Dell¡¯s XPS line of notebooks include some of the most premium looking and performing machines out there for Windows users.?
We got to try one last year and it truly blew our mind away, so when Dell announced this year¡¯s XPS 13 we were curious to see what new things the portable notebook had to offer.?
We got to spend a few weeks with this portable monstrosity and here¡¯s what we liked and disliked about it.
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The current generation XPS 13 gets a similar all-aluminium body where the laptop has been CNC¡¯ed from a block of aluminium. What this translates to is a very rigid and well-built machine. Even the top keyboard layer has been made by fibreglass that adds to the overall durability as well as aesthetics.?
It is important to highlight that despite the 13-inch form-factor this machine has quite the heft to it at around 1.3 kilograms.
While it¡¯s great to have a sleek machine that¡¯s barely 14.8 millimeters thick, it sucks if that has to come at the cost of ports. You get two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one MicroSD card slot and one combo headphone jack.?
While it was really cool of Dell to include a dongle for a USB-A port, and the Thunderbolt 4 offers users the flexibility to invest in a monitor with more ports and power delivery too, its true potential can only be unlocked after purchasing additional hardware. We really would have loved to see the inclusion of one USB Type-A port.
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You get a 13.4-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 3840 x 2400 pixels. In case you didn¡¯t realise, that¡¯s a really sharp panel in this form factor. Thanks to its OLED nature, we see colours with really deep blacks and vibrant contrasts that make watching movies on this a really pleasurable experience. Moreover, the panel is also capable of touching peak brightness of 500 nits,which was fine in most cases, but was not very effective when working outdoors.
The 13-inch panel is truly edge-to-edge with minimal bezels on each side that allows for an immersive viewing experience without really causing the size of the machine to increase considerably. This was also a touch panel so people who like to scroll with their fingers can have an equally enjoyable user experience.
In terms of hardware too the machine is fully loaded. We¡¯re looking at Intel¡¯s Core i7 1185G7 Processor paired with 16 gigabytes of DDR4 memory at 4267MHz. For graphics, the Intel Evo-platform CPU comes paired with an Iris XE graphics chip.
And a similar level of performance was seen in our benchmarks. PCMark 8 Creative benchmark delivered a promising score of 4116.?
To test the CPUs calibre we also ran a Cinebench R15 benchmark which delivered a score of 80.56 fps in OpenGL and a CPU score of 595cb.?
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This machine is perfect for someone who normally deals with heavy multitasking workloads or light photo and video editing. The machine however isn¡¯t great with gaming. It can deliver decent performance playing not very power-hungry titles like Valorant, CS: GO or even Fortnite on low to medium settings but don¡¯t expect too much from it.?
Powering the XPS 13 is a 4-Cell Battery, 52 Whr battery pack that on a full charge can run with ease for eight to nine of casual web browsing, movie watching etc. More CPU-GPU intensive tasks could vary the overall stamina.?
Dell XPS 13 is for someone who is looking for a premium and durable laptop that doesn¡¯t compromise on performance.?
From the choice of hardware onboard to the stellar display that truly makes one¡¯s eyes pop out, XPS 13 has a lot to offer, even more so with its nearly 10-hour battery life, which would make this a perfect work-entertainment companion on long-haul business flights.?
For the price tag of Rs ?213,989 however, it surely is a pricey option. If the budget's no constraint and you want a MacBook-like machine running Windows, the Dell XPS 13 truly fits the bill in every way.