Bottom line: the XPS 13 is a premium, stylish, almost indulgent ultraportable that only misfires on a couple of factors that may or may not be deal-breakers for you. PROs: The Intel Evo badge means this XPS 13 has been built to provide a number of new/advanced features aimed at next-gen productivity, usability and performance. In this case, you’re getting a premium 11th gen 4-core i7 1185G7 3GHz CPU, the more powerful Iris Xe integrated graphics platform, more consistent performance regardless of whether you’re on battery or plugged in, instant wake from sleep, longer battery life (though more on that later), WiFi 6 and BT, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C charging, a snappy 512GB NVMe SSD, 16 GB of 4267Mhz dual-channel RAM, biometric logins (facial and fingerprint recognition), integrated webcam, touchscreen display, high quality speakers, and a svelte form factor with a very narrow screen bezel and thin/light chassis. Aside from the hardware specs and Evo design philosophy, what is USING the XPS 13 actually like? For starters, it’s a very stylish, premium-feeling/looking machine. The aluminum body feels incredibly solid despite being so thin (about the same thickness as a Surface Pro with keyboard cover) and light (2 lbs 12.9 oz). The palm-rest features a very pleasant, carbon-fiber textured composite that is supposedly treated to prevent yellowing and dirt build-up. The trackpad is touch/tap & click sensitive so you can mouse as hard or light as you want. There is no chassis flex around the keyboard and fan noise at idle or light use is only slightly audible--even at full load, it is definitely not intrusive. Dell thoughtfully includes a USB-C to A dongle & the charger features a lighted tip when powered. The charger block also has swappable modules for either a straight extension cable or plugging the block directly into the wall. The keycaps are nicely sized and feel responsive with enough space between them to minimize typing errors; the keys are backlit with defeatable LEDs. The UHD+ display has MORE pixels than standard 4K—Photoshop opened in a snap but the menus were SO tiny the app was practically unusable without keyboard shortcuts, but I could easily work with MASSIVE images and see the entire thing on screen without scrolling! The 16:10 aspect ratio makes the screen a bit taller than many laptop displays so it’s friendlier for webpages & long documents (and 4:3 TV shows you might binge) which means less scrolling when productivity is paramount. The display also supports HDR & Dolby Vision; suffice it to say that despite the tiny screen size (and therefore questionable value of 4K+ resolution given the detail the eye can discern in such a small space), text and menus are razor sharp and videos are nothing short of stunning with deeper colors and sharper contrast akin to a high-quality home theater display. 4K Netflix Dolby Vision streams were simply sublime, and running an HDR-capable game like Horizon Zero Dawn via Thunderbolt eGPU rendered the game’s blues, purples, fire/lava effects, and lens flares drop-dead beautiful. Though the XPS 13 is geared for productivity, the Iris Xe graphics chip is actually capable of some playable framerates depending on the title & gfx settings. For example, Pinball FX3 and X-COM EU/EW render beautifully at 4K; but a 3D game, even older titles like Dying Light, are simply slideshows at 4K. In fairness, even my 2080 Ti struggles with 4K resolutions in some titles, but the Iris Xe allowed me to play Dying Light smoothly @ 1920x1200—not bad for an ultraportable w/o a dedicated graphics card! The onboard speakers do an admirable job of pumping out well-balanced sound w/o distortion; 30% volume was high enough to hear a TV show 1 room away through a closed door. The MaxxAudioPro app allows for custom sound EQ settings & Waves NX audio control. Waves NX uses the webcam to track head movement and simulates a 3D sound space such that if you move your head around while listening to headphones, individual sound sources remain anchored in their original locations. WiFi 6 performance was every bit as potent as my main gaming rig w/amplified antenna. We have an AX11000 router with 400Mbps service from our ISP--@ 2 rooms away, my PC measured 416.69 Mbps down/22.70 up; the XPS clocked 416.94 Mbps down/22.39 up at the same location. Initial setup went smoothly; <8 minutes from initial power-up until I was into Windows. From there, it took about 35 minutes to complete the