Dell revives XPS laptops
Welcome back, XPS.
Last year at CES 2025, Dell announced that they would be transitioning their lineup away from the XPS, Inspiron, and Latitude brand lines for their laptops and instead move to Dell Pro, Premium, and Plus, with variations of the models to replace the old lineup. This angered users as it became much more confusing to choose a laptop instead of the old lineup which was more straightforward.
Today, however, Dell announced the revival of the XPS lineup with the Dell XPS 14 and Dell XPS 16. They are still similar to the laptops they originally replaced in recent years, but just "reimagined."
The Dell Pro branding will still exist, however, it is now part of the commercial laptop lineup. The XPS branding will stay with the consumer laptop lineup.
Both laptops have similar designs to the old XPS 14 and 16 models, but this time, they are much more boxy. It is close in design to the current MacBook Pro design, but thinner, like the old XPS models. It is very sleek and much more recognizable than past laptops, bringing an image to the XPS lineup.
They are also very repairable, boasting "easy-to-remove keyboards" and also how they are the "first XPS devices to feature modular USB-C ports." While not groundbreaking, it is a step in the right direction and brings it closer to more repairable laptops like Framework.
The performance is similarly on par with other high-end notebooks, and the laptops take use of Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chips and Intel Arc graphics. These chips are known to be very performant and offer great performance even for gaming, with some reports of up to 50 percent faster graphics on Intel Arc on the XPS 14 and 16.
Dell also boasts some shocking battery life figures for these laptops, mostly due to the display options for these laptops. Like with the previous Dell XPS 13, Dell is now offering a tandem OLED panel for both the Dell XPS 14 and Dell XPS 16. If these panels are anything like the ones in the iPad Pro M4 or M5, or even like the ones found in the XPS 13, they will definitely be the ones to buy. The color saturation, viewing angles, and even peak brightness should be outstanding on these panels.
The tandem OLED panel does use more power than the traditional 2K LCD panel that is found in the base model. However, the base 2K LCD panel does offer up to 27 hours of video playback on the XPS 14 and up to 40 hours of video playback on the XPS 16 (according to Dell). These are shocking numbers, but battery life figures should always be taken with a grain of salt because everyone uses their laptop differently, so no one number will be correct. Either way, these laptops should still have pretty great battery life.
The LCD panel also offers 1 to 120Hz variable refresh rate, and it is one of the first models to offer this. It is not strictly new, as MacBook Pro models, gaming laptops, and even some Dell models feature 1 to 120Hz variable refresh rate displays, but it is great nonetheless.
The laptops are also much thinner and lighter than their predecessors, at roughly 14.6mm. The XPS 14 comes in at around 3 pounds, with the XPS 16 coming in at around 3.6 pounds. Dell claims that the XPS 14 is now "more compact than the MacBook Air 13," though the footprint may still be larger. It will still be a very compact and easy to pack laptop.
The Dell XPS 14 will start at $2,049, and the Dell XPS 16 will start at $2,199. Dell also states that the starting configurations for the laptops "well under $2000 will be available in February."
Dell also announced that an even thinner and lighter XPS 13 model will be available later this year, to add on to the line up.
The new Dell XPS 14 and Dell XPS 16 are great laptops and bring back the XPS brand into the Dell lineup. We will have to wait and see what Dell does soon.
