It’s the most wonderful time of the year for tech nerds. No, I don’t mean Christmas: it’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) week! This is the time when many of the big tech companies announce their new stuff. First cab off the rank in 2024 is Dell, with a brand new XPS laptop line-up.
This year, the theme of CES is likely going to be AI. Anything that can have AI baked into it, likely will. The big headline of the new Dell XPS laptop range is that it’s got a futuristic design with built-in AI.
The XPS laptop range has always had a really striking design, alongside genuinely useful features, so it’s great news that the line is now being extended to include 14-inch and 16-inch display sizes, in addition to the already popular XPS 13.
The whole range is made out of CNC machined aluminium and Gorilla Glass 3, and is available in two colours: Platinum and Graphite. It features a touch function row (for switching between function and media keys), a glass touchpad (with haptic feedback) and larger keypads.
At the top of the range, there are OLED touchscreen options with Dolby Vision for crisp HDR. There’s also a quad-speaker design with support for Dolby Atmos, and a 1080p webcam, for those who like just enough detail on their Zoom calls to show off their hair, but not so much that pores are visible.
Dell XPS joins the AI trend
Technically, all Windows 11 laptops now have generative AI built-in. Microsoft has invested eye-watering sums into OpenAI as part of the company’s much-hyped Copilot feature. In practice, however, the AI tools produce outputs ranging from derivative quality to outright falsehoods. Not to mention the lawsuits lingering over companies alleged to have infringed copyright by training AI models on content without permission. But Dell is spruiking the AI integration with a dedicated Copilot key, and the new laptops use the Intel Core Ultra processor equipped with a built-in neural processing unit.
Looking past AI, the XPS laptop ExpressCharge feature means you can get to 80% charged in an hour, which is pretty great for people working away from a power outlet.
The XPS 16 is the fanciest of the range, featuring up to RTX 4070 Nvidia graphics cards (so you can play games after work, or, you know, do video editing for work). The XPS 14 can have up to an RTX 4050 GPU. Both the high-end XPS 14 and XPS 16 are NVIDIA Studio-validated systems, which means they get a little extra NVIDIA support and enhanced stability with the NVIDIA Studio Drivers.
XPS 13 is for portability. It’s got three different display options (FHD+, QHD+ and 3K OLED touch), so users can find the one that suits their needs and budget. The full Dell XPS laptop range will be available later this year.
