Dell XPS 13 OLED option gives ultraportable a huge 4K contrast boost

By Chris Davies/April 13, 2021 9:06 am EST

Dell's XPS 13 is adding an OLED option, promising richer colors and better contrast for buyers of the ultraportable notebook. The latest iteration of the XPS 13 runs Intel 11th generation Core processors and comes, as standard, with a 13.4-inch InfinityEdge LCD touchscreen, but now that can be swapped out for a new OLED panel.

It brings the total number of panel options to four, in fact. Dell offers a 13.4-inch Full HD+ InfinityEdge non-touch display, and a version with touch support; both deliver 500 nits of brightness and a 1,800:1 contrast ratio. There's also a 13.4-inch 4K Ultra HD+ InfinityEdge display, with 500 nits of brightness, DisplayHDR 400 and 90-percent DCI-P3 support, and a 1,500:1 contrast ratio.

New today is a 13.4-inch InfinityEdge OLED touchscreen. That supports DisplayHDR 500TB and 100-percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and kicks the contrast ratio up to a whopping 100,000:1. The only downside, really, is the brightness: that's 400 nits, making the OLED panel dimmer than its LCD counterparts.

Otherwise, this is the same XPS 13 as we've seen before. There's a choice of Core-3, i5, and i7 processors – up to, eventually, the Core i7-1185G7 with four cores – and between 8GB and 32GB of LPDDR4x memory. Storage is via SSD, up to 2TB in capacity, and there's either Intel UHD Graphics or Intel Iris Xe Graphics driving the display.

Connectivity includes two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C both with DisplayPort and power delivery support, a microSD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack. On the wireless side, there's WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5. The whole thing is wrapped up in a CNC machined aluminum chassis, with either a carbon fiber or frost-finish palm rest, and with Gorilla Glass 6 across the touchscreen.

A 52 WHr battery – with a 45W USB Type-C power adapter – rounds things out, with the OLED version of the XPS 13 tipping the scales at 2.8 pounds. The Dell XPS 13 OLED is available to order from today. It's a $300 upgrade from the standard model.