Dell debuts new ultra-stylish, touch bar touting XPS laptops in time for CES 2024
Double Plus good
Dell's XPS laptops are fantastic, and potentially the best Windows laptops if you're looking for a MacBook-level notebook in terms of quality, style, performance, and overall experience. They've been a mainstay on our best laptops roundup for years, and have impressed millions of users world-wide with their fantastic displays, typing experience, and reliability.
However, as we step into a new age of AI PCs, Dell are also bringing about a new age of XPS laptops. And boy are they something.
New style, new profile
The All-new Dell XPS lineup draws heavily from the XPS 13 Plus, a stunning ultra-minimalist offering with a seamless, invisible glass, haptic touchpad and a tactile typing experience more than worthy of its lineage.
While a definite shift in form from what we've grown accustomed to with the XPS catalog, not all change is bad, and this new modern deck is replicated across the new 13-inch, 14-inch, and 16-inch XPS models.
Even the XPS 13 Plus' invisible touch bar makes a return, offering a sweet and simple approach to the touch bar-like former offering of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Blending into the XPS' sleek deck until illuminated by a press of the laptop's function key.
The new design might be polarizing to some XPS familiars, but, personally, I'm a sucker for Dell's bold dive into the super-spartan aesthetic. Seeing this replicated across the entirety of Dell's new lineup makes them some of the most dazzling laptops available across each category.
Paired with the XPS' near bezel-less displays that can cap out at 3K OLED panels and speedy 120Hz refresh rates, this is a masterclass of modern design that could make even Apple's design department blush.
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Pulling back for a moment, you did hear me right when I said the new XPS lineup features 13-inch, 14-inch, and 16-inch models. Gone are the more traditional 15.6-inch and 17-inch options, who give up ground to make room for these more popular form factors which reap the benefits of sleeker silhouettes and more room at play for discrete graphics options by way of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 40-Series GPUs or improved battery capacities.
Dell's new XPS laptops also feature Intel's latest Core Ultra processors, meaning the XPS is the latest in a wave of AI PCs heading our way. Perhaps emphasized by the XPS' new keyboard featuring the latest Copilot button for quick access to Microsoft's AI desktop assistant.
As AI PCs, Dell's latest laptops also feature an integrated neural processing unit (or NPU) to deliver dramatically improved performance when it comes to machine learning or AI computing tasks.
It also allows the Core Ultra processor to more effectively make full use of the chipset depending on its current task for increased efficiency — further aiding battery life and overall performance.
Outlook
Dell's new 13-inch, 14-inch, and 16-inch XPS laptops aren't quite heading for store shelves just yet, but expect news to follow in the coming months.
In the meantime, we can at least share how much each model will be available for on release, with Dell's new XPS line-up donning price tags starting at $1,300, $1,700, and $1,900 respectively.
Rael Hornby, potentially influenced by far too many LucasArts titles at an early age, once thought he’d grow up to be a mighty pirate. However, after several interventions with close friends and family members, you’re now much more likely to see his name attached to the bylines of tech articles. While not maintaining a double life as an aspiring writer by day and indie game dev by night, you’ll find him sat in a corner somewhere muttering to himself about microtransactions or hunting down promising indie games on Twitter.