Dell has turned the “XPS” name into a separate brand for upper-end PCs, notebooks, displays, and televisions. Here’s an article about Dell’s new push into the top of the market.
As of tonight, Dell’s Small Business division doesn’t yet list all the XPS models on its website. The Home Division includes three XPS desktop models, plus the other XPS peripherals.
Shopping will be more complex now that the next version of Windows is creeping into our sights. A year or so from now, Windows Vista will look like a tempting upgrade, but only on systems with the kind of high-end video cards in the Dell XPS models. For the first time in years, small businesses may have reason to buy something more than the most basic system.
As an aside, I’m fairly appalled at the cost-cutting at the bottom of the market. Dell’s inexpensive Dimension models now come with a new, cheap, cruddy keyboard – more suited to eMachines than to Dell. As you look at the low prices on computers, printers, networking equipment, and the rest, remember – sometimes when something is cheap the reason is that it’s badly designed and cheaply made and prone to break.
