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The Inspiron Plus series has been replaced. Now, the lineup is simply called Dell Plus. This rebranded laptop series has two new entries. Both are available with Intel Lunar Lake CPUs, and the 16-inch model can be equipped with a mini-LED display.
Both Dell 14 Plus and Dell 16 Plus are available in 2-in-1 versions (Image source: Dell)
Dell has bid goodbye to its Inspiron Plus series, and the lineup is now replaced by Dell Plus. This new series has two initial entries, the 14 Plus and 16 Plus. While the naming has been simplified, the laptops in the range remain versatile, and one big highlight is that among the two additions, the 16-inch model brings very decent specs for being a mid-range offering.
Both the two Dell Plus 14 and Plus 16 are powered by the Intel Lunar Lake series of CPUs, with the top-end configuration featuring the Core Ultra 9 288V. The entry-level option, on the other hand, packs the Core Ultra 5 226V. Depending on the configuration you choose, you can get these laptops with up to anArc 140V iGPU, 32 GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and 2 TB of storage.
These two Dell Plus laptops also come with a decent selection of ports, including HDMI 2.1, Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports. The design is geared towards beingtravel-friendly, with the 14 Plus weighing as low as 3.42 lbs.
As for the display, the Dell 16 Plus steals the spotlight because it offers the option to configure it with a QHD+mini-LED panelthat features 600 nits of advertised brightness rating and 90 Hz refresh rate. The 14 Plus, on the other hand, can be configured with up to a 2.5K display.
Other highlights of the two new laptops include a speaker setup with Dolby Atmos, a 2-in-1 option for both, and a 64 Wh battery. The 14 Plus and 16 Plus are set to launch on February 18 with a starting price of $1,099 and $1,149, respectively. As for the 2-in-1 models, they will start at $999 and are planned to launch on the same date. You can learn more about them from the spec sheets attached below.
Over the past 30 years, Dell’s XPS brand has grown into one of the most respected and well-known in the industry — often home to some of thebest laptopsyou could buy. In its latest iteration, it was a name that represented top-of-the-line Windows laptops thatcould go toe to toe with MacBooks. But now, the XPS brand is gone. Or, at least, it will be very soon.
I attended an event for journalists ahead ofCES 2025to hear Dell announce the grand plans of its rebrand. It was such a big deal, in fact, that Michael Dell himself took the stage to introduce the idea. The company is shooting for a simpler brand across its entire ecosystem of products that leans on the Dell name and unifies every product in its vast lineup under it.
But the question remains: Will the rebrand actually help potential buyers sort through Dell’s catalogue of products? Or is this change just another example chasing the latest trends in attempts to stay relevant?
Dell is the brand
I won’t bury the lede any further. Dell has announced that the XPS brand — and nearly every other sub-brand of Dell — is getting jettisoned. XPS? Out. Latitude? Nope. Inspiron? Precision? Optiplex? G-series? All gone. In name, they’re all being replaced throughout 2025.
Instead, the company’s future product lines will be split into just three buckets: Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max. And yes, that should sound eerily familiar.
It’s hard not to see the Apple of it all, sure. Apple began adopting terms like Pro, Plus, and Max in its iPhones, as well as in its Apple Silicon naming. But it’s not just Apple using those terms, and it certainly wasn’t the first to. They seem to be everywhere these days, and to be fair, Dell is using them in a different way than other companies. “Pro” does not mean premium or extra performance, and “Plus” and “Max” don’t mean physically larger. You’ll need to throw out all those naming conventions to understand what Dell is doing here.
Consumer PCs, which were previously divided into sub-brands like XPS and Inspiron, will now all fall under just the Dell name. Commercial PCs, meanwhile, will be in the Dell Pro category. And finally, the Dell Pro Max is for workstations, with the “Max” referring to performance. In theory, that means that no, the Dell Pro should not be considered a competitor to the MacBook Pro.
That sounds fairly straightforward, but here’s the thing: The company isn’t dialing back the sheer quantity of laptops, desktops, monitors, and other products in its ecosystem. Except that as you might have guessed, fitting every Dell product into one of those three brands isn’t possible without any extra designation.
That’s why under each brand, there are three more tiers of products names: Base, Plus, and Premium. These not only represent a scale up in terms of performance but also high-end features, materials, designs, and price. To put it as simply as I can, it’ll look a bit like this once it’s all rolled out:
Dell (consumer)
Dell Pro (commercial)
Dell Pro Max (commercial)
Base
Dell
Dell Pro
Dell Pro Max
Plus
Dell Plus
Dell Pro Plus
Dell Pro Max Plus
Premium
Dell Premium
Dell Pro Premium
Dell Pro Max Premium
Dell hasn’t sketched out how all of these will work yet, nor has it indicated exactly where each brand had previously fit. And, of course, within each of those labels, whether it’s Dell Plus or Dell Pro Max Premium (sigh, I know), there will be multiple size options, configurations, and upgrade options. It’s going to get messy.
We do know, however, that what used to be XPS, will now be Dell Premium. So, theXPS 13, 14, and 16, will be renamed the Dell 13 Premium, Dell 14 Premium, and Dell 16 Premium. To show the direction it was heading, Dell had some very familiar XPS laptops to show with the new Dell logo on the lid, even though these devices won’t actually be refreshed (and renamed) until later in 2025.
Meanwhile, XPS laptops will still be sold over the next few months under its current name until the Dell Premium refresh happens. But soon enough, they will be the Dell 13, 14, and 16 Premium.
I have also received confirmation that the XPS design ethos and the team itself isn’t changing either. This won’t be a year where the XPS laptops get a major redesign, since that happened just last year. So for 2025, it’s really just a new name. The only change is that now, they will all fit somewhere under these three headings.
