Dell’s new XPS laptops feature the smallest footprint 13-inch Skylake laptop

Dell‘s line of high-performance XPS laptops just got better, with new models that feature Intel’s latest Skylake processors. The new 12-inch, 13-inch, and 15-inch laptops are designed to be thin and small.

Frank Azor, general manager of Dell XPS, said in an interview with VentureBeat that the 13-inch XPS model has the “smallest footprint for a 13-inch laptop on the planet.” That’s due in no small part to the power-efficient, high-performance Intel (code-named Skylake) processors, formally known as sixth-generation Core processors. The laptops are an example of a whole generation of new devices based on Intel’s newest chips and Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system.

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The XPS 13 has a virtually borderless InfinityEdge display. The system is virtually identical to a previous version, unveiled at the International CES 2015 trade show in January, but is now upgraded to the new Intel processors, which offer better performance, longer battery life, and other features, such as improved security. It has 1TB of solid state drive (SSD) memory and 16GB of main memory. The battery lasts up to 18 hours and 14 minutes.

The XPS 12 is a small laptop with a 4K Ultra HD display, or four times as many pixels as a high-definition 1080p display. It has 2-in-1 functionality, which means it can be used as a laptop or a tablet. You can detach the screen easily to use it in tablet mode. It has an 8-megapixel, back-facing camera and a 6-megapixel user-facing camera, as well as a backlit full-size keyboard.

The XPS 15 is a “highly anticipated powerhouse laptop,” Azor said, and comes with a 15-inch screen, machined aluminum casing on the outside, and carbon fiber on the inside. It is 11mm to 17mm thick and weighs 3.9 pounds. It has a 4K Ultra HD display and a 100-percent minimum Adobe RGB display. It uses Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M graphics and 16GB of main memory, a 1TB hard drive or 1TB SSD storage. Its battery lasts up to 17 hours.

All of the new machines have the Skylake processors, which have been designed for running Windows 10. The new XPS portfolio caters to power users who need the best of both work and play, Azor said.

The series includes features like Thunderbolt 3, which enables one-cable docking and up to 8x faster downloads than USB 3.0, and the capability to connect with the next generation of Latitude docking (coming in 2016). Dell is launching a bunch of new accessories, as well.

Azor said Dell and Microsoft started working on features of Windows 10 in 2013, and jointly designed the laptop to handle features such Cortana voice recognition.

All of the laptops are available today in the U.S. The XPS 15 will start at $999, the XPS 13 at $799, and the XPS 12 at $999.

 

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