Dell XPS 13 (2018): The Smaller, Lighter and Faster Laptop
The XPS 13 from Dell is just out, and we are overwhelmed with its powerful specs, lucid design and stunning display. Sporting a very lightweight body weighing just 2.67 pounds, it is one of the most sophisticated laptops out in the market now. XPS 13 has a lot of innovative things punched in ranging from a slightly awkward placement of the webcam to the introduction of face ID authentication to the placement of fingerprint sensor with the power button.
The XPS 13 packs a quad-core eighth-generation Intel processor that helps the new laptop render and encode videos in Adobe Premiere Pro twice as fast as the 2015 model. That’s just one specific test to show how well the system should perform, of course — your experience may vary. There’s also a new dual heat pipe and fan cooling system, as well as Gore Thermal insulation covering certain parts of the system like the processor and GPU to keep temperatures low.
Slim design
Already considered as one of the lowest footprint laptops available in the market Dell XPS13 has further sized itself down offering an extra slim dimension measuring 11.9 x 7.8 x 0.46 inches. With 2.67 pounds of weight, it is one of the lightweight laptops as well. To give it a slim built Dell has used InfinityEdge bezel which is at least 23 percent thinner than its predecessor. As the display has no room to accommodate the webcam at the top, it moved the webcam to the lower centre of the screen. Clearly, the company tried to push an all-screen, least bezel display at all cost.
New authentication
When it comes to authenticating users, the new Dell XPS 13 introduced two killer features. First of all, the new webcam is loaded with an infrared camera allowing full support for face authentication through Windows Hello. If you do not like to use your face for authentication, you have integrated fingerprint reader right into the power button to authenticate the user every time he presses it.
Awesome display
The XPS 13 comes with dazzling display specs that include a 4K UltraHD resolution screen coupled up with up to 400 nits brightness and 100 percent sRGB color rating. If that eats away your battery life faster, you can always choose the standard 1080p display.
Powerful processor
The XPS 13 comes with the same 8th-generation Core i7 quad-core processor that the company introduced in the laptop sometime before. But the new processor has been given some extra edge with an upgraded cooling system comprising now a dual-fan and dual-heat pipe.
Battery life
As per the company, the new battery of the XPS 13 will be able to run as long as 11 hours at a stretch with the most power consuming activities going on. Though for continuous video playing the device with a single charge may run for far less time than this.
Measuring the good and bad
Obviously, the new Dell XPS 13 doesn’t arrive without its share of controversy and debatable elements. But when it is about measuring the good vs bad this laptop simply stands out with its almost bezel-free display, extremely lightweight and slim design and powerful specs. Additionally, you have two Thunderbolt 3 ports along with USB-C port. You get a microSD card reader as well.
When measured against the competition it comfortably stands along with all slim and lightweight power laptops from other brands including MacBook Pro, HP Spectre x360 13t, Microsoft Surface Book 2, and MacBook Air. While many say that the new quad-core CPU of Dell XPS 13 is truly a game-changer on the performance front, still the claims remained mostly unverified, and we need to wait for sometime to take a call on this.
Final verdict
In all regards, when you go for choosing Windows thin and light laptops with powerful features you cannot find a better option than Dell XPS 13. With a complete redesign that made it further lightweight and slim while adjusting the placement of few standard hardware elements like that of the webcam, Dell once again took the lead with a new laptop offering for 2018. If the design philosophy “less is more” has guided this new redesign attempt, it deserves a strong applause with more power added to the hardware and specs.
Dhruvil is a Writer & Marketeer for Nimblechapps, joined in December 2014, based out of Sydney, Australia. He has worked briefly as a Branding and Digital Marketing Manager before moving to Australia. At Nimblechapps, he worked on Social Media Marketing, Branding, Email Marketing and Blogging. Dhruvil studies Business at University of Western Sydney, and also handles Operations for the company in Australia.