The change feels drastic, and yes, it strikes me as a bit generic. One thing I do like, however, is that it puts the “XPS” designs more in the enter of the lineup, no longer feeling relegated as a side project under the XPS banner. It’s just the Dell 14 Premium. I also appreciate moving from the Dell Plus to the Dell Premium no longer feels like entirely switching brands — and based on what we saw, some of that XPS DNA might be carrying over further down the stack.
While XPS replacement is still a ways out, Dell is starting its initiative in the consumer space with a replacement of the Inspiron Plus, now known as just Dell Plus. The Dell 14 Plus and Dell 16 2-in-1 Plus are the two new laptops in the lineup, refinements over last year’s models.
The 16-inch Plus model comes with an upgraded screen option — a glossy, 600-nit mini-LED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate and QHD resolution. It also comes in a new darker color option that looked quite sleek. The 14-inch model starts with a more basic 1920 x 1200 IPS panel, but can at least be upgraded to a 2560 x 1600 resolution.
Unfortunately, as of now there’s no longer a discrete GPU option in this line though, which is a bummer, because the previousInspiron 16 Plushad options for an RTX 4050 and 4060. The biggest change for the positive, however, is in portability. Both the 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, however, are quite a bit thinner than they were before, down to just 0.67 inches from the 0.75 inches of last year’s model. That brings it a little closer to the MacBook Pro in thickness.
Then again, these aren’t the XPS laptops we all point to high-endMacBook Pro alternatives. They exist more in the mid-tier, though they certainly aren’t bad-looking laptops.
We’ll have to wait and see until we get them in for testing when they launch on February 18. Both sizes of the 2-in-1 models start at $999, while the clamshell Dell 14 Plus starts at $1,099 and the 16-inch model starts at $1,150. Both models start with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, however. That means the Dell 14 Plus is $200 cheaper than theM3 MacBook Airwhen similarly configured.
Dell
Dell also had some Dell Pro laptops to show, but remember, Dell isn’t using the “Pro” term in the way the rest of the industry does, as set by products like the MacBook Pro. Here, the “Pro” in the name refers simply to business laptops. In this case, as replacements for the Latitude brand.
That means the base Dell Pro laptops are affordable business laptops, while the Dell Pro Premium ones look to be top-of-the-line commercial laptops for executives, sporting features like an 8-megapixel webcam and an option for a tandem OLED display — and the Dell Pro 14 Plus sits in between. So, although the Premium ones look nice, you’re likely only going to get one of these if they’re issued by your company’s IT department.
Unfortunately, we’re still not seeing any discrete GPUs being offered outside of the Dell Pro Max line. These are the chunky fellas meant to replace the Precision workstations. They push performance above all else, but use commercial parts. It’s not something the average consumer really needs to even concern themselves with. But that means for now, Dell won’t have a compelling option for creators in the business world, perhaps for those who would prefer a MacBook Pro as their work machine anyways.
Does it work?
Dell
But the big question is about whether this whole rebrand was a good idea. It might sound simpler to say the Dell 14 Premium instead of the Dell XPS 14, but things quickly get a little absurd the further you get away from these mainline products. One product being announced, for example, is the Dell Pro Max Micro, which is a small, commercial desktop, but man, that is the opposite of clarity.
The “Pro Max” in the name refers to commercial PCs with extra performance, and the “Micro” refers to the size of the tower, but yeah, having the word “Max” and “Micro” next to each other in a product name is… kind of insane. Because remember: Trying to reduce the complexity of buying Dell products is the stated goal of this redesign, and when you end up with product names like that, I think that’s a sign you may have taken things a step too far.
That one is a good example, too, because this rebrand does apply to all of Dell’s products, even to desktop PCs and monitors. Although — one of the only sub-brands that is sticking around is UltraSharp on the monitor side — outside of Alienware, of course.
I’m not saying companies like Apple or Samsung are any less egregious with these nonsensical names, and look, no one owns the words “Pro,” “Plus,” or “Max.” No one gets to define what they mean in a product. But deciding to use those terms and redefine them for Dell’s own purposes may end up confusing buyers more than helping them. I’m just glad they didn’t manage to squeeze “Ultra” into the equation somewhere.
One other thing to mention is that Dell is actually not the first PC brand to do this recently. Last year,HP announced its own rebranding, ditching Spectre, Envy, and Pavilion in favor of the new “Omni” brand. HP didn’t take it as far as Dell, though, keeping around the EliteBook line to distinguish its commercial business.
And let’s not forget Intel’s move away from Core i5 and i7 to Core Ultra. There’s no question that this is the direction the entire industry is moving. I’ll need to wait and see how this affects the actual products in the lineup.
For now, let’s pour one out for XPS — a brand that grew into a beloved commodity through its over 30 years of business. That’ll cause some sadness, no doubt. But here’s the question: Did you even know what the acronym stood for? If not, maybe Dell has a point.
Intel faces off against Qualcomm in Dell’s XPS 13.
Verdict The Dell XPS 13 gets long battery life thanks to Intel’s Lunar Lake. While its design is attractive, the touch-based function row is difficult to use as it prioritizes form over function.
Pros +Long battery life (with LCD display) +Attractive, minimalist design Cons -Capacitive function row isn’t as good as dedicated keys -No headphone jack -Pricey
Dell’s XPS 13 is finally available with multiple CPU options. Where previously it only ever came with Intel processors, it’s now available with both Intel’s Core Ultra 2 “Lunar Lake” chips and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite. The competition to be among the best ultrabooks is on.
