RedMagic 7 Review: It's a Phone All About Speed

RedMagic 7 Review: It's a Phone All About Speed

Gaming phones like the Nubia RedMagic 7 aren't trying to compete with Samsung Galaxy devices or Google Pixel phones. They instead crank up the Android gaming experience with specs that sound like they belong in a PC. The RedMagic 7 allows you to max out games for excellent responsiveness and performance.

Features like the 6.8-inch 165Hz refresh rate AMOLED screen, 12GB of RAM and 65-watt charging speeds also have a benefit beyond just being big numbers. They give us a glimpse at features that will likely make their way over to more mainstream phones in coming years.

For the price -- $629 (£529, which is roughly AU$940) -- all of these features might sound like a steal, but there are plenty of reasons why this phone isn't for most people, stemming primarily from tweaks to Android 12 that prioritize gaming performance over user experience. The RedMagic also has a shorter software update cycle than other phones at this price. And while a cooling fan is a common feature on many gaming phones, the RedMagic 7 includes an internal one, which is vital to keep the phone from overheating during intensive gameplay.

The RedMagic 7's $629 starting price includes 128GB of storage and 12GB of memory -- the latter already being a ridiculous amount for a phone. The review unit I tested is $799 and has 256GB of storage and an absurd 18GB of RAM. For perspective, the $800 Galaxy S22 has 8GB of RAM.

The RedMagic 7 comes with a 65-watt GaN charger.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

A little bit Android, a little bit Switch

At first glance, the RedMagic 7 seems like any other Android 12 phone. You unlock it with an in-screen fingerprint sensor and are greeted with a skinned version of Android 12 that includes themed widgets like a switch for the internal cooling fan and a toggle for quickly cranking the display's refresh rate from 60Hz up to 165Hz.

However, this RedMagic OS customization makes a number of annoying default choices that aren't great for casual users. Luckily, they can be switched off pretty easily. Apps are organized into multiple home screens like on iOS. To find the app drawer, you have to turn it on in settings. Once you set it up, you can keep most apps there and organize the ones you want onto the home screens. 

The default internet browser is NextWord, which is easy to switch to Chrome or Firefox. And I hope you figure this out faster than I did, but the phone puts a RedMagic watermark on all your photos. After another frustrating trip to Settings I was able to turn that off as well. 

You may find yourself visiting the Settings menu a lot to change some of the defaults in the RedMagic 7.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

OS annoyances aside, this phone is clearly aimed at gamers. A red physical switch on the top-left of the phone's transparent body boots it into a game launcher. The aptly named Game Space looks more like the menus you find on the Nintendo Switch and automatically adds games from your app library.

Gaming mode makes several tweaks to the phone's settings: It disables notifications, turns on the fan and adds menus for quick access to display refresh rates and processor performance. I set it up to show the frames per second as I played which helped determine which games supported higher refresh rates.

On the right side of the phone there's a fan exhaust and touch-sensitive areas that emulate shoulder buttons on a game controller. You can set up the "buttons" to tap specific areas of the screen during gameplay -- for instance I coupled them to the shoot button in Apex Legends Mobile and on the Use and Report buttons in Among Us.

Mortal Kombat Mobile supports the 165Hz refresh rate allowed by the RedMagic 7's screen.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Gaming runs fast and sometimes hot

Along with the 165Hz display refresh rate, the RedMagic 7 touts a "720Hz Multi-Finger Touch Sampling Rate" -- their words. This refers to how responsive screen taps are while playing games. In lieu of having physical buttons, having a cranked-up touch rate for the screen makes a lot of sense. I found it particularly helpful for games streamed from the Google Stadia cloud service.

Cloud gaming in general is notorious for lag under even the fastest of internet connections, but with the RedMagic's 720Hz touch rate screen I was almost able to create combos in Mortal Kombat 11. It also made it possible to play Marvel's Avengers using the touchscreen over the Stadia cloud. These games are made for a physical controller, so while it's not an ideal or competitive way to play, it works fine for a quick game over good Wi-Fi.

