Appliances Presidents’ Day SaleEnds 2/26. Limited quantities. No rainchecks.Shop now

Skip to content
Main Content

Customer Ratings & Reviews

Your price for this item is $1,099.99
The comparable value price is $1,499.99

Customer reviews

Rating 4.4 out of 5 stars with 137 reviews

Rating Filter

Rating by feature

  • Battery Life

    Rating 4.6 out of 5 stars

  • Speed

    Rating 4.6 out of 5 stars

  • Display

    Rating 4.8 out of 5 stars

Pros mentioned filter

Cons mentioned filter

88%would recommend to a friend

Rating 4.2 out of 5 stars with 6 reviews

Customers are saying

Customers are impressed with the XPS 13.4" OLED Touch Screen Laptop's long battery life, stunning OLED display, and comfortable keyboard. They appreciate its portability and the performance of the Snapdragon processor. However, some customers have expressed concerns about the limited number of ports.

This summary was generated by AI based on customer reviews.

The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.
Page 1 Showing 1-20 of 137 reviews
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Keyboard
    Best Buy Employee

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Great product!

    |
    Best Buy Employee
    Posted . Owned for 2 months when reviewed.
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    Absolutely beautiful laptop, the battery lasts ages and the display is incredible. Super portable and capable of doing everything I need a laptop to do. The keyboard has been one of my favorite keyboards I've ever used on a laptop, both for usability and aesthetics. If I had to complain about anything it would be that the RAM usage runs a bit high.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Performance

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Best Windows Computer

    |
    |
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    Not sure where the too hit review came from, but I bought one for engineering and teaching robotics and ran it for 10 hours yesterday. It didn’t even get warm. This computer is FAST and the graphics are gorgeous. I’ve always bought Mac’s for my personal use, but this is going to even replace those. Makeblock, Python, my C/C++ IDE works better than on the Mac or my old Surface 7+. They even have an app for converting Apple Pages to Word! Add in Copilot and being able to create those images-art I need for teaching abstract ideas and you have the best computer of 2024. I love mine.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Oled display

    Rated 4 out of 5 stars

    Wonderful Machine

    |
    |
    Posted . Owned for 1 week when reviewed.
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    It's light, fast and most of all, beautiful. The design really speaks to me and the lack of physical function key or boarder for the touchpad never bothers me. In fact I much prefer this design. So far I did not encounter any compatibility issue and suffice all my needs. The OLED screen is so gorgeous to look at and the 60hz refresh rate is good enough for daily task.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Small size, great performance

    |
    |
    Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    Small size, great performance Really pleased with the quality and the screen and I have had no issues with the Snapdragon chip. Works for college and occasional gaming

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Keyboard, Oled display
    Cons mentioned:
    Limited ports
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    You'll Never Look Back. Highly Recommended!

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    This Dell XPS 13 might be the best system from Dell that I have ever used. There are too many positives to list, and only 2-3 aspects of this Copilot+ PC that I wish were different. Let's address the elephant in the room: based on my real-world testing over a week, I found the battery life to be mixed, and I could not replicate Dell's claim of 20+ hours. That being said, the battery life is at least double what I have come to expect from Windows machines. The battery life is absolutely incredible and lasts me all day without having to worry about bringing a charger when I'm on the go. I can comfortably say that I experience between 14-16 hours of use. Again, absolutely incredible. I know that the Snapdragon X processor is new and different, but it's snappy and handles everything I threw at it without breaking a sweat. Every application I use for everyday tasks runs flawlessly. I'm sure there are programs out there that haven't taken advantage of ARM yet, but I haven't found one that impacts my day-to-day. I spent some time using Copilot, and it is an absolute game changer. Imagine having a personal assistant at your side to help you find settings, generate complex searches and recommendations, and even create images with the push of a button and a brief prompt. Copilot is going to increase your productivity substantially, and I don't see a world where this isn't standard. THE SCREEN IS AWESOME. The OLED panel is rich in color, high resolution, and it's even touchscreen. Dell finally took the best features from every PC and packed them into this 13" powerhouse. Text is crystal clear, and the blacks are inky black. This makes consuming content an absolute pleasure. The keyboard feels great, and I have zero issues with the keys not having gaps. If anything, I now prefer this keyboard over anything I've used. I did see some complaints about the Touch Bar at the top and the fact that there are only two USB-C ports, but I have a few thoughts on this. The Touch Bar works every time I've used it. It really feels like people need something to complain about, but this is something you shouldn't fixate on. As for the two USB-C ports, if you need more, then you should look for a larger PC. This is built to be portable, and I/O has always been a tradeoff. As far as I'm concerned, this may be the best PC I've ever used. The build quality is also incredible: all aluminum case, slim bezels, great speakers, fantastic battery life, beautiful screen, crazy snappy performance... what more could you want? I highly recommend the Dell XPS 13 Copilot+ PC OLED. You won't be disappointed.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Performance
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Fantastic, super-portable Copilot+ laptop