We tested the Snapdragon version previously, and while Dell’s design is as divisive as ever, it’s hard to argue with a mix of performance and power. That gave us high hopes for the Lunar Lake model.
What the Intel version offers is more app compatibility, and long battery life, but the performance isn’t as good as Qualcomm’s. If you want a Dell XPS 13 with an x86 processor, the XPS 13 (9350) is for you. But if you’re not worried about app compatibility, the Intel versions are challenged by Dell’s embrace of Qualcomm.
While Dell first introduced this chassis in 2022 with the XPS 13 Plus (which isn’t that long ago in the scheme of laptop designs), I feel like I’ve seen it many times before, as Dell has released multiple versions across two chip companies.
The XPS 13 is all aluminum and clean lines, with a black lid (at least on our model) and deck. Opening reveals what continues to be Dell’s series of most controversial laptop design choices: a capacitive touch row above a keyboard with no spaces between the keys (Dell calls this “zero-lattice”).
That all adds up to a svelte 11.62 x 0.60 x 0.58-inch package that weighs 2.7 pounds. The Snapdragon version, the XPS 13 (9345), has the same dimensions and weighs 2.62 pounds. Apple’s 13-inch M3 MacBook Air is 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches and 2.7 pounds, while the Asus Zenbook S14 is 12.22 x 8.45 x 0.51 inches and 2.65 pounds.
11.62 x 0.60 x 0.58 inches (295.3 x 199.1 x 15.3 mm)
Weight
2.7 pounds (1.22 kg)
Price (as configured)
$1,599.99
Keyboard and Touchpad on the Dell XPS 13 (9350) As long as Dell sticks with this XPS design, the keyboard and touchpad will continue to be controversial.
I don’t have much of a problem with the “zero-lattice” keyboard. Despite looking different from most of the market, the 1 mm of travel feels deeper than expected. On monkeytype, I needed to take some extra time to get used to it, but even at my slowest I was at 99 words per minute.
But I’ll never be able to fully accept the function row, especially for the delete and escape keys. A capable function row is just too important, and you shouldn’t have to look down to change the volume, screen brightness, or even hit escape or CTRL + ALT + Delete (the latter of which is on the function row). We’re going into our third year with this design, and it’s time for Dell to give up and add buttons. Is this system extremely pretty? Yes. But when I use this function row, it feels like Dell chose to make a sleek system rather than a usable one.
I feel a bit less strongly about the touchpad. I’m into haptics, but I still wish, even after using several models, that Dell would put a border around the touchpad, like Apple does on the MacBook Air. It’s better for usability, and while I never veered off of the touchpad, it gives me a sense of confidence to know the borders.
Upgradeability of the Dell XPS 13 (9350) To remove the bottom of the laptop, you need to remove six Torx screws from the bottom of the laptop. One of the screws on our unit stripped, but Dell’s publically available owner’s manual shows that the rest of the process is identical to what we’ve seen on other XPS 13 systems with this design. (If you do go looking for the manual, make sure you don’t find the one for the previous XPS 13 (9350) released almost a decade ago).
You can remove the base with just your fingers once the screws are out. That being said, inside, the only replaceable parts are the battery and the SSD. The RAM has never been upgradeable in the current XPS 13 design, but in this case, that’s because it’s actually on the CPU package.
Battery Life on the Dell XPS 13 (9350) Intel’s big promise with its Core Ultra Series 2 (“Lunar Lake”) chips has been making x86 more efficient than ever. But with the new XPS 13, that will also heavily depend on what kind of screen you get. Dell loaned us a second unit with identical specs, except for a 2880 x 1800 OLED panel. It showed a surprisingly wide difference in battery life. The laptop with a 1920 x 1200 LCD screen ran for 17 hours and 29 minutes (though part of that may have been held back by one outlier run in our average). The version with the higher-resolution OLED panel lasted just 8 hours and 40 minutes. Me? I’d take the lower resolution screen for the tradeoff.
The leader in this test was the Snapdragon version of the XPS 13, model 9345. That version, also with the 1920 x 1200 screen, ran for 19:31. The Asus Zenbook S14, using the same chip as this laptop, had a longer battery life with an OLED panel at 13:51.
Heat on the Dell XPS 13 (9350) We grabbed some skin temperature measurements while running our Cinebench 2024 benchmark gauntlet. The system was fairly cool considering how stressful this benchmark is. The keyboard hit 93.2 degrees Fahrenheit, while the touchpad (or at least, the part of the deck where the haptics are) reached 88.7 F. The hottest point on the bottom, in a corner near the vent, measured 101.3 F.
Webcam on the Dell XPS 13 (9350) The 1080p webcam on the Dell XPS 13 (9350) was serviceable in good light. It’s color accurate, and while it’s not the sharpest I’ve ever looked, I would use this webcam on important video calls. I never had an issue with the IR camera for Windows Hello, which was swift and reliable.
For those who want to blur backgrounds or experiment with filters, Lunar Lake can use Windows Studio Effects.
Software and Warranty on the Dell XPS 13 (9350) Dell has its fair share of software preinstalled on the system, but it’s not overwhelming.
The primary app is MyDell, which has options to see other Dell applications, customize audio and adjust your display’s color profiles. There is a link for making network changes in another app, but it didn’t have an application for that on our review unit.
Dell Digital Delivery lets you install software purchased with your system, while SupportAssist gives you easy access to your service tag, performs hardware scans, and, surprisingly, features a working section to optimize your Wi-Fi network. Huh.
There’s also a trial of McAfee (Dell also includes a bookmark in the Edge browser, which cheapens the experience a bit).
Like most Windows notebooks, there are some links in the Start menu to the Windows store, including apps like Spotify and LinkedIn. Intel includes its Intel Unison app.
