Dell PowerEdge XR9700: one of the most impressive things I saw at MWC 2026

While most eyes at MWC 2026 were inevitably on the latest phones and roaming humanoid robots, the Dell PowerEdge XR9700 was arguably the most transformative piece of technology on show. Dell announced it a week prior to the show, declaring it the “industry’s first outdoor x86 server for cloud RAN and edge applications”.

This understates the XR9700’s abilities. This is an incredibly powerful, liquid-cooled server based on Intel’s Xeon 6 silicon that’s designed to live in ferocious environments. It’s IP66 rated against rain and dust, and everything is packed inside a compact 15-litre aluminium chassis. That means you can shove it on utility poles, on the side of buildings and anywhere else where space is tight.

It also means a single technician could install it in extreme locations: it weighs 40lb (around 18kg), so could even be carried in a large, well reinforced rucksack.

Where might you find the Dell PowerEdge XR9700? It meets the GR-3108 Class 4 requirements, so -40°C (-40°F) to 46°C (115°F). That opens it up to pretty much anywhere, so the real question is where will its particular talents be useful for mobile operators to deploy.

What can the Dell PowerEdge XR9700 do?

Its key skill is offering compute at the edge of operators’ networks. So rather than relying on the compute power offered by a central data centre, with the latency that creates, the operator can execute tasks directly on the server.

This is made possible thanks to the Xeon 6 “Granite Rapids-D” silicon, with up to 72 cores on tap. It also features Intel’s vRAN Boost technology, with support for up to 15 5G sectors. That’s roughly equivalent to five traditional cell towers.

Along with running the Cloud RAN in software, the dense compute power inside can run AI and other applications locally. That opens up new revenue opportunities for the cloud operators.

“[Dell’s] new server solution will significantly enhance the efficiency and performance of our high-performance Cloud RAN and AI capabilities,” said Sudhakar Pandney, Head of RAN at Rakuten Mobile, “particularly in challenging outdoor environments, ensuring superior 5G services and advanced edge applications for our nationwide network.”

Here are three potential uses:

• AI visual inspection: Let’s say a factory camera sends 4K video to a Dell PowerEdge XR9700. The server uses AI to identify a defect in milliseconds, stopping the assembly line long before a human inspector may have noticed.
• Autonomous robots: Humanoid robots or self-driving forklifts in a warehouse could use the Dell PowerEdge XR9700 for navigation, avoiding the lag that could cause a crash.
• Augmented reality (AR): Processing complex 3D overlays for glasses so the user doesn’t feel “motion sick” from delay.

The key here is that third-party operators such as Rakuten could sell those services to local suppliers, with the added knowledge that data processing happens locally.

Dell PowerEdge XR9700: price and availability

How much will the Dell PowerEdge XR9700 cost? So far Dell has kept quiet, and we shan’t speculate – merely note that the weatherproofing, liquid cooling and portability are all likely to add to its price versus a comparable rackmount PowerEdge server.

We will know for sure when it’s released in the second half of this year.

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