The Game Space launcher on the RedMagic 7, which puts Android games into a more console-like menu.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

What was more interesting were the handful of games that supported the 165Hz screen refresh rate. Mortal Kombat Mobile (separate from Mortal Kombat 11) cranks all the way up to 165Hz, making all the punches and battles look super smooth. On the other hand, Rayman Adventures, which supports 165Hz, runs at double or triple speed. I had to turn the screen refresh rate down to 60Hz to run at a normal speed.

Most games however ran at 60 frames per second regardless of what I set. While Apex Legends Mobile appeared to top out at 60fps, the game did let me max all of its settings out. Performance remained super smooth throughout a 20-minute match, but I definitely noticed the phone was physically hot to touch. The RedMagic comes with a case that makes the heat from gaming substantially more tolerable.

The RedMagic 7 can charge from 0% to 100% in roughly 30 minutes.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Fast charging that I want to see in more phones

The 65-watt GaN charger that's included with the phone is a serious perk. The dual 4,500-mAh double-cell battery can recharge from 0% to 98% in just over 30 minutes. This is a phone you definitely won't need to charge overnight. Interestingly enough when charging, an onscreen graphic shows the percentage, and the cooling fan turns on to dissipate any heat.

Battery life was great: I consistently got through an entire day, even when I kept the screen at 165Hz. Even on days where I played games for an hour or so, I had 20% to 30% left by the evening.

Another neat trick is you can power the phone straight from the power adapter, skipping the battery. This should help the battery ultimately last longer, since when available the phone won't need to draw power directly from it at all times. And during gaming, this will reduce the amount of heat the phone gives off.

I hope other phones adopt these power-charging features. A 30-minute charging time means the phone can fully charge up while you shower and get dressed in the morning.

Citi Field in New York. The RedMagic 7 applies a watermark by default that can be turned off in the settings menu.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Photography and software support take a back seat

The phone has a 64-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera and 2-megapixel depth sensor. The RedMagic can handle most daytime photography situations, but it isn't going to win any awards for its photos.

Crowds inside of Citi Field, taken on the RedMagic 7.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

In terms of image quality, photos I took at a New York Mets game were on par with lower priced phones like the Moto G Stylus 5G. Photos taken outdoors in sunlight generally looked good, while lower light situations were more difficult. 

RedMagic 7's Night mode photo at New York's Citi Field.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

The phone's Night mode helps bring out a few more additional details, focusing on subjects like the signs at the Mets' stadium, but it's not quite as detailed as other phones in this price range. If you want a phone that takes great photos, I recommend looking at the $599 Pixel 6 or the $700 Galaxy S21 FE.

The RedMagic 7 has an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

The 8-megapixel front-facing camera is disappointing, even for livestreaming. Selfie photos are just OK. The front-facing camera isn't something I'd use to broadcast on Twitch. With gaming and livestreaming so interconnected, it'd be nice if the RedMagic 7 could function as a starter device towards that.

Software support on the RedMagic 7 isn't great. RedMagic says that its products tend to get one major update with a "maintenance period" that lasts between one and a half to two years.

Geekbench v.5.0 single-core

Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Geekbench v.5.0 multicore

Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Serious Android gamers only

The RedMagic 7 isn't for most people, nor is it intended to be. If you are a competitive gamer who really wants an absolutely screaming refresh rate, and doesn't mind a built-in cooling fan, then this phone is certainly an option for you. Just understand the software update tradeoffs and all the defaults you'll probably want to change out of the box.

But most other people should look elsewhere for a daily driver phone. Families considering the RedMagic as an alternative to a Switch would be better off buying a Nintendo Switch and a cheaper phone.

