and Intel's Smart Response caching.

Camera: Similar to XPS 14, this model will also house a webcam of 1.3MP HD with dual array digital microphones

Battery: Dell XPS 15 will come loaded with a 8-Cell Lithium Ion primary battery supporting up to 7 hours, 46 minutes of battery life.

Connectivity: An optional, slot-loading Blu-ray disc drive adds HD movie watching, while the XPS 15 comes standard with 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and WiDi 2.0 for wirelessly streaming HD content to your HDTV.

The Dell XPS 14 ultrabook and Dell XPS 15 notebook have several enterprise-focused features available, such as Trusted Platform Module (TPM) for integrated security, and services such as Dell ProSupport for remote and on-site technical support, and pre-shipping configuration services.

Price and Availability

The XPS 14 and XPS 15 are both available to order now. The XPS 14 starts at a price of $1,099, and the XPS 15 starts at $1,299.