Dell Announces XPS 13 Plus

Boasting a gorgeous, minimalist design, the Dell XPS 13 Plus features larger keys, a capacitive touch function row, and sustainable packaging.

“Modern and stylish, yet approachable and efficient [and] simple and intentional are the new definition of premium,” the Dell announcement notes. “Redesigned from the ground up with more performance than ever before, the XPS 13 Plus makes it so you can do everything you love to do in style.”

The XPS 13 Plus is available in Platinum or Graphite and it supports 28-watt 12th-generation Intel Core processors (up from 15-watts in prior versions). The glass trackpad has been replaced by a new seamless glass touchpad with haptics, and the display options include 4K+ resolutions and OLED with Eyesafe.

The XPS 13 Plus will be available worldwide sometime this Spring, but pricing has yet to be determined. It will ship with Windows 11 or Ubuntu 20.04 on the Developer Edition.

You can learn more here.

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Conversation 16 comments

  • DerAlbert

    Premium Member
    05 January, 2022 - 7:45 am

    <p>Most Developers will hate the Touchbar (like they did in MacBook Pros)</p>

    • jchampeau

      Premium Member
      05 January, 2022 - 8:01 am

      <p>I’m not a developer and I would hate giving up the F keys. And I already hate those arrow keys. And they took away the headphone jack. Dell has become Apple and Apple has become Dell. Overall though, the thing looks absolutely gorgeous. I want to see one in person.</p>

      • yaddamaster

        05 January, 2022 - 9:49 am

        <p>I’m a developer and I honestly didn’t mind the touch bar. Found it immensely useful at times. But I agree – this looks completely for show. At least Apple tried to make it useful.</p><p><br></p>

        • ianbetteridge

          06 January, 2022 - 3:22 am

          <p>I thought I was the only person who loved the TouchBar :)</p>

      • kingpcgeek

        Premium Member
        05 January, 2022 - 2:42 pm

        <p>Our company’s ERP requires function keys so this is a no-go for us.</p>

  • christianwilson

    Premium Member
    05 January, 2022 - 8:05 am

    <p>It is pretty but I don’t like this at all. The arrow keys are the reverse of what I would like (larger up/down, smaller left/right) and while the MacBook Pro Touchbar made at least some sense being context sensitive, this one looks to be purely for looks. </p>

  • wunderbar

    Premium Member
    05 January, 2022 - 9:37 am

    <p>interesting how we all u inversely hated the touch bar on MacBook and yet this is gorgeous and minimalist.</p><p><br></p><p>this computer also doesn’t feature a headphone jack, and drops down to two USB ports from 3 on the previous model.</p><p><br></p><p>this is a huge step down.</p>

  • Stabitha.Christie

    05 January, 2022 - 9:49 am

    <p>I’m not sure comparing it to the touchbar is apt. The touchbar changed based on the context of what the user was doing. This are just captive touch F keys. That said, they may be equally annoying anyway. </p><p><br></p><p>What strikes me as potentially weird is the lack of physical boundaries around the touch pad. How does a user know where it’s boundaries are? Not saying it can’t work, just seems odd. </p><p><br></p><p>Also, dell can eat a bag of something you don’t want to eat a bag of. I tried ordering one for my kid’s Christmas present and they refused to process the order because the email address I used didn’t have my name in it. Further it took about 3 hours on the phone with them to get to the person that could tell me what the issue is. So my attempt at being a first time dell customer completely failed and the kiddo got an HP. </p>

  • havaloc

    05 January, 2022 - 11:57 am

    <p>It looks like Dell is eager to make all the mistakes Apple made during the 2015-2020 era on their laptops. That keyboard looks like a nightmare.</p>

  • brettscoast

    Premium Member
    05 January, 2022 - 11:59 am

    <p>Thanks, Paul. I would have to say this is a startling revision of the current XPS 13 model. The new-look keyboard and haptic glass touchpad are quite something to behold. Downside no headphone jack, SD card slot gone, not the end of the world, not sure why they could not retain one USB A port but ok. Borderless glass touchpad may take some getting used to. </p>

  • L Gilles

    05 January, 2022 - 1:05 pm

    <p>I like it a lot, it’s minimalist, it’s different and at the first glance we know what it is.</p>

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    05 January, 2022 - 1:27 pm

    <p>Not to take away from the technical achievement, but the trackpad being blended in to the palm rest i find a little jarring. I am so used to seeing a square underneath the keyboard palm area. I bet it looks way better in person than in the picture and I am sure like the notch in the Iphone it won’t take long to get used to it. </p>

  • 02nz

    05 January, 2022 - 7:34 pm

    <p>Dell reached pretty much design perfection with the XPS 13 once they got rid of the nostril cam and then gave it a 16:10 aspect ratio. Having apparently run out of ideas to actually improve the XPS 13, they decided to go with form over function with this design. Ugh.</p>

  • jboman32768

    Premium Member
    05 January, 2022 - 10:39 pm

    <p>I will need to upgrade my XPS17 soon – hopefully they don’t give the XPS17 the same treatment.</p>

  • ianbetteridge

    06 January, 2022 - 3:23 am

    <p>The keyboard is very reminiscent of the old PowerBook G4 12in, which was a good keyboard but had more travel than this. I would definitely want to try it out before buying it. </p>

  • ivarh

    Premium Member
    07 January, 2022 - 2:08 am

    <p>Apple does and the rest follows it seems… How Dell could think that making a static touch bar with all of the disadvantages of having no tactile buttons but without using a screen where the os/applications can create a custom made user-interface as the only advantage this can give Is baffling… Did they not learn from the blowback Apple got? Apple at least learned in the 2nd implementation by making a real escape key before they removed the whole thing…</p>

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