Dell’s refresh of the XPS 13 2-in-1 series dips its toes into Intel’s Amber Lake

By Kevin Parrish July 17, 2018

Intel said in June that its eighth-generation “Amber Lake” Y-series processors would arrive later this year. One month later, the Chilean arm of Dell leaked an upcoming 13-inch XPS 2-in-1 device sporting five processor options, two of which are Amber Lake chips: the Core i5-8200Y and the Core i7-8500Y. The other three options are Intel’s older seventh-generation “Y” chips.

The “Y” used in Intel’s processor naming translates to “extremely low power,” meaning they merely sip from the battery. For instance, the older seventh-generation Core i7-7Y75, despite having two physical cores, only requires 4.5 watts of power. Meanwhile, the Core i7-7660U two-core processor draws 15 watts of power, with the “U” describing “ultra-low” power.

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According to previous leaks, the Core i5-8200Y chip will have two physical cores, four threads, and 4MB of L3 cache. Its base speed will be 1.3GHz, while its two-core turbo speed will be 3.2GHz and its one-core turbo speed at 3.9GHz. It will support up to 16GB of system memory and include Intel’s integrated UHD Graphics 615 component with a base speed of 300MHz and a maximum speed of 1,000MHz.

The Core i7-8500Y will be a two-core, four-thread chip as well, but with a base speed of 1.5GHz, a two-core turbo speed of 3.6GHz, and a single-core turbo speed of 4.2GHz. The maximum supported memory and integrated graphics remain the same as the Core i5 chip. Both will have the same 4.5-watt power requirement as well.

As for the upcoming Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 refresh, it will sport up to 16GB of LPDDR3 system memory clocked at 1,866MHz, an SSD with storage up to 1TB, and a 13.3-inch InfinityEdge touchscreen with either a 1,920 x 1,080 or a 3,300 x 1,080 resolution. A pair of two-watt Waves MaxxAudio Pro speakers round out the multimedia aspect.

Port-wise, the listing shows one Thunderbolt 3 port, one USB-C port, one Micro SD card slot, and a headphone jack. Rounding out the feature list is a 720p widescreen webcam with dual digital array microphones, an illuminated chiclet keyboard with 1.5mm of travel distance, a fingerprint reader supported by Windows Hello, Wireless AC, and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity.

As for other Amber Lake-based chips, there will reportedly be a Core m3-8100Y version as well. It will have a base speed of 1.1GHz, a two-core turbo speed of 2.7GHz, and a one-core turbo speed of 3.4GHz. All three Amber Lake chips are slated to arrive in “more than 140 new laptops and 2-in-1s” from Intel partners starting this fall. The chips are also expected to arrive in Apple’s 12-inch MacBook Pro refresh for 2018.

According to Intel, the Amber Lake Y-series will provide “up to double-digit” performance gains compared to the previous seventh-generation parts. The Core i5-8200Y would be an upgrade to the Core i5-7Y54 and i5-7Y57 chips with a 100MHz increase in the base speed and up to a 600MHz increase in the maximum speed. The Core i7-8500Y would be an upgrade from the Core i7-7Y75 with a 200MHz increase in the base speed and up to a 600MHz increase in the maximum speed.

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