That got my interest. Why companies are trying to do this? Isn't the ESC key one of the commonly used keys on the keyboard? What's a net gain by replacing it?
Dell claimed that physical keyboard is too thick to put in enough cooling for 28W Alder Lake-P chip in thin-and-light form factor. The touchbar is much thinner allowing more room for the heat spreader.
Having seen benchmark number from XPS 13 Plus compared with other notebook equipped with Alder Lake-P, it looks like it's working.
Having seen benchmark number from XPS 13 Plus compared with other notebook equipped with Alder Lake-P, it looks like it's working.