Dell XPS 13: A Different Kind of Ultrabook
by Dustin Sklavos on March 13, 2012 9:00 AM ESTIn and Around the Dell XPS 13
While Dell's Inspiron line hasn't seen a whole lot of excitement, their XPS line has thus far been an aggressive attack on the old prevailing notion of Dell as a budget mainstream vendor. The XPS notebooks we've tested have all been well-received, but Dell's entry in the ultrabook market is especially noteworthy: Dell will tell you they're trying to bridge the high-end consumer market with the professional market, but the XPS 13 proves they mean it.
The lid of the XPS 13 is a sheet of machined aluminum and probably one of the least flexible lids I've ever seen; it's the polar opposite of and a sharp contrast to the Sony Vaio Z2, which featured a lid that was ultra-flexible by design to avoid damage. The chintziest-looking thing about it is the glossy black Dell logo. Open it and you'll find very stiff hinges: a welcome find, ensuring there won't be any screen wobble in regular use.
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I'm at the point now where I do have some reservations about the single glossy panel that covers the bezel and the screen, though. This is the same style you'll see on all of the Alienware notebooks, and while on the one hand it offers a uniform aesthetic that's pleasing on its own, on the other I've found that a glossy bezel is a fingerprint and dirt magnet. Having this single sheet really just exacerbates that issue. This is going to ultimately be a matter of taste. Where Dell does succeed, though, is having a fairly thin bezel surrounding the screen; much like the XPS 14z features a 14" screen in a 13" chassis, so the XPS 13 features a 13.3" screen in a 12" chassis. If you've ever felt like a bezel was just wasted space, you'll find yourself right at home here: the XPS 13 is very economical in its design, offering a larger screen than we'd normally expect in a notebook with these dimensions.
The silver trim around the keyboard area is one of the less comfortable aspects of the XPS 13's design, though. While it's attractive, it also has an unusually harsh edge that can potentially dig into your wrists depending on how you handle the notebook. The black, soft-touch-coated interior surface is incredibly pleasant to the touch, though, and a welcome deviation from most other ultrabooks. This along with the rounded chiclet keys on the keyboard and the smooth texture of the touchpad prove that Dell seems to have put real thought into how comfortable the XPS 13 would be to use.
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That said, there are reservations. I was able to adapt to the XPS 13's keyboard reasonably quickly, but mushy keyboards with minimal travel will continue to be par for the course for ultrabooks due to the limitations imposed by the form factor. Unified touchpads aping the MacBook's design had their day in the sun for mainstream notebooks (and seem to have thankfully fallen by the wayside), but they persist on ultrabooks, and the one on the XPS 13 is problematic. If you're used to having separate touchpad buttons, you'll find the XPS 13 can have a devil of a time properly detecting when you want to use a button and when you want to just move your fingertip across the pad. This is a pervasive problem with this kind of touchpad design; Apple's systems don't seem to have the issues with it that PCs do. I have an Acer in house that has almost the exact same sensitivity problems.
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Finally, the base (and much of the frame) of the notebook is carbon fiber, and that carbon fiber does a fantastic job of ensuring the surface never gets too hot to the touch regardless of how hot the internals may be running. It's comfortable and attractive, but the slight bump at the top belies what I think is a problem with how the XPS 13's thermals are engineered. A notebook designed to be this mobile pretty much begs to be used on your lap, but the only ventilation for the XPS 13 is just below that bump: a row of openings hiding the small cooling fan. Other ultrabooks I've seen have ventilated through the side and/or the back, making them more ideal for being used on your lap. Blocking that vent just by using the XPS 13 on your bed can cause CPU core temperatures to reach the mid-to-high 90's.
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As a whole I like the design of the XPS 13 a lot. Personally I'm not entirely sold on the ultrabook class, but a discussion with Anand largely confirmed that I'm not really the kind of user these computers were meant for anyhow and if they don't appeal to you specifically, there's a good chance you're not either. That said, of the ultrabooks I've seen I've found the XPS 13's design among the most appealing. Dell's engineers clearly looked at the other ultrabooks on the market and the MacBook Air and asked themselves what could be improved from a design standpoint, and for the most part I think they've been successful. There's still room for improvement in terms of keyboard design and especially with the touchpad, and the cooling system probably needs to be rethought, but the XPS 13 is an excellent starting point.
