Option for Dell XPS 15 (9560) fingerprint reader coming in early February

During CES Dell did a low-key announcement of their powerhouse XPS 15 (9560) refresh. The quad-core powered laptop is getting new 7th generation Intel 'Kaby Lake' CPU options along with the powerful NVidia GTX 1050 graphics card with 4GB of video memory and Killer Wireless.

One of the more interesting features, of which there was some confusion, is the fingerprint reader for Windows Hello. During the announcement, there was some seemingly conflicting information with some data sheets showing it and others not. Combined with no hands-on with the device and no mention of the feature for pre-orders and users are rightly confused if it is coming or not.

We now have some more details about the fingerprint reader for the XPS 15. According to Dell who reached out to us:

Folks should see configurations for XPS 15 on Dell.com get updated to include the fingerprint reader option during the first week of February.

To be clear, that means the fingerprint reader is 100% optional and not part of the base SKU. That means if you pre-ordered it already that option will not be included with your purchase. However, Dell's website should be updated in early February with the ability to add a fingerprint reader to your configuration.

Dell XPS 15 9550 vs XPS 15 9560: What's different and should you upgrade?

To our knowledge, no XPS 15 (9560)'s have shipped yet so if you did pre-order it's best to get on the phone with Dell to change your order until you can add the feature.

I'll be reviewing the XPS 15 – likely both the FHD and 4K versions – as soon as they become available, so stay tuned to Windows Central for that.

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.