Dell XPS 13 gets Panther Lake upgrade with thin chassis and long battery life

Dell accidentally showed off its new XPS 13 a bit earlier than planned. Its specs aren’t particularly surprising—the compact powerhouse was due for a Panther Lake upgrade after the XPS 14 and XPS 16 got theirs. Thanks to Dell’s mistake, there’s not much left to the imagination. Even its price has been hinted at, with Dell stating an entry-level variant would start at $599.

To recap, the Dell XPS 13 can be configured with Intel’s Core 5 320 and Core Ultra 7 355 processors, making it one of the handful of laptops that mix and match Panther Lake SKUs with Wildcat Lake. Memory caps out at 32 GB LPDDR5x-7467 MT/s and storage at 1 TB (PCIe Gen4). Given the laptop’s form factor, a dGPU is out of the question.

Dell uses a 13.4-inch 2.5K (2,560 x 1,400) monitor on the XPS 13. It has a peak brightness of 500 nits,  up to 120 Hz refresh rate with VRR, and covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. A 52 Wh battery powers the laptop, and it charges at 65 Watts via USB-C. Dell claims it can last up to 17 hours on a single charge, and the XPS 13 might actually pull it off thanks to Panther Lake’s efficiency.

Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, and two USB-C ports. On the Core Ultra 7 variant, the USB-C ports are rated for Thunderbolt 4 speeds. Dell offers the XPS 13 in two colourways: Sky and Storm. With a thickness of 12.7 mm and a weight of 1 kg, it is easily one of Dell’s most compact laptops ever.