Things are getting really interesting ahead of Google‘s upcoming fall hardware event. Lenovo grabbed early attention with its 13-inch ‘Sapphire’ detachable and a 15-inch laptop. Now, regulatory filings and benchmark entries are starting to expose the rest of the Googlebook launch lineup. It seems Dell is stepping back into the consumer Google space, and it’s bringing its premier XPS branding as a Googlebook laptop along for the ride.
Unmasking “Mica” through benchmark breadcrumbs
Uncovering unreleased hardware always feels like solving a puzzle. Well, that is exactly how this new Dell laptop came to light. In July, GBookHub first spotted a mystery board codenamed “Mica” inside the Chromium Gerrit repository. “Mica” belongs to Qualcomm’s “Bluey” reference family—the base architecture behind Snapdragon X-series Googlebooks. Early code commits dropped a big hint about its origin because the power management and battery health code directly mirrored Dell’s proprietary firmware.
The final confirmation came when Geekbench 6 benchmark runs popped up under the model name “Dell XPS 13 (DX13267).” The filing also has alternate listings labeled “Google Multi-device ARM64.” Looking deep into the software footprints reveals references to mica-userdebug tied to an active Android 17 desktop build (CL2B.260330.081). Since DX13267 sits right next to the Windows-based XPS 13 (DX13260), Dell is clearly putting Google’s new desktop platform inside its legendary 13-inch chassis (via Chrome Unboxed).
Serious Snapdragon power and OLED hardware
Dell usually saves its ChromeOS efforts for business models. So, seeing a full consumer return with XPS hardware is a big deal. The leaked specs show that Dell isn’t cutting corners either.
The machine runs on Qualcomm’s 12-core Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-80-100) processor, complete with a 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU to handle local AI tasks. Buyers will get to choose between 16GB or 32GB of fast LPDDR5X RAM. Up front, there’s a 13.4-inch OLED touch screen sporting a 2880 x 1800 resolution. You also get Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth, dual USB-C ports, and Googlebook-specific features like an integrated lid Glow Bar and built-in biometric security.
Early Geekbench 6 tests show single-core scores hovering around 2,200 and multi-core performance topping 9,500. While Google is still tuning its Android 17 desktop software (internally dubbed “Aluminium OS”) for desktop windowing, pairing a 12-core Snapdragon X Elite chip with up to 32GB of RAM means this laptop will offer true top-tier performance.
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