Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Review: Style and a Fair Amount of Substance

Value When Reviewed

From $1,299 | Mannequin reviewed $2,099

Finest Costs As we speak: Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320

After a few years of comparatively minor spec updates, Dell is again with a totally redesigned ultrabook providing within the Dell XPS 13 Plus. I don’t assume it’s an excessive amount of of a spoiler to say on the outset that it’s downright attractive.

That includes a real edge-to-edge keyboard, tiny show bezel, an invisible haptic touchpad, and capacitive perform keys, it’s a daring new aesthetic that largely pays off. However can Dell keep its admirable popularity and produce an ultrabook that performs in addition to it seems?

The Dell XPS line has at all times been scorching on efficiency (and infrequently simply plain scorching), so we received’t think about it job finished until the brand new XPS 13 Plus is as aggressive in use as it’s simple on the attention.

Design & Construct

• Gorgeous fashion
• Skinny and light-weight
• Restricted ports

I’ve given the sport away considerably, however you possibly can already see the proof from the photographs. The Dell XPS 13 Plus is a little bit of a looker.

Dell’s new design pushes the keyboard proper as much as the sting of the body, leaving it feeling good and spacious while the laptop computer itself feels pleasingly compact. I’m much less eager concerning the swap to a capacitive perform key bar, however we’ll cope with that in additional depth within the related part. Superficially, no less than, it’s nice.

The XPS 13 Plus isn’t spectacularly slim or light-weight for a 13in laptop computer, but it surely’s not even near being hefty both. At 15.28mm it’s a little bit slimmer than the Huawei MateBook X Professional, and at 1.26kg it’s a little bit lighter, too. 

Jon Mundy / Foundry

One different level price noting right here is that the OLED mannequin is barely heavier than the LCD. For those who’re after a extra compact OLED laptop computer, you would possibly wish to try the Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED.

Construct high quality is sort of unimpeachable, with a strong steel body and Dell’s signature soft-touch end combining rigidity and luxury. The latter easy end across the keyboard, mixed with the sunshine gray shade of the typing floor, does appear to grubby up with greasy prints fairly rapidly, nevertheless.

Sadly, Dell hasn’t used this revamp to rethink its port provision. If something it’s gotten worse, with simply the 2 USB-C ports, one both aspect. Each help Thunderbolt 4’s top-notch speeds, however there’s no microSD slot and no USB-A, neither is there even a 3.5mm jack for plugging headphones in.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

For an ultrabook with Professional pretensions (although maybe tellingly not a Professional title), it’s a little bit of a disgrace and also you’ll nearly actually want a USB-C hub.

I additionally discovered that the show hinge was weighted a little bit an excessive amount of on the heavy aspect, which means the entire laptop computer would slide again after I tried to open it one-handed on my desk. It’s a small element, however a significant one in a premium laptop computer that you simply’re going to be opening and shutting a whole bunch of occasions all year long.

Keyboard & Trackpad

• Edge-to-edge keyboard
• Capacitive perform bar
• Invisible haptic touchpad

As we’ve already mentioned, Dell has actually modified issues up within the keyboard division. It has achieved its tight edge-to-edge squeeze by eradicating all of the in-betweeny bits, or the lattice to present it a extra official time period. 

Regardless of this fat-trimming train, typing by no means felt like a chore, and I used to be in a position to transition from a traditional MacBook chiclet keyboard with none difficulty in any respect. A part of that’s due to the dimensions of the keys – they’re good and enormous – and a part of it’s as a result of the texture and journey of the keys are each spot on. 

Jon Mundy / Foundry

I’m much less eager concerning the swap to a capacitive perform key bar. Simply because the mechanical really feel of the bodily keys actually sells Dell’s new method, so too does the dearth of really feel within the perform key bar scupper its possibilities of success. The disconcerting lack of suggestions when making an attempt to Print Display screen illustrates the purpose. 

Some touchpad-like haptics can be a worthy addition if Dell decides to stay with this method. It’s undeniably cool how urgent the Fn key switches the lighting to spotlight the secondary perform, although.

