A new Dell XPS 13 model has just been announced, and it looks like an absolute battery beast on paper. Powered by Intel's Core Ultra 200 series chips (codenamed “Lunar Lake”), the impressively svelte 13-incher promises “new AI experiences” housed in an ultra-portable form factor.
The announcement of Dell’s thinnest XPS neatly coincides with the launch of IFA 2024 this week — the mega tech event celebrating its 100-year anniversary in Berlin. How thin are we talking here? An almost absurdly skinny 05.58 inches wide, with a weight of just 2.6 pounds. That means it has an almost identical size profile as the brilliant Snapdragon X Elite-powered Dell XPS 13 (2024) we recently reviewed.
Like its fellow Copilot+ cousin, the new Intel Dell XPS 13 can be upgraded to a 13.4-inch OLED display (2880 x 1800), though the starting model is limited to a FHD+ IPS panel. Check out the specs sheet for the Dell XPS 13 (9350) below…
Dell XPS 13 (9350) review: Specs
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Dell XPS 13 (9350) |
|---|---|
| Display | Up to 13.4-inch OLED (2,800 x 1,800) "InfinityEdge" at 120Hz |
| CPU | Up to Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor |
| GPU | Intel Arc |
| Battery life | Up to 30 hours of HD video playback at FHD+ |
| Memory | Up to 32GB DDR5 RAM |
| Storage | Up to 4TB |
| Ports | 2x Thunderbolt/USB Type-C, 1x DisplayPort 2.1 |
| Dimensions | 11.6 x 7.8 x 0.58 inches |
| Weight | 2.6 pounds |
While the presence of a 120Hz Tandem OLED screen (like the iPad Pro 2024) is impressive, it’s that battery life figure that’s even more news-worthy.
The Snapdragon XPS 13 already has the longest battery life of any consumer laptop we’ve ever tested — an astonishing 19 hours and 41 minutes based on our web surfing results with its screen set to 150 nits of screen brightness, though Dell promised it could get up to 27 hours when playing 1080p video. If the new Intel version can genuinely last for up to 30 hours of video playback in real-world usage, that will be nothing short of an incredible technical feat.
Dell has seemingly put a lot of work into the staying power of this new XPS 13-inch model, with the laptop offering four different performance profiles to keep this slender system running as cool and quiet as possible. These thermal management profiles span “Optimized”, “Cool”, “Quiet” and “Ultra Performance” — meaning it’s unlikely it will get too hot to rest on your lap for extended periods of time.
As is becoming increasingly common with the best laptops, the Lunar Lake Dell XPS 13 promises fresh AI features, like Magix Vegas Pro and Luminar Neo. Both apps claim to make both video and image editing more efficient to speed up your workflow.
A good example of what the latter piece of software is capable of? Dell says it can intelligently remove unwanted elements from an image (like, say, power lines in the background of a photo) through a simple slider.
If the new Intel Core Ultra 200 Dell XPS 13 truly can beat the Snapdragon model in terms of staying power, earning itself the title of “new battery life champ” in the process, this could be one heck of a laptop.
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