Nubia RedMagic 7 vs. Nubia RedMagic 6 vs. Samsung Galaxy S22 vs. Google Pixel 6

	Nubia RedMagic 7	Nubia RedMagic 6	Samsung Galaxy S22	Google Pixel 6
Display size, resolution, refresh rate	6.8-inch; 2,400x1,080 pixels; 165Hz	6.8-inch OLED; 2,400x1,080 pixels; 165Hz refresh rate; HDR10, 500Hz single touchrate	6.1-inch AMOLED; 2,340x1,080 pixels; 120Hz	6.4-inch OLED; 2,400x1,080 pixels; 60 or 90Hz
Pixel density	387 ppi	387 ppi	425 ppi	411 ppi
Dimensions (Inches)	6.7 x 3.1 x 0.4 in.	6.69 x 3.04 x 0.38 in.	5.7 x 2.8 x 0.3 in.	6.2 x 2.9 x 0.4 in.
Dimensions (Millimeters)	170.57 x 78.33 x 9.5 mm	169.86 x 77.19 x 9.7mm	146 x 70.6 x 7.6 mm	158.6 x 74.8 x 8.9 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)	7.58 oz.; 215g	7.76 oz.; 220g	167g (168g for mmWave model)	7.3 oz.; 207g
Mobile software	Android 12	Android 11	Android 12	Android 12
Camera	64-megapixel (main), 8-megapixel (ultrawide), 2-megapixel (depth)	64-megapixel (wide), 8-megapixel (ultrawide), 2-megapixel (depth)	50-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide), 10-megapixel (telephoto)	50-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel ultrawide
Front-facing camera	8-megapixel	8-megapixel	10-megapixel	8-megapixel
Video capture	8K at 30fps, 4K at 60fps	8K	8K at 24 fps	4K 30, 60fps (rear), 1,080p 30fps (front)
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1	Qualcomm Snapdragon 888	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1	Google Tensor
RAM/Storage	12GB/128GB, 18GB/256GB	12GB/128GB	8GB RAM + 128GB 8GB RAM + 256GB	8GB/128GB, 256GB
Expandable storage	No	None	None	No
Battery/Charger	4,500 mAh	5,050 mAh	3,700 mAh (25W wired charging)	4,614 mAh
Fingerprint sensor	In-display	In-display	In-display	In-display
Connector	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C
Headphone jack	Yes	Yes	None	No
Special features	720Hz multitouch sampling rate	5G, 66W fast charging, 400Hz touch sensitive side buttons, RGB lighting and logo, Game Space hardware switch, Wi-Fi 6E, NFC, dual-SIM	5G (mmw/sub 6), 120Hz display, IP68 rating, 25W wired charging, 15W wireless charging	5G sub 6 (some carrier models also have 5G mmWave) support, Wi-Fi 6E, 30W fast charging, Magic Eraser, Motion mode, Real Tone, Face Unblur, Cinematic Pan, 5 years OS and security updates, IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, Gorilla Glass Victus (front), Gorilla Glass 6 (back)
Price off-contract (USD)	$629	$599	$800	$599 (128GB)
Price (GBP)	£529	£509	£769	£599
Price (AUD)	Converts to AU$940	Converts to AU$900	AU$1,149	AU$999

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Moto G Stylus 5G Review: Great Specs For $500 But Limited Software Updates

Moto G Stylus 5G Review: Great Specs For $500 But Limited Software Updates

Motorola's Moto G Stylus 5G has everything you want from a sub-$500 phone at first glance. At $500 (which roughly converts to £320 and AU$560) it has higher-end features normally found on more expensive phones, including a 6.8-inch screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 50-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization. You also get a built-in stylus, a feature that Samsung is now only providing for its luxe $1,200 Galaxy S22 Ultra. The phone has great battery life to boot. It all sounds great for the money, but there are some important details to keep in mind if you go with this phone.

Motorola sells the Stylus 5G unlocked with a roomy 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. It also includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chip, which is generally more powerful than the MediaTek one included in the $300 4G-only Moto G Stylus from earlier this year. Its 5G support includes sub-6 and C-band frequencies. A Verizon version will also support millimeter-wave 5G.

