Something to look forward to: Following Microsoft and Asus, Dell is the next laptop vendor to unveil its line of products featuring Qualcomm's Snapdragon X processors and Microsoft's Copilot+ AI PC branding. The company's new XPS, Inspiron, and Latitude models boast enhanced battery life and on-device generative AI features.
A new Dell XPS 13 laptop featuring the Snapdragon X Elite SoC is now available, starting at $1,299. It is joined by new and upcoming Inspiron and Latitude models featuring Microsoft's on-device Copilot functionality.
As prior leaks indicated, extended battery life is one of the main advantages Dell advertises, afforded by efficiency gains from the move to Qualcomm's Arm-based chipset. The XPS 13 managed 27 hours of 1080p Netflix streaming in internal testing.
Third-party trials showed significantly lower but still impressive battery life for the Asus VivoBook, which uses the same chips. Some tests showed between 10 and 14 hours, while another suggested that 24 hours of mixed usage is feasible.
The new XPS 13 includes two USB ports, up to 64GB of LPDDR5X memory, and up to 2TB of NVMe storage. Customers can choose between a 1080p 120Hz VRR screen, a 2560 x 1600 panel with an unspecified refresh rate, or a 60Hz 1800p 400 nit OLED display. The webcam can capture 1080p 30fps video and uses onboard AI processing for background blur and automatic framing.
Other locally-processed AI features Dell advertises include image editing, voice filtering, automatically translated video subtitles, and access to the Copilot chatbot. The company also still heavily promotes Recall, but Microsoft has delayed the deployment of the controversial Windows 11 24H2 feature, which snapshots and transcribes everything users do and see on the system to give the onboard AI a sort of "memory." The company pushed Recall as a cornerstone of the Copilot+ PCs, but security researchers discovered severe security flaws.
Dell also launched the new Inspiron 14 Plus for $1,099, featuring the lower-end Snapdragon X Plus processor but including the same AI capabilities as the XPS 13. It has 16GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and a QHD screen (the exact resolution is unclear). Unfortunately, it has no custom-configuration options other than choosing between a Snapdragon X or Intel's Meteor Lake Core Ultra 7 155H (the Core Ultra 9 185H is also available for the Inspiron).
Those intending to play games on the new AI PCs should consider the Intel variants, which won't have the compatibility challenges Qualcomm currently faces. However, the Intel models won't include the on-device AI features until a free software update arrives later this year or early next year. Upcoming AI laptops featuring AMD's Strix Point AI 300 series processors will face a similar situation.