Bottom Line The latest Dell XPS 13 prioritizes efficiency over performance. If you get the version with the 1920 x 1200 screen and forego OLED, you can get almost 17 and a half hours of battery life. Not bad.
But there’s still the fact that there’s another XPS 13 out there, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite version, that lasted longer on our tests and offers stronger performance. What Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 chips offer here are x86 compatibility. For those who do most of their work in a web browser, the XPS 13 (9345) with Snapdragon may be a better choice.
If you’re worried about software compatibility, though. That makes x86 the only game in town. That being said, other Lunar Lake laptops, like the Asus Zenbook S14, offer a more traditional design, including a headphone jack and standard function keys that are more accessible. It’s great to see Dell offer a variety of processors in its flagship laptop. Now it’s time to make it work for a greater variety of people.
The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus sees the venerable PC-maker embrace the Snapdragon platform, and do it well.
Our Verdict Dell makes business PCs, and this is one. It brings all the strengths of the Snapdragon platform – long battery life, cool and quiet running – and melds them with a thin and light design. Creatives may bemoan the lack of GPU power, but as something to take with you when you’re working away from your desk, this makes a good choice.
Think of a Dell laptop and you’ll probably picture a grey machine that’s been built for stability and reliability. It’s not going to be an exciting PC, but this is a brand that makes much of its business credentials, and when you’re likely to be supplying the portable PC fleets of large businesses, what you need is solid, dependable performance on a large scale.
This version of the old reliable Inspiron sees Dell embrace the nascent Qualcomm platform in the form of the Snapdragon X Plus processor, rather than the Elite model found in something like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (you can find the Elite in Dell’s Inspiron and Latitude ranges, but we’re reviewing an X Plus here). Snapdragon has many benefits for a portable machine that’s likely to be used in business situations, such as extended (like, really extended) battery life and mostly silent operation, and Dell has capitalised on them. But is enough to make this one of the best laptops for office workers and writers?
As an office laptop rather than something more directly targeted at the creative or gaming communities, the design of the Inspiron Plus is somewhat more restrained than the average laptop you’ll see on this site. No detachable OLED screens or rainbow lights here, just a plain white keyboard backlight, a simple circular Dell logo printed on the lid, and only one sticker next to the trackpad, advertising that it uses the Snapdragon X Plus processor. Sadly, the keyboard itself is merely ok to type on – the keys are a little lacking in feel, and their grey tone against the silver casing looks washed out. Much better is the trackpad, the texture of which feels good under the fingers and, despite not being the largest out there, is easy to use if you’re fond of swipe gestures.
Elsewhere, things are equally businesslike. There’s a fingerprint reader at the top of the keyboard, a decent-sized Enter key rather than an enormous #, and the Copilot button that summons the chatbot. There’s no numpad, but two speakers have been squeezed down the sides, which makes the keyboard in the 14in chassis a decent size.
Features
Around the edges of the Inspiron 14 Plus you’ll find a fairly standard range of ports. There’s no HDMI, so you’ll need an adapter to connect to a projector, and no Ethernet, though the presence of Wi-Fi 7 takes the edge off this omission a little. With two USB 4 (also used for charging) and a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (the 5Gbps type), plus a MicroSD card slot, it’s fairly well equipped, especially if you team it with a dock, but the native ports will fill up quickly once you add an external monitor, a charger, and a mouse and keyboard dongle.
The IPS screen is touch sensitive, and can display a 60Hz refresh rate. Its QHD+ resolution translates as 3200 x 1800 pixels, which gives it a 16:10 aspect ratio. It’s an extremely nice thing to look at, and the colourful Windows 11 desktop background set as default looks bright and sharp. When tempted by the siren song of our colorimeter, it performed well, showing us 96% of sRGB, 76% of Adobe RGB and 75% of the P3 colour gamut – not the best we’ve ever seen, but a respectable response. Brightness hit 365 nits, slightly down on the claimed 400 but not too bad overall.
The presence of a 3.5mm headset port is nice to have, especially for a laptop that will probably see more than its fair share of Teams and Zoom calls, while the 1080p webcam integrated in the top of the screen is joined by an IR counterpart for Windows Hello duties, there’s no physical shutter to block it off. Luckily, Post-It notes are fairly cheap, especially in the office stationery cupboard.
As a Copilot+ model, you get the beginnings of what might be a n exciting new AI ecosystem, with Paint able to upgrade your drawings after you enter a text prompt, plus some nice video background filters and live captioning. At the time of writing Recall is still an experimental feature, and there’s still no reason to buy a Snapdragon machine just because of its AI capabilities and NPU. At the time of writing, Creative Cloud apps such as Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign and Premiere Pro are still running via emulation in beta form, with only Photoshop and the cloud version of Lightroom getting fully native ports, while Lightroom Classic remains MIA. It’s early days for the platform, but worth checking before you dive in that the app you want to use works.
Benchmark scores
Cinebench 2024
Single core
108
Multicore
640
GPU
N/A
Geekbench 6
Single core
2413
Multicore
13290
GPU (OpenCL)
20555
AI (ONNX single precision)
1888
PC Mark 10
Applications benchmark
13357
Battery life
15h 38m
Handbrake video encoding
05:17, 60.8fps
Performance
Naturally, as the Snapdragon X Plus has fewer processing cores than the Elite (10, capable of a 4GHz single-core boost) we should see lower results in tests than the 12-core Elite chip. And so it partially comes to pass. The Inspiron’s single-core result in Cinebench 2024 is actually 7.5% higher than that of the Surface Laptop 7 (possibly down to superior cooling by Dell?), while the multicore test sees a 27% difference in favour of Microsoft’s machine.
