Dell’s new XPS 13 Plus is now available from $ 1,299

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Dell's new XPS 13 Plus is now available from $ 1,299

Dell announced that the daring XPS 13 Plus, it debuted back at CES 2022, is now available for purchase. It starts at $ 1,299, and although Dell did not detail the exact specifications for this configuration, it is likely to have the lowest specifications listed in a spec sheet shared by the company. These include a 13.4-inch 1920 x 1200 16:10 display with 500 nits maximum brightness, Intel’s 12th generation Core i5-1240P processor (28W, 12 cores, 4.4GHz boost clock), 8GB LPDDR5 RAM, 2 Gb. MHz and a 256 GB SSD.

Each model includes a 60W USB-C AC adapter and has two Thunderbolt 4 ports (but no headphone jack), a Windows Hello 720p webcam, and a fingerprint reader embedded in the power button.

As we noted back at CES, this new version of the XPS 13 has a more futuristic look than Dell’s standard model. The most notable differences include the Plus’ Touch Bar-like array of backlit function keys, as well as the keyboard, which aligns with the chassis. Finally, there is the new touchpad, which is invisible to the eye but which occupies a similar (if not slightly larger) amount of real estate in the center of the glass-clad palm rest. And instead of physically clicking in, the touchpad hardware emulates the click with haptic feedback, just like Apple’s latest laptops.

Dell XPS 13 Plus

It certainly looks nice, but we’ll have to see in the full review if the new keyboard and touchpad are actually comfortable to use.
Dell

Although Dell did not share pricing information for other configurations, you will be able to upgrade the XPS 13 Plus at the time of purchase with a 1080p touchscreen (it is non-touchless by default) or a 4K touchscreen. The highest viewing option is a 3.5K (3456 x 2160) Gorilla Glass 7-inch OLED touch screen with 100 percent DCI-P3 color scale coverage.

In terms of processing power, Dell can go up to a 12th generation Intel Core i7-1280P with 14 cores as well as up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM and up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage space. Oh, and last thing: there will be a developer version of XPS 13 Plus that comes with Ubuntu 20.04 and it will cost $ 1,249.99.

We look forward to testing the XPS 13 Plus soon. As my colleague Monica Chin wrote in her hands-on back in January, we are cautiously optimistic that all these aesthetic changes will not get in the way of it being a good machine. But stay tuned for the full review to find out.