Dell XPS 13: Everything To Know

It’s hard to improve on the best Windows laptop for a long time, but the new Dell XPS 13 does it in some intelligent, subtle ways. Dell’s new top-of-the-line notebook is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, which was already one of the thinnest and lightest on the market. It also comes in two beautiful new colors that will look great in your home office or on the road.

Dell XPS 13 Specifications

PROS

• Intel’s “Tiger Lake” CPU gives it better performance.
• It looks sleek.
• Vivid 16:10 screen
• The case is minimal, and a USB adapter is included.
• Lasts a long time

CONS

• Fewer ports to choose from
• Costly the way it’s set up

Battery life is great

You can leave the charger at home when you take the Dell XPS 13 out for a full day of work on the road. Our battery test, which consists of playing a 4K video at 50% brightness for eight hours and 31 minutes straight, showed that Dell’s newest laptop has a great battery life. That beats both the Dell XPS 13  and the MacBook Air M2 (5:21), but not as much as the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360, which lasted 11 hours and 11 minutes. This laptop will get you through most of the day, whether you’re watching Netflix nonstop or working hard.

Even without 4K, the screen is very good

There are three different displays for the Dell XPS 13, and all of them have an unusual 16:10 aspect ratio instead of the more common 16:9. The first option gives you more vertical space, which is helpful when you’re scrolling through websites or making changes to long documents.

Our review unit has a touch screen with 1,920 by 1,200 pixels. Because of the aspect ratio, the resolution is a bit higher than full HD (1,920 by 1,080 pixels), but it is much lower than the Retina Display on the MacBook Pro or the PixelSense display on the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3. But the XPS 13 can be set up with a 3,840-by-2,400-pixel screen that beats both of those laptops and the size of standard widescreen 4K displays (3,840 by 2,160 pixels).

Keyboard, Smaller size, and great new colors

I thought the Dell XPS 13 couldn’t get any better looking, but Dell managed to make it even smaller and give it a beautiful new coat of paint. It’s one of the thinnest and lightest laptops I’ve ever held, at just 0.55 inches thick and 2.59 pounds. Either way, I was glad to see Dell add some new colours this year.

Both of them are subtle enough for the office, but they are also different enough to stand out from the sea of silver and grey notebooks that usually cover my desk. The new Dell XPS 13 takes a design that already works and just makes it look better. This is in contrast to the recent Dell XPS 13 Plus, which tried to be too simple and gave up basic comfort and usability in the process. Of course, a laptop’s good looks don’t mean much if it’s not comfortable to use. Luckily, the XPS 13 has one of the best laptop keyboards I’ve ever used.

Price and what’s available

The Dell XPS 13 9300 starts at $1,249 (1,399, AU$2,499) with a 10th-generation Intel Core i5, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. In the UK and Australia, you can get a 512GB SSD instead. At this level, you also get a 1080p screen that can’t be touched. If you want to be able to touch your screen, you’ll have to pay more. If that isn’t enough, you can also customize the new Dell XPS 13 with more powerful hardware and better displays, which will make the price go up.

The unit we tested, whose hardware is listed to the right, costs $1,749 (1,599, AU$ 3,099) and has a touchscreen and a 10th-generation Core i7. We have to say again, though, that the 1080p touchscreen doesn’t appear to be available anywhere but in the US.

Performance

The Dell XPS 13 we got to review has an Intel Core i7-1065G7, which is a mobile processor with 4 cores and 8 threads that is based on Intel’s Ice Lake architecture. And, well, that’s all right. This little processor has enough power to get you through most simple computer tasks, but it might struggle with very heavy tasks like editing videos. But there is one important thing to note about Ice Lake: the GPU.

The Intel Gen11 graphics, also known as “Intel Iris,” are said to be about twice as powerful as the integrated graphics in Intel Whiskey Lake processors from the last generation.

FAQS

• Trying out the graphics and battery life of the Dell XPS 13

The switch from Iris Plus to Iris Xe graphics is one of the best things about Intel’s Tiger Lake platform. This improvement has a small effect on our graphics testing, which uses the Windows-only 3DMark and Superposition game simulations to show sequences of highly detailed, gaming-style 3D graphics that focus on particles and lighting.

• Programs and functions of Dell XPS 13

Because the Dell XPS 13 is a top model, it doesn’t have a lot of useless software that slows it down. There are, however, a few pieces of software that can make life easier. There are update assistants and customer service apps, but the Dell Cinema Guide is one of the unique pieces of software here. This lets you put all your streaming services in one app and search through all their libraries at once for movies or TV shows you want to watch. This piece of software isn’t the most important thing in the world, but we have to admit that it’s pretty cool.

It’s hard to improve on the best Windows laptop for a long time, but the new Dell XPS 13 does it in some intelligent, subtle ways. Dell’s new top-of-the-line notebook is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, which was already one of the thinnest and lightest on the market. It also comes in two beautiful new colours that will look great in your home office or on the road.