We were invited by Dell France to take charge of the Dell XPS 13 Plus, a new ultraportable unveiled at the start of the year at CES 2022.
The Dell XPS 13 has a special place in the ultraportable market. It is through this flagship that several innovations were born in tech. It is notably the first tech product to have benefited from an edge-to-edge screen, long before smartphones. The manufacturer renews its flagship at a high rate, every 6-8 months, often with significant changes. However, the firm has decided to completely review its copy in 2022 and, to mark the occasion, has slightly changed the name of the device. This is how at CES 2022, the firm unveiled its Dell XPS 13 Plus with a brand new design. We were able to take it in hand.
Fineness and finishes
Well, Dell has still not reinvented the wheel, we are still faced with a classic 13-inch ultraportable in its outline: impossible to transform it into a tablet or fold it, for example. But the firm wanted to focus on the design to its climax and purify everything that could still be in the lines of the product.
We are faced with a 13.4-inch screen in 16:10 format and occupying more or less most of the space. Dell has still not forgotten the 720p camera above the screen which even allows itself to be Windows Hello compatible thanks to an infrared sensor. The identification of the user can also be done by a fingerprint reader on the keyboard.
But let’s go back for a moment to the screen, of which Dell offers several configurations. The least expensive will offer you simple Full HD 1920 x 1200 pixels with a 100% sRGB certified panel. Going upmarket, you will have the choice between a 3.5K OLED panel (3456 x 2160 pixels) 100% DCI-P3 and DisplayHDR500 or a 4K UHD+ LCD panel (3840 x 2400 pixels) 90% DCI-P3 and DisplayHDR 400.
The virtual absence of a border around the screen is in any case stunning when you have it in front of your eyes. We are beginning to wonder how manufacturers will be able to push these limits even further.
The other great novelty in terms of design is in the lower part of the machine. For the first time in a long time, Dell has completely revised its keyboard, which now occupies the full width of the device to maximize typing comfort. Above the keyboard, the function keys have been replaced by a touch bar to further streamline the design.
And below, there is nothing more physically visible, but Dell does integrate a touchpad with haptic feedback. This is a new generation of touchpad that should be found in more and more laptops and which must offer very credible physical feedback, similar to Apple’s Force Touch.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to test the keyboard or the touchpad during this quick start. The prototype in demonstration, the only copy present, had a small problem at this level. These are the vagaries of presentations before the release of a product. We will therefore wait for the test to form an opinion on this integration. In particular, it will be necessary to see if locating the touchpad is easy when there is no longer any physical demarcation below the keyboard.
Source : Frandroid
Source : Frandroid
Emphasis on design requires, Dell is content with the bare minimum for connectivity on a high-end machine: a USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port on each side of the machine, and that’s it. Even the 3.5 mm jack port did not resist the work of simplifying the design of the Dell teams. The brand nevertheless specifies that a USB-C to USB-A adapter will be provided in the box. Wireless, the Dell XPS 13 Plus will go through Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 to ensure the connection.
It remains for us to recall the characteristics of the Dell XPS 13 Plus. Under the hood, we find the latest generation of 12th generation Intel processors : Intel Core i5-1240P, Intel Core i7-1260P, Intel Core i7-1270P or Intel Core i7-1280P, all with a TDP of 28W. The processor will be paired with 8 to 32 GB of DDR5 5200 MHz RAM, an integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics chip and 256 to 2 TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage.
The 55 Wh battery can be charged by the 60W USB-C power adapter offered with the machine.
Release date uncertain
In the various press releases from Dell, we could read here and there a release on March 22, 2022 or more generally in the spring. The brand, like other manufacturers, has to deal with the shortage of components and each product launch is complex. We saw it again recently with the launch of the excellent Alienware QD-Oled AW3423DW out of stock until the end of summer.
Asked about the release of the Dell XPS 13 Plus in France, Dell told us a launch “soon” without further details. After this session of handling by the press, we can still hope for a launch by the summer, in the coming weeks.