The Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook: A Revolutionary Machine for the Modern User

Hey everybody, it's Dave Altavilla here at Hardware.com, and today we're going to take a closer look at one of the most exciting laptops to hit the market recently - the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook. With its sleek design, impressive performance, and innovative features, this machine is sure to appeal to anyone looking for a powerful and portable computing solution.

First Impression: Sleek Design with Brushed Aluminum Finish

The first thing that catches your eye when you look at the XPS 13 is its stunning design. The top LCD of the laptop has a beautiful brushed aluminum finish that not only looks great but also provides excellent durability and resistance to fingerprints. The Dell logo on the top lid is a nice touch, adding a level of sophistication to this already impressive machine.

Palm Rest Area: Magnesium Alloy with Carbon Fiber Body

The palm rest area of the XPS 13 is made from magnesium alloy, providing a comfortable and lightweight surface for your hand. This design choice also helps to reduce weight overall, making the laptop even more portable than it already is. The carbon fiber body on the underside of the machine adds to its premium feel, giving it an almost futuristic look.

Ports and Connectivity Options

One area where the XPS 13 falls short is in terms of ports. On the left edge of the laptop, you'll find a power jack, a USB 2.0 port, and a headphone jack. On the right edge, however, things get interesting with a USB 3.0 super speed port and a mini display port. While HDMI or mini-HDMI would have been nice to see on this machine, the display port is definitely a welcome addition, allowing you to connect your XPS 13 to external displays.

Battery Level Indicator

The bottom of the XPS 13 features a battery level indicator that's similar to what we've seen in Apple's MacBook products. When you press the button, five small LEDs illuminate on the side of the chassis, providing an instant indication of your battery level. This feature is both functional and stylish, adding to the overall premium feel of this machine.

Microphones and Webcam

On the top edge of the XPS 13's display, you'll find a pair of dual array stereo microphones that are sure to impress anyone who's used them before. These mics provide excellent audio quality, making them perfect for video calls or online conferencing. The 1.3 megapixel front-facing webcam is also a nice touch, ensuring that your online presence looks professional and polished.

Battery Life: Claimed 8 Hours, Real-World Usage to Be Determined

Dell claims that the XPS 13 can last up to 8 hours on a single charge, but as with any battery life claim, we'll have to wait and see how this machine performs in real-world usage. We'll be putting it through its paces in our full review, so stay tuned for more information on this aspect of the XPS 13.

Fan Noise: A Mixed Bag

One area where the XPS 13 falls short is in terms of fan noise. When under load, the laptop can get quite loud, with a whiny sound that's not exactly pleasant to listen to. However, when it's idle or running on low power modes, the XPS 13 is virtually silent, making it perfect for quiet work environments.

Venting: A Questionable Design Choice

The venting system on the bottom of the XPS 13 is another area where the laptop falls short. Instead of providing a smooth airflow path, this design seems to force air outwards in a somewhat random pattern, potentially blocking vents and reducing airflow efficiency. We'd prefer to see more traditional edge venting on laptops like these.

PC Mark 7: A Benchmark Beating Performance

In our benchmark tests using PC Mark 7, the XPS 13 proved to be one of the most powerful ultrabooks we've tested recently. With a score of 38,222, it edges out the Asus UX21 Zenbook by a significant margin. While the audible fan noise is still a concern, this performance is a major win for Dell, solidifying the XPS 13's position as one of the top laptops in its class.

