Next we'll check a few more vitals signs of the new Dell XPS 13 Plus, to see how it stacks up in terms of battery life, thermal and acoustic performance.
Dell XPS 13 Plus Battery Life Performance
The Dell XPS 13 Plus is equipped with a modest 55 Whr Li-ion battery, like many ultralight machines we've tested in the past. Here we're running PCMark's Battery test that runs a 1080p video playback workload in a continuous loop, with the Windows 11 Movies and TV player, until the battery is exhausted. In all tests, Windows Quiet Hours / Focus Assist has been enabled and the displays are calibrated with lux meters on pure white screens to as close to 115 lux as possible. Wi-Fi is left enabled, which we feel is a common use case. However, enabling airplane mode in a travel use case, for example, would provide additional battery life over the results we'll show you here.
We'll keep analysis here short and to the point, battery life is not a strong suit for the new Dell XPS 13 Plus. The above up-time score was recorded on the machine's standard Optimized power profile, and though this laptop was virtually silent during the test, it brought up the rear of our test group. It would add a bit to the weight, but this ultralight simply could use a beefier battery. That said, we were able to coax 8.5 hours of always-on video playback battery out of the XPS 13 Plus, so this isn't a shortcoming that we'd consider a showstopper for most mainstream users.
Dell's 60 Watt Power Brick Is Tiny For Maximum Portability
Dell XPS 13 Plus Thermals And Acoustics
Our thermal and acoustic tests involved running 3DMark's built-in stress test on the Dell XPS 13 Plus until its fans fully spun up and its thermal solution was saturated. We also set the machine to both its Optimized and Performance modes, the latter of which is essentially a worst-case scenario in terms of the system's peak noise output.
Dell's XPS 13 Plus Remains Very Quiet Under Load (Optimized mode)
Here the Dell XPS 13 Plus really stands out, or should we say, lies low? At its Optimized settings, this machine is whisper quiet, relatively speaking. Dialing things up to Ultra Performance mode only drives noise output a few more decibels higher to 49db, which is still unobtrusive and relatively quiet versus other similar weight class machines we've tested previously.
XPS 13 Plus Top Side Thermals Look Good
We also measured about 106ºF with our infrared thermal gun pointed at the warmest areas of the laptop, which were just above the keyboard, skewed slightly to the left (directly above the processor). The keyboard deck and touchpad, however, remained in the mid 80°F to low 90s range, which was perfectly comfortable to use and type on, even for extended periods.
The Bottom Side Of The Dell XPS 13 Plus Can Get Toasty
The bottom side of the Dell XPS 13 Plus, however, can get a bit too warm for comfort at the system's Ultra Performance settings. As such, we'd only recommend this setting for use when the machine is sitting on a desktop. Even at its Optimized mode (seen above), the machine can get a little too warm for complete comfort at times, especially if your ambient room temps are warmer during various season conditions.
Dell XPS 13 Plus Review Conclusion
Dell's new XPS 13 Plus is a well-equipped, powerful 13-inch laptop that will satisfy a number of productivity and content creation use cases and a wide swath of mainstream laptop users. It has a great looking, modern design and impeccable build quality, along with top shelf materials and components, like its killer 3.5K OLED display option in our test system.
However, the combination of Intel's powerful but power-hungry and warm-running Alder Lake 12th Gen Core i7-1280P 14-core chip, seem to be a bit too much for Dell's thermal solution to handle in this wafer-thin laptop design. Though noise output from the machine was very tame and actually best-of-breed in the 2.5 - 3 lb laptop category, the bottom of the machine can get uncomfortably warm at its Ultra Performance power and thermal settings. Battery life left something to be desired as well. In addition, with only two USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports available on this machine, some users may find this laptop's IO expansion options to be too limited. We really wish Dell had not removed the microSD card reader as well.
That said, Dell does pack in both a USB-A dongle and a 3.5mm headset dongle as well with the new XPS 13 Plus, so getting your goes-into on with some of these legacy port types is not a problem, right out of the box. There's so much to like about the new Dell XPS 13 Plus, from its fantastically comfortable and forgiving zero lattice keyboard, to that funky, seemingly non-existent, seamless glass touchpad and its eye-popping OLED display. This machine is a radical departure from traditional laptop designs and a pretty head-turner in every way, though there are a few shortcomings you'll need to consider. Frankly, we can't wait to see what Dell does with the XPS 13 Plus in the future, perhaps with an Intel Raptor Lake 13Th Gen platform update. As it stands today, however, the new Dell XPS 13 Plus is HotHardware Approved as a beautiful new ultralight laptop option with just a couple of caveats.