The choice to make the touchpad invisible would seem like one other questionable resolution at first, seemingly favouring fashion over substance. In observe, nevertheless, I discovered it to be surprisingly simple to function, with the area bar serving as a refined indicator of its limits. It helps that the touchpad itself is of top quality, with first rate responsiveness and robust haptic suggestions.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

For biometric authentication, you get each a fingerprint sensor mounted within the energy button, and an IR digicam that prompts whenever you elevate the lid for Home windows Hi there. I used to be glad of the fingerprint sensor provision, because the IR digicam proved to be a little bit hit or miss, particularly in decrease lighting.

It’s a disgrace to see a mere 720p webcam right here. Evidently, that skinny bezel has come at a price, and that price is a suitably sharp picture of your mug throughout Zoom calls.

Display screen & Audio system

• 13.3in OLED contact panel
• LCD fashions obtainable
• All 60Hz
• 4 audio system

I used to be despatched the range-topping mannequin for this evaluate, which comes with a 13.4in 3456 x 2160 (aka 3.5K) OLED contact show. You can even specify the XPS 13 Plus with an Full HD+ LCD or a 4K LCD, with the previous additionally coming in a non-touch specification.

All show choices are 60Hz, so this isn’t a laptop computer that’s notably amenable to gaming or coping with excessive body fee video content material. It’s not an enormous difficulty by any means, although it’s price noting that the Huawei MateBook X Professional (2022) does provide you with a 90Hz show (albeit solely LCD), so it’s a slight disgrace to see Dell not providing the same choice someplace in its new line.

After all, it might want to deal with the XPS 13 Plus’s battery life points earlier than it might entertain such an concept however we’ll get to that in good time.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

The display on this OLED mannequin is a pleasure to behold. It’s packed filled with pixels and is suitably colour-accurate, with an sRGB gamut protection of 94.2% in opposition to a gamut quantity of 98.6%, and a median Delta E of 1.35 (the nearer to 1 the higher). HDR is supported, although it’s off by default, so that you’ll have to activate it within the Settings menu. Be warned although, battery life will take successful.

It’s not the brightest show in the marketplace, however a peak brightness of round 450 nits ought to be completely enough for regular indoor situations and a few outside. It’s a touchscreen panel, too, so you possibly can go hands-on with Home windows 11 if that’s your most popular methodology of interplay.

On the audio aspect, Dell has supplied two tweeters and two 2W audio system. They’re clear and loud, if a little bit missing in depth and low finish punch in comparison with the MacBooks of this world.

Specs & Efficiency

• Twelfth-gen Intel
• No discrete GPU choice
• As much as 32GB RAM
• As much as 2TB SSD

Dell has outfitted the highest mannequin of its new XPS 13 Plus vary with a 12-core Intel Core i7-1260P, with built-in Intel Iris Xe graphics. There isn’t any discrete GPU choice. This range-topping mannequin additionally offers you a beneficiant 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. 

It’s a succesful sufficient set-up for a productivity-focused 13-incher, or no less than it’s when the laptop computer is working suitably cool. Sadly, like its predecessors and notably the early 2020 mannequin, beginning up extra intensive duties like video games, working a number of internet tabs and apps, or just plugging the XPS 13 Plus in will rapidly ramp the fan up because the machine grows a little bit toasty.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

The fan noise isn’t too obnoxious, but it surely’s nearly continually there, even throughout comparatively gentle utilization. 

In benchmarking phrases, the XPS 13 Plus performs effectively in opposition to a few of its rivals, completely smashing the likes of the Huawei Matebook X Professional and the Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED in Geekbench 5 multi-core phrases, and getting impressively near the MacBook Air M2. 

In PCMark 10, which makes an attempt to simulate life like workloads, it’s aggressive with the Huawei MateBook X Professional (late 2022), and it falls a little bit wanting the Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED (2022). It’s the same story with the GPU-focused 3DMark Night time Raid check.

Battery Life & Charging

• 7+ hours video playback
• Worse with HDR
• Even worse for combined utilization

In our normal looping 720p video check, the XPS 13 Plus solely lasted 7 hours and 14 minutes, which falls greater than 4 hours wanting the Huawei Matebook X Professional. You possibly can’t pin this poor outcome solely on the OLED show supplied right here both, because the Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED lasted effectively over twice as lengthy in the identical check. 

