Dell’s redesigned XPS 13 Plus is now available, beginning at $1,299

The bold XPS 13 Plus, which debuted at CES 2022, is now available for purchase, according to Dell. It starts at $1,299, and while Dell didn’t specify exact specs for this setup, it’ll most likely get the lowest characteristics specified in a spec sheet released by the firm. A 13.4-inch 1920 x 1200 16:10 aspect ratio display with 500 nits of peak brightness, an Intel Core i5-1240P processor (28W, 12-core, 4.4GHz boost clock), 8GB of 5,200MHz LPDDR5 RAM, and a 256GB SSD are among the features.

A 60W USB-C AC adapter is included, as well as two Thunderbolt 4 ports (but no headphone jack), a Windows Hello 720p webcam, and a fingerprint sensor incorporated in the power button.

This new edition of the XPS 13 features a more futuristic-looking appearance than Dell’s standard model, as we highlighted at CES. The Touch Bar-like row of backlit function keys on the Plus, as well as the keyboard that lies flush with the chassis, are the most apparent distinctions. Finally, there’s the new trackpad, which is invisible to the naked eye but occupies a similar (if not slightly larger) portion of the glass-covered wrist rest. And, like Apple’s newest laptops, instead of physically clicking in, the trackpad hardware simulates the click with haptic feedback.

While Dell did not provide price for other options, you will be able to upgrade the XPS 13 Plus to a 1080p touchscreen (which is non-touch by default) or a 4K touchscreen at the time of purchase. A 3.5K (3456 x 2160) Gorilla Glass 7-covered OLED touchscreen with 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage is the highest-end display option.

Dell can offer up to a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1280P processor with 14 cores, as well as up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage. Last but not least, the XPS 13 Plus will be available in a Developer Edition that comes preloaded with Ubuntu 20.04 and costs $1,249.99.

We’re excited to put the XPS 13 Plus to the test. We’re cautiously optimistic that all of these visual changes won’t get in the way of it being a fantastic machine, as my colleague Monica Chin wrote in her hands-on back in January. But you’ll have to wait until the end of the review to find out.