Dell announced that the bold XPS 13 Plus debuted at CES 2022 is now available for purchase. It starts at $1,299 and while Dell didn’t detail the exact specs for this configuration, you’ll likely get the lower specs listed on a spec sheet shared by the company. These include a 13.4-inch 1920 x 1200 16:10 aspect ratio display with 500 nits peak brightness, 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1240P Processor (28W, 12 cores, 4x boost clock) .4GHz), 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM clocked at 5200MHz, and a 256GB SSD.
Each model includes 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 built into the power button.
As we pointed out at CES, this new version of the XPS 13 has a more futuristic design than Dell’s standard model. The most notable differences include the row of backlit function keys similar to the Touch Bar Plus, as well as the keyboard, which sits flush with the chassis. Finally, there’s the new touchpad that’s invisible to the eye but takes up a similar (if not slightly larger) amount of space in the middle of the glass-covered wrist rest. And instead of physically clicking, the touchpad hardware emulates clicking with haptic feedback, like recent Apple laptops.
While Dell didn’t share pricing information for other configurations, you’ll be able to upgrade the XPS 13 Plus at purchase with a 1080p touchscreen (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 step up to a 12th Gen 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. Oh, and the last thing: There will be an XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition that will ship with Ubuntu 20.04 and cost $1,249.99.
We look forward to testing the XPS 13 Plus soon. As my colleague Monica Chin wrote at its practice in January, we’re cautiously optimistic that all these cosmetic changes won’t stop it from being a good machine. But stay tuned for the full review to find out.