Taking cues from other hardware manufacturers in its ecosystem, Dell has decided to expedite the iconic 13-inch XPS laptop by making the same convertible. Following a leak of the product page for the device on the company’s website yesterday, Dell has now taken the wraps off its XPS 13 2-in-1 variant of its laptop right before CES’17. With the specification in hand, we can say that it will now directly compete against the likes of Lenovo Yoga and HP Spectre series.
The company has firstly incorporated a 360-degree hinge into its XPS 13 model to enable you to completely fold your laptop and lay it flat on the keyboard or in a tent-like orientation. This model has been designed to provide a more intuitive and flexible workstation to those who’re used to the XPS 13’s thin and sleek design. It comes in at 2.7 pounds and 13.3mm tall, which is less compared to its competitors.
As for the specifications, the new XPS 13 2-in-1 still sports the “InfinityEdge” design — primary for an XPS variant — which makes the laptop look slimmer due to a minimal 5.2mm bezel around the 13.3-inch screen. The laptop comes packed with Intel’s Kaby Lake processors along with support for Intel HD Graphics 615 integrated GPU, 46 watt-hour battery, up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD (the variant sold online pack only 256GB SSD).
You also have the option to select the type of display you want for your convertible variant — 1080p HD or QHD+ (5.7M pixels). This laptop features the company’s own variant of high-definition display technology called HDR-ready to provide an incredible life-like experience to users. Dell has also managed to completely nix the fan system, thus, making the XPS convertible completely noiseless even under extreme workloads. But we’ll have to wait for real-life tests to see if the performance suffers due to such conditions or not.
In addition, Dell is bulking up on the security aspect of the XPS 13 2-in-1 variant with the addition of a fingerprint sensor to the device with support for Windows Hello. You will soon be able to unlock your system with just a touch, which would not be necessary at a later stage with the addition of a 720p IR camera at the bottom of the display. Then you’d just have to look at the camera and Windows Hello would log you in immediately.
On the connectivity front, the company features 2 USB Type-C ports, with one of them being Thunderbolt 3.0 compatible. Since the Type-C port is not widely accepted as of yet, thus Dell will also include a USB-A to USB-C adapter for connecting your older peripherals. But this is expected to change to change drastically in the coming twelve months.
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 will be made available to customers starting January 5, 2017 on the company’s website and at Best Buy in the United States. The 1080p variant with an Intel i5 processor starts at $1,000 whereas the Intel i& variant will come with a price tag of $1,300. The prices might seem a little on the higher side as compared to the previous XPS 13 series but the convertibility will pay off for power users.