registration, apply 45 updates from the Windows store for built-in apps, 52 device driver and OS updates, and another 8 updates from the Dell update app including the BIOS. I then conducted a complete reset to simulate an OS failure; unattended Windows reset & reinstallation took 20 mins 50 secs. Performance on battery vice AC was pretty indistinguishable and responsiveness was closing in on Chromebook-like speed. For example, waking from sleep seems truly instantaneous; full power off to the desktop took 23 seconds (vice 13 for a Chromebook). A full battery recharge after the 2% shutdown point took about 2.5 hours. Bloatware is thankfully minimal. In addition to MaxxAudioPro, there’s Killer Control Center for WiFi optimization (not really necessary & more of an enthusiast tweaking utility geared towards gamers and streamers), 1 year of McAfee security, typical MS Office and OneDrive trials, a few Dell support apps, Dell Cinema Guide--a hub for finding content from multiple subscription and streaming providers/services, and Cinema color with display color presets for movies, night, sports and animation (though the default HDR color profile seemed the most natural to me). Dell SupportAssist actually seems like a useful utility as it finds Dell driver & software updates MS might not be tracking, scans for hardware problems, cleans the SSD of junk & temp files, tunes performance, and optimizes network settings (separately from the Killer app). CONs: The 720p webcam is pretty fuzzy/grainy. This might be forgivable when you see the *tiny* space Dell managed to squeeze the webcam into, but given this is a productivity-oriented laptop released during a time of heightened telework, many might find PQ less than optimal. The low-res webcam might also be the reason Waves NX didn’t always track head movement well--many times I had to make exaggerated head turns to re-anchor the soundfield while I was looking away from the screen (in fairness, the effect is a bit gimmicky anyway so YMMV). At the premium price-point the XPS commands, I’m a bit surprised (disappointed) it’s not a 2-in-1—our Chromebook proves you can have a 2-in-1 that still holds itself open with laptop-like rigidity, though maybe the 4K display has something to do with it? And, despite the light but solid construction, you really can’t open the laptop with one hand—surprising given how streamlined and sexy it is otherwise. Port availability is also minimal; there are only 2 Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, a microSD slot, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The USB dongle is appreciated, but if you work/travel with multiple peripherals or leave the laptop on AC power most of the time, a hub or docking station is probably a must. The audio jack is also on the right which means if you’re right-handed, you’re either snaking the cable around the laptop or having it compete with your mousing hand (lefties need not worry!). During heavy, CPU-intensive use, the keyboard gets noticeably warm, just shy of uncomfortable—this wasn’t a problem most of the time, but it cropped up enough to warrant saying something here. The keyboard backlight also has really poor contrast against the white keycaps. In a dim room, it’s not so bad, but in bright lights at a typical viewing angle, some characters and shift-text are very difficult to see—better to turn the backlight off entirely in those cases. Finally, there’s the issue of battery life. The Evo specs call for 9+ hours of real-world battery life, but for HD displays; with this 4K touchscreen, you’re sacrificing battery life for an admittedly stunning picture. I ran a Netflix stream (no additional tasks or programs running) straight from 100% charge and reached a 2% battery shutdown in just under 5 hours using Dell’s own balanced power plan & adaptive battery settings. Yes, there are ways to extend battery life, but I wanted to see how long it would last for multimedia use without compromising volume or screen brightness in a typical “set-it-and-forget-it” use case. Mixed use performance might be better with some power plan tweaks, but this 4K screen is going to chew through battery life regardless—at best, this is probably a most-of-the-workday laptop if you simply must go unplugged. That said, I am so pleased with the HDR color performance & outstanding picture quality that I don’t know if I would want to settle for the lower-res 1080p screen just for the sake of a few extra hours of battery life. Again, YMMV.

