Dell XPS 13: A Different Kind of Ultrabook
by Dustin Sklavos on March 13, 2012 9:00 AM ESTBattery Life
One of Intel's big mandates for the ultrabook line was for them to have good battery life, and that's a mandate anyone can really get behind. Dell has gone out of their way to further optimize the XPS 13 for better running time, but their optimizations do run afoul of our testing: the screen features an ambient light sensor which will dynamically adjust the brightness depending on how bright the surrounding room is, and while their optimized mode is enabled it's impossible to prevent the system from going to sleep if left idle. As a result, the XPS 13 was tested in our tried-and-true customized "Power Saver" configuration.
It's hard to complain too much about the battery life the XPS 13 produces, but it's also a situation where you have to wonder if a better thermal solution might not pay off dividends here. Jarred has already proven that Intel's "Hurry Up and Get Idle" mantra is actually accurate to Sandy Bridge, and the XPS 13 could stand to run the fan a bit less.
Heat and Noise
This is really where the Dell XPS 13 just isn't as good of a citizen as we wish it was. Under stress testing, we found the XPS 13's core temperatures would idle in the mid forties and then push into the low eighties. That trouble is compounded by the fan noise; the XPS 13 just seems to have a hard time in general dissipating heat. There's a ceiling that it hits, and then the fan will keep running well after the system has stopped being stressed as it slowly but surely tries to get the temperatures back down to the forties. As I mentioned before, once any obstruction is placed under that bottom vent, it's not at all difficult to get the core temperatures into the high nineties.
Fan noise under heavy load is at least 43dBA, and as is customary with the small fans ultrabooks require, the character of the noise is extremely high pitched. Again, this is really going to be the price of admission for an ultrabook. I want to say that Dell probably could have tweaked their fan controls better, but really it's the fact that the whole cooling system just doesn't seem to be as efficient as competing designs.
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NCM - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
CF is strong and lightweight, but it has poor thermal transfer compared to aluminum. The resulting trade-off for this Dell is compromised cooling, and it shows in these test results. This is already an area that's something of a challenge for densely packaged ultrabooks, and while the CF bottom case may protect your lap from getting toasted, those watts have to go somewhere. Or as here, fail to go somewhere, instead driving up processor core temperatures.The author's conclusion that the XPS 13 represents "an excellent starting point" may well be accurate, but what kind of a selling point is that for Dell? I don't know about anyone else, but when I shop I'm looking for a fully realized product, not one that may eventually become adequate in some future version.
jigglywiggly - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
clevo laptops have good displaysi have the p151hm1/np8130 and it has an amazing 95% ntsc color gamut display. 15in 1920x1080
bennyg - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
Yep can't wait till Clevo make an ultrabook. It might not look spectacular but if their P150/151 line is anything to go by it'll look like a 2000 Thinkpad but have an awesome screen :)I got P150HM with 1080p 95% gamut matte display and its even more awesome than the 15.6" Truelife in my previous Dell. The point everyone's whining about is WHY are NBs with great displays the exception? Why has the ONLY option for a 900p/1080p screen in <14 inch been the Vaio Z for over 2 years ??!
I also have a cheap netbook - Acer Aspire One D255E - with a screen that is astonishingly good, I was massively surprised (bought it 2nd hand for chips). It's only 600 px high which is of course the major bummer but I reckon it craps all over a great deal of notebooks even 5 times its price.
ndizzy - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
In case people want to see the inside of Dell XPS 13, here is a teardown video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Jzr1gSHHwQChronoD - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
Any word on if you guys are going to be getting either or both of these machines in for a review? I totally agree that most of the machines out there have absolutely crap screens, and for $1,000+ we should be able to get much better. I'm hoping that both of these live up to the hype from their announcement.Kelly - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
I may be stupid and/or ignorant but: What unit is the temperature in?Thanks for a nice review :)
dfiler76 - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
The reviewer states that the XPS 13 is idling in the mid 40s.45 deg F = 7 deg C (which would be way under the ambient temperature). Therefore it must be measured in Celsius.
I can understand why you weren't sure though: If blocking the bottom vent can push the core temps within a whisker of boiling point then I wonder about the longevity of the components...
lukarak - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
There's the first problem, the bottom vent. Small portable laptops with a bottom vent are just not practical. Apple does it much better.ExodusC - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
I'm so miffed- why do manufacturers continue to make otherwise well-rounded, or even great "Ultrabooks," but pack them with such awful screens?If anything, I would sacrifice color reproduction on a 13" panel for a higher pixel density than what you get with these ~720p displays.
Hell, the 1600x900 resolution on my laptop's roughly 14" panel feel much more significant than 720p.
rwei - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
Didn't you have an A8Jm at some point? And now an x100e?I went A8Jm -> Envy 17 + x120e...