Dell revealed that the bold XPS 13 Plus, which debuted back at CES 2022, is now available. It begins at $1,299, and while Dell didn’t describe the exact specifications for this configuration, it’ll likely get the most down specs listed in a spec sheet shared by the company.
These include a 13.4-inch 1920 x 1200 16:10 aspect ratio display having500 nits of highest brightness, Intel’s 12th Gen Core i5-1240P processor having 28W, 12-core, 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM clocked at 5,200MHz, 4.4GHz boost clock, and a 256GB SSD.
Each model possesses a 60W USB-C AC adapter and features two Thunderbolt 4 ports (but no headphone jack), a Windows Hello 720p webcam, and a fingerprint reader embedded in the power button.
This new XPS 13 has a more futuristic-looking layout than Dell’s standard model. The most significant differences have the Plus’ Touch Bar-like row of backlit function keys and the keyboard, which models flush with the chassis.
Finally, the new trackpad is invisible to the eye. Still, it takes up a similar (if not slightly more significant) amount of real estate within the epicenter of the glass-covered wrist rest. And instead of physically bonding in, the trackpad hardware simulates the click with haptic feedback, like Apple’s recent laptops.
It certainly peeks nice, but we’ll have to see whether the new keyboard and trackpad are enjoyable in the entire assessment.
While Dell didn’t share pricing details for other configurations, you’ll be able to boost the XPS 13 Plus at the time of buy with a 1080p touchscreen (it’s non-touch by default) or a 4K touchscreen. The highest-end display option is a 3.5K (3456 x 2160) Gorilla Glass 7-covered OLED touchscreen with 100 percent DCI-P3 color gamut coverage.
In terms of processing power, Dell can move up to a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1280P with 14 cores and up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM and up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage. Oh, and last thing: there will be a Developer Edition of the XPS 13 Plus that will ship with Ubuntu 20.04, and it will cost $1,249.99.
We look forward to experimenting with the XPS 13 Plus soon. Try to remain cautiously optimistic that these aesthetic modifications won’t get in the way of being a fine machine.