As of right now, Dell’s website lists the XPS 13 Plus with just the Core i7-1360P CPU. That gives a starting price of $1,399 with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and the 13.4-inch FHD+ non-touch IPS display. Increase to 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD, and choose either the 3.5K OLED or UHD+ IPS panel, and you’ll spend $2,099. That makes the XPS 13 Plus a very premium 13-inch laptop.

With one look, you can tell someone had a vision over at Dell for the XPS 13 Plus. That’s been true of the XPS line for years now, but you can see why Dell gave this design a new name. It’s well-deserving of one.

Gone is the carbon-fiber weave palm rests that became synonymous with the XPS brand, trading it in for a sleeker and more conventional aluminum surface throughout. There are two color options available this time: the darker “Granite” color and the lighter Platinum option, both of which have a unique tint. Outside the Dell logo on the back, though, there’s very little that resembles previous XPS laptops – at least not from the outside.

The Dell XPS 13 Plus includes just two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, and that’s it. No headphone jack. No microSD card slot. No nothing.

You, like most people, probably have a visceral reaction to having things taken away from them, even if it’s to make for better tech in the long run. That’s the case with the headphone jack, and I certainly had some of the same feelings myself.

The “Plus” in this laptop’s name is supposed to refer to improved performance. Leaning in on how Intel has divided up its new line of chips (with distinct U- and P-series chips), Dell is pointing to the XPS 13 Plus as the more powerful option, using a 28-watt chip instead of a 15-watt chip. The original model used the highest-end Intel 12th-gen option, the Core i7-1280P, which comes with 14 cores (6 Performance cores and 8 Efficiency cores) and a 4.8GHz max frequency. My review unit paired this CPU with 16GB of 5200MHz RAM.

For 2023, Dell went with Intel’s 13th-gen CPUs. The new model I reviewed equipped the 28-watt Core i7-1360P, not quite the highest-end processor in the lineup with just 12 cores (4 Performance cores and 8 Efficiency cores) with a 5.0GHz max frequency. The number of threads drops from 20 to 16. You can configure the new machine with the Core i7-1370P, which has 14 cores and 20 threads and runs up to 5.2GHz. RAM speed increased to 6000MHz.

But when it comes to the laptop itself, don’t get fooled by the marketing hype, occurring from both Dell and Intel, in this case. The XPS 13 Plus is plenty powerful, but it’s not any more of a performance-driven laptop than last year’s XPS 13. In fact, the upcoming XPS 13 is the one that has been downgraded to a lower-wattage CPU. There’s a larger story to tell there, but suffice it to say: The XPS 13 Plus isn’t dramatically more powerful than other laptops of its size.

In the default Optimized mode, the XPS 13 Plus actually leans toward a cooler, quieter experience. Internal temperatures never got too hot, which has sometimes been an issue with other XPS laptops. But remember: With many laptops transitioning toward a larger, 14-inch screen size with a bit more room for cooling, the XPS 13 Plus (and standard XPS 13) isn’t the most powerful device to use this chip, as tested in just about every benchmark I threw at it.

The good news is the jump from 11th-gen to 12th-gen Intel chips was pretty significant in multi-core workloads, and the jump to the 13th-gen CPU is just as impactful in a couple of our benchmarks. So, you’ll likely be happy with the performance here, even with some fairly heavy multitasking, and even light content creation. Not exactly a machine you’ll want to spend all day editing 4K video on, but no laptop of this size really is. Note that the 2022 model didn’t keep up with its 28-watt 12th-gen competition, and in fact, the 2023 model with the 13th-gen CPU is slower in some cases. This just emphasizes that the XPS 13 Plus isn’t the speediest laptop around even though it’s fast enough for most users.

Rather than bump the screen size up to 14 inches and introduce some discrete graphics, the XPS 13 Plus is left as a capable laptop, but one that feels like it’s overselling its capabilities. Know what you’re getting into, though, and you’ll find plenty of performance for a laptop of this size.

