Dell XPS 13 Review
by Brett Howse on February 19, 2015 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Dell
- Ultrabook
- Broadwell-U
- XPS 13
Final Words
The XPS 13 is a bold move from Dell. High quality build materials, a good keyboard, a good trackpad, and the latest generation Intel Ultrabook processor all inside a chassis with a display that is two sizes too big stuffed into it. Combine that with a 1920x1080 IPS display on the base model, as well as solid state storage as the only option, and you would expect the starting price to be north of $1000. But it is not. The base price, with a Core i3, is just under $800.
The XPS 13 also carries with it amazing battery life, especially on the lower resolution base model. Broadwell-U is part of that, but the display is also a big part of that score, especially on the light battery life test, and Dell would have had to work on the entire package to achieve this kind of battery life result. Any one choice that was a power hog would have dragged the scores down.
Of course no device is perfect and the XPS 13 certainly has some niggling issues which will hopefully be resolved in revisions or updates. The auto-brightness issue is one that they will hopefully address soon. I have no issue with auto-brightness in most cases, but there needs to a way to disable it. Not only can it be frustrating at times when the display is constantly changing brightness, especially in a dim room, but it makes display calibration impossible. If the touch version also had the Yoga style display hinge, it would also increase the capabilities of this device, although that hinge style would be wasted on the non-touch model.
The display is really the one standout feature though. Finally, someone has reduced the bezel size on a laptop. If you are not a fan of smaller laptops, this may not be for you though, since really, it is closer to a typical 11.6 inch model than a 13.3 inch. It would be unbelievable if all laptops were to follow this design pattern, but for now we can hope that at least the premium devices will do so. Dell has opened the door and shown us what is possible, and it looks awesome. The one loser in this scenario is the webcam position, which at the lower left side of the screen is far from ideal. If you are a heavy user of the webcam, this could pose an issue.
Comparing the two models is difficult. On one hand, the FHD model starts at $800 and with the Core i5, bumps up to $900. That is a great starting price for a well-built device like this one, even though the base model has just 4GB of memory. Moving to 8GB means jumping up to $1000. However the move to the excellent high resolution display is yet another $300 on top of that, bringing the least expensive model with touch in at $1300. While I do love the display, and I prefer touch on notebooks, $1300 is getting pretty expensive compared to the original price, and you lose a lot of battery life as well.
Really, it is a great choice to have to make, because neither option is the wrong one. We often lament the lack of options on other laptops, but here Dell let's users decide what they value most: resolution and display quality, or battery life. The only real issue is that you can't get touch with FHD, and you can't get 512GB SSD with the FHD either.
The Dell XPS 13 ends up being responsive, small, light, and well built. Dell has crafted what I am sure most people were hoping for when the original Ultrabook specification was announced. On top of that, they have designed a laptop with class-leading battery life, and plenty of choice to let people buy as little or as much as they need. Considering the competition, this is clearly the Ultrabook of the Broadwell-U generation to beat, and from what we saw at CES it may very well go unchallenged for the remainder of the year.
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shadarlo - Tuesday, March 3, 2015 - link
I have worked on this laptop and it is truly a beautiful piece of technology. I got it just a few weeks after it initially launched for a co-worker. Set it up and loved it. Hated to part with it. I was carrying it all over the office and even non techie people were wanting to touch it and hold it due to it's tiny size yet huge screen.Combined with a relatively low price for this type of unit with an included SSD and this is a no-brainer for any typical business user. I can't imagine why you'd want any other laptop unless you simply need more power, but very few business users do these days.
sporkloudly - Friday, April 10, 2015 - link
But you didnt have any issues with the keyboard noise that people are reporting in the forums?djscrew - Tuesday, March 3, 2015 - link
Are you sure you can't disable the auto brightness? I found it unintuitive but I was able to figure out how to do it in the battery settings of my previous generation XPS 13FranC - Friday, March 6, 2015 - link
Just curious Brett, with the adaptive brightness enabled, how were you able to calibrate the display to get your results? I recently shipment of this otherwise great laptop on March 4 and using Xrite's i1Profiler have not been able to get a decent color profile made (yes, I've 'disabled' adaptive brightness in all the typical places.) Would it be possible to please ping Dell again, since your request would carry more weight than hundreds of us regular folk?! Thanks!Brett Howse - Saturday, March 7, 2015 - link
I was not able to calibrate the display, I was only able to read the stock results due to the Content Adaptive Brightness Control, and not by our standard means. I spoke to Dell just yesterday and they still do not have a solution to this issue yet.JoJ - Sunday, March 8, 2015 - link
Couldn't you just find the light sensor and put some duct tape or even better optical sealing tape from a photo repair supply, over the darn thing?Would that not solve any variability??
FranC - Sunday, March 8, 2015 - link
Thanks for the update, Brett. Hopefully Dell is actively working on a solution, even if it negatively impacts battery life.JoJ, the adaptive brightness is not based on ambient light level, but on the content of what data is being displayed on the screen. In the case of running display calibration/profiling software, after setting the initial brightness level, each color patch is displayed on screen and read back by a spectro/colorimeter. Any variation in brightness during this process results in creation of a bogus color profile.
JoJ - Sunday, March 8, 2015 - link
Dell are missing a huge trend to carrying smaller kit in professional photography if they don't fix this brightness issue. I think this is holding back a lot of sales right now. I was going to go for the FHD as a coding and writing machine but this review suggested to me that the QHD might calibrate very well given the out of any advantage being so much over the FHD model I'm looking out for faster M.2 drives and crossing my fingers for any kind of hack to calibrate the shiny new super res screen...Oh and oh for more RAM ... Dell just missed out on a blockbuster here?
JoJ - Sunday, March 8, 2015 - link
Out of box not out of any. auto typo sorry :'(growl - Sunday, March 22, 2015 - link
Is it possible to run the QHD screen at the lower 1080p resolution, and would this improve battery life? Or is that not at all how things work?