THE BREAKDOWN: The XPS 13 is very sleek and stylish but feel like it has armor like a tank. There are a couple of items that could use a tweak here and there, but it’s very well built and performs well. When you first open the laptop, you notice the very small bevel and the continuation of the aluminum trim around the screen. Also, the white(alpine) composite fiber palm rest that is also UV and stain resistant. This is supposed to help prevent yellowing and discoloration. At first, I thought they built this aluminum tank and stuck plastic on the inside but quickly realized it was carbon fiber and not plastic. The touch panel screen worked well, and the display featured a 16:10 aspect ratio instead of the more common 16:9. I felt as if the images were very vivid. One thing to note is that this laptop is rated to a max of 500 nits of brightness, which as you know it could let you see the screen better in high light situations. One of my main complaints about this system is the 720p webcam with IR face recognition. I felt like the camera was grainy and lacking. With most of the world still on telework you would think that this would be one area where they spend a little more time and effort to upgrade. The IR recognition worked well for me. This laptop comes with 2 USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 4 support, a microSD card reader and a 3.5mm headphone jack. If you have USB Type-A stuff you want to use on this one you will have to have the adapter in which Dell included one. One cool think I like about the power cable is that there is a little light on the end by the USB-C charging port that comes on to let you know its charging. The updated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 standards worked well, and I did not have any issue with connectivity on either. I found the touch pad and keypad to work nicely. The keys didn’t feel too close together despite the small surface they are working with. The one key that I thought was just a little small was the up and down arrows. Also, they do have a fingerprint reader in the upper right which doubles as a power button. The speakers on this laptop are rated for 4 watts of output and I found that the sounds were loud and balanced surprisingly. The CPU and memory performance were great for me personally. It started and loaded very fast, switching between apps and screens was a snap. I did notice if you have to many applications open at once this laptop will get very hot, so be careful of that. If you are just browsing and doing some photo editing it isn’t really a problem. This also scored a 455 on PCMARK 10 which isn’t too bad. Battery life wasn’t bad, I got consistent 9-10 hours of working time, which is good enough for most people’s day of work. PRO’s: -Very Compact -Vivid 16:10 screen -USB adapter included -Good battery life -Sleek and stylish CON’s: -Limited port selection -Gets hot under load -Camera is lacking -Expensive SUMMARY: Overall, this product worked well and as intended, and I would recommend this to a friend if they are in the market for device like this.

Pros • USB-C charging • Excellent keyboard • Great display quality • Great sound quality • Great build quality • Micro SD card reader • Very portable and light • Fingerprint and facial recognition • Fast and responsive • Touchscreen Cons • Disappointing webcam quality • Only two USB-C ports This Dell XPS 13 9310 is a great computer, and throughout my use of it, I have been very happy with it! There are many things that are great about this machine. I really love that this computer uses USB-C for both data and charging. I also have a Mac laptop and it is so nice being able to use the same charging cables from that computer with this one. This really helps to reduce clutter and makes charging my devices super easy. Also, Dell includes a USB-C to regular USB-A adapter along with the USB-C charger, which is great to have. The display on this computer is really good. Text is very crisp and the quality of everything displayed has been great. I have absolutely loved the keyboard on this computer, it has really been awesome! I have used the keyboard to type several emails and documents, and it is so easy and comfortable to type on. If you do a lot of typing, this keyboard is really nice to type on. Additionally, it has a backlight you can turn on for lower light situations. I have also tested the speakers on this computer and found them to work really well. They could get quite loud and the sound quality was good. This laptop is also really light and portable, so it should work great for those needing a laptop on the go. Battery life on this computer seemed to be good during my usage (primarily web browsing and editing documents), but I did not test this extensively. I would expect that this machine gets less battery life than one with a 1080p display, so if that is really critical for you, you might want to get a machine with a lower