Dell XPS 13 (9370) - Review 2022

Flagships don't take to be large. Since its debut at CES in 2022, the Dell XPS xiii (starts at $999.99; $2,049.99 as tested) has racked up rave reviews as what the company calls the earth's smallest thirteen-inch laptop. It's undergone numerous component upgrades, faced fierce contest (the HP Spectre 13 and the Razer Blade Stealth come to listen), and arguably even gotten a bit long in the tooth, yet the belatedly-2017 XPS xiii (9360) reigns equally our Editors' Choice. Or reigned, we should say. Today's XPS 13 model recaptures the glamour of the original version with an even trimmer design in a gorgeous rose aureate finish with a soft-textured white palm balance fabricated of woven glass fiber. The latest XPS 13 steals the crown every bit our favorite high-end ultraportable.

The $999.99 silver-and-blackness base Dell XPS 13 model carries an eighth-generation Intel Core i5-8250U processor and somewhat skimpy 4GB of RAM and 128GB SATA solid-land bulldoze; $1,199.99 gets y'all 8GB of memory and a 256GB PCIe SSD. Each of these systems has a full HD (i,920-by-one,080) non-touch brandish.

Our $2,049.99 tester ($1,999.99 plus $l for the gilt-and-white finish, not counting frequent sales or coupons on Dell's site) features a faster Core i7-8550U chip, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB PCIe solid-country drive, and a 4K (three,840-by-two,160) touch screen. The only pick is a 1TB SSD for $400 extra.

Small Gets Even Smaller

At 0.46 by 11.9 by vii.8 inches, the new XPS xiii is 0.13 inch thinner and 24 pct smaller by volume than the previous version. It'south a hair thicker than the larger HP Spectre 13 (0.41 by 12 by viii.eight inches). Weight is unchanged at 2.68 pounds, slotting between the Spectre (two.45 pounds) and the Razer Blade Stealth (ii.98 pounds).

The gold elevation and bottom and white edges of the XPS 13 scream smartphone-like style. (There'south also a platinum silverish version with a black carbon fiber palm rest for $50 less.) Every bit before, two wide rubber strips instead of the usual four dots serve as nonskid feet on the system's underside. Opening the lid reveals the white keyboard, deck, and bezels—razor-thin above and on the sides, wide below the glossy blackness screen.

Stylish details include a stainless tone-on-tone Dell logo on the lid and laser-etched instead of stickered regulatory details on the bottom. Dell says the nine-layer glass cobweb of the vaunted palm balance (which still hosts the mandatory Intel sticker) non only stays cooler than metallic but features a titanium oxide coating to resist yellowing or staining.

The webcam of this XPS thirteen is all the same mounted beneath the brandish, since the bezel higher up is too small, but it's moved from the left corner to the center. Its images are clear and crisp, just proceed to highlight your chin and nostrils, as if you lot are taking a movie while standing at the base of operations of a statue, as well every bit your behemothic Hulk hands on the keyboard.

The webcam works with Windows Hello for face recognition logins, and the power push button at the top right of the keyboard doubles as a Windows Howdy fingerprint reader. (We wondered if we could press the push button merely one time to both turn the laptop on and log in, but belongings it downwardly that long turned the Dell off again.)

Then slim is the new XPS thirteen that its USB Type-A and HDMI ports have disappeared. Instead, on the unit of measurement'south left side you lot'll find two Thunderbolt three ports, along with a Noble lock slot and a battery gauge consisting of a tiny push and v tiny LEDs. On the right are a USB-C port, a micro SD carte du jour slot, and an sound jack.

Dell provides a USB-C-to-USB-A dongle (colored white, like the Ac adapter that plugs into one of the Thunderbolt 3 ports) for connecting an older flash drive or other peripheral, but finding a DisplayPort dongle for an external monitor is upwardly to you. Would-be gamers will notation that the Thunderbolt 3 ports now deliver iv instead of two PCI Express lanes, then the new system is compatible with external graphics-card boxes.

The Wonderful World of Color

The petite, side-mounted speakers pump out surprisingly loud audio—and so loud that it's rough and raucous at height book. Half volume is more acceptable for solo listening, and (except for a predictable lack of deep bass) features appealing instrumentals and vocals. You'll hear some cooling fan racket when the system is working hard, but it's so faint as to exist easily drowned out by the speakers.

Nosotros wish Dell offered a 1080p touch screen for the XPS 13, because the standard 1080p display lacks affect and the 4K impact screen is arguably besides much resolution for a xiii.3-inch panel, making icons and menu text too small unless you crank up Windows' zoom (which is set out of the box to a whopping 300 pct).

Just we must admit the 3,840-by-2,160 brandish makes fine details abrupt as a tack, while also offering wide viewing angles. Effulgence is aplenty, even dialed downwards a few notches; dissimilarity is first-class; and colors popular similar poster paints. You won't find a ameliorate screen in the thirteen.three-inch course.

You can probably observe a better keyboard, although the XPS thirteen's is all right—it feels shallow (no surprise in such a slim laptop) and plasticky, simply responsive for all but the fastest typing. The Delete key is minor, but nosotros're pleased to find dedicated Abode, End, Folio Up, and Page Downwardly keys instead of having those functions doubled up on the cursor arrows. The medium-sized touchpad glides and taps smoothly, though the lower-corner "buttons" are a chip strong.

Dell includes a i-twelvemonth warranty.

Strong Performance, but 4K Screen Saps Ability

Enough of other ultraportables, including the XPS thirteen 9360, carry the same Core i7-8550U quad-core CPU as our model 9370, so we easily collected a crop of competitors for our benchmark tables. The number that jumps out at yous is our PCMark 8 office productivity performance exam, where the new XPS' score of 2,988—though essentially reaching the 3,000 that we consider fantabulous—trailed the iii,580 of terminal year's version, largely because the exam fares poorly on systems with 4K screens.

Pushing iv times as many pixels is also the main reason the new XPS 13 lacked the sometime 1's battery life, lasting a respectable nine and a half hours in our video playback test (and beating the three,200-by-1,800 Razer Blade Stealth) merely coming nowhere almost the full Hd model'south nearly 16 hours. Betwixt a less-demanding display and a slightly bigger battery, the 9360 prevailed easily.

Come across How Nosotros Test Laptops

On a more positive annotation, the 9370 excelled in our Cinebench CPU measurement and Handbrake video editing do, and information technology was tops in our 3DMark graphics tests—although none of these ultraportables, with their integrated as opposed to discrete graphics, are meant for more than than casual gaming at full screen resolution.

A Pick of Editors' Choices

If you want to salve a few dollars and get a few more than battery watt-hours (or need USB 3.0 ports), the XPS thirteen 9360 remains a first-class ultraportable buy. Only it's only human being to want the latest and greatest, and in the example of the 9370 there are other reasons likewise—the even trimmer design, the cutting-edge Thunderbolt 3 ports, the dual Windows Hello options, and the fact that the gold-and-white unit is one of the best-looking laptops we've ever seen. If you desire to stand out from the oversupply, the newest XPS 13 is an easy Editors' Option option.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/laptops/20499/dell-xps-13-9370

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