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    With a sleek and stylish design, this new XPS 13 caught my attention. Ever since they introduced this (sometimes controversial) minimal and modern design, Dell has really gone in their own direction and it shows. Packed into its very portable 13” laptop body is a nearly edge-to-edge OLED with perfect blacks and a fantastic, high resolution 3k display. It’s powered by the brand new Snapdragon X Elite (Arm-based) CPU to bring new levels of battery efficiency and performance to what I feel is a really stellar Copilot+ laptop. _DESIGN_ Dell’s design team introduced a new level of minimalism to their modern XPS machines and this one gets that treatment too. Keys are edge-to-edge, without spacers between, yet each key is subtly dished to allow your fingers to find them fairly easily. I got used to it immediately and can switch back and forth between other keyboards without feeling the need to adjust. On a small machine like this one, I really appreciate them. Keys feel spacious, giving the impression of a larger machine. Function keys are capacitive and backlit, which makes them largely disappear. For those with workflows that rely heavily on them (programmers, for one), this design may not bet best as touch typing isn’t really possible for keys on this row. For everyone else, it’s sleek and provides some nice negative space (reduces visual clutter) near the hinge - and apparently helps with machine cooling. Lastly, the trackpad is hidden behind a continuous piece of glass without seams or indication of its boundaries. On paper, that may sound hard to use, but in practice I found it very easy to find and use without any difficulty - It’s smack in the center and plenty wide enough. Due to these design choices, the whole machine feels a lot less cramped than most machines of this size feel. I didn’t know how I would feel going in, but I found that I love all of these design choices. The body is also a very nice machined aluminum in a great black-grey color. It looks simultaneously very modern, stylish, and professional. There are only 2 USB-C ports on the machine, but I find my reliance on needing any ports diminishing as time goes on. So much can be sent digitally, so I largely use these for charging rather than connecting dongles. The screen is gorgeous with great color accuracy and punchy, bright colors. It’s hard to go wrong with an OLED. Blacks are true black (as pixels are fully turned off) and at this resolution, everything looks sharp and beautiful. I’ve never had a touch screen laptop before, but it works great and since Gorilla glass is involved, I’m not worried about ever damaging it. The integrated speakers are also very good for a computer this size. I wouldn’t have any qualms watching a movie on this while staying at hotel, for instance. _COPILOT_ Copilot and a full-fledged Arm-based experience are at the heart of this machine. This laptop features a new NPU designed to boost AI performance while being very energy efficient. A Copilot button on the keyboard is now present to help introduce AI to your daily routine. Just type, and you can create images and text to fit your needs. With its NPU giving it additional performance, it can also do live translation of any audio playing on your machine when live captions are turned on. In my testing, it was a bit too delayed for a Korean Netflix show, but it holds a lot of potential. I also tried the new Cocreator feature in Microsoft Paint. My terrible drawing of a penguin in a kayak was magically improved live as I drew, which was very cool and could be great when modifying generated images to communicate unique things in presentations, projects, or just for fun. _PORTABILITY & GENERAL PERFORMANCE_ I love how usable, yet small this machine is. Compared to my lightweight non-PC laptop, it’s smaller, about the same weight, and feels like it will travel super well without taking up much space. It runs very quiet and doesn’t seem to get hot at all. - Very likely thanks to the Snapdragon processor. Web browsing, MS Office, and media are all very snappy. It’s worth noting some of the trade-offs currently in the software space. While a lot of software can be emulated for new Arm-based PCs like this one, native software will run best and be the most efficient. Adobe Illustrator, which I use daily, currently is in the beta stages of preparing for this change in PC offerings and while it ran ok, I could tell that it struggled a bit with zooming and rendering at times. _GAMING_ Similarly, games compatibility in the Xbox store is limited to Cloud gaming via GamePass at the time of writing. My first try had some hiccups, but after I stopped some background downloads, it worked very well. I tested a few cloud games (Dirt 5, Immortals Fenyx Rising) and found them to run well with minimal lag. Steam games, on the other hand, seemed to work fine. Granted, I wasn’t trying to play the most modern or power hungry games out there, but everything I tried so far (The Talos Principle, Arkham Origins, for example) played well and at good resolutions / frame rates. This is not a laptop designed for gaming, so don’t expect it to be, but for streaming and less-intensive gaming it should work just fine. The fantastic OLED really helps in making games pop with bright colors and visuals. Other sources of games may run into launch issues since capability on Arm is still in early stages. _SUMMARY_ This is a great, super portable machine that’s even smaller than the next best portable. It fast and efficient, quiet and stylish. It packs in a lot of new AI features form Microsoft/Windows and Arm-based processing. It’s an all-around great laptop made form quality materials. It’s a great media laptop primarily, with decent gaming capability for what it is. It’s not, however, the best design for programmers or anyone who uses the function row often (as they are not easy to touch-type) - For everyone else, it’s great. I love the design and quality that went into this machine!

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Rated 2 out of 5 stars

    DID love it

    |
    |
    Posted . Owned for less than 1 week when reviewed.
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    So straight forward I loved everything about this laptop. It looks amazing and is super portable. I also love the face recognition and personally enjoy the flat key board. My problem comes when I went to walk my dog, I came back and my oled screen appeared to be broken. I have pictures as well. Instantly I restarted the laptop and it was the same issue. I immediately went to best buy and returned it. I love the design and wish i could have kept it, but im not going to keep something that did that within 5 days of purchasing it. I was going to upgrade frok the 13 to the 16 inch screen but they want $3050 vs the $1000 I paid. I ended up switching it out for the Galaxy book4 instead for the same proce of $1000.

    No, I would not recommend this to a friend
    • Brand response from YourDellTeam
      Posted .

      Hello Nikolai,

      Thank you for taking the time to leave us your review. We regret to learn that your Dell XPS 13 Touch Laptop did not meet your expectations, leading to your decision to return it. This is certainly not the experience we like to hear from our valued customers. We value your feedback and are always looking for ways to improve our products and services.
      We will share your review with our quality team, so improvements can be made in the future.
      Even if this particular product was not the right fit for you, we hope that you will consider Dell in the future when you make your next purchase.

      If you have any concerns or questions, Please do not hesitate to get in touch with a Dell representative using the information provided below.

      Chat or call: https://bit.ly/DellSupportTeam
      Phone number to Dell: 1-800-624-9896

      Best,
      Minhaj@Dell Dell

  • Pros mentioned:
    Oled display, Weight
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Powerful and portable. Great on-the-go laptop

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    I've