The Amazing Dell XPS 13 Review 2023
Dell XPS 13 is one of the premium ultrabooks. The latest wifi and Bluetooth standards are on board and, of course, a full HD 1080P screen.
We will check if this laptop still has what it takes to sustain its title of being one the best premium ultrabooks in the market or if it’s got a little rusty. Of course, the most crucial question is whether or not it’s worth your hard-earned cash.
Design
The XPS 13 uses more or less the same design as last year’s model. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing because even that design looks very modern and elegant.
Also, it’s worth noting that the XPS 13 uses a nice mix of premium and standard material, so the laptop feels top-notch. It weighs a little over 2.6 pounds. It’s heavy enough to feel premium but light enough that it won’t be a burden on you for prolonged periods of carrying the laptop.
So overall, this is a very well-built laptop. If you look at the top side of the laptop, you can notice that you have a pretty standard-looking metallic silver color.
But also, this is a genuine metallic finish. It feels super smooth and great to touch. There’s no particular texture and has just a simple smooth feel. However, if you look at the center, you’ll notice you have a Dell logo that has a reflective surface.
Dell also has this gimmicky feature where they have a battery indicator. So, if you press this button will show you how much battery you have.
Finally, we make our way to the bottom of the laptop, and again, Dell has given special importance to quality. So, most PC manufacturers would have a hard TPU finish on the bottom side. But not Dell, they have a metallic finish here as well.
You also have the vents for air intake, and beyond that, you have XPS branding in the dead center with a nice reflective surface. As soon as you unfold this laptop, the very first thing you’ll notice is that nice carbon fiber black finish.
It feels super nice on the fingers, and it’s a premium choice of material again. However, you have minimal palm rest space on this laptop.
So, if you have a large hand, you’ll feel that part of that is, of course. Because of the condensed form factor, Dell is gone with the XPS series. But again, this may be a problem for some people.
Display
As far as display fitting goes, Dell has achieved a 91.5 percent screen-to-body ratio. This means you have a super-thin chin and ultra-thin bezels that make your scream look expansive.
As far as display quality goes, Dell is not joking around with the XPS model. So you have a base resolution of 1920 x 1080, also known as full HD. However, you can opt to get a 4K display with higher configurations.
We’re looking at the base display. So you have a superb color accuracy of 96.4 percent sRGB which means colors are nice and vivid. It’s fantastic to do Photoshop editing, color grading, or video editing.
Everything’s going to look nice and crisp. Furthermore, it’s also worth noting that you have a peak brightness of 400 nits. This is more than ample for any possible indoor setting and will work in most outdoor settings without a sweat.
The screen looks super bright and offers excellent viewing angles. So, there’s little to no washout, whether you’re viewing directly or from a particular angle. This laptop display has a high-quality display panel.
Performance
Another essential aspect of buying a laptop is its general performance. For the most part, I’m happy to say the XPS 13 is a competent laptop, so I’m not going to lie to you.
It has rocking Intel’s eleventh generation Core i5 Quad-Core processor with 8 gigabytes of DDR4 RAM, a 256 GB solid-state drive, and we’ve also got Intel’s latest Iris Xe integrated graphics chipset.
This laptop won’t appear any faster and slower in a real-world test than most other modern-day ultrabooks. It opens everything super fast, whether that’s web browsing, watching some Netflix or YouTube, or writing up a word document.
It’s all going to feel relatively fast. The real test, of course, comes in when you start using more resource-intensive applications. Here while using Adobe Rush to do some 1080P video editing, for the most part, this laptop had no problem keeping up with it.
However, it starts heating up when you add too many effects. That can lead to the occasional thermal throttling, which translates into the occasional frame drops.
If you start doing something more intensive like 4K video editing, you start noticing the laptop heating up way more, resulting in more frame drops.
Keyboard
The keys of the keyboard feel super tactile. They also have excellent deep travel, and the mechanism is well balanced. Overall making it a joy to type on this laptop.
Also, it’s worth noting that despite the tactile feel, the keys are also very sturdy at the same time. So they don’t feel cheap wobbly, or loose in the slightest, which again makes this a charming type of experience.
Unfortunately, the backlighting is relatively weak because it’s far from the actual keys themselves. Also, there’s a fair bit of light leakage from the corner of the keys. Because of the distance between the backlighting and the actual keyboard.
Also, there are no dedicated media keys on this laptop. They are all converted into the traditional function keys. You have an isolated power button that also serves as a fingerprint scanner.
Dell XPS is probably one of the only PC makers with a hinge that’s probably more or less in comparison or equivalent to the one you would find on a MacBook.
It’s so sturdy, does not wobble, and just stays in place. Also, I like that you have a magnetic strip at the top of the laptop. So, when you fold it, it stays in place and does not wobble around.
Trackpad
As far as a trackpad goes, you have an excellent premium quality glass surface finish. The clicks are super tactile. It’s well balanced, and it’s a pleasure to click on this thing.
Also, it’s a little short in the height department, and that’s because of the condensed form factor of the laptop.
Connectivity
As we make our way to the side of the laptop, you can see that connectivity is quite limited. So on the left side, you have two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one of which allows power transmission.
As you make your way to the other side of the laptop, you’ll find you have a headphone Jack, one additional USB Type-C port, and a micro SD card reader.
It would have been nice if Dell just included a full-sized SD card reader, as that’s still the most popular medium for most cameras and devices.
Battery
As far as battery life goes, the XPS 13 gives up to 14 hours of battery life on a single charge. If you’re doing like usage, let’s say you’re watching a video on YouTube and the occasional web browsing, as long as you keep your brightness levels around 50 percent.
However, if you are doing moderate usage at 100 percent brightness, that quickly dropped around the 7 to 8-hour mark in the real-world test.
Suppose you are doing resource-intensive activities nonstop and, let’s say, gaming, for example, at peak brightness. The battery life can quickly drop to around the 3-hour mark, not unexpected. Generally speaking, the battery life is pretty competitive on this device.
Speakers
The Dell XPS 13 has a rocking stereo speaker setup. It can get pretty loud for the most part; the sound is crisp even at high volume levels.
The speaker is good as the external laptop speaker should be. But it’s not the best.
Webcam
Unfortunately, you still have a less-than-ideal 720P webcam at the very top of the laptop. That means we’ll make it look like a Minecraft character.
Conclusion
This is a pretty well-balanced laptop. You get fantastic build quality and excellent material. So, it feels premium and looks sleek and modern. Also, you have one of the best displays in the industry.
There are very few PC manufacturers who make a screen quality of this kind on laptops. Honestly, creative users will appreciate the high-quality display over here. Also, you get a fantastic trackpad and keyboard experience to go along with that.
One of my drives with this laptop is that it has minimal connectivity options. We only get 3 USB Type-C ports and a micro SD card reader. I wish Dell were a little more creative in that regard.
But some people might attach a dongle and say what’s the big deal, so it’s about the preference. Also, one other thing I will say is, if you have the extra budget, try to get the 16 gigabytes of RAM variant, which will help you future-proof in the years to come.
Especially considering 8 gigabytes is now like the bare minimum you want on a laptop. The webcam could also be improved just at 720P, and it’s getting outdated, to be honest.
Specification Table
Final Verdict
Overall, Dell XPS 13 is a great laptop. Whether you’re a student or a professional who needs maximum power, this laptop has something for everyone, and it’s a premium-quality machine.
Dear Reader
That’s our Dell XPS 13 laptop buying guide; hopefully, you found it helpful. Thank you so much, guys, for reading this post, and I hope you enjoyed reading the post.
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