All this makes the phone fit right in with midrange rivals such as the $450 Galaxy A53 and last year's $449 Pixel 5A with 5G. But unlike Samsung and Google, which both commit to years of software updates, Motorola only promises one major software update to its G line of phones. This means that while the Stylus 5G is shipping right now with Android 12 and will eventually get Android 13, you'll only receive three years of security updates instead of any additional feature upgrades.

Motorola says this could be a perk, offering stability and consistency with its menus and interface. But even if you buy a cheaper phone, you shouldn't have to sacrifice updates because you probably want it to last as long as possible.

This makes the Moto G Stylus 5G worth considering if you want to hold onto the phone for two or three years, but it's a tougher sell if you want a phone that'll be viable for longer. It has many of the best Android 12 features, including the option to customize menus to your favorite color, and a long-lasting battery. And if a stylus is important to you on top of that, this phone could be the best pick for you.

The Moto G Stylus 5G has a few different apps optimized for the stylus.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Tall phone with a big battery

The Moto G Stylus 5G is a tall and thin phone, making it easy to hold and even text with one hand. I'm normally a fan of phones with screens longer than 6.5 inches because it's easier to watch videos and read. But the shape of the phone leaves its top half exposed, which would make it easier for a thief to snatch if you're not paying attention.

I can alleviate this by using the stylus and the phone's handwriting recognition keyboard instead, which gets me a better grip on the body. Yet that comes at the expense of speed and accuracy compared to touch typing and autocorrect. Putting the phone in a case paired with a PopSocket, or something similar, could also help with that safety concern.

Otherwise the screen is great for watching and reading content, especially since it provides the option to boost the refresh rate up to 120Hz. Motorola also provides options for using a dynamic refresh rate depending on how you're using the phone or a 60Hz option, both of which consume less power on the battery.

The Moto G Stylus 5G has a 5,000-mAh battery.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Yet with a beefy 5,000-mAh battery inside, the phone easily made it through a few full days of heavy usage with 120Hz on at all times. I watch a lot of YouTube, play games, take video calls, capture photos and videos and even on my longest day it still had 30 to 50% capacity when I was ready to go to bed. I averaged just over 3 hours of screen time each day but with less intensive usage patterns I'm sure the phone could easily last well into a second day.

Geekbench 5 Single Core

Moto G Stylus 5G (2022)

Moto G Stylus 5G (2021)

Note:

Higher scores are better

Geekbench 5 Multicore

Moto G Stylus 5G (2022)

Moto G Stylus 5G (2021)

Samsung Galaxy A53 5G

Note:

Higher scores are better

While all that extra power is great, it's worth noting that the Stylus 5G does charge more slowly than rival phones. You get a power adapter -- something that's disappearing from most phone boxes lately -- but it's a 10W charger with a USB-A to USB-C cable. Motorola said that you can use a different power adapter with the phone, but the maximum speed it can charge is 15W. By comparison the Galaxy A53 also has a 5,000-mAh battery and can charge at up to 25W, but you need to buy a power adapter separately. When I ran the Stylus 5G down to 0%, it took roughly 2.5 hours to charge it up to 95% using the included charger.

Shockingly, there's a headphone jack included, something that's practically nonexistent for phones in this price range. Motorola includes Dolby Atmos, which can be applied to specific headphones and speakers that you connect.

The stylus inside the Moto G Stylus 5G.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Stylus features are nice, but lack impact

The Moto G Stylus 5G includes a stylus, but the best thing about it is its dedicated slot in the phone. When you remove the stylus, you'll see a menu of shortcuts including an option to take a screenshot to annotate, take a note or open a coloring book app. 

Motorola is also launching a Live Message feature, which lets you create an animated drawing and send it out through a favorite messaging app. I was easily able to make these, and send them to friends the way I'd send a GIF. My friends found the animations amusing but this isn't something I'd do every day.

