Dell XPS 13 (2019) REVIEW MIRAJ (BEST LAPTOP UNDER 40000)

EDITORS NOTE- Dell XPS is currently our choice for the best laptop, but we look forward to the latest model with the 10th generation Intel processor, which promises better performance and longer battery life. Stay tuned for the review....

Dell just made one of the best laptops even better. Loaded with Intel's powerful eighth-generation core processor, the XPS 13 (starting at $ 899, revised at $ 2,449) is even faster and more powerful than ever. In addition, Dell finally got rid of the nasal chamber.

However, the combination of a 4K screen and a CPU that consumes a lot of energy puts the battery life in less than 8 hours, which can be detrimental to mobile professionals. If you need more resistance, we recommend the 1080p model, which lasted more than 12 hours in our battery test (a runtime that makes it one of the best laptops in the university). And if you want a convertible laptop, consider the next XPS 13 2-in-1, which is the best 2-in-1 laptop. In terms of design and performance, the XPS 13 remains one of the best in its class.



Dell XPS 13 configuration and pricing options


We reviewed the 1080p and 4K versions of the XPS 13. The XPS 13 base model I reviewed was released in January 2019 for $ 899. It includes an Intel Core i3 CPU, 4 GB of RAM, a 128 GB SSD, an Intel UHD 620 GPU Graphics and a 1920 x 1080 non-touch screen.

I also took the $ 1,599 model of the Dell XPS 13 to try it. And it's packed with benefits, including a 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-8565U CPU with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe SSD, an Intel UHD 620 graphics GPU, and a 4K touch screen.


If you're looking for a 2-in-1 laptop, the new Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (coming soon in July) offers a 10th generation Intel Core processor and a larger keyboard than its predecessor in an even thinner design.


DESIGN

Pink gold? That was the case last year. 2019 is officially the year of Frost Silver and Arctic White. Dell decided to change things with a new color scheme that is as attractive as the previous model, if not more. Anodized aluminum has a light gray finish that stops just before adolescence, looking as radiant as morning frosts just before giving way to the rising sun. The Dell logo feels triumphant in the center of the lid as the only  adornment.

A look at the sides of the system reveals the arctic white finish that awaits inside the laptop. The inner cover preserves the fiberglass fabric of the previous models that is both beautiful and strong. The pristine white continues towards the screen, outlining the scarce edges of the InfinityEdge bezel. Follow the bezels and you will discover that the webcam has migrated from the lower bezel back to its correct place in the upper center (more on that later).

If Frost just isn't your thing, the latest version of the XPS 13 is also available in Rose Gold.
At 11.9 x 7.8 x 0.3 ~ 0.5 inches, the 2.7-pound laptop is a thin mamma-jamma. With a thickness of 0.6 inches, the Apple MacBook Pro 13 inches (with Touchbar), Razer Blade Stealth and Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 look thick in comparison. The MacBook Pro (3 pounds) and the Stealth (2.9 pounds) are definitely heavier, while the Surface Laptop 2 is a bit lighter with 2.7 pounds.

Webcam

Smallest. Webcam. EVAR No, seriously, this is Dell's smallest webcam. In response to the XPS 13 webcam being mockingly called a "nasal camera" due to its position in the lower bezel, Dell made its own webcam and moved it back to where it belongs in the upper bezel.

The new cam is only 0.08-inches, but still manages to take a good picture.

Ports

The XPS 13 doesn't have a lot of ports, but you can do a lot with them.

The pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports on the left and the UBC Type-C port on the right are all capable of charging the notebook and can act as mini DisplayPorts if you want to connect the system to a larger monitor.

The pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports on the left and the UBC Type-C port on the right are capable of charging the laptop and can act as a mini DisplayPorts if you want to connect the system to a larger monitor.


DISPLAY


Man, oh man, dem bezels! Do that lack of that. Dell continues to lead the charge of having the thinnest bezels possible, thanks to its InfinityEdge design. The upper bezel is a little thicker than normal to accommodate the webcam, but not enough to notice.

