Some Dell XPS 13 Plus screens have a glue problem

Some early adopters of the new, beautiful, and undoubtedly polarizing Dell XPS 13 Plus have reported issues with its screen. Dell has confirmed to The Verge that it is aware of a screen issue on some OLED models of the device. The company is reaching out to impacted customers and appears to be recalling some products.

The issue being reported (which is among several that buyers and reviewers have complained of since the Plus’ release) may be that the screws connecting the screen to the chassis appear to be coming loose. A video has been circulating for weeks now of an XPS 13 Plus’ screen falling off in a Best Buy demo area (the video is incorrectly labeled as being of the larger XPS 15). Other users have reported XPS 13 Plus screens dying, exhibiting funky colors, and even losing touchscreen functionality soon after purchase.

Users are also reporting seeing their units labeled as recalled or withdrawn during ordering processes. It is not clear whether these particular recalls are related to this display issue. XPS 13 Plus orders are up and running on Dell’s website as of this writing.

Dell, reached for comment, sent The Verge the following statement:

Dell Technologies places the highest priority on the quality of our products. We discovered that some screens on the XPS 13 Plus OLED systems may become loose because of problems with the third-party adhesive used, and we quickly corrected the issue in our production process. Dell is proactively reaching out to customers who may be impacted to replace the screen, ideally before it becomes loose.

Dell also noted that the problem is specific to OLED XPS 13 models — non-OLED models, it seems, are not impacted.

The Verge did also experience issues with XPS 13 Plus’ display during our review process — a few days in, the screen died in a manner similar to those reported on Reddit. At the time, we’d assumed that was related to the unit having been knocked off a couch (and a replacement unit that was sent did not exhibit similar problems). Dell has since told us that our units were part of a batch of OLED models “suspect for a quality control issue with the display.”