Review: Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook

Mon, 20th Jan 2014

FYI, this story is more than a year old

With a delicious 1080p Gorilla Glass screen wrapped in carbon fibre and aluminium, does the new Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook live up to its hefty price tag?

At first glance, the Dell does appear very small. I wondered if they’d sent me an 11” version. But no, this Dell has a full 13.3” widescreen. It’s blazing fast, no doubt slightly assisted by the i7 and 8GB of RAM powering this small but well formed monster!

As can be guessed with an i7, this chews through most things very easily and I hardly noticed the fan. The carbon fibre composite base also helps it keep cool so no more hot laps!

All ultrabooks appear to be converging with not much difference between them, whether they’re a Dell, HP, Toshiba or Apple. It’s more what extras can be crammed into them yet still maintain a good battery life.

The new Intel Haswell processor has been a boon for most ultra book manufacturers, with the ability to achieve a full day’s work disconnected possible. What’s amazing is the tech that can be squeezed in. With Apple being pretty much the only manufacturer without a touch screen, I wonder how long it is before they join the ranks of the dirty fingerprint brigade!

With Dell’s move to being fully privately owned, hopefully this will encourage some of the innovation that they were known for and really knock our socks off. As times get tougher for PC makers, innovation is key.

Pros:

Small, light and powerful as hell
Touchscreen built-in with minimal effect on battery
Solid construction with carbon fibre and aluminium
Great for on the go business people as tough as old boots

Cons:

Not a lot of wow factor
No SD slot

Summary:

This ultrabook is more than capable, there’s really not much it can’t do. But I must be getting grumpy in my old age, there was just no ‘wow’ factor.

Yes it has a touchscreen and the resolution is 1080p compared to the Mac’s 900, but I was hoping for some Dell innovation, like Toshiba with its 4K screen, or HP with Beats (not to mention its partnership with Leap Motion).

I’d love to see some of Alienware rub off on Dell’s standard products, then they really would have the wow factor. I can’t fault this ultrabook as it does have everything you could really want and will stand up to almost anything.

Score: A solid 4 / 5

RRP: $2599