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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Dell is bringing again the XPS logo title.
- The corporate has introduced new Dell XPS 14 and XPS 16 gadgets.
- The laptops characteristic form-factor tuning and the most recent Intel processors.
When Dell introduced it was once retiring its fashionable computer strains for a consolidated “Professional/Plus/Top rate” naming conference final yr, shoppers have been greater than slightly perplexed. The XPS was once a well-respected product line with a definite id — would not giving that up dilute the logo (particularly for one thing that sounds adore it got here out of Cupertino)?
Neatly, Dell will have discovered the solution. Only a yr later, the corporate is bringing again the XPS logo title with the brand new Dell XPS 14 and XPS 16, plus a 13-inch style that can be launched later this yr.
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All the way through a press convention in New York, Jeff Clarke, COO of Dell Applied sciences, stated the corporate had made a mistake by means of discarding the XPS title and that the flagship lineup can be creating a triumphant go back in 2026.
“This difficult logo we rolled out final yr did not do what we stated it could do,” Clarke defined. Whilst discussing Dell’s fiscal efficiency after the logo restructuring, Clarke showed numbers were not the place they sought after them to be, resulting in a call to carry again the XPS in Q3 of 2025.
Clarke also hinted that Microsoft’s general shift to “AI PCs” hasn’t precisely been the hit with shoppers it was once anticipated. This, mixed with the removing of relied on logo names, supposed much less persons are purchasing.
Now at CES 2026, the XPS is again, delicate, and, Dell showed, right here to stick. If truth be told, the 2026 fashions also have an “XPS” brand at the computer duvet for the primary time, a nod to the person base that has been asking for it for years.
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Following in that vein, the bodily serve as row is again, ditching the LED lighting fixtures for bodily keys, a a lot more sensible, skilled selection that prioritizes on a regular basis capability over gimmicks that glance excellent in a showroom however complicate long-term repairability.
Dell has additionally included modular USB-C ports and an easier-to-remove keyboard design in step with overarching inventions in repairability around the business this yr, with extra modular, easy-to-fix portions that reach product lifetimes as shoppers grow to be acutely aware of deliberate obsolescence improve cycles.
The brand new XPS: What is underneath the hood
The 2026 XPS lineup is being refreshed with Intel’s newest Sequence 3 “Panther Lake” processors: Core Extremely 5, 7, X7, or X9. As an alternative of discrete GPUs, the XPS gadgets characteristic Intel Arc graphics with 12 Xe cores, offering as much as 57% and 78% sooner AI efficiency within the 14 and 16 fashions, respectively. Each the 14 and 16 can be to be had in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB RAM configurations, with as much as 4TB of garage.
With all this {hardware}, the XPS line is not identified for being probably the most featherweight of laptops at the block, however this yr’s 16-inch style specifically is its thinnest bodily clamshell but: 14.6mm (0.57 inches) thick. This way carries over to the thinnest (however biggest) enthusiasts in an XPS for what Dell stated are hugely progressed thermals.
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Presentations are in a similar way what you’ll be expecting from a flagship lineup. At the XPS 14, you have got a 2K non-touch or 2.8K contact display screen tandem OLED. At the 16, the high-end 3.2K tandem OLED scales to 500 nits top brightness, with each displays providing 120Hz refresh. The Gorilla Glass 3 and ultra-thin bezels retain the top rate, power-forward glance the XPS is understood for.
Relating to battery, each fashions characteristic a 70Whr battery that Dell says will supply as much as 27 hours of streaming battery existence at the 2K show.
The result’s a top rate computer that resembles the XPS software customers love. Dell did not re-invent the wheel right here, and that’s the reason exactly the purpose. As an alternative, there are considerate adjustments that mirror the tactics other folks if truth be told use their gadgets, with welcome enhancements to repairability, form-factor tuning, and a refresh with the most recent Intel processors.
I am not going to mention “I instructed ya so,” however there’s something to be stated about producers taking logo reputation critically. Reputations don’t seem to be constructed in a single day, and advertising executives must know higher than someone that you’ll’t shift years of shopper attitudes with one concept.
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The brand new XPS laptops can be to be had beginning January 6 in the United States and Canada, with the 13-inch style to be had later in 2026. As anticipated, there are more than one configurations for each fashions. Dell has indexed the beginning worth for the XPS 14 at $1,649, whilst the XPS 16 will get started at $1,849.
