Xtreme Beauty & Performance ET REVIEW
Dell’s XPS range (which many don’t know
actually stands for Xtreme Performance System) is known for offering a great
mix of design and performance. In typical XPS fashion, the new XPS 13 takes
design to a whole new level. It’s a thin and light laptop which Dell calls the
smallest 13-inch laptop in the world. It has a starting weight of 1.21kg, about
19 hours of battery life (under certain conditions, for the FHD screen version)
and is a stunner in every sense of the word.
This time around, there is a new Rose Gold
colour: the top lid and bottom are aluminium in Rose Gold while the sides are
white. When you open it up, you’ll see the white woven glass fiber palm rest.
The black variant of the XPS has black carbon fiber. It feels smooth with just
the slightest hint of the woven (interlocked threads) structure. It’s also sturdy
(no flex) and looks very premium — more so than the typical brushed aluminium
found in most premium laptops. Particularly in case of the white woven fiber,
it is stain resistant — resisting yellowing, greying and staining over time.
The palm rest takes a lot of abuse actually, from oils and dirt from our
palms/fingers, so this is a welcome addition. We certainly didn’t manage to
stain it in our short use.
The Rose Gold also has white bezels around
the screen — compared to black bezels, they highlight the InfinityEdge display
much more. It has an 80.7% screen-to-body ratio and bezels that are about 4mm
thick. These are so slim that there’s no room for a webcam in the traditional
place.
This time around, the camera is Windows Hello
certified, which means there’s also an infrared component. It looks like there
are two lenses — combined, they can log you in securely using just your face as
a password. Moving on, there are far field microphones (to control Cortana from
across the room) and the trackpad is quite large for this size/weight of
device. It has a premium clicking action and a smooth glass surface. The
keyboard offers positive action, a nice feel. and there are two levels of white
backlighting.
On the left side of the laptop, you get a
battery indicator: press a button and 5 LEDs can light up showing you remaining
battery life at a glance. XPS laptops have had this for many years now.
About the screen, you can choose from two
versions: there’s a 1080p FHD non-touch while the higher end configuration (our
test unit) has a 4K resolution display with touchscreen squeezed into this tiny
frame. The top lid is just so thin that fitting a 4K display and touch layer
into it is an impressive feat. Screen quality is excellent, with high viewing
angles, high brightness, HDR capability and colours that pop.
In terms of performance, you really have a
lot of power on tap, especially considering the top-spec 8th gen Core i7
processor, 16GB RAM and fast SSD storage. It’s more than up to any task you
set, including photo/ video editing, 3D and gaming.
For the price, this machine doesn’t have
premium components everywhere. One glaring example is the hinge, which is just
a regular plasticcovered hinge. Compared to this, the ‘watchband’ hinge on the
premium Lenovo Yoga laptops looks like a work of art. Some other highlights on
this laptop are the GORE thermal insulation, a Support Assist section (hardware
tests, optimisation and system info) and speakers that are way louder than
expected.
Ultimately, this XPS begs the question: just
how much are you willing to pay for gorgeous design, premium materials and
top-notch performance? If the answer is “a lot” then you’d best be looking at
this machine in addition to the MacBook range.
Hitesh.Bhagat
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