The stylus is neat, but it's hard for me to imagine using it on a regular basis. If you need to sign a digital document, it's now easy to get that done with a service like DocuSign, Microsoft Office or Google Docs. Unless you absolutely need a stylus, you'd be better off considering the sub-$500 phones that don't include one. 

The Moto G Stylus 5G has a 50-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor camera.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Stable photography

The biggest improvement on the Moto G Stylus 5G over last year's version is with the inclusion of optical image stabilization. This reduces hand shake while taking photos, helping prevent motion blur.

The main 50-megapixel camera on the back of the phone is accompanied by an 8-megapixel ultrawide and a 2-megapixel depth sensor camera. On the front is a 16-megapixel selfie camera.

I took the phone to a dog park, where I needed to move quickly to get photos of the puppies. I shot plenty of great dog photos, including of my friend's dog Mel who got particularly aggressive with a football toy.

Photo taken on the Moto G Stylus 5G.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Mel, the dog pictured here, wouldn't let any other dog near this football. Photo taken on the Moto G Stylus 5G.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

I also took the phone to a Korean barbecue restaurant as well as to a karaoke night, where I used the phone's Night mode to help capture more detail in darker indoor settings. It captured all of the details of the meal, but at the theater the results were more saturated. There's a noticeable blur on objects that were farther away.

Night mode on the Moto G Stylus 5G.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Night mode on the Moto G Stylus 5G.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Photo taken on the Moto G Stylus 5G's front-facing camera.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

The front-facing camera also captured a lot of detail while I made faces at the camera.

Video isn't the phone's strong suit. You can choose between 30 and 60 frames per second, but otherwise it's limited to 1080p for capture. Last year's Stylus 5G includes 4K video recording, so I was surprised that feature didn't stick around. 

The footage I took at the dog park was OK, but wasn't particularly detailed even in good lighting. I wouldn't expect to capture anything more than short video clips that could be shared with friends or family.

Limited software support hurts an otherwise good phone

Even though the phone's stylus, good photography, larger screen and higher refresh rate all recommend it, it's hard for me to ignore Motorola's commitment to just one major Android update.

I used a Moto Z2 Play as my personal phone back in 2018. When it developed bugs, the slower software updates meant I couldn't be confident those issues would be resolved.

Motorola pledges security updates for three years, which will at least make sure the Stylus 5G isn't vulnerable to most malicious threats. But Samsung pledged to support Galaxy A phones for four years while Google gave the Pixel 6 three years of software updates and five years of security updates. Motorola is woefully behind in comparison.

Unless you crave the stylus and want a phone for $500 or less, I suggest waiting a few more weeks until after Google I/O. It's rumored Google will announce a cheaper Pixel 6A, possibly in the $450 to $500 price range. Motorola's $400 Moto G 5G, sans stylus, will also launch in the coming weeks. Once those phones are released, we'll have a better overall idea which is the best phone in this price range. 

Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2022) vs. Samsung Galaxy A53 5G, Google Pixel 5A with 5G, Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2021)

	Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2022)	Samsung Galaxy A53 5G	Google Pixel 5A with 5G	Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2021)
Display size, resolution	6.8-inch LTPS LCD FHD Plus; 2,460 x1,080 pixels; 120Hz	6.5-inch AMOLED 2,400x1,080 pixels; 120Hz	6.34-inch OLED; 2,400x1,080 pixels; 60Hz	6.8-inch LCD FHD Plus; 2,400x1,080 pixels; 60Hz
Pixel density	TBD	405ppi	413ppi	386ppi
Dimensions (Inches)	6.65x2.98x0.37 in	6.28x2.94x0.32 in	6.1x2.9x0.3 in	6.67x3.05x0.39 in
Dimensions (Millimeters)	168.9x75.8x9.3 mm	159.6x74.8x8.1 mm	156.2x73.2x8.8 mm	169.54x77.48x9.35 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)	7.58 oz; 215 grams	6.67 oz; 189 grams	6.45 oz; 183 grams	7.67 oz; 217.5 grams
Mobile software	Android 12	Android 12	Android 11	Android 11
Camera	50-megapixel (wide), 8-megapixel (ultrawide/macro), 2-megapixel (depth)	64-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide), 5-megapixel (macro), 5-megapixel (depth)	12-megapixel (wide), 16-megapixel (ultrawide)	48-megapixel (wide-angle), 5-megapixel (macro), 8-megapixel (ultra-wide angle), 2-megapixel (depth sensor)
Front-facing camera	16-megapixel	32-megapixel	8-megapixel	16-megapixel
Video capture	1,080p	4K	4K	4K
Processor	Snapdragon 695 5G	Exynos 1280	Snapdragon 765G	Snapdragon 480 5G
Storage	256GB	128GB	128GB	256GB
RAM	8GB	6GB	6GB	6GB
Expandable storage	Up to 1TB	Up to 1TB	None	Up to 1TB
Battery	5,000 mAh (10W wired charger included)	5,000 mAh (charger not included)	4,680 mAh (18W wired charger included)	5,000 mAh (10W wired charger included)
Fingerprint sensor	Side	In-display	Back	Back
Connector	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C
Headphone jack	Yes	None	Yes	Yes
Special features	5G-enabled; OIS for main camera; NFC for Google Pay, Stylus	5G-enabled; IP67 rating; supports 25W wired fast charging, Samsung Pay	5G-enabled, IP67 water rating, Dual Sim	5G-enabled, Stylus,
Price off-contract (USD)	$500	$450	$449	$400
Price (GBP)	Converts to £320	£399	Converts to £345	Converts to £285
Price (AUD)	Converts to AU$560	AU$699	Converts to AU$620	Converts to AU$515

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Source

https://nichols.my.id/how-to-recover-excel-unsaved-file-mac.html

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Dell XPS 13 Plus Review: This Slim Premium Laptop Isn't Afraid to Shake Things Up

Dell XPS 13 Plus Review: This Slim Premium Laptop Isn't Afraid to Shake Things Up

When you open up the XPS 13 Plus, three things will immediately strike you as... unusual. Those design choices make the XPS 13 Plus stand out so much visually, but they also make for an unconventional experience. Not necessarily a bad one, but certainly one that fights years of laptop design muscle memory. 

First is the touchpad, which sits, disguised, along the edge-to-edge palm rest. It's there, but you can't actually see it. The touch-sensitive part of that front area is indistinguishable from the part you just rest your hands on. 

Apple laptops still have a distinct panel for touch, some laptops from Dell's own Alienware line have touchpads that literally glow in different colors, but here it's guesswork. In practice, however, I found the touch-sensitive area relatively easy to use. It runs from the left edge of the spacebar on one side to the right edge of the Alt key on the other. Sure, it would be cool to have the touchpad run the entire length of the body, but that would be a nightmare for palm rejection AI and probably not as useful as you'd think.

Like

• Inventive new design
• Very slim and light
• Excellent performance
• Great OLED display
• Included USB-C dongles

Don't Like

• You might not love the new touchpad, keyboard and function keys
• Underwhelming battery life
• Heat and fan noise
• Low-resolution webcam
• No headphone port

But the larger point remains -- people are used to how touchpads work and what they look like, so you mess with that shared experience at your own peril. In this case, the touchpad's overall feel is good for a Windows laptop, but it could also feel either too sensitive or not sensitive enough, depending on what I was doing. The best word for an overall vibe would be "floaty," and it suffers in comparison by landing on my desk immediately after the latest MacBook Air, which is the platonic ideal of touchpad feel and functionality. 

Dell makes a big deal of the haptics of the touchpad. It feels like you can click it down, but it's not actually depressing. MacBook touchpads have worked the same way for years. Personally, I'm a tapper, not a clicker, so it didn't make a huge difference to me. 

