The Dell XPS 13 Plus

if you've been following all of our coverage in gadget you probably have a sense that we really like dell's xps 13. it's been one of our highest rated ultra-portable laptops over the past several years and it has pretty much everything we'd want in a thin light so this year at CES dell's doing something a little different and it's introducing a new model called the Dell xps 13 plus

Dell XPS 13 Plus

so what's so plus about it and I think if you take one look at this thing you'll see that this is not your usual ultra-portable it honestly looks like dell took the idea of the DELL xps 13 and filtered it through almost like a science fiction design angle which is something they've been doing with the Alienware computers for a while this computer still has dell's gorgeous infinity edge screen but what's really interesting is what's happening below that the keyboard has an edge to edge design that's lattice free that basically means there's no spacing in between the keys and it just gives a really cool modern look to this computer it's a little unusual for pc design I think maybe hp some of their computers have almost gotten here but what I really like about it is it just looks very clean this keyboard still gives you know a decent sense of typing it's one millimeter of travel but they'll manage to increase those keycaps so that they're just much bigger and when I try typing on this thing it just felt really good if you look below the keyboard you'll notice something maybe missing there's no discernible trackpad it's actually one long just glass surface the center of it is a haptic track pad and it's just not defined by anything so you kind of have to fish around your fingers there to get it.

Dell XPS 13 Plus Keyboard

it is a really cool clean look and you know in my testing it seems to work really well I like haptic track pads too because they feel really good this one felt really responsive i do think there may be some potential for usability issues here because just in my little time with this computer I sometimes had trouble figuring out like oh am I right clicking here am I left clicking and finding that edge of the actual trackpad is kind of annoying so it looks cool I think the overall design of this computer looks very neat and minimalist but you know sometimes you got to add a little more in there so people can actually use these computers I’ve talked to people who still have trouble finding their track pads on their MacBook sometimes so we'll see where all this goes what's also really interesting is that the Dell XPS 13 Plus is going to be much faster than any Dell XPS 13 we've

seen before under the hood it's going to be running intel's new 12 generation processors up to 28-watt versions which is much faster than the 15-watt versions we've seen in previous XPS 13s so those newer tips really bring this machine almost close to like a productivity workstation

there aren't dedicated graphics but intel's integrated graphics are also getting better and better it'll be really interesting to see how much performance dell can really eke out of this new CPU and you know still having it in a really light and thin form factor now because it's the XPS 13 plus you'll probably figure it's a little bit bigger than the standard XPS 13.

this one weigh 2.7 pounds the standard one right now weighs around 2.5 so you've got a little more heft there it still feels really light it still feels really thin as I hold it

Dell XPS 13 Plus

it's not going to be a computer you'll have trouble you know lugging around all day one downside you'll probably notice as you take a closer look at the XPS 13 plus is that you know dell has really stripped away all the ports at this point so there are two ports there are two USB Type C ports there's no more uh mini SD card slot so that's a shame and notably there is no headphone jack and I that honestly took me it back a little when I first heard that news because this is supposed to be the most powerful XPS 13 we've seen yet supposed to be the thing you know the computer of our dreams uh when I imagine XPS 13 of the future it kind of looks like this but it also would be something I want to plug in my normal headphones into dell told us that you know mobile devices are kind of moving away from headphone jacks and to get this thing so thin they kind of have to take it away I don't quite buy that I do think it's far easier to connect Bluetooth headphones to your phone than it is to windows pcs anybody who's tried that can understand how frustrating that can be.

you'll be able to use USB-C to headphone jack converters of course but that's not as convenient and I think for a machine that's supposed to be like the ultimate dell xps 13 losing the headphone jack just doesn't make much sense so del what are you doing but if you don't care too much about the headphone jack this still looks like a really great computer overall it's still going to have 1080p and 4k options there's going to be oled in there as well this is also the first xps 13 with four speakers two are up firing from the keyboard and two are hitting down below i didn't get to hear anything on this machine but more speakers are always better that's kind of been key to what dell did with the xps 15 and apple did with the new MacBook pro so I’m looking forward to testing that out dell says the xps 13 plus will be available this spring starting around 1200 I’d be really interested to see what the price difference looks like compared to maybe similarly spec' dell xps 13s plus is always going to have that faster 28 watt CPU but i don't know is this going to drive down the price of the xps 13 we don't know from a design perspective the dell xps 13 plus looks like a pretty good aesthetic win for dell but we really have to get our hands on it to see how that new trackpad works out what it's going to be like to live with a computer that's this powerful without a headphone jack

stay tuned to our full review in the coming soon.