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Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
I had an A8Jm a loooooooonnnnnng time ago. If you're remotely interested in the history of Dustin's laptops (which he changes out like once a year because he can't settle on anything for too long):A8Jm -> HP dv6000z -> HP dv2000t -> ASUS X83 -> Dell Studio 17 + ThinkPad X100e -> Alienware M17x R3 + ThinkPad X100e
rwei - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
So what you're saying is that you change machines SLIGHTLY more often than I do =/Oddly, though, for the first time, I have trouble seeing any reason why I'd upgrade for some time, other than hardware/battery wear (and I have 2 batteries for the Envy, so...). I game way less than before - besides, the Envy 17 is still potent enough for pretty much anything I throw at it - and I don't see anything on the horizon that would require more performance. That was not at all true when I owned the A8Jm. Even the x120e is plenty for browsing, video watching, and whatever else I'd do on the go. Only complaint about my current setup is that the Envy 17 -> Thinkpad x120e transition is really jarring with the $)*@ing bad screen on the x120e...I wish, so dearly wish, I could stick a "New iPad" screen on the x120e (time to get a dremel tool and soldering iron??). Would be just about a perfect device.
The only thing I can think of that would make me upgrade is a Win8 tablet/notebook hybrid (which I partly bought a WP7 device in anticipation of), but I see that being at least 2 years out for reasonably mature hardware and a good software ecosystem.
It's a strange thing that, these days, when (normal) people ask me "what computer should I buy", I can pretty much entirely discount the performance of the CPU as a consideration (barring Atom, and sometimes Zacate netbooks - "yeah, sure, that one's 60-150% faster, but who cares?!").
AMD might be on to something with their new strategy.
Hulk - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
Okay that's it. My 5 year old Inspiron with a half decent high resolution screen and a C2D at 2GHz is going to have to hold me until I can buy a relatively thin and light laptop (~1" thick and around 4lbs) with a good IPS screen.If I'm going to suffer I might as well suffer with my current lappy and save some money. I'll just put an SSD in it when the performance gets unbearable.
bji - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
I'm with you. Except my laptop is a 7 year old Panasonic Y2 with a Pentium M at 1.6 Ghz, and I'm just holding out for a 15 inch Macbook Air, which I thought was supposed to come out Q1 this year but is completely MIA at this point.santeana - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
I've never been a fan of Dell. But if ever they had a good laptop, it was their XPS line. Great performance for the price they offered it at. Now, to see an XPS machine, supposedly a premium mainstream laptop going from a discrete graphics solution to an onboard HD3000 chip.... I dunno. Just doesn't seem right to me.c4v3man - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
XPS laptops have always been hit or miss. Exceptionally heavy, usually run somewhat hot, and questionable reliability. The best laptops are enterprise grade units and mobile workstations, such as Dell's Latitude's, their Precision Mobiles, HP's EliteBooks, and Toshiba's Tecra lines to name a few.It might be good for gaming, but not for much else.
bhima - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
2 things Dell could have done to make this Ultrabook look better than the competition:1) a good MATTE screen. I do not understand why we still have glossy screens on mobile devices (except for phones because the gorilla glass is needed for protection), especially when all of the best screens whether desktop or laptop are all matte.
2) Where is my Dell docking station jack? It may seem like a "little" thing, but having a Dell docking station and using a Dell laptop as your main computer is actually quite amazing. Having instant access to more ports, real keyboard and mouse AND a nice second display really solidifies the laptop as a capable primary workstation. When you are on the go, you hit one button and take your laptop off the dock. This should be on EVERY Dell laptop.
These things would set it apart from the entire competition and would give people good reasons to choose this Dell over say a MacBook Air.
Malih - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
The touchpad is basically what I'm complaining about today's laptops, specifically Windows laptops, Apple does really well in this departement.But I've seen the demo video in YouTube (/watch?v=mL_jasHqrVI) for the Synaptics Clickpad with WIndows 8 which seems to be quite sensitive and seems to tackle most issue I have with current touchpads,
I just wonder whether they will release the Clickpad before Windows 8 release, perhaps coupled with laptops with decent graphics, like Trinity laptops (possibly).
Stas - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
I'm really liking this laptop. Sexy, quick, Windows, 256GB SSD for <$1500. Too I wouldn't use one much. Between power of my desktop and portability of the smart phone, I'm hard pressed to justify hauling a laptop around.Stas - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
Too bad*