The
Dell XPS 13 has been one of my favorite laptops since the company first
revamped the line with a near-edgeless display and super-slim design in
2015. And like Apple and its MacBooks, Dell has decided to offer
incremental, but meaningful updates to the XPS 13 over the years.
Which brings us to the latest incarnation of the Dell XPS 13.
Available starting at $999, the 2018 version of the XPS 13 includes a
thinner display bezel, improved performance, realigned webcam and, most
noticeable of all, a beautiful rose gold and white color combination to
compliment the current silver and black offering.
Dell’s clearly got a winner on its hands, and when it comes to the competition for your cash, this notebook comes out on top.
Rose-colored glasses
Dell’s
latest XPS 13 is the first to be made available with a rose colored
chassis and white keyboard deck, for an extra $50, of course. The
styling has received rave reviews around my office, save for the white
keyboard deck and palm rest, which at least one coworker found
off-putting.
The
reason you don’t see many white palm rests is because they tend to
stain easily. To ensure the XPS 13’s palm rest stays clean, Dell
manufactured it with woven glass fiber. I’ve had the notebook for a few
weeks, and haven’t noticed any stains from things like sweat, oil, food
or drinks, which would typically accumulate on my laptops’ palm rests.
(Ed.’s note: That’s gross.)
If you opt for the rose gold XPS 13, you’ll also get a white keyboard deck and palm rest. Choose wisely.
Outside
of its new color scheme, the updated XPS 13 trims about 0.14 inches off
of last year’s model, making it one of the thinnest 13-inch laptops on
the market. In fact, the XPS is slimmer than all of Apple’s (AAPL) MacBooks, as well as Microsoft’s (MSFT) Surface Laptop and Surface Pro with that device’s keyboard attached.
In
reality, though, the weight and thickness of most modern laptops have
reached a point where you won’t notice much of a difference between one
or the other. It’s more about bragging rights now than anything else.
More screen
Since
its debut, the redesigned XPS 13’s claim to fame has been its
near-edgeless InfiniteEdge Display. For 2018, Dell went even further in
its attempt to make the laptop’s bezels disappear by shrinking them by
23%. I didn’t notice the change at first sight, but if you’ve got a 2017
or older model, you should see the difference.
The
base model XPS 13 comes with a 13.3-inch, non-touch, 1,920- x
1,080-pixel resolution panel. You can, however, upgrade that to a
13.3-inch, 4K touch screen panel with a 3,840- x 2,160-pixel resolution.
The Surface Pro comes with a 12.3-inch, 2,736- x 1,824-pixel display, while the Surface Laptop gets a 13.5-inch, 2,256- x 1,504-pixel screen.
The XPS 13’s 13.3-inch InfiniteEdge display offers crisp, colorful visuals.
Apple’s
MacBook features a 12-inch display with a 2,304- x 1,440-pixel
resolution. The MacBook Pro gets 2,560- x 1600-pixel panel. All of these
screens, with the exception of the base XPS’s, are more than crisp and
sharp enough for everyday users and photo editors.
The
one notebook that falls short is the MacBook Air, which is still
rocking with an ancient 1,440- x 900-pixel resolution screen. Going from
my trusty Air to any of these other laptops is always a shock when I
see how their screens compare with Apple’s offering.
Colors
look absolutely stunning on the XPS 13, thanks to its 1,500 to 1
contrast ratio, which makes blacks look infinitely deep. Even desktop
icons pop on this display. Especially dark shows like “Stranger Things”
also look fantastic, but you do end up seeing reflections in the panel.
There’s
just one problem with the XPS 13’s screen: it messes with the position
of the laptop’s webcam. With such a small bezel, there’s no place for
Dell to fit a webcam above the display. With older models of the 13,
Dell moved the webcam just below the bottom left corner of the panel.
Naturally, that resulted in whoever you were talking to getting a weird
look up your nose.
Unfortunately, the XPS 13’s camera still looks straight up your nostrils.
