Dell’s newest XPS 13 laptop is featherlight and AI-infused

Today, Dell announced the latest iteration of its XPS 13 laptop. Not only is it ridiculously lightweight at just 2.6 pounds, but it also boasts the latest Lunar Lake processor from Intel. And that’s just the start of it.

Dell’s XPS line of laptops are known for their premium feel and eye-catching (usually minimalistic) design, so much so that they stand in well as MacBook alternatives. The newest model follows much of the same design blueprint as its predecessors, but this one’s more AI-focused.

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The new Dell XPS 13 isn’t just light, but it’s also ridiculously slim at just 0.58 inches (14.8mm) thin. This laptop is designed with portability in mind, which is perfect for commuters and students. Shoulder pain? Never heard of her. And despite the lack of weight, it’s still packing some decent hardware as well as the usual Touch Function Row feature.

The Dell XPS 13 can be configured with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V processor, Intel Arc graphics, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 4TB of SSD storage (post-launch). We haven’t tested this particular configuration yet, but given those numbers, I’d expect nothing short of blazing-fast performance, especially for day-to-day tasks and office work.

The new Dell XPS 13 laptop also happens to be one of the first to feature a tandem OLED screen, which uses two OLED panels instead of one. Essentially, you’re overlapping the pixels from two panels on top of each other, resulting in a brighter display.

And that’s going to be a 13.4-inch touch display with a resolution of 2880×1800 and a brightness level of 400 nits. (A non-touch option will be available as well.) As with most OLED displays, you can expect richer colors and deeper blacks.

The Touch Function Row, which lights up in the space between the keyboard and the display, allows you to switch between media and function keys. It’s not a new feature from Dell, but it’s still an interesting inclusion nonetheless. It actually reminds me of the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, but it’s more elegant in its appearance.

What about the toted AI features? The new Dell XPS 13 is able to create create images or music from text, edit photos or videos with just a few clicks, among other things. You can do all of this without having to worry about it impacting overall performance, and you can thank the neural processing unit (NPU) for that.

The NPU is a special component that’s designed for speed and meant to chew through AI computations, freeing up the CPU and GPU for other non-AI tasks. NPU speeds are measured in TOPS, and the NPU within the new Dell XPS 13 is capable of up to 48 TOPS. Learn more on key terms to know about in AI PCs.

The new Dell XPS 13 is available to pre-order right now and it comes with a starting price of $1,399.99.