The invisible touchpad. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Next is the keyboard, which ditches the standard island-style keys -- flat with a modest space between each one -- for an edge-to-edge design, where each key brushes up against its neighbor. It's a style that popped up occasionally in the 2010s, but one I haven't seen in a while. It lets you offer a larger top surface for each key and in some cases, helps make a laptop thinner. I got used to it quickly but, again, my muscle memory fought it. It also lacks the satisfying snap of a good island-style keyboard. 

The last big change is to the Function key row. It reminds me of the now-deprecated Apple Touch Bar, as it's a backlit row of touch-sensitive icons. The media and system commands are lit by default -- brightness, volume, keyboard backlight and so on. Hold the Fn key and you see the typical F1 to F12 keys. You can swap the behavior the other way if you prefer. 

Why do this? Again, I believe it's to shave some thickness from the system and allow for its hinge mechanism. I'm not against the idea in principle, but the MacBook Pro's rough go of it shows that people aren't itching to swap physical buttons for virtual ones. And this isn't a full-color user-assignable OLED screen strip like Apple's version, either. But in the end, the only thing I think you'll miss is having a physical Esc key, which can be important in your day to day use. I liked how clear the icons were and how they were boldly backlit. 

Function keys are replaced by a touch strip. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Configuration and performance

Once you put aside those three breaks with laptop design orthodoxy, the rest of the XPS 13 Plus is a conventional and mostly excellent premium 13-inch laptop experience. The XPS 13 line has always been one of my favorite Windows laptops, and this looks and feels like a high-end machine that will be a conversation piece whenever you whip it out. 

The XPS 13 Plus starts at $1,299 and the model I tested is currently $1,949. It includes an upgraded CPU, RAM and display. I liked that there are four 13.4-inch screen options, both OLED and LCD, ranging from a 1,920x1,080 non-touch screen to a 3,840x2,400 touchscreen.

Inside, the version here has a 12th-gen Intel Core i7-1280P, and all the engineering to squeeze it into this 15mm-thick body is impressive. That said, the fans spin up audibly, sometimes sounding like a little white noise machine in the background, and even then, the system got very warm, especially on the bottom panel. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Performance with that 12th-gen Core i7 is a highlight, and it's nice to have this much raw horsepower in a high-design, executive-class laptop. I've compared it to Apple's latest mainstream and Pro laptops, as well as comparable Windows systems. It's part of Intel's Evo program, which is a designation for premium slim laptop designs with good performance. If you go with the least expensive configuration, you get a Core i5 from the same generation. 

In the preloaded My Dell app, you can switch between performance presets (navigate from My Dell > Power > Thermal). The Performance mode was indeed faster, but also cranked the fans up even more, created a lot of heat, and certainly didn't help the already limp battery life. 

Display and webcam 

The display is also a highlight. I tested the 3,456x2,160-pixel touchscreen version, which is an impressive-looking OLED panel. Dell calls this 3.5K and you can also get a true 4K version, but that's no OLED panel. Either one is a $300 upgrade from the base non-touch Full HD 1,920x1,080-pixel model. There's also a FHD touch panel for $100 more, and if you're looking to cut costs, it's probably where I'd go. On a relatively small laptop, you can get away with FHD resolution, but adding touch is going to be valuable. 

I'm less pleased with the 720p webcam. Premium laptops have made a major switch to FHD cameras in the past couple of years, even dragging long-time holdout Apple in with the latest MacBook Air Dell says the lower-res camera here benefits from image processing help on the software side, but I found it to be merely ok. Jumping into a Zoom meeting in low light, I had a distinct orange hue. Adding a higher-resolution camera would likely mean a thicker lid, so I get that there's a size-versus-functionality tradeoff. 

A great webcam, this is not. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

The camera is also used for Dell's presence-detection features, which I find interesting. It can wake from sleep mode when the camera detects your face, or it can lock itself when you walk away. But the feature I liked most was called Look Away Detect, which will dim the screen if it sees you looking away. That's good for both battery life and privacy, and worked so well that I think more laptops should have a feature like that. 

