Dell’s new XPS 13 adds Alder Lake CPUs, but this is more than just a spec bump

Image: Dell

The new version of Dell's XPS 13 is thinner and lighter than the previous one, and it will include more cores and hybrid architecture. The new laptop is thinner and lighter than the previous one, with a starting weight of 2.64 lbs and a thickness of 0.55 inches. The new XPS 13 will be available in the US and Canada at a starting price of $999 with Windows 11 or $949.

The last iteration of the XPS 13 will be called everything a Windows laptop should be because it's good enough to earn our review.

The XPS 13 Plus that kicked off the year featuring a touch bar, flush keyboard, and slightly more powerful P-SeriesCPU options, as well as a new 2022 XPS 13 2-in-1 announced today, is being split out to avoid accusations that the line is becoming outdated again.

image: Dell

The differences between the 9315 model and the 9310 model should be obvious when you open it.

Dell says it removed superfluous steps, reduced finishes and materials on the new laptop that pulls back on contrasting interior to highlight the "curated and premium" aluminum that's now the star of the show both inside and out It's a look that's familiar, but clean in either the sky or umber tinted aluminum finish, and hopefully it maintains the sturdy design plus solid keyboard and trackpad we praised in 2020. The laptop doesn't have a headphone jack this year, but other touches like the power button and the fingerprint sensor are still present.

Some of the weaknesses we called out on the 9310, with a bad webcam, speakers that lacked bass, and a keyboard that could get hot to the touch, have been addressed. The internal layout has been changed to include Dell's smallest board ever, which is 1.8x smaller than the previous model, and makes room for larger speakers and other tech. The new model has a 51 watt-hours unit compared to the 9310s 52 watt-hours. There is now a single fan design.

We will need to review the new model to see what the new design makes of the changes that have been made. This generation of Intel chips is better positioned to do battle with the competition fromAMD, Apple, and everyone else by adopting a setup similar to many ARM-based CPUs, with more cores that are split up between ones built for performance or power efficiency.

There are two 10-core i5-1230U or i7-1250U with Intel's i5-1230U or i7-1250U with Iris Xe graphics, a choice of 8 or 16 gigabytes of memory, and a choice of 512 or 1 terabytes of storage on According to Dell, the most power-efficient i5 model could stream Netflix continuously for up to 12 hours, or 11 hours on the most efficient i7 setup, and up to 6 hours on a model equipped with the i7 chip, 16 gigabytes of RAM, 1 terabytes of storage,

image: Dell

There is a choice of touch or non-touch displays, including a 4K Ultra HD+ (3840x2400) touch display, or FHD+ (1920 x 1200) in either touch or non-touch configurations. The upcoming 2-in-1 version does not include built-in 5G. This year's model ships in new packaging made of 100 percent recycled or renewable content, while the frame is low carbon to reduce its carbon footprint.

While Dell finally put the camera in the right spot a few years ago, it's still limited to 720p and the webcams is updated too. This model is also adding Dell's ExpressSign-In tech that uses a proximity sensor in combination with the Windows Hello facial recognition- capable webcam to detect when you're in front of the laptop and automatically log you in, as well as lock it.