How does it do against Intel? We’re glad you asked. The Core Ultra 9 185H in the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra has a total of 16 cores and turbos up to 5.1GHz, so should be superior according to the Law of More Being Better, yet scores almost identically in the single-core Cinebench test, with only a 3.7% difference in the Dell’s favour. The plucky little Inspiron then proceeds to win when given a multicore workout, coming in 21% ahead. The Galaxy absolutely flattens Dell’s machine (and Microsoft’s) in rendering tasks by virtue of its Nvidia GPU – the Adreno in the Snapdragon chipset isn’t compatible with the Cinebench test, but we know from runs through 3D Mark that it’s comparatively weak. No integrated GPU is able to take on the RTX 4070, but the Galaxy Book Ultra is more than three times the price of the Inspiron.
Battery life is great, as is the case with many Snapdragon machines. Intel’s latest chips, such as the Core Ultra 9, are rivalling Qualcomm in this area with their low-power cores, but the Inspiron’s score of more than 15 hours is even better than the almost 13 hours that we observed from the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra.
Who is it for? No Snapdragon released so far has been ideally targeted at creatives. Some of this is software support, and some is rooted in the fact that the Adreno GPU is not suited to the kind of heavy rendering or effect acceleration that we put our Nvidia cards to. We’re sure that will come, along with better utilisation of the NPU for generative AI and other neural networking applications that still run on the GPU in many apps. So for now, thanks to the lightning-fast way Office and other apps run on it, we have to say that this is more of a general admin and office work machine, ideal for presenting and getting ideas down, perhaps a bit of light Photoshop work, rather than something to thunder through raw image files with. And that’s ok.
It feels crazy that the Dell XPS 13 Plus was released only two years ago, because things have moved really fast since then. That design has taken over the XPS family. This one is special though, because it has Intel’s new Core Ultra Series 2 processors, codenamed Lunar Lake. Intel hasn’t been shy about how this line of chips was built in response to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite, promising to bust the myth that Arm has to be more efficient than x86. And it seems to have delivered.
Delivered in the same chassis we’ve been using since that original XPS 13 Plus, the Dell XPS 13 (2024) with Lunar Lake has some of the best battery life I’ve seen in a laptop; more importantly, with some of the fewest compromises. On top of that, it’s some of the most powerful integrated graphics I’ve seen in an ultrabook.
Integrated graphics power makes it a MacBook killer
Dell XPS design is still the best
Cons
Tiny webcam sensor
Multithreaded performance isn’t on par with competition
No headphone jack
Dell XPS 13 (2024, Lunar Lake) availability Right now, it seems like Intel is only selling the Core Ultra 7 256V and 258V, which means that the SKUs of the XPS 13 available now are pretty limited. On Dell.com, you can pick one up with a Core Ultra 7 256V (16GB RAM), a 512GB SSD, and an FHD+ display .
More configurations are coming, and while Dell wasn’t able to provide a timetable, I’ve been hearing around November for more Intel SKUs to hit the market. The XPS 13 will eventually start at a Core Ultra 5 (16GB RAM) and top out at a Core Ultra 9 (32GB RAM).
With Lunar Lake, RAM is on the chip now, meaning it won’t be upgradeable, and it’s tied to the CPU selection that you mean. SSD sizes start at 512GB, going all the way up to 4TB.
Dell actually sent me two models. One of them has a Core Ultra 7 258V with the FHD+ screen, while the other has a Core Ultra 7 256V and the 2.8K Tandem OLED display. As you’d expect, the FHD+ is to show how good the battery life is, while the OLED is to show off that sweet, sweet display.
Design and keyboard Nothing has changed, and that’s great
The Dell XPS 13 is still the laptop of the future, and I love it. Made of all aluminum, it weighs 2.6 pounds, which is less than a MacBook Air (2.7 pounds). In fact, there’s a direct comparison to be drawn to the MacBook Air now, and the XPS 13 is probably the most qualified Windows PC to do it. The tandem OLED display is the best in its class, and we’ll talk more about how Lunar Lake is ready to take on Apple Silicon.
But I digress. It comes in Platinum and Graphite colorways, and they’re both beautiful. I always say that a flagship laptop shouldn’t even be offered in gray or silver. If you want basic but high-end, go look at a Dell Inspiron, an HP Envy, or a Lenovo 7 series. Personally, Graphite has won me over after generations of XPS reviews, although I think Platinum was the fan-favorite in the beginning. It doesn’t matter. They’re both stunners.
Once again, there are only two ports, both of which are Thunderbolt 4. Dell gets bonus points for including one non each side, because the ability to charge from either side does matter. But while I don’t care about USB Type-A anymore (seriously, we’ve been moving to USB Type-C for over a decade now), the lack of a headphone jack does matter.
(image source: Dell)
If you’re going to use this machine for any serious audio work, you’re going to need wired headphones. Of course, you can use an adapter, but I still think a proper headphone jack matters on a PC.
Dell is still using its edge-to-edge keyboard with square keys, and it’s a keyboard that I’ve quite fallen in love with over the past year. Because yes, I have reviewed many, many XPS systems in 2024.
I still think it takes a little getting used to, since it’s an unconventional design, but it’s all very futuristic. You have a borderless haptic touchpad underneath, which yes, should have some kind of border. And you also get the capacitive function keys at the top, which I love.
Performance and battery life Intel delivered on its big promises And now, it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for. Intel promised to bust the myth that Arm has to be more efficient than x86, and it promised that Lunar Lake would beat Snapdragon X Elite in both performance and efficiency. So, did it live up to those promises?
You bet it did…mostly.
