Review: Dell’s XPS 13 Plus pulls high performance from a frustrating design

Dell’s XPS 13 laptop computer has been a staple amongst Home windows ultralights, sometimes providing respectable efficiency for the value, excessive portability, and attractiveness.

Apparently, that wasn’t sufficient for Dell, so it launched the Dell XPS 13 Plus. Launched this 12 months (alongside a extra conventional 2022 XPS 13), it is a revamped model of the XPS 13 that places efficiency over all the things else.

Wild design decisions enable the system to assist a 28 W CPU. With the 2021 XPS 13 carrying a 15 W chip and the 2022 XPS 13 supporting as much as a 12 W one, this can be a notable achievement. However it’s additionally a case of perform over kind. To place it merely, utilizing the XPS 13 Plus felt bizarre. From its tightly spaced keys and capacitive contact perform row to its minimal port choice, questionable construct high quality, and intensely excessive temperatures, this machine will be irritating to make use of for day by day duties.

As a performer, the XPS 13 Plus has its pluses. However as a go-to laptop computer, some design decisions might push you towards different highly effective thin-and-light laptops.

Contact Bar-esque perform row

Dell hasn’t given up on soft-touch enter above its laptop computer keyboards. You could find the same setup on the 13-inch MacBook Professional, although each different MacBook has gone again to actual keys. Dell’s tackle the capacitive contact row is extra restricted than Apple’s Contact Bar, although.

It isn’t programmable, for one. It may possibly show Esc, media keys (together with a helpful mic mute button that lights up), brightness controls, the Home windows Venture button, and a few navigational keys. Alternatively, urgent Fn makes the perform row show Esc and F1–F12, and you may lock that structure in place by holding down Fn + Esc.

Dell did not introduce a Contact Bar-like prime row simply to be totally different. As a result of the keys use capacitive contact, they’re 1.4 mm thick as an alternative of the three.2 mm of vertical house that will be required with conventional buttons. This determination saves house and allowed Dell to maneuver the hinges to wider factors for improved system cooling, the corporate stated. However when pushing the laptop computer to max efficiency for sustained durations, the perform row acquired so heat that it was uncomfortable to the touch.

The perform row is not an space that sees frequent improvements, and I admire that Dell redesigned it within the title of efficiency reasonably than simply as a gimmick. However as somebody who prefers mechanical keyboards, it is arduous to like capacitive contact enter. Throughout my weeks with the laptop computer, I sometimes mispressed keys within the prime row once I most likely would not have if it had commonplace buttons. Hardly ever, I by chance brushed the row evenly, registering an enter or two, once I was making an attempt to make use of the quantity row.

Because the perform row has set controls, there is no must customise it. However it nonetheless looks like there’s room for extra capabilities. For example, there aren’t any rewind or fast-forward media controls, and in contrast to many current ultralights I’ve examined, there is no button or gentle on the keyboard to let you know that the webcam is off. There’s additionally no gentle indicator for when the amount is muted.

I discovered the perform row’s vibrant illumination distracting at occasions, however it’s unattainable to show it off. An ambient sensor close to the webcam routinely adjusts the row’s brightness primarily based on the lighting within the room.

That stated, there are far worse issues than a ho-hum perform row, particularly if the remainder of the keyboard is unbelievable. Sadly, it is not.