Dell XPS 13 Plus Laptop Review: Gorgeous, Powerful, Radical

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Dell’s XPS 13 line of ultralight laptops has been wildly popular for several generations now, so it’s no wonder its physical design hasn’t undergone many major changes along the way. However, the new Dell XPS 13 Plus (model 9320) is a very different little beastie, from its oversized key caps and platinum glass palm rest in its typing deck, to what Dell is calling its “seamless glass, haptic force pad” and its capacitive touch function key row. Without question, the XPS 13 Plus’ force pad haptics and seamless touchpad (or lack there of) are a fairly radical departure from most traditional laptop designs. Although cutting to the quick on that topic, we don’t think this design change is something that will require much end user learning curve, as it’s generally well-executed. In fact, we could see this being a design innovation Dell builds upon for future products as well. Yes, we personally like the way it looks and performs that much, although admittedly some may find Dell’s bold industrial design departure jarring.

Indeed, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes. So, whether the XPS 13 Plus’ understated design and super-clean lines are for you, is a question you’ll have to answer for yourself. That said, although looks are only part of the equation, this is indeed one gorgeous 13-inch clamshell laptop. Take a gander for yourself in our hands-on preview video tour with Randall from Dell…

Like many of the recent crop of ultralight laptops we’ve reviewed, Dell’s new XPS 13 Plus has also been revamped under its hood as well, with Intel’s 12th Gen Core Series processors, aka Alder Lake. The rest of this machine’s config is pretty standard fare with a few notable highlights. On board our unit is 16GB of 5200MHz LPDDR5 memory (soldered) and a 512GB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD. It is nice to see Dell go the distance here, unlike Samsung’s Galaxy Book2 Pro that we recently looked at, that’s only strapped with a PCIe Gen 3 SSD. The good news is, that SSD is also socketed in a standard M.2 slot, so future upgrades are technically possible, and unlike Apple’s M1 and M2 MacBooks, a failing SSD will not brick your machine.

For connectivity, we’re treated to Intel’s Killer Wi-Fi 6 (AX211) Wi-Fi NIC with packet prioritization as well as Bluetooth 5.2, and a pair of USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports. Unfortunately, that’s where the connectivity ends, as Dell has removed both the microSD card reader and the headphone jack from this laptop. Since most folks are rocking wireless buds these days, the latter isn’t as much of a concern (especially since Dell does include a 3.5mm USB-C dongle) but the former is a bummer for anyone that likes to work regularly with digital cameras , like our team here at HotHardware.

Other accoutrements include a 720p limited webcam that’s Windows Hello capable at least, along with an ambient light sensor that should improve your picture somewhat. Although, in this day and age of work-from-home, we were hoping for 1080p resolution to up that all-important video conference game. Finally, a modest 55 Whr battery (more on this later) is on board and a bundled 60 Watt AC USB Type-C power adapter with Express Charge allows you to replenish the machine from zero to 80% in less than an hour. That’s not as fast as some competitive machines but top offs are still reasonably quick.