The short answer is that the Dell XPS 13 with Core Ultra Series 2 crushes on battery life and graphics power. Unfortunately, the Core Ultra 7 250V series falls short of Snapdragon X Elite and AMD Ryzen AI 300 in CPU power. However, Core Ultra 9 288V isn’t shipping yet, so I can’t say for certain if Lunar Lake will beat those products.
Should you buy the Dell XPS 13 (2024, Lunar Lake)?
You should buy the Dell XPS 13 (2024, Lunar Lake) if:
You’re creative tasks like photo and video editing, but want something compact
You’re on-the-go a lot, and you travel light
You want to look cool
You should NOT buy the Dell XPS 13 (2024, Lunar Lake) if:
You want a big screen
You don’t want a product that stands out from the crowd
You spend a lot of time on meetings
Obviously, the XPS 13 has the smallest screen of the XPS lineup, but it was also the only one that was refreshed. I have to assume that the XPS 14 and XPS 16 are going to be refreshed with Arrow Lake processors when the time comes for that, if the XPS 14 gets refreshed at all. Assuming you’re good with the screen size, the Dell XPS 13 is great for pretty much everyone. It hits those key experiences like keyboard and battery life, and it has a unique design. It’s such an easy product to recommend.
A whole 26 hours of battery? The magic 8-ball we consulted says “reply hazy, try again”
(Image credit: Dell) Dell announced a new XPS 13 at IFA Berlin , powered by the new Intel Core Ultra 200V “Lunar Lake” processors. That shiny new XPS uses the same chassis as previous models, but the thing that makes it so interesting to us is the 26 hours of battery life Dell is claiming.
As we’ve previously discussed, the Dell XPS 13 9345 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip managed 19 hours and 1 minute on the Laptop Mag battery test, which wasn’t too far off the initial claims made by Dell and Qualcomm. Dell claimed 27 hours of video playback for the XPS 13 9345, which is just above the 26 hours the company is claiming for the XPS 13 9350 with an Intel Core Ultra 200V processor.
Dell claims the XPS 13’s battery life was based on streaming video at 1080p resolution using the Netflix Windows 11 app, with the display set to 150 nits and with wireless enabled. Obviously, there will be differences based on specific configurations and the type of battery test used, and the battery test is a web surfing test as opposed to video playback, so it is unlikely our test labs will get a 26-hour battery life on the XPS 13 9350 with Intel Core Ultra 200V.
That said, the XPS 13 9350 with Intel Lunar Lake model could very well rival the XPS 13 9345 with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite for being our laptop with the best battery life.
While we don’t have benchmarks for the new Intel Core Ultra 200V “Lunar Lake” chips yet, we can make a few predictions based on what we know about the processors’ expected power draw.
At the Intel Lunar Lake demo showcase ahead of IFA Berlin, I was able to take a look at two different power draw and performance demonstrations set up by Intel.
The first demo measured CPU power draw between the Intel Core Ultra 200V series, AMD Ryzen AI 300, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors. All four demo laptops were running the same scripted game in DOTA 2 with hardware monitoring software tracking the power draw of the CPU and the entire system while the game was playing on a constant loop. Intel claims that the sweet spot for Intel Core Ultra 7 200V performance is around 17 Watts of CPU power while the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V has the best power-to-performance ratio at about 30 Watts.
The Intel Core Ultra 7 258V demo model showed a CPU power draw of 17.787W to keep the gaming running at 58 fps. The Intel Core Ultra 9 288V model showed a CPU power draw of 26.453W to achieve 61 fps on the scripted game encounter. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 model was showing a CPU power draw of 28.037 Watts to keep the game running at 52 fps.
Unfortunately, Qualcomm Snapdragon chips don’t support internal CPU power monitoring, so all four systems were also using external power draw monitors to determine overall system power. The Intel Core Ultra 7 258V model was running with a total of 33.3 W, the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V model was running a total of 44.8 W, the Ryzen AI HX 370 was using 46.3 W, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite XIE-80-100 was using 33.8 W of power to maintain a framerate of 48 fps.
So the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V was using just 0.5 W less power for a much higher frame rate. That said, there isn’t a massive difference in the overall system power between the two processors, which could mean good things for the XPS 13’s projected battery life.
CPU Power and Battery life: Is there a correlation?
(Image credit: Future) The second power demo I watched for the Lunar Lake launch in Berlin last week was specifically geared to streaming battery life. Intel set up two identical XPS models running comparable Intel Core Ultra 100 “Meteor Lake” and Intel Core Ultra 200V “Lunar Lake” processors, streaming the same 4K videos from YouTube. The older “Meteor Lake” XPS was using 18.3 W of total system power to stream the 4K video while the “Lunar Lake” model was using just 6.22 W of total system power. So the Lunar Lake system was almost three times more power efficient while streaming.
Of course, CPU power draw is part of a system’s total power usage, and there is a correlation between the wattage it takes to keep a laptop running during a specific task and its estimated battery life while doing similar tasks. However, it isn’t the kind of thing that is easy to calculate. You can estimate battery life using total system power and the Watt-hour rating of the laptop’s battery, but that’s not always a guarantee as batteries don’t discharge in equal measures over time and power draw has a tendency to vary, even when performing the same exact task over time.
That said, based on what we’ve seen so far, it seems likely the Dell XPS 13 9350 with Intel Core Ultra 200V “Lunar Lake” processors will make it to about 19 hours on our battery test, though obviously we’ll have to test that claim in our lab.
