For a notebook, this little, Dell XPS 13 Plus combines great design with incredibly amazing performance. Also excellent are the comfortable keyboard and OLED display. However, the limited battery life and capacitive function row may cause some hesitation.
The Dell XPS 13 Plus is the type of laptop that will draw attention and prompt second looks. Because it simply looks that nice, not because it’s gimmicky or out of the ordinary. It’s undoubtedly among the most striking laptops I’ve ever used. Is it, however, the best laptop money can buy? Even while it dares to seem like a glimpse into the future of laptops, it will be a harder argument for the XPS 13 Plus to make to some consumers.
Right present, the XPS 13 Plus is only listed on Dell’s website with the Core i7-1360P CPU. With 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 13.4-inch FHD+ non-touch IPS display, the starting price comes to $1,399. Spending $2,099 gets you either the 3.5K OLED or UHD+ IPS panel, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD. This makes the 13-inch XPS 13 Plus laptop a very high-end device.
The Core i7-1260P-equipped 2022 model is not presently offered by Dell. However, Best Buy is currently selling it for as little as $1,100 with the same standard specifications of 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. While there is nothing wrong with Dell XPS laptops having the same design for so long, we are happy that the Dell XPS 13 Plus introduces significant modifications.
This rig introduces a completely new appearance, one that we can probably anticipate seeing on XPS goods in the future. This is good because the new XPS looks amazing. With the newest low-power Intel processors and high-resolution IPS and OLED display options, it also impresses on the inside.
Well, I’ll be making the Review Dell XPS 13 Plus as the Performance, Price, and Design, Battery life.
Contents
Performance
The “Plus” in the name of this laptop is meant to denote enhanced performance. Dell is emphasizing the XPS 13 Plus as the more potent choice, employing a 28-watt chip instead of a 15-watt chip, in an effort to capitalize on how Intel has divided up its new line of chips (with unique U- and P-series chips). The Core i7-1280P, the top-tier Intel 12th-gen option with 14 cores (6 Performance cores and 8 Efficiency cores) with a maximum clock of 4.8GHz, was used in the original model. This CPU was combined with 16GB of 5200MHz RAM in my review machine.
Dell chose 13th-generation Intel CPUs for 2023. The Core i7-1360P, which consumes 28 watts of power and has merely 12 cores (4 Performance cores and 8 Efficiency cores) with a maximum frequency of 5.0GHz, is not exactly the most powerful processor in the list. Thread count decreases from 20 to 16. With 14 cores, 20 threads, and a maximum clock speed of 5.2GHz, the Core i7-1370P can be used to configure the new computer. RAM now operates at 6000MHz.
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Price
The starting price of the Dell XPS 13 Plus is a somewhat high $1,299, which is the same as the cost of the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2. A 12th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD are included in the base configuration. A 1080p non-touch display is also included. Our test model, which costs $1,949 and is comparable in price to the $1,999 MacBook Pro 14-inch, has a Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM. Also included is an OLED touch screen, a $300 increase in and of itself.
The price of the Dell XPS 13 Plus with the i5-1240P processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 1920 x 1200 display starts at $1,149 in the United States and £1,298 in the United Kingdom. However, if you’re being serious, you’ll want 16 GB of RAM; this increase will cost you $1,399 or £1,338.
The powerful Core i7-1280P type costs at least $1,649 or £1,737, while versions with 16 GB of DDR5 memory start at £1,549 and £1,511. If you want to go from a 512 GB to a 1 TB SSD, add $100 or £100 to these costs. Also, keep in mind that screen upgrades are additional.
That price is reasonable even with upgrades. Although Apple’s MacBook Pro 13 and Pro 14 laptops are nearly always more expensive, you do receive a much greater battery life and a better standard screen for that money. Although it lacks a Retina XDR display and costs an additional $200 or £200 to upgrade to 16 GB of memory, the Apple MacBook Air is equivalent in price to the Dell. The Dell XPS 13 Plus laptop, which offers more power but is housed in a larger chassis, costs about the same as the Alienware x14. The HP Envy x360 13 is also slower even if it is more affordable than the XPS.
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Design
You can tell someone at Dell had a vision for the XPS 13 Plus just by looking at it. That has always been the case with the XPS line, but it is clear why Dell gave this design a new name. It deserves one, after all. The palm rests made of carbon-fiber weave, which came to represent the XPS brand, are gone, replaced with an all-aluminum design that is more streamlined and traditional. This time, there are two color choices: the lighter Platinum option and the darker “Granite” hue, all of which have a distinctive tint. Outside of the Dell insignia on the back, there isn’t much that, at least externally, recalls previous XPS laptops.
The device is slightly thicker than both the new XPS 13 (0.55 inches, which has not yet been released) and the XPS 13 from a year ago (0.58 inches). Of course, the M2 MacBook Air is significantly slimmer, at just 0.44 inches. The Dell XPS 13 Plus weighs 2.71 pounds, making it a little bit heavier than other XPS models. Even so, holding the XPS 13 Plus feels very portable. The XPS 13 Plus definitely has the impression of being a little, portable computer. You may thank the simplification of all the visual components for this.
The most significant redesigns were made to the touchpad and keyboard. I’ll talk more about their abilities later, but just the way they look is impressive. With the use of a haptic engine, Dell was able to completely conceal the touchpad. The edges and palm rests merge perfectly, giving off a wonderfully minimalist vibe. The entire thing is made of a single Gorilla Glass 3 panel and feels amazing in your hands.
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Battery life
As we discovered when conducting laptop assessments in 2022, 12th-generation Intel CPUs aren’t exactly battery kings. Most people observe a decline from earlier generations, which is unfortunate. The 55-watt-hour battery in the XPS 13 Plus fits this trend. Intel’s 13th-gen CPUs haven’t appeared to significantly advance thus far in 2023, and the most recent XPS 13 Plus actually saw a decrease in battery life.
When running Google Chrome online browsing macros that cycle across websites, the laptop only lasted 5.25 hours on a single charge as opposed to the 2022 model’s eight hours. The battery ran out after 6.75 hours (9.25 hours on the previous version) when I then put a local 1080p movie trailer on repeat. Even with a 4K OLED touchscreen, these results are below average for a laptop of this type. With its lower-resolution screen, the base model should last a little longer, but I haven’t personally tested it yet.
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That is all for this article, where we’ve stated and discussed the Review of Dell XPS 13 Plus. I hope it was helpful, if so, kindly share it with others. Thanks for reading; see you around!