resolution display. I really like the crisp display quality you get from this 4K display, so for that I am willing to sacrifice some additional battery life. This laptop has facial recognition and fingerprint scanning capabilities which makes it super easy to sign in without having to type a password. It’s nice to have the flexibility to use either or both of these options to sign in. Beyond the two USB-C ports that this computer has, it also has a microSD card slot and a headphone jack. As far as performance goes, this computer is really fast and performed really well throughout my usage of it. At some times, it did get a little hot and the fans kicked on to cool it down, but nonetheless, it performed really well. The build quality of this machine also seems to be really good, it feels very sturdy and has some metal in its design which makes it feel very premium. One feature that I found on this machine that I have really liked is called Dell Mobile Connect. This is a free program included with the computer that adds some great integration between your phone and your computer. You can receive notifications from your phone, place and receive calls, receive and send text messages, transfer photos and videos to your computer, and mirror your phone screen to your computer. These are some really nice features. All I had to do was download the Dell Mobile Connect app on my iPhone and allow some permissions and I was able to use these features. The ability to transfer photos and videos without having to plug your phone in was really nice. Additionally, being able to receive notifications and make and receive calls are all really nice features that Dell has made possible. Now to a few downsides with this machine. Unfortunately, the webcam on this computer is bad. You would hope that a machine in this price range released during the COVID-19 pandemic would have a good quality webcam. Unfortunately, the webcam quality is really bad. Even my 3 year old Mac does not have the greatest webcam but by comparison, this webcam is awful. Video quality is very grainy and lighting is poor. This computer has so much going for it and so much that works well that it really is such a shame that Dell didn’t put in a better webcam. I also was a bit disappointed with the number of USB-C ports on this computer. While two is sufficient and may be fine for many people, it would really be nice to have more. Considering the price of this machine, I would have hoped that it would have had more ports to connect other devices. That being said, I am glad that Dell put one USB-C port on each side of the computer. I have had computers in the past where all of the USB ports were on one side of the computer, which was such a pain. It is really nice having one port on each side as I then have the flexibility to plug the USB-C charger and other devices into either side of the computer depending on the setting I am in. Overall, this is a great machine. Really fast, great display quality, USB-C charging, and an awesome keyboard. I would definitely recommend this to someone looking for a portable and powerful machine with great connectivity options. While I am really disappointed with the webcam quality, I am giving this machine five stars because of how well it performed in the other areas I assessed.

The Dell XPS 13 9310 is a fantastic laptop that is hard to not recommend, featuring a stunning display, thin design, and relatively good performance. Upon unboxing, I was immediately impressed with the look and feel of the XPS 13. This model features a refined carbon weave Arctic White interior, an i7-1185G7, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD. At only 2.6 lbs, the XPS can easily be carried around without feeling bulky. The tapered, wedge design makes it feel even slimmer than it is. With 2 Thunderbolt 4/USB C ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a micro SD card slot the ports available are limited but Dell also includes a USB A adapter. At least Dell had the foresight to put one USB C port on either side for charging and peripherals. The small foot print of the XPS is matched with a stunning InfintyEdge display featuring Gorilla Glass 6. The 4K display has the slimmest bezels I have seen in a laptop, yet they still managed to keep the Windows Hello webcam at the top of the display without using any quirky pop-up modules. The colors are rich and vibrant, especially when enabling HDR. My M1 MacBook Pro's display looks dated by comparison. I did however experience intermittent flicker with HDR enabled at various brightness levels. Since the problem for me was limited to HDR, I am sure it is software related and hopefully will be resolved in the future. My model is also touch enabled, though I honestly never use it. The keyboard and trackpad are both good, but not great. While I enjoyed typing this review on the XPS, a slight dish to the keys would improve feel for me personally. Otherwise