The Dell Latitude 7350 is a highly portable and lightweight laptop that balances portability with premium features, making it an ideal choice for business professionals on the move
Verdict
Pros
+Lightweight and portable
+Impressive Battery
+AI embedded in the laptop
Cons
-High Price
-Limited to 13-inch screen size
-Not as “flexible” as the 2-in-1 counterpart
Dell has long been a staple in the business workspace, known for delivering reliable, high-performance laptops that cater to the needs of professionals across various industries. The Latitude series, in particular, has been a go-to for companies looking to equip their employees with devices that are both robust and versatile.
Recently, I reviewed the Dell Latitude 7350 Detachable, a powerful 2-in-1 device that impressed with its flexibility and portability. Now, this laptop is the standard Dell Latitude 7350—a more traditional laptop that promises the same level of performance but with the stability and feature set expected from the best business laptops.
Dell Latitude 7350: Unboxing and First impressions
The Dell Latitude 7350 comes in minimalist, professional-looking packaging, and it is clear from the beginning that this is more professional than some of the laptops I look at. That could be because of the simple logo, the color, the form factor, or whatever it may be; it’s clear that this laptop is meant for business. Upon unboxing, the first thing that surprised me was how light and sleek the device was. It feels very light and portable, which would be fantastic for those daily commuters or those in and out of physical meetings all day, walking from place to place. The Latitude 7350’s build quality feels premium, with a sturdy hinge mechanism and smooth finish. All around, this laptop looks and feels great out of the box.
Dell Latitude 7350: Design and Build Quality
The Dell Latitude 7350 Business Laptop features some customizations regarding the chassis and LCD panel. The two main chassis options are an ultralight magnesium version in a deep blue and a more durable aluminum variant in a more typical gray. The ultralight model weighs just 2.18 pounds (0.989 kg), making it one of the lightest business laptops on the market. While slightly heavier, the aluminum chassis offers more durability and additional features like a SmartCard reader, which may be a deal breaker for some.
Dell offers multiple display options, including a 13.3-inch FHD+ touch and non-touch, as well as a QHD+ 2-in-1 variant, all with a 16:10 aspect ratio for enhanced productivity. This is in addition to the multiple variants of the Latitude 7350 already, meaning there are plenty of options for this laptop to be customized to your needs.
The keyboard features a mini LED backlight with a Copilot key, enhancing power efficiency and workflow speed. With the Copilot key, Microsoft’s AI is a keystroke away, ready to help you with a boost of productivity when used correctly.
Specs
Processor: Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 135U, vPro® or Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 165U, vPro® RAM: 16GB or 32GB LPDDR5x, 6400 MT/s (Onboard) Storage: 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD Display: 13.3” FHD+ (1920×1200) IPS, Anti-Glare, No-Touch, 250 nits or 13.3” QHD+ (2880×1920) IPS, Touch, 500 nits Graphics: Integrated Intel® Graphics, Core™ Ultra 5 or Ultra 7 Battery: 3 Cell, 57 Wh, ExpressCharge™ capable Ports: 2x Thunderbolt 4.0 with Power Delivery & DisplayPort (USB Type-C), 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 with PowerShare, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x Universal audio jack, Optional: SmartCard reader, uSIM card tray Connectivity: Intel® BE200 Wi-Fi 7 (2×2), Bluetooth® 5.4 Technology, Optional: 5G or 4G LTE Webcam: 1080p at 30 fps Operating System: Windows 11 Pro Dimensions: Ultralight Laptop: 11.77 x 8.38 x 0.69 inches, 2.18 lbs (0.989 kg) or Aluminum 2-in-1: 11.77 x 8.39 x 0.70 inches, 2.86 lbs (1.297 kg)
Dell Latitude 7350: In use
The Latitude 7450, the non-2-in-1 variant, is powered by Intel’s latest Core Ultra processors. It offers options ranging from the Core Ultra 5 135U to the Core Ultra 7 165U, making it highly capable for most business applications. I’ve had the opportunity to use this laptop for the last few days as my primary machine to get work done, and I have a lot of thoughts.
The Latitude 7350’s battery life is impressive, with more than 10 hours of use on a single charge and a basic daily workload. By the third day, I stopped worrying about bringing a portable power station because I was confident in my battery life.
I greatly appreciated the lightweight nature of this little 13-inch computer. It has been easy to grab and go while still being large enough for most of my work. For those things that I wish I had more screen real-estate for, I can easily plug into any of the best business monitors with the available ports and get to work.
These days, with the nature of what I do, most of my meetings are virtual. The Dell Latitude 7350 makes these meetings super easy, especially if those meetings are on Zoom or Microsoft Teams (sadly not Google Meet or others, yet). The Latitude 7350 has a collaboration touchpad, meaning that at the top of the standard touchpad are soft buttons in Zoom and Teams to help with effortless collaboration. These controls help with screen sharing, muting, turning the camera off, and showing or hiding the chat window. The collaboration features are top-notch and help make virtual meetings on this laptop a breeze.
Attributes
Notes
Rating
Design
Simple and functional design
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ease of use
Easy to use
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Practicality
Practical for most business users
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price
High priced
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dell Latitude 7350: Final verdict The Dell Latitude 7350 is a formidable choice for business users who need a lightweight, powerful, and secure device. A solid alternative to some of the best Lenovo ThinkPad laptops, its high price point is justified by the extensive customization options and premium features, making it a worthwhile investment for those who can afford it.
If you are looking for a quality, lightweight, powerful laptop and happen to have a lot of virtual meetings, this laptop should be on your list of computers to consider.
26 hours of battery! And, of course, AI-ready hardware
why this matters?
Portable devices are increasingly expected to deliver both high performance and long-lasting battery life, and Dell’s Intel XPS 13 exemplifies this balance.
Dell’s latest XPS 13 laptop is a compelling choice for those who need performance on the go. Dell highlighted significant upgrades under the hood, aiming to deliver more than just a sleek design.