But you will forget the thicker bezel once you reach the screen. It produced a sumptuous color when I saw Samsara's 4K movie. I was especially impressed with deep blacks, rich golds and vibrant reds during the routine of Balinese dancers. The details are also wonderfully sharp, allowing me to see the deep fissures in the stone statues worn out by time.


The dramatic bursts of color come from the ability of the screen to reproduce 119% of the sRGB range, which matches the MacBook Pro and exceeds the average of 117% of premium laptops. However, the optional FHD (1080p) screen of the XPS 13 is even more vivid at 126%, as is the Stealth at 120%, while the Surface Laptop 2 reached an incredible 176%.

With an average of 375 nits, the 4K screen of the XPS 13 is very bright, eclipsing the average of 318 nits, as well as the 346 Stealth nits and the 321 Surface nits. The 1080p non-touch screen available on the XPS 13 also illuminates with 375 nits.

Audio


The side firing speakers of the XPS 13 were a pleasant surprise. The laptop managed to fill my medium-sized hotel room with strong audio, though sometimes crowded. Upon hearing "I can't live without your love" by Janelle Monae, the room was filled with the vocal desire of the singer. He overcame the rest of the track even after playing with the Waves Maxx Audio software. But listening to "Can You Stand the Rain" by New Edition provided a cleaner result, as did "November Rain" by Guns N 'Roses.


Keyboard and Touchpad


The XPS 13 keyboard cuts a striking blank figure, especially when backlighting is enabled. But what is most impressive is the experience of writing. Despite having only 1 millimeter of key travel (we generally looked for at least 1.5 mm), I never felt that I was bottoming out when I was writing. And thanks to the 63 grams of acting force (60 g is our minimum accepted), the shallow keys had a nice little touch.

Still, I was just short of my usual 70 words per minute on the 10 fast finger typing test, reaching only 65 wpm.

The 4.1 x 2.3 inch precision touch panel is fast and accurate, keeping pace with my web page navigation, as well as my pinch of zoom, two finger scrolling and three finger swiping.

Performance

The XPS 13 just received a drink of Whiskey with a performance tracker. Armed with one of Intel's new Whiskey Lake chips, specifically the Core i7-8565U CPU with 16 GB of RAM, the laptop allowed me to stream Black Mirror: Bandersnatch from Netflix and at the same time open 25 additional Google Chrome tabs with a Twitch, Tweetdeck or YouTube streaming. The XPS 13 was executed effortlessly, operating without any sign of delay. But don't expect the same level of performance in the base model we reviewed, which comes with a Core i3-8145U CPU and 4GB of RAM.


[sc: benchmarks productName = "Dell XPS 13 (2019)" /]

The laptop held firm during our synthetic tests, with a score of 14,936 on Geekbench 4, which measures overall performance. That was enough to exceed the average of 12,407 premium laptops, as well as the 12,676 published by the Surface Laptop 2 (Intel Core i5-8250U). However, the Razer Blade Stealth, which has its own Core i7-8565U, reached 15,878, while the MacBook Pro and its 8th generation Intel Core i7 CPU delivered 17,348. Our base model XPS 13 with a Core i3 CPU obtained a miserable 6,825.

When we ran the Excel spreadsheet Macro test, it took XPS 13 1 minute and 10 seconds to match 65,000 names and addresses, passing the average of category 1:31. Surface Laptop 2 and MacBook Pro were not far behind with 1:15 and 1:16, respectively. But Stealth made the competition fly, completing the task in 21 seconds.

It took the 1TB PCIe SSD of 4K XPS 13 9 seconds to copy 4.97GB of multimedia files. That translates into a transfer speed of 565 megabytes per second, which was more than enough to exceed the average of 529.7 MBps. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same about the XPS 13 base model, whose 128 GB SSD transferred the files at a slow speed of 154 MBps. Neither the Stealth nor the Surface Laptop 2 with its 512GB NVMe PCIe M.2 SSDs could play the 4K XPS 13, at 254 and 203 MBps. But the MacBook and its 256 GB SSD were out of the competition league at 2,519 MBps.