For
2018, however, Dell centered the bezel below the screen. It makes for a
slightly better experience, but anyone you talk to is still going to
get a great view of your nostrils. And forget about typing while using
the webcam. Unless you recently got a manicure, you’re not going to want
the person you’re chatting with to get an up-close look at your nail
beds.
Power and battery life
My review unit came with an Intel (INTC)
Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage space, a 4K touch
screen, and handled all of my daily tasks with ease. I ran Chrome with
20+ tabs, streamed Spotify and was chatting on Slack and didn’t run into
any issues. For the kind of power this XPS is packing, it would be more
of a story if it did have a problem handling any of those simple
processes.
For
2018, Dell said it managed to increase the XPS 13’s power by improving
its internal heating system. It now uses Gore Thermal Insulation and a
dual fan and dual heat pipe setup to help move heat away from the
processor and graphics chip. Doing this allows the XPS 13 to maintain
stable performance levels longer than competing devices.
But
don’t expect to do things like play the latest and greatest games on
the XPS 13 at their highest settings, though, as it only packs an Intel
graphics chip. I managed to fire up “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds,” but
the graphics were so low that every characters’ head looked like it was
covered in individual pixels rather than hair.
The Dell XPS 13’s rose gold chassis is a stunner, but it’ll cost you an extra $50.
If
you really want to get your game on, you can plug an external graphics
card into the XPS via its USB C port, and get gaming. Naturally, that
requires you have a graphics card and adapter readily available, but it
can be done.
The
XPS 13’s battery was also a solid performer. I worked through my entire
workday, eight hours or so, without having to worry about the machine
giving up the ghost. That said, the XPS’s 4K display does eat through
power faster than the standard 1080p screen, so make sure to take that
into account when configuring your system.
Pricing and the competition
At
its base price of $999, the XPS 13 comes with an Intel Core i5
processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and a 1080p, non-touch display.
4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage is small potatoes in today’s world,
though, so I’d recommend moving up to the $1,199 model to get 8GB of RAM
and 256GB of storage.
If
you’re itching for more power you can get a Core i7 processor, 8GB of
RAM and a 256GB SSD for $1,399. If you want that sweet 4K display,
you’ll have to add an additional $400. And if money is no object, you
can get an XPS with a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 4K
display for $2,299.
Microsoft’s Surface Pro
is slightly more expensive in each of its configurations thanks to the
fact that you’ll need to spend an additional $130 on a keyboard cover to
use the device as a laptop. The Surface Laptop,
on the other hand, starts at $799 with a much less powerful processor.
For $899 you can get a similar configuration to the base Dell XPS 13,
but you’ll also have to upgrade the machine from the Windows 10 S
operating system it comes with to full Windows 10 for $49.
The XPS 13 is one of the thinnest 13-inch laptops in the world.
You’ll
end up spending slightly less on the low- to mid-range Surface Laptop,
but you don’t get that 4K display found on the XPS 13. And when you push
the Surface Laptop’s specs to match the top-of-the-line XPS, you end up
paying $2,699.
On the Mac side of things, a base MacBook Air
starts at $999, but comes with a fifth-generation Core i5 processor.
That’s three generations behind the processors available with the Dell.
You do get 8GB of RAM for that $999 price, but with the older chip and
lower resolution screen, it’s not really a bargain. What’s more, Apple
is rumored to be updating the Air in the spring, so it’s probably not
worth buying the Air until we find out more about Apple’s plans.
The MacBook,
for its part, starts at $1,299 with a less powerful Intel m3 processor,
8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. You’re basically paying for the
MacBook’s slender frame and sleek design, but that’s a lot to ask. Jump
up to a Core i5 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD and you’ll pay $1,399.
Apple’s MacBook Pros
all start at higher prices than the XPS, with the base model coming in
at $1,299. But the Pros are designed for use by professional video and
photo editors and pack a heck of a performance punch, so it makes sense
that they’d cost more.
Should you get it?
The
Dell XPS 13 is the best Windows 10 laptop in terms of overall value and
looks. It’s also less expensive than Apple devices, which makes it a
solid option even for Mac fans. If you’re in the market for a new PC,
and don’t mind its odd webcam placement, the new Dell XPS 13 is easily a
top pick.
