Dell launches new convertible laptop-tablet hybrid

But for all of the little losses the Surface Book seems to be racking up in this competition, one of its most prominent features might help tilt this fight in its favor.

Dell has rolled out three new machines for its XPS notebook lineup including the XPS 12 2-in-1, XPS 13, and XPS 15. These equate to pixel densities of 352ppi and 176ppi for the 12.5in displays, respectively. One, its 12.5-inch screen houses a 4K (3840 x 2160 resolution) panel in what feels to us like an 11-inch device form factor. To remove, you just pull the device up and it slides back out. Dell is providing buyers with a 4K display option – that’s a lot of pixels for a 12-inch diagonal screen. However, it could still prove an annoyance for people who wish to connect a USB mouse to the XPS 12, for example, or an external drive. It does so using magnets and doesn’t really have any sort of clasp that I’m used to seeing. However, with the early build version I saw, grabbing the tablet at an awkward angle caused the tablet to slide horizontally in the groove, undocking the two components. This is because there’s no adjustable hinge. Unlike, say, a Surface Pro 4, Dell’s offering comes with a proper, backlit keyboard in the box. Both felt nice and comfortable to use during my time testing.

XPS 12 also gets 8 GB of RAM – twice as much as the equivalent Surface Pro 4 – and 128 GB of internal storage. The 12, 13 and 15 inch models have all had new processors added in, as well as updated displays, and size reductions, making these the most powerful yet efficient laptops in the history of the range.

Other notable features include a USB Type-C port that supports Thunderbolt 3 as well as adapters for HDMI/VGA/Ethernet ports and standard USB devices. The XPS 12 is expected to release around January. Last, but not least, Dell also claims the new laptop has the longest battery life of any 13-inch laptop on the planet, reaching up to 18 hours, which leaves behind, in theory, Surface Book’s 12 hours lifespan. This is twinned with eight gigabytes of dual channel DDR3 running at 1,600MHz and a 128GB or 256GB SSD.

4GB, 8GB or 16GB LPDDR3-1866MHz RAM. Storage can be configured all the way up to 1TB PCIe SSDs. Since the Skylake came out, practically every laptop manufacturer far and wide started to refresh their models with the new chips in order to stay competitive. Prices will start at around £849.

Finally, for those looking for more power the larger XPS 15 offers the same InfinityEdge display and design as its smaller stablemate but with more screen real-estate and an UltraSharp Ultra HD display. That’ll snag you most of the features mentioned aside from the 4K display, so it’s a solid deal. The non-touch model will weigh 1.78kg whereas the 4K touch model will be slightly heavier at 2kg.

It’s not exactly a gaming laptop, but if you want the power of a dedicated Nvidia graphics card then you can even opt for the GTX 960M in this machine. It’s got faster PCie SSD storage that maxes out at up to 1TB, up to 16GB of RAM and Thunderbolt 3. Thunderbolt 3 again makes an appearance.

Both laptops will be available from Dell.com on October 8.