That is with the default set-up of Balanced battery mode, and with HDR switched off. Flick that HDR swap on for the total gamut of show colors, and the looping video outcome dips to five hours 28 minutes.

In sensible phrases, the straightforward truth is you received’t be capable of get by way of a full working day with the Dell XPS 13 Plus on a single cost. I discovered {that a} morning of largely Chrome-based work duties (phrase processing in GDocs, a podcast, and a number of other different lively tabs) with some gentle communication app utilization (WhatsApp, Mail, and Slack) and a few 10-minute YouTube movies emptied a full tank in 3 hours and 40 minutes.

That’s a little bit of an issue in a compact laptop computer that’s in any other case constructed for comfy long-term utilization, and I’d implore Dell to think about upping its battery life recreation in future revisions.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

With half-hour of charging from the equipped 60W charger, the XPS 13 Plus obtained it as much as 25%. That’s not one of many faster charging charges we’ve come throughout in a laptop computer of this type. The Huawei Matebook X Professional will hit double that proportion utilizing its considerably quicker 90W charger, although that’s an exceptionally speedy outcome.

Software program

• Home windows 11 House
• Vary of pre-installed apps

The Dell XPS 13 Plus ships with Home windows 11 House, as you’d anticipate. You additionally get some pre-installed apps that can both be welcome time and labour-saving inclusions or irritating bloat, relying in your proclivities.

To my thoughts, this checklist of preinstalled apps is usually defensible, together with the generally used likes of TikTok, Instagram, Spotify, Whatsapp, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. You’ll additionally need to put up with McAfee antivirus bugging you to improve every now and then, however that’s hardly uncommon.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Value & Availability 

Costs for the Dell XPS 13 Plus begin from $1,299/£1,298.99, which can snag you an i5-1240P CPU, 8GB RAM, 512GB storage, and a Full HD+ LCD display.

My check mannequin sits on the top-of-the-range within the UK, with a ‘3.5K’ OLED show, Intel Core i7-1260P processor, 32 GB RAM, and 1TB of storage for £1,998.98. Nevertheless, you possibly can spec as much as an i7-1280P and 2TB of storage for a cool $2,399 within the US.

With three completely different processors, three RAM capacities, 4 SSD sizes and 4 screens, there are lots of attainable SKUs.

You should purchase Dell within the US in addition to Amazon and Finest Purchase.

Within the UK, you may get the XPS 13 Plus from Dell, Amazon, Currys, John Lewis, Field, Very and Laptops Direct.

Try our chart of the perfect laptops to see extra choices.

Verdict 

The Dell XPS 13 Plus represents a daring and largely profitable redesign of a well-liked and extremely regarded premium compact laptop computer. The brand new edge-to-edge keyboard is as simple on the attention as it’s a delight to sort with, whereas the invisible trackpad proves surprisingly practical. In the meantime, the addition of a pointy 3.5K OLED show choice makes for a surprising media canvas.

Not each redesigned factor works, with the capacitive perform bar, specifically, coming throughout as innovation for innovation’s sake. There are extra urgent points elsewhere, with a crucial lack of ports and disappointing battery life key amongst them. The machine additionally continues the XPS tendency to run a little bit scorching and loud, too.

All in all, the Dell XPS 13 Plus represents an thrilling evolution for the sequence and one of many easiest 13in laptops on the market for writing and for media consumption. Energy customers would possibly wish to look ahead to a revision that concentrates a little bit extra on a few of the down and soiled sensible considerations, nevertheless.

Specs

• Mannequin examined:
• Home windows 11 House
• 13.4in 3.5K AMOLED show (16:9 facet ratio, 3456×2160) 
• Intel Core i7-1260P
• Intel Iris Xe graphics 
• 32GB LPDDR5 RAM
• 1TB SSD
• Full-size keyboard with backlighting 720p HD Digicam
• Twin 2W audio system
• Fingerprint energy button
• IR digicam (Home windows Hi there)
• 2x Thunderbolt 4
• Wi-Fi 6E 
• Bluetooth 5.2
• 55Wh battery
• 60W charger
• 295.30 x 199.04 x 15.28mm 
• 1.26kg