the keyboard is very tactile with good travel and feel. The power button doubles as a fingerprint reader and it performed flawlessly for me. The trackpad, while responsive, feels very stiff when clicking which I prefer over tapping. The 11th gen i7 chipset with Iris Xe graphics performed well with most basic tasks. Web surfing, editing documents, and watching videos where all easily handled by the i7. Knowing this isn't a gaming laptop, I tested No Man's Sky on low settings to see how the new Iris Xe Graphics would fair. Surprisingly, it was mostly playable despite the fan noise and random graphical tearing. Under basic use it does get warmer then my MacBook M1 but that is to be expected. Any compute or graphics intensive task however, would be unbearable in your lap as the thermal design transfers considerable heat underneath laptop. Also underneath are downward firing speakers that sound decent as long as they are not muffled by your lap. Battery life is fair for an Intel mobile chip. I managed to get over a week of standby time with very light usage every day. Average battery life is 6-8 hours depending on use. When testing the limits of the CPU/GPU I was able to drain the entire battery in as little as 2 hours but that would not be typical of this device. I am honestly a little disappointed that Dell doesn't offer this model with an AMD Ryzen, as that would be much better suited for the design and make it a real contender for those choosing between Apple's new silicon devices and a PC. Though comparing architecture may not be fair, it should be considered as many users predominantly use web based applications and are not married to a particular platform. The cost of the device indicates it is a premium product, though I feel In its current form it falls short of providing value for your money. The XPS 13 9310 is a great laptop despite the faults. If Dell ever releases an AMD version with the upcoming Ryzen 5000 series I would reconsider my statement, as Intel's chipset iterations are still behind the competition in my opinion, which would make this device far more appealing.

I've been using this for one week and can quickly tell you that it's a game changer. It's fast, sleek and lightweight. Sometimes when you have a laptop, the feel is just off in your hands while using the keyboard. Not here. It felt great while typing and I was extremely impressed. I can honestly say, this is one of the most comfortable laptop keyboards I've used. The keys are sturdy and I don't feel like I'll break a key when I type. I'm a loud typer and they don't make a lot of noise while I type. My wife will be pleased. It's a powerful laptop. Look at the specs and you'll see. That being said, I'm surprised with such a new design that it gets hot quick. I've noticed it gets hot during the most random times. I Zoomed with my work for an hour and it only became warm. About two hours later I was checking my email and it was very hot. So much that I had to get a pillow for my lap.  I've read a few other reviews about the webcam quality and initially agreed with those. The first few times I used Zoom, I noticed my face (not coworkers) was grainy. I thought it was my internet connection, but a test speed said I was downloading at 280 mbps. After a recent download, it might have corrected this issue. I just got off a Zoom meeting and my picture was crisp as can be.  Features: Windows 10 Touch Screen 11th Gen Core i7 Dell Mobile Connect Fingerprint Reader to unlock Face Recognition to unlock 2 Thunderbolt USB-C ports Pros: Fast Lightweight Great Design! Comfy Keyboard 4K Picture quality is unreal Two Charge ports Quiet when doing daily checks like word doc, email, basic web surfing Minimalist port look Headphone jack plugin Cons: Webcam picture is a little grainy (recent update might have been addressed?) Gets hot quick Processor gets loud when I push it using Netflix or Photoshop Battery Life (probably because it runs near 4K) Has shut off randomly twice while using it (bad luck?) Overall: Like all computers, it really depends on what you're trying to achieve while using it. Are you a gamer? Are you a designer? Student? Or just want something to check email and web searches? I do recommend this computer, however there are cheaper options out there. I'm sure people want it for the processing power. I love it and it's super efficient. That being said, I'm going to be using it for work and checking basics like email, word docs and basic photo tweaking. No photo editing, but just cropping and sizing. I notice I really hear the processor straining itself when I run Netflix or Photoshop. The battery life for a laptop is ok, but I'd hope to have a little more juice. Yes, you can make some adjustments to prolong the battery life. I was just hoping to maximize on performance and battery longevity rather than sacrificing one over the other so early into using it. Regardless, I still recommend it.