Dell brings back XPS laptops — ditches the capacitive touch bar, adds 1Hz display option, and upgrades 14 and 16-inch models

Last year, Dell announced it was ditching many of its storied brand names, including its high-end XPS label. This year, the company has realized that mistake, and is bringing XPS back in a redesigned chassis with Intel's Panther Lake chips.

This is also the first major change in design to the XPS since the release of the Dell XPS 13 Plus in 2022 (that design evolved to fit the 14- and 16-inch models). The XPS logo is on the lid for the first time (it was on the bottom for several years), replacing the Dell logo. The new CNC aluminum and glass chassis are just 14.62 mm thin, assuming you get an OLED screen — they bump up to just over 15 mm. The XPS 14 weighs 3 pounds,while the XPS 16 weighs 3.5 pounds, marking notedly lighter designs than their predecessors.

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Perhaps the best part of the redesign, however, is that the XPS 14 and 16 will get full, traditional function rows, replacing the capacitive touch row that Dell has been using since 2022.

Dell has hidden the speaker lines (I'm curious what that does to audio quality) for the 10W quad-speaker system. The 8-megapixel webcam is a new, thinner module that Dell claims to be the first to market with, reducing the space it takes up.

Each system has three Thunderbolt 4 ports over USB Type-C, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Thunderbolt 4 ports work with Kensington locks, so you can use USB-C to secure your laptop to a desk.

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What remains from the previous formula is a lattice-free keyboard, without spaces between the keys. This has always been divisive, but has also been adopted by HP in its OmniBook X line. Additionally, Dell is keeping the haptic touchpad to keep the wrist area an unbroken sheet of glass. This time, though, there are some faint tactile etchings outlining the boundaries on the sides. The touchpad uses the same piezo motors as before, but with enhanced force detection for better accuracy and responsiveness.

While we only had a few minutes of hands-on time at Dell’s pre-CES event, the touchpad felt excellent, and the our fingers easily oriented to the useable cursor control space, thanks to those new boundary lines.

Enter Panther Lake

Intel's third-generation Core ultra processors are powering Dell's new XPS line. The starting configurations will use the 8-core Ultra 5 325 and Ultra 7 355, while the high-end versions will use the 16-core Core Ultra X7 358H and Core Ultra X9 388H. Dell is pairing the 8-core processors with 16GB of RAM, and the 16-core chips with 32 or 64 GB options. These chips will be thermally controlled by a newly designed cooling system.

While the previous XPS 14 and 16 (and the intermediate Dell 14 and 16 Premiums) had options with discrete graphics chips, that's not the case this time. Instead, the new XPS models rely entirely on integrated graphics. The systems will use Intel's Arc graphics, though there will be some with Intel graphics post-launch (it's unclear which CPUs will include those, as the Panther Lake processors all have some variant of Arc).

Dell has made a very specific decision that the Arc graphics, particularly the 12 Xe-core models, will have enough power to satisfy demanding users when they consider how thin and light Dell has made this laptop. Otherwise, Dell will be happy to point them to Alienware or its workstation products, and the Dell Premium 14 and 16 with discrete GPUs will remain available into 2026.

Tandem OLED, 1 Hz LCD

The other hallmark of the reemergence of XPS is improved display technology.

There's a 1920 x 1200 non-touch display option, which will surely get you better battery life than OLED. But what's most interesting about it is the 1-120 Hz variable refresh rate, which Dell says is a first for this model. That extremely low refresh rate should help save power when static images or text are on the screen.

On the OLED screens (2880 x 1800 on the XPS 14 or 3200 x 2000 on the XPS 16), Dell is using bright tandem OLED touchscreens with VRR from 20 - 120 Hz.

Either way, you still get the tremendously thin InfinityEdge displays that the XPS laptops have made a signature.

Dell XPS 14 and XPS 16 Price and Release Date

Dell is launching the XPS 14 and XPS 16 tomorrow, January 6, in limited configurations. The XPS 14 will start at $2,049.99 while the XPS 16 will launch at $2,199.

New entry-level configurations, which we don't know the price of but will include options under $2,000, will launch in February.

These systems will release in a graphite colorway, with a lighter "shimmer" coming later this year. For those looking for an alternative to Windows 11, a version of the XPS 14 with Ubuntu 24.04 is set to release later in 2026.

Dell XPS 13

Dell is also teasing that a new XPS 13 is coming later this year. We know very little about it, though Dell says that the laptop is "expected to be our thinnest and lightest XPS laptop ever," measuring in at less than 13.3 mm (no weight was provided).

The company is also promising that this will be the "most accessible" price for an XPS yet. Dell previously started the XPS line at $999 (though often with 4GB of RAM), so we're hoping to see Dell be aggressive here without going too low on the specs. Dell is promising that the InfinityEdge screens and build quality will be the same.

In the one teaser image we've seen, it looks like Dell will put a chiclet keyboard on the XPS 13, and the image shows a single USB-C port on the side of the system in view.

Other rebrands

Outside of XPS, Dell is also bringing back the Precision name. Dell Pro Precision is replacing Dell Pro Max for performance workstations. Dell Inspiron is still under the plain "Dell" name, and the Dell Pro name remains in lieu of Latitude, which is fine with me.

For gaming, it's still Alienware, with no sign of the Dell G-series coming back. But with XPS and Precision back, two of Dell's most beloved brands are in play again.

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