At the Handbrake benchmark, the XPS 13 equipped with Core i7 transcoded a 4K video at 1080p in 19 minutes and 20 seconds. It was enough to defeat the 21:54 average and 20:34 Stealth. But the Surface Laptop 2 and the MacBook Pro were faster at 17:30 and 14:47, respectively. The XPS 13 with a Core i3 CPU took 20 minutes and 47 seconds.

MORE: laptops with the best productivity performance

As powerful as Whiskey Lake is, don't expect to play graphically demanding games like Battlefield V or Destiny 2 with the Intel UHD 620 Graphics GPU of the XPS 13. However, you can play older or less demanding games. The notebook with a Core i7 reached 88 frames per second at the Dirt 3 reference point, which ran at 1920 x 1080p. That score exceeded the average of 73 fps, as well as the MacBook Pro (Intel Iris Plus 655) and the Surface Laptop 2 (Intel UHD 620 graphics GPU), which reached 47 and 82 fps. But the Stealth with its discreet NPUia GeForce MX 150 GPU published 164 fps. The Core i3 model of the XPS 13 only surpassed the MacBook Pro, at 55 fps.

Battery duration

If you want the greatest resistance, we would opt for a Full HD screen on XPS 13 and skip the 4K panel.


Our 1080p model lasted 12 hours and 22 minutes, while the 4K review unit lasted only 7 hours and 50 minutes in the Mag Laptop battery test (Wi-Fi continuous web browsing at 150 nits). The UHD model fell below the average of the 8:30 premium laptop. Stealth did a little better with a time of 8:05, while the MacBook Pro and Surface Laptop 2 recorded times of 8:43 and 9:22, respectively.


Calor


Hot



Usually, a laptop as thin as the XPS has trouble keeping cool. To combat this, Dell doubled heat pipes and fans to increase air inlet and outlet. The company also included GORE thermal insulation, the same material used in the Mars Rover. Silica aerogels operate to dissipate heat throughout the system, they suffer from pleasant and comfortable things.



The laptop lived up to expectations for the most part. After running a full screen HD video for 15 minutes, the touch panel of the laptop, the center of the keyboard and the landing gear. XPS 13 measured 87, 96 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the three respect zones. Consider that anything above 95 degrees is outside our preferred comfort threshold. However, I used the XPS 13 on my laptop for more than an hour without any discomfort.



Software and Warranty





Dell preloaded a number of useful applications and utilities to help optimize the user experience. For example, there is Dell Power Manager, which allows you to manage power consumption through preset profiles to extend battery life or squeeze every bit of system performance.

Customer Connect puts you in touch with a Dell technician when you need troubleshooting assistance. Digital Delivery keeps track of all your software downloads and restores them in case the system is deleted or blocked. There is also Mobile Connect, which allows you to easily exchange images, documents and videos between your smartphone and your laptop. You can also access mobile applications through your laptop, including Lyft, Uber and Instagram.

To manage your network bandwidth, there is Killer Control Center. And if you have little storage space, you can get 20 GB of free cloud storage for a year through Dropbox. Unfortunately, Microsoft has loaded this thin laptop with a lot of bloatware, including Netflix, Candy Crush Soda Saga, Cooking Fever and Asphalt Street Storm, just to name a few.

The Dell XPS 13 ships with a one-year limited warranty. See how Dell did in our annual special reports, including our Technical Support Showdown and the best and worst brands.

Bottom line

The Dell XPS 13 was already a great laptop and Dell has made some improvements to remain our favorite ultraportable overall. The incorporation of Intel Whiskey Lake consolidates the status of XPS 13 as a mobile power. And when you're not dialing the numbers, that lively 4K screen is perfect for watching videos. We especially like the small webcam, killing the nasal camera forever.

While the battery life in the 4K display model could be better, the Dell XPS 13 remains one of the best options. BUY FROM HERE