Dell's XPS 13 9310 just got a mesmerizing upgrade

Dell will add a 16:10 aspect ratio OLED panel to its beloved thin-and-light laptop.

Gordon Mah Ung (PC World (US online)) on 13 April, 2021 23:00

Dell's beloved XPS 13 premium laptop will get the infinite black treatment, thanks to a new OLED panel option. Announced Tuesday, the OLED is the fanciest of four screen options Dell will offer for the XPS 13, all of them in the same taller and more useful 16:10 aspect ratio. The OLED option will add $300 extra over the basic display option. Full pricing should be available when the new SKUs come online Tuesday as well.

Here are all the display options for the XPS 13:

Base (touch or non-touch): 1920x1200 (FHD+), 500-nit touch with Eyesafe technology.
OLED: 3456x2160 (3.5K), 400-nit touch with DisplayHDR 500, 100-percent DCI-P3.
4K: 3840x2400 (4K UHD+), 500-nit touch with DisplayHDR 400, 90-percent DCI-P3.

xps 13 black keyboard view v2 — The XPS 13 features a standard keyboard rather than the company's low-travel Maglev 2.

If you haven't seen an OLED display, prepare to be impressed. Unlike traditional backlit screens that rely on blocking light that gets to your eyes, each pixel in an OLED panel generates light and can turn off. That basically means blacks are actually black, and not very dark shades of gray. Colors on OLEDS tend to be so intense, you'll often find yourself mesmerized by them.

The rest of the XPS 13 9310 appears mostly unchanged. CPU options still range from the Intel 11th gen Core i7-1185G7 to the Core i3-1115G4. RAM options are all LPDDR4X in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB quantities. All three memory options are dual-channel mode and soldered in place, as is required for the lower-power LPDDR RAM. Storage ranges from 2TB to 256GB capacity using an industry standard M.2 slot.

Because it's so thin, the XPS 13 forgoes the chunky USB-A port. Dell knows you still need to plug in your USB peripherals so it includes a dongle to use with either of the two Thunderbolt 4 ports. You also get a microSD card reader and an analog headset jack.

For the most part, the big news for the XPS 13 is the OLED. Although it offers only 7.4 million pixels compared to 9.2 million for the all-out 4K UHD+ panel, seeing that many in a 13.4-inch screen requires bionic vision. The OLED still gives you about three times the pixel density of the 1920x1200 FHD+ screen, along with the gorgeous high-contrast color.