Dell’s latest version to its in style XPS laptop computer household, the XPS 13 Plus, has arrived. Introduced at CES in January, the XPS 13 Plus shares DNA with the usual mannequin however was constructed from the bottom up with a extra streamlined chassis that includes a haptic touchpad, a capacitive operate row, and an edge-to-edge keyboard.

It’s a daring entry, one critics could view as an oversimplification that trades bodily inputs for capacitive ones. Others could view the XPS 13 Plus as a logical development for the ultra-thin class that modernizes legacy options. We’ll decide the place the XPS 13 Plus falls quickly, because the laptop computer is hitting shops at present at a beginning value of $1,299 for the Home windows 11 version or $1,249 for the Developer Version operating Ubuntu 20.04.

For individuals who missed the unique announcement, the XPS 13 Plus is a 13.4-inch laptop computer with a particularly transportable CNC aluminum chassis measuring 11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches and weighing 2.7 kilos.

Changing the usual touchpad is what Dell calls a “haptic ForcePad,” a touch-sensitive floor just like what you’d discover on a MacBook. As an alternative of really miserable, the touchpad makes use of haptic suggestions to imitate that clicky sensation. The keyboard was additionally reworked in order that its flat keys span from one edge to the opposite.

Maybe extra jarring is the row of touch-capacitive operate buttons, that are small LED-illuminated keys that you simply faucet to regulate issues like brightness, quantity stage, and mic on/off. Dell claims this can make it simpler to swap between operate and media keys—we simply hope it doesn’t undergo the identical destiny as Apple’s Contact Bar.

Different modifications to the chassis embrace a quad-speaker setup with twins behind the keyboard firing upward and one other pair down under. The followers have been additionally enlarged to permit for 28W twelfth Gen Intel P-series processors, intermediate chips between the high-powered H-series chips and low-power U-series ones utilized in earlier XPS fashions.

The XPS 13 Plus comes with 4 CPU choices, starting from a 12-core Intel Core i5-1240P CPU (4.7 GHz) to a 14-core Core i7-1280P (4.8 GHz) processor. The chip may be paired with as much as 32Gb of DDR5 RAM and as much as a 2TB PCIe SSD. Graphics are restricted to Iris Xe and connectivity is the most recent and biggest: Wi-Fi 6e and Bluetooth 5.2.

Dell doesn’t often skimp on the standard of its XPS shows, so I’ve excessive expectations for the 13.4-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel (16:10) LED panel, which is alleged to achieve 500 nits and hit 100% sRGB protection. These keen to commerce battery life for picture high quality can go for a 4K, DisplayHDR 400 panel, or an OLED touchscreen.

Talking of battery life, that piece stays a thriller. We all know the XPS 13 Plus has a built-in 55Whr battery and might cost to 80% in lower than an hour, however no runtime estimates have been supplied. We’ll fill in all of the blanks and offer you our personal impressions of the XPS 13 Plus within the coming weeks.