In Conclusion

The Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook is an exceptional machine that checks all the right boxes when it comes to design, performance, and features. While it may not be perfect - particularly with regards to fan noise and venting - this laptop is sure to impress anyone looking for a powerful and portable computing solution. As always, we'll have more information on the XPS 13 in our full review, so stay tuned!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everybody it's Dave alella for H hardware.com and this is the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook this is Dell's first Ultrabook offering and it's actually a very thin and light machine weighs in at just under 3 lb 2.99 lb to be exact and is24 in is thin at its thinnest point up here in front and about 71 in thick or just under 3/4 of an inch thick at its thickest point in the rear there are two skews available what you're looking at here is the fully configured higher-end model for $4.99 comes configured with an Intel Core i7 26 37m dual core processor base frequency of 1.7 GHz with turbo boost up to 2.8 GHz 4 gig of DDR 1333 system memory is standard with both models but this model also comes configured with a 256 gig SSD for the main operating system storage subsystem uh there is also a lower end skew for $9.99 you will get a Core i5 2467m dual core with a base frequency of 1.6 GHz turbo boost up to 2.3 GHz that same 4 gig of DDR 31333 system memory installed and uh a 128 gig SSD standard in that machine again again that's a $9.99 $999 skew let's take a look around this machine show you what it's made of and uh show you how it runs now with the XPS 13 you get a very Spartan bundle of things that come with the system uh certainly you get your standard literature pack quick start guide warranty and support information drivers and utilities disc all that good stuff nice box sort of a candy box style presentation here a very high quality box you probably want to keep around for storing the system at a later point maybe you move or something like that and uh good to have around and then this very small AC adapter power brake as you can see Tiny and this is all you need to fully charge the laptop or to power it from the wall outlet so um you know we applaud Dell for that uh very small AC adapter that you can just tuck away in uh your laptop bag or wherever you may be carrying this thing uh the XPS 13 is based on a 13in uh wled display 3 to knit uh display with a native resolution of 1366 X 768 uh so it does support full 720p uh resolution but the kicker here is it is an edge to edge display as you can see virtually no bezel this uh silver trim around the uh display is actually the back the the cover of the system and um but edgo Edge glass and so there's just this ever so small Rubber seal that uh is put around the edge that is lined around the edge of the display and certainly as you close it uh cushions the display when the lid closes down on the keyboard and palm rest area um but there is a little bit of black bezel we would say underneath the glass and certainly that's to keep the backlight bleed and whatnot uh from coming through and certainly the you know rounded edges here so uh you've got to trim that display somehow but edgo Edge glass all around and it's Corning Gorilla Glass um one thing we would say about the XPS 13 is that the I guess the the big feature of stand feature to us anyways for this Ultra Book is the display gorgeous display good viewing angles for sure um one of the things we would have liked to have seen is a little bit more backwards tilt a little bit more open viewing angle um on the display to go a little bit further Beyond this point if you've got the machine on let's say a countertop and you're standing over it you don't quite get an optimal viewing angle just a few more Degrees open would optimally align a display with the average height person uh to look at but other than that really nice display and definitely a standout feature of the XPS 13 let's take a look around it a little bit more now the keyboard area of the XPS 13 actually feels a little bit tighter than the average 13-in Ultrabook and that's because Dell was able to squeeze that 13.3in edgo edge glass LCD into what is essentially a 12-in notebook form factor so again keyboard area a little bit tighter but Dell did a nice job of spacing out the key caps and and layout here so getting up to speed typing on the keyboard is absolutely no problem key travel is a little bit shallow would say however it doesn't have quite the quality feel of the Asus Zenbook or the Lenovo u300s we're taking a look at the Lenovo notebook uh in the upcoming weeks um but definitely a quality typing experience here nice large um trackpad area with a two button touch nice tactile click on the um on the mouse controls and the two button uh control in the touchpad area and and again very comfortable here and the nice thing is that the keyboard area is back lit so as you can see in low light conditions maybe you're in front of the TV the the lights are down in the living room you have that nice backlit keyboard and it is a first for us that we've seen uh for Ultrabooks that have hit the market and we wish manufacturers would include this feature because it's definitely handy and uh definitely a standout feature for the XPS 13 by Dell thep top LD of the XPS 133 has the Dell logo and this nice sort of brushed aluminum finish uh satin finish resist fingerprints almost completely so really nice there um magnesium alloy Palm rest area and carbon fiber body on uh the the underside of the machine on the left side of the notebook you have a power jack a USB 2.0 port and a headphone jack and on the right edge of the XPS 13 you get a USB 3.0 super speed speed Port high-speed USB port and a mini display port now we wish we would have seen perhaps an HDMI or mini HDMI uh port on this machine but display port does give you some additional connectivity with display port compatible monitors also you get this little battery power level meter right here you just hit that button and five small LEDs in the side of the uh chassis illuminate to tell you battery level um very much like we've seen with uh some of Apple's MacBook products and on the top edge of the XPS 13's display you do get a pair of dual array stereo microphones and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing webcam all right and finally here we are on the bottom side of the XPS 13 by Dell and what you won't see here is a battery release latch very much like every other Ultrabook we've looked at thus far the 47w hour 6s Lithium Polymer battery inside the XPS 13 is not user serviceable you don't have access to it Dell claims about 8 hours of uptime Max maximum on this battery again 47w hour battery uh that remains to be seen in real world usage we're going to have full uh details on battery life in our full review at hot.com but Dell claims 8 hours also along the bottom here you will see uh venting for the system this is actually where the fan and uh heat sink uh vent out of the system U to cool the CPU and whatnot inside um we would say that this is not the most optimal location what this is going to do is vent into your lap if you have it on your lap or perhaps on your desktop or some uh uneven surface perhaps uh that uh you might be blocking these vents a little bit and so we prefer Edge venting on either side um when it comes to these types of machines especially and we should also note that the fan inside of the XPS under load is a little bit whiny and a little bit too loud for our taste don't really appreciate uh the audible wine that comes from this machine it's actually the loud Ultrabook we've tested thus far but it's not bad it's certainly not a deal breaker um but if you're sensitive to noise you might want to give this one a listen again underload when it's idle on the desktop it's virtually silent um you know doing uh a little word processing or perhaps surfing the web it's going to be a very silent you know quiet solution but under some load maybe playing a movie or uh doing any sort of um you know crunching it all with the processor it's going to give you an audible wine uh and finally right here is a little um sort of metal uh cover uh emblem if you will that just pops right open and then you get access to your Microsoft license and Dell service tag so a nice little trim plate there with the XPS logo on the bottom let's fire it up and finally here we are running PC Mark 7 it's one of our favorite standard system performance benchmarks and actually although the XPS 13 is one of the loudest Ultra books we've tested thus far again that audible fan wine not too bad but um it is also one of the most powerful Ultra books we've tested thus far it's actually scored the highest score in this Benchmark specifically 38-22 just edging out the Asus ux21 Zenbook if you can believe that uh for the performance Crown so far here at H hardware.com so this has been a quick take look at the XPS 13 Ultra Book by Dell make sure you stop by our site for the full review I'm Dave altavilla for hardware.com thanks for stopping by\n"