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New Dell leaks: XPS Studio 13 and 16

New photos and details of the Dell XPS Studio line.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming

Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times

Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials

Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings

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Dan Ackerman

Aug. 27, 2008 9:21 a.m. PT

To give credit where credit is due, Dell's recent reveal of its new Latitude E-series business laptop line was the first new laptop announcement in a long time to not completely leak a few days or weeks early. (There were some photos and rumors a few months ago, but overall, it was a successful launch.)

The same cannot be said for Dell's consumer side -- every new product is leaked, usually with detailed photos and spec sheets, leaving little actual news for the system's launch day. Case in point -- these new photos and details (purportedly from an internal PowerPoint) of something called the Dell XPS Studio line.

We're familiar with both the XPS and Studio brands, and we're curious to see if this new hybrid is the beginning of the end of one or both as a standalone. These slides, from notebookreview.com, show slot-loading Blu-ray drives, edge-to-edge glass displays, hybrid SLI graphics (that's a GPU and the motherboard's integrated graphics working together), and backlit keyboards. In addition, the 16-inch model is shown with some cool-looking wood accents on the lid.

According to the leaked docs, you can expect the Studio XPS 13 and 16 sometime in November. Check out the purloined PowerPoint slides after the break.