Dell XPS 13 Refreshed With 8th Gen Intel Core Processor, Claimed to Offer 20-Hour Battery Life

Ahead of CES 2018, Dell has launched a refreshed version of its premium XPS 13 laptop, with the new design of the laptop being its main talking point. The laptop now comes with a new finish in white with glass fibre woven in and Dell claims that it has worked hard to ensure that the laptop doesn’t stain over time. Dell claims that it wants to ensure that this XPS 13 looks as good on day 1,000 as it does on day 1.

These claims remain untested as of now, but if you care about your laptop’s looks, Dell says you can wipe off pen marks or other stains from the laptop. Dell will also be providing white chargers and power cords with the XPS 13, but there was no word on whether these would remain free of stains as well. Having seen what happens to white chargers and power cables over time, we aren’t sure they’ll look very good after prolonged use.

Beyond looks, Dell says the new XPS 13 also stays cooler for longer because its glass fibre materials stay cooler for longer. The Dell XPS 13 weighs 1.22kg, which makes it one of the lightest 13-inch laptops in the market.

Dell XPS 13’s 13-inch InfinityEdge display fits in an 11-inch frame, according to the company. This means that the laptop has thinner bezels on three sides, with a slightly thicker bezel on the side nearest to the keyboard. The front camera is also placed near the keyboard in order to make the bezels thinner at the top. Dell adds that the laptop is 30 percent thinner than its predecessor, with a thickness of 3.4mm.

As for specifications, the Dell XPS 13 ships with a quad-core 8th generation Intel Core processor (choice of Core i5-8250U or Core i7-8550U), up to 1TB SSDs, and a battery life of up to 20 hours on full-HD, the company claims. Dell XPS 13’s display supports 4K Ultra HD as well, and the battery life goes down to 11 hours on that model. The Dell XPS 13 ships with a USB Type-A to USB Type-C adapter. The company had earlier launched an XPS 13 with QHD+ display in India, but this new variant supports 4K UHD as well and all the design changes mentioned above.

Dell claims that the laptop delivers twice as much performance when compared with the 2015 XPS 13 thanks to better power management. All of this can be yours at a starting price of $999 (roughly Rs. 64,100), with the XPS 13 being available in the US starting January 4. There are optional components such as a fingerprint reader and better specifications, for which you will have to pay more. Dell is also selling a developer edition of the laptop with Ubuntu at $950 (roughly Rs. 61,000). There’s no word on India price or availability at the moment you’ll have to wait till after CES 2018 to know more about that.