Dell is proceeding with a radical renewal of its line of XPS notebooks, which is one of the best on the market.
Initially the Dell XPS 13-inch model remains, but the XPS Plus version with the Touch Bar is a thing of the past as it will be replaced by the XPS 14-inch. Plus there’s a new 16-inch XPS that will replace the 15- and 17-inch models. Dell’s XPS line of laptops has been around for over a decade, offering premium features and a portable design. The company refreshed the lineup in 2022 with the introduction of the Dell XPS 13 Plus featuring a new (and somewhat odd) keyboard and trackpad design, as well as a cheaper, lower-performance Dell XPS 13 with 12th Gen Intel Core processor options in the 9 watts. At CES 2024, Dell is refreshing its XPS notebooks in two major ways. The first is that the company is moving towards a Plus type design. So all of the company’s Dell XPS 2024 laptops feature the new keyboard and touchpad style.
The second is screen size: Dell is doing away with the XPS 15 and XPS 13 2-in-1 models, but introducing two new screen sizes, with the family including the Dell XPS 13, XPS 14, and XPS 16.
This means that the Dell XPS 2024 family is now available in three screen sizes. The Dell XPS 13 (9340) is a 13.3-inch laptop with a weight of just 1.1 kg, 14th generation Intel Core Ultra 5 and Core Ultra 7 H-series processor options, and a starting price of $1,300. The new Dell XPS 14 (9440) on the other hand has a 14.5-inch screen, a Core Ultra 7 processor and a weight of 1.67 kg. If the weight seems a bit heavy to you, that’s for a good reason as this particular model has a larger battery and optional support for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 graphics. The price for the entry-level version of the model starts at $1,700.
Finally, the Dell XPS 16 (9640) is the biggest of the bunch, with support for up to a 16-inch display, 4K resolution, up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. Predictably, it’s the heaviest and most expensive model of the series, with a weight of 2.15 kg and a cost of 1,900 dollars and above. All new Dell laptops are available with a choice of non-touch LCD displays with a 120Hz screen refresh rate or OLED displays (with resolutions and refresh rates that vary from model to model). They also all have quad speakers with two main speakers and two tweeters, Dolby Atmos sound, fingerprint sensors and 1080p IR cameras with Windows Hello facial recognition support.
Every model has at least two Thunderbolt 4 ports for charging, video out, and data… but those two Thunderbolt ports are the only ports on the new XPS 13. If you want a dedicated headphone jack or microSD card reader, you’ll have to choose one of the larger models. And if you want more ports, you’ll need an adapter or hub.
The most controversial thing about Dell’s laptops, however, is the company’s decision to go with an XPS Plus-style keyboard and touchpad, which features wide keys with a “zero-grid” design and an ambient light sensor that allows for automatic brightness adjustment. Above the physical keys is a set of capacitive touch Fn keys. The nice thing about making these keys is that you can press the Fn key to change the labels depending on whether you want to see the F1 – F12 keys or the multimedia control keys.
The laptops also have a glass palm rest, which means the glass-covered touchpad blends in with the rest of the palm rest, which could make it difficult to tell when you’re on the edge of the keyboard without looking, though Dell notes that the touchpad supports haptic feedback.
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