The Dell XPS 13 now features Intel’s Core Ultra processors from the Series 2 lineup. This makes it more capable of handling heavy multitasking, intensive software applications, and other demanding tasks. Its dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) can perform up to 48 trillion operations per second (TOPS). This NPU boosts AI capabilities, enabling advanced tasks like generative AI for text and image creation, and faster photo and video editing.
Dell’s XPS 13 is now available with an OLED display.
OLED’s excellent contrast and deep, inky shadows demolish LCD screens.
Brightness and HDR performance are still OLED’s Achilles heel.
Dell’s XPS 13 is now available with an OLED display, and it’s gorgeous.
OLED remains strangely rare among laptops. All of today’s most popular phones, including Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy line, have embraced it in a warm, fuzzy, high-contrast hug. Yet few laptops have taken the same step, and those that have are typically large, powerful 15-inch models aimed at a niche audience.
A week with the Dell XPS 13’s OLED left me wishing the tech was more readily available on modern laptops. Yet its arrival in the XPS 13 might be a case of too little, too late.
The XPS 13 introduces a tandem OLED display, a first for any laptop, which not only delivers higher brightness but also extends battery life compared to traditional OLED screens. Combined with a claimed 26 hours of battery life while streaming on an FHD+ display, this makes the Dell XPS 13 a practical choice for those who need long-lasting performance, whether for work or media consumption, without constantly searching for a power outlet.
The laptop has a 13.4-inch InfinityEdge display, Intel Arc graphics, a 1080p webcam, Windows Hello support, and two Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) ports. Graphite and Platinum are the case color options.
OLED is self-emissive, which means each individual pixel creates its own light. This also means each pixel can be shut off entirely, achieving a deep, abyssal black that a typical LCD panel can’t match.
Most high-end laptops have great displays: the MacBook Pro 13, Microsoft Surface Laptop 4, and prior Dell XPS 13 all can impress with bright, vibrant images. Yet they fail when displaying photos or dark, atmospheric movies.
Starlit skies that should contrast the infinite darkness of space against brilliant points of light instead look hazy, as if a light fog had crept into the shot. Dell’s XPS 13 with OLED doesn’t have that problem. Shadows have true depth, providing a sense of presence and realism not found from competing LCD laptop displays.
This advantage isn’t just for 4K movies or high-res photos. On the contrary, I appreciate it most when doing what I’m doing at this very moment: writing.
The Dell XPS 13’s OLED looks distinct from LCD laptops. It’s as if the screen is not a screen at all, but instead a page ripped from an enchanted high-gloss magazine that can magically change form. It’s simply fantastic.
Dell XPS 13 vs. MacBook Pro vs. iPad Pro OLED’s downsides make it more of an alternative, rather than a straight upgrade, over the quality LCDs available in Apple’s MacBooks and in Lenovo laptops. In fact, Dell offers its own 500-nit 4K LCD for the XPS 13, and I can see why some would choose it. OLED makes sense in a home office with proper light control, but a brighter LCD could be preferable for travel.
A host of new 2-in-1 laptops have already launched in 2024, as the form factor’s popularity continues to grow. More and more laptop diehards (myself included) who have previously been unwilling to commit to a tablet are getting on board with convertibles, which give you the best of both worlds.
The HP Envy x360 16″ 2-in-1 shows up to the party with all the features that consumers actually want in a convertible: a gorgeous display, beefy speakers, and a suite of hardware to back it up, resulting in solid performance and a satisfying media experience at a mid-range price point.
Yes, a 16-inch screen is large when used as a tablet. A little unwieldy, even. The OLED display on this laptop is so good that it doesn’t matter to me. In fact, it could be bigger, and I would still happily tote it around.
The Envy x360 features a 2.8K (2880 x 1800) resolution OLED touchscreen with a variable 120Hz refresh rate and edge-to-edge glass that results in a smooth-as-silk visual experience. The 500-nit brightness is more than enough for normal use, and the glossy finish looks gorgeous (but may not be for everyone, because fingerprints are a thing).
Video playback is vibrant, smooth, and sharp, with a realistic depth of color and contrast. HP also advertises the Envy x360 as an “IMAX certified” laptop, one of the first of its kind. It earned this certification for its ability to display IMAX-formatted content in its original 1.43:1 or 1.90:1 aspect ratio. While a flashy designation, this is a laptop we’re talking about here; it’s still a 16-inch screen. It does look good, though — I’ll give it that.
The audio is also decent. While it may seem that the two vents on either side of the keyboard are speakers, audio actually originates from the dualDTS:X ultra bar-shaped speakers on the back of the device. There isn’t a lot of bass, but mid-frequency audio and dialogue sound crisp and clear and held their own when I played Netflix in a noisy kitchen.
Regarding the hardware, the Envy x360 is positioned just below HP’s Spectre line of laptops to provide great performance that serves most users’ needs. We reviewed the2024 Spectre x360earlier this year and found it has truly next-gen hardware with the cutting-edge “Meteor Lake” AI processor, but it will run you hundreds of dollars more.
buying advice
TheHP Envy x360 16 (2024)is priced well for an upper-mid-tier device with a gorgeous display and solid performance. Creators will love this laptop’s flexible form factor and impressive battery life. After using it for a few weeks, I can say that it’s my favorite big-screen 2-in-1, despite its quirks. This is a laptop for work as much as it is for entertainment, and if you’re looking for a 2-in-1 laptop, you have to consider the Envy x360.
If you’re looking for a smaller option, consider HP’s 2024 Spectre x360, which has a 14-inch display. For something more adventurous, check out theLenovo Yoga Book 9i, which has two displays.
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