It has just two Thunderbolt USB-C ports, which is frankly fine for most people these days, and it matches the most recent 13-inch MacBook Pro. But, Dell kills the headphone jack, which might be rarely used, but is a notable exclusion nonetheless. A USB-C-to-audio dongle is included in the box, as is a USB-C-to-USB-A one. That's a nice bonus, and one that some companies (ahem, Apple...) would probably make you pay extra for. The downside is, if you keep it plugged into power and use the headphone adaptor at the same time, you're out of ports. 

Battery life and roadworthiness 

Despite focusing on some of the unusual design choices and limitations, there's a lot I love about the XPS 13 Plus. I love a sharp, original design and am willing to trade a little familiarity to push the edges a bit. This level of performance in a slim, light laptop like this is enviable (as long as we're sticking on the non-dedicated GPU side of things), and the hidden performance modes offer more flexibility than I'm used to seeing in similar laptops. 

But there's one more wrinkle in the formula. Battery life. In benchmark testing, the XPS 13 Plus ran on the short side, at about 4 hours while streaming online video, which is far from the most strenuous thing you might ask it to do. In hands-on use, it felt a little better depending on what I was doing, but it also dropped from almost 70% to under 30% in less than 2 hours while I was writing this review. 

Ports are limited, but dongles are included. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Use the optimized performance preset, turn down the screen brightness, close unused apps and you can likely push the battery life to a better place. But I don't feel confident that I could pick up this laptop in the morning and work on it all day without charging. It helps that there's an express charging preset for powering up part of the battery quickly. 

The nearly 4K screen doesn't do the battery any favors, although the fact that it's an OLED panel should help. That's one reason I'm cautious about recommending 4K laptops -- higher-resolution screens are a battery killer. 

The XPS 13 Plus has a lot of innovative ideas -- some of which are important, while others seem like change for the sake of change. We may even disagree on which is which. If I were working on the next generation of this laptop, I'd keep the design updates but suggest sacrificing a little thickness for a bigger battery so this could be a more travel-ready companion. 

Geekbench 5 (multicore)

Acer Swift 5 (SF514-56T-797T)

Lenovo Yoga 9i (14-inch, Gen 7)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Cinebench R23 (multicore)

Acer Swift 5 (SF514-56T-797T)

Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

Lenovo Yoga 9i (14-inch, Gen 7)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

3DMark Wild Life Extreme

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320

Lenovo Yoga 9i (14-inch, Gen 7)

Acer Swift 5 (SF514-56T-797T)

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Online streaming battery drain test

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Lenovo Yoga 9i (14-inch, Gen 7)

Acer Swift 5 (SF514-56T-797T)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

System Configurations

Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320	Windows 11 Home; 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-1280P; 16GB DDR5 6,400MHz RAM; 128MB Intel Iris Xe Graphics; 512GB SSD
Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)	MacOS Monterey 12.4; Apple M2 8-core chip; 8GB RAM; Apple 10-core GPU; 256GB SSD
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED	Windows 11 Pro; 2.7 AMD Ryzen 7 6800U; 16GB DDR5 ; 6,400MHz; 512MB AMD Radeon Graphics; 1TB SSD
Acer Swift 5 (SF514-56T-797T)	Windows 11 Home; 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-1280P; 16GB DDR5 6,400MHz RAM; 128MB Intel Iris Xe Graphics; 512GB SSD
Lenovo Yoga 9i (14-inch, Gen 7)	Windows 11 Home; 2.1GHz Intel Core i7-1260P; 16GB DDR5 5.200GHz RAM; 128MB Intel Iris Xe Graphics; 512GB SSD

How we test computers

The review process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computer-like devices consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our expert reviewers. This includes evaluating a device's aesthetics, ergonomics and features. A final review verdict is a combination of both those objective and subjective judgments. 

The list of benchmarking software we use changes over time as the devices we test evolve. The most important core tests we're currently running on every compatible computer include: Primate Labs Geekbench 5, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra. 

A more detailed description of each benchmark and how we use it can be found in our How We Test Computers page. 

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