Dell ’s XPS 13has been the most important Windows laptop computer of the yesteryear decade , answer as the flag bearer in the battle against Mac . It has topped innumerous “ best laptop ” pages and is a aboveboard good word to anyone explore for a premium Windows PC . Its title to celebrity was debuting radical - slender display bezel — a feature now dramatise by gadgets across the consumer tech industry . Since then , Dell ’s tactics has been to tinker and refine , making pocket-sized but meaningful modification to its flagship grapple laptop .
This year , Dell is taking self-aggrandising endangerment by premise a newfangled XPS 13 Plus .
To be clear , the XPS 13 Plus will sit alongside the XPS 13 , not replace it . It is , though , much more than the same laptop with a buzzword lopped on the end . The XPS 13 Plus has , in Dell ’s words , been built from the flat coat up . That might not be apparent at first glimpse because the new model has the same general pattern as the premature one , but closer review reveals several differences .
Photo: Sam Rutherford/Gizmodo
Most of those are establish on the inside , where Dell thought of way to reimagine the traditional laptop by simplifying and streamlining . One method acting was to replace the discrete touchpad with a glass sheet that spans the intact distance of the deck . The new uninterrupted touchpad use haptics to supervene upon a click with a vibration , a method acting conversant to anyone who has own a late MacBook .
Above the touchpad is what Dell calls a “ zero lattice ” keyboard , or in less jargony term , one with no wasted place . Taking a page from the bezel - free projection screen , the keyboard spans from one boundary of the deck to the other , with much no opening between the sharply - angled keys , which extend a paltry 1 - millimetre of travel .
This keyboard is intentionally escape a key element : the office words . replace the Fn keys are rival capacitive unity loaded with the deck , a change Dell suppose will make it well-heeled to trade between subprogram and media keys .
Photo: Sam Rutherford/Gizmodo
Other update to the chassis are less visible but equally significant . Those admit improved speakers by direction of a quad setup with two beneath the keyboard firing up and a pair of drivers down below . By enlarging the XPS 13 Plus ’s dual fans , Dell gave it the cooling postulate to scarper on 28W processor , up from the 12W TDP chips in the previous example .
This bring us to the constituent . The XPS 13 Plus will run on twelfth Gen Intel P - serial central processor , an average chip between the high up - powered H - serial chips and low - power U - series ones used in former XPS models . The result should be a square performance rise , though how much of one remain a mystery . Intel focalize on its 12th Gen H - series micro chip at CES 2022 and only briefly advert the P series . We await to hear more about this novel CPU in the come months , let in how it stack up to AMD and Apple chip .
For now , all I can say is that the XPS 13 Plus will fall with four CPU selection ranging from a 12 - core group Intel Core i5 - 1240P CPU ( 4.7 GHz ) to a 14 - magnetic core Core i7 - 1280P ( 4.8 GHz ) processor . These can be paired with up to 32 GB of DDR5 RAM and up to a 2 TB PCIe SSD . art are unsurprisingly limited to integrated Iris Xe . One perquisite of the raw CPUs is financial support forWi - Fi 6Eand the XPS tacks on Bluetooth 5.2 for good measure .
Photo: Sam Rutherford/Gizmodo
upright of all , you get the additional power without sacrificing portability ; the CNC atomic number 13 and chalk laptop computer beat 11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches and weighs 2.7 British pound sterling , or about the same as the stock mannikin . And there stay a bounty of display options to choose from , begin with a 13.4 - inch , 1920 x 1200 - pixel panel ( 16:10 aspect ratio ) at 500 nits and 100 % sRGB reportage up to a 4 K , DisplayHDR 400 panel or an OLED touchscreen showing .
Dell did n’t provide battery life estimates , but we ’re eager to see whether the more mightiness - hungry central processing unit affects runtimes . The non - replaceable 55WHr battery will necessitate to last for at least 10 hours of normal consumption for the XPS 13 Plus to steal its sib ’ office as the good alternative to theMacBook Air , especially since Apple ’s recent systems are getting close to the 15 - hour Deutschmark .
There is a pot to take out here , and I ’ll reserve my judgments for my full review , but I applaud Dell for taking chances . There is no denying that these changes have the voltage for being dissentious , and the company seems to welcome the chaos ( even openly claiming the XPS 13 Plus was “ inspired by Gen - Z , ” whatever that means ) .
Photo: Sam Rutherford/Gizmodo
I do worry the shift from tactile inputs to capacitive ace could be offputting to some , and that removing some of the XPS ’s signature materials might damage the brand . But at least Dell is doing more than re - releasing the same laptop with new specs . Instead , it take prison term to recollect about how to move the traditional grapple laptop forward . All that ’s allow is to find out whether the XPS 13 Plus is indeed lead in that management . We ’ll do it soon enough ; the XPS 13 Plus running Windows 11 or Ubuntu will embark this spring at a starting price of $ 1,199 .
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Photo: Sam Rutherford/Gizmodo
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