Dell Brings Back XPS Laptops: We’re Hands-On With The CES Comeback
After a yearlong hiatus, Dell's XPS brand is back! Dell announced the return of the iconic brand at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), the same event where it was officially retired last year in an effort to streamline Dell's various product categories. We had a chance to go hands-on with new XPS laptops coming out this year (more on that in a moment), which you won't want to miss.
We're pretty stoked to see the XPS brand return and we imagine a lot of seasoned geeks and enthusiasts will be as well. There's a certain nostalgia that exists for brands of yesteryear, and every time we lose one, it's a reminder that we're getting older, too. Case in point, who remembers DFI and its LanParty motherboards, or AdLib sound cards from way back in the day (or sound cards in general), or BFG, OCZ, and the list goes on. More recently, Micron added Crucial to the list of retired consumer brands after a 29-year run.
Similarly, the XPS brand has been around for a little over three decades and was an easy way to distinguish Dell's more premium, higher performance systems (XPS stands for Extreme Performance System) from its more mainstream products. Yes, Alienware belongs to Dell too, but there's certainly room for both brands—Alienware is geared more towards gamers with bold design languages, whereas XPS is more refined in its attire and design, (while still being powerful rigs).
Hands-On With Dells New 14-Inch And 16-Inch XPS Laptops
Dell is using the launch of Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 processors based on Panther Lake as the starting point for the return of its XPS brand in laptop form, with 14-inch and 16-inch models on tap. We had a chance to check these out in person and part of what stood is that this isn't just a relaunch of an iconic brand, nor is it simply a hardware refresh, but yet another refinement of Dell's premium laptop line.
We're still looking at a sleek chassis made of CNC aluminum and Dell's excellent InfinityEdge displays. Had Dell merely swapped out the internal hardware, these would still be desirable laptops, but a series of subtle design tweaks add up to a worthy refresh for the XPS welcome home party.
For example, the XPS logo now sits on the front cover (shown above) for the first time ever, which Dell says is something that reviewers and XPS fans have been requesting for years.
"We’re bringing back the traditional function row for reliable,
tactile feedback. We’ve included subtle etching around the active area of the seamless glass touchpad.
And we’ve optimized key travel and tactile feedback to deliver a more accurate, faster typing experience.
These may seem like small details, but they make a real difference in how the laptop feels to use every
day," Dell says.
The effort towards a "minimalist yet practical design" extends to DIY repairs, too. Dell says the keyboards on its latest laptops are easy to remove, and these are the first XPS devices to feature modular USB-C ports. Good stuff.
Internally, Dell is offering Panther Lake processor options spanning the Core Ultra 5 325 (8 cores, up to 4.5GHz, 12MB cache) on up to the Core Ultra X9 388H (16 cores, up to 5.1GHz, 18MB cache), along with up to 64GB of LPDDR5X-9600 memory in a dual-channel configuration (entry-level configs get DDR5-7467) and up to 4GB of PCIe 5.0 SSD storage.
For the smaller 14-inch model, Dell is offering two InfinityEdge panel options. One is a 2K (1920x1200) IPS touch display with 500 nits of brightness, 1-120Hz refresh rate, and Dolby Vision support, and the other is an 2.8K (2880x1800) OLED display with up to 500 nits of brightness (400 nits typical), a 20-120Hz refresh rate, and DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification. Notably, the previous generation model bottomed out at 30Hz. Why does this matter? By allowing the refresh rate to dial all the back to 1Hz, there are power savings to be had, which in turn can help extend battery life.
On the 16-inch model, buyers can choose between a 2K IPS (non-touch) with the same resolution and specs as the 14-inch model, or a 3.2K (3200x2000) OLED with touch support. Yes, that's not as pixel dense as the 4K OLED that Dell previously offer, but the company tells us its a bolder and brighter panel. There also tandem OLEDs with better efficiency than the last-gen models. According to Dell, these are the first laptops to employ tandem OLED displays. Unlike traditional OLED displays, tandem OLEDs stack multiple light-emitting layers for a brightness boost and better energy efficiency.
The cooling scheme is was updated (for the better) on the new XPS laptops too. Dell is using larger but thinner fans, along with wider 8mm heat pipes in the 14-inch model and dual heat pipes on the 16-inch model.
"We completely redesigned the thermal system to support this performance. Our new fans are our largest
and thinnest yet , delivering better airflow for cooler performance. The result? All that performance
while staying cooler, quieter and offering better battery life. It’s the engineering decision that made
everything possible," Dell says.
The bottom line is that there is more to the story here than just the return of Dell's XPS brand. These latest additions are faster, sleeker, and are the thinnest (less than 13mm) and lightest (around 3 pounds for the 14-inch model and 3.65-3.75 pounds for the 16-inch model) XPS laptops to date.
Dell's new XPS laptops will be available to order on January 6 in limited configurations, with the XPS 14 starting at $2,049 and the XPS 16 starting at $2,199.99. More options (including a new entry-level config) priced well under $2,000 will be available in February. Both sizes will debut in Graphite, with a Shimmer colorway coming later. Dell also plans to offer the XPS 14 with Ubuntu 24.04 sometime later this year.
