Dell has introduced the Precision M6500, a new Core i7-packing mobile workstation. Prices start at $2,749 and include a 17" WXGA+ display, a 1.6GHz Core i7 720QM processor, 2GB of DDR3 1066MHz RAM, a 1GB ATI FirePro M7740 graphics chip, a 160GB 5400RPM HDD, an 8x DVD burner, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, a nine-cell battery, and Windows 7 Professional.
Configurations scale up to a 17" WUXGA LED display, a 2GHz Core i7 920XM Extreme Edition, 16GB of DDR3 1333MHz, a 1GB Nvidia Quadro FX 3800M, dual hard drives for up to 1TB of storage (various RAID options are available), a Blu-ray drive, 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi, and Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. This setup won't come cheap, of course. Prices rise above $9,000 with some high-end configurations.
The Precision M6500 isn't especially light at about 8.5lbs, and features your usual connectivity, such as Bluetooth 2.1, USB 2.0, Firewire, VGA, DisplayPort, Ethernet, and eSATA. The system comes with a three-year "basic limited warranty" and next business day on-site service. Other, more expensive options include four-year end user support. Orders placed today have a preliminary ship date of December 22.