Sidenote: I thought it was a really odd move when it was announced. At the time, I thought a 14-inch model would make more sense, especially since you could maybe put in a 45-watt CPU and a discrete graphics card, which is what a lot of laptop manufacturers have been doing recently. But after seeing what Apple has done by splitting its own lineup between the M1 MacBook Air and M2 MacBook Air, you can see that Dell was going after a very similar lineup. Even the prices almost line up identically. 

Dell emphasizes the available Performance mode found in the My Dell utility, which has been engineered to unlock far more performance. In the 2023 model, I saw a 19% increase in multi-core and a 4% increase in single-core performance in Geekbench 5. The difference was even more pronounced in Cinebench R23, with a 33% increase in multi-core and a 13% increase in single-core. Every company (and device) handles these performance modes differently, and it’s not unheard of to see that kind of delta in performance modes, but the XPS 13 Plus certainly takes greater advantage of this Performance mode than the average laptop.

The second-biggest difference I saw between these modes was in Handbrake, where Performance mode resulted in a 23% faster video encode. That’s a serious uptick, although not as much as the 45% increase in the previous model, showing just how much performance is left on the table in Dell’s Optimized mode. If you’re sitting down to do some work in an application that requires some heavier lifting, switching modes is certainly worth the time it takes to open up the app.

Because it uses a 28-watt processor, the internals of the XPS 13 Plus actually share a lot in common with previous entries in the lineup. It uses two fans, some heat pipes, and some small vents in the bottom lid and by the hinge. And overall, I prefer the XPS 13 Plus’ approach to balancing heat and performance, though the bottom of the laptop gets very warm. It was enough for me to not want to use it on my lap for too long, even in Optimized mode.

Dell’s “Cool” mode helps quite a bit, and I actually found myself staying there for the majority of my day-to-day work. It restricts performance quite a bit, but the only time I felt the slowdown was in video calls while doing other work simultaneously.

Still, the surface temperature is a frustration, especially when you compare it to Apple’s MacBooks. These laptops, either the M1 or M2 model, do such an incredible job at staying cool and quiet – it’s hard not to avoid making that comparison.

As we noticed while doing laptop reviews in 2022, devices powered by Intel’s 12th-gen chips aren’t exactly battery champions. Most see a reduction from previous generations, which is a shame. The XPS 13 Plus, with its 55-watt-hour battery, fits this trend. So far in 2023, Intel’s 13th-gen chips haven’t seemed to make a huge improvement, and indeed, the latest XPS 13 Plus dropped in battery life.

The laptop lasted just 5.25 hours on a single charge while running web browsing macros that cycle through websites in Google Chrome, compared to the 2022 model at eight hours. Next, I tossed a local 1080p movie trailer on a loop, and the battery died after 6.75 hours (9.25 hours on the previous version). These results are below average for a laptop of this type, even one with a 4K OLED touchscreen. You’re bound to get a couple more hours from the base model with its lower resolution screen, but I haven’t tested it yet myself.

The XPS 13 Plus uses the same 13.4-inch 16:10 panel as used in previous versions of the XPS 13 — and it’s fantastic. Mine is the 3456 x 2160 resolution OLED panel, though you can opt for the 3840 x 2400 IPS display for the exact same price. The latter option isn’t OLED, but it’s a bit brighter and sharper. The OLED model tops out at 375 nits, which certainly isn’t the brightest panel in the world. But it’s plenty bright, even while working by a window or under harsh overhead lighting.

Even if you were to opt for the lower resolution base model, however, you’d be getting a solid screen. The model I reviewed has excellent color saturation (100% sRGB, 95% AdobeRGB) and color accuracy (Delta-E of 0.85). And, of course, because it’s OLED you get absolute blacks for contrast that standard LED panels just can’t compete with. That makes it a wonderful screen for watching TV shows or videos online.

And the bezels, of course, are as thin as ever, including up top where the webcam is. Even compared to the MacBook Air (which has a large notch), these bezels are just tiny — and it looks gorgeous.

It’s clear that Dell is onto something special with the XPS 13 Plus. More than any other laptop I’ve reviewed in the past couple of years, this is the one people want to stop me and see. While the standard XPS 13 will likely be the more popular option because of its price and more conventional keyboard and touchpad, the XPS 13 Plus feels less like a wild experiment and more like a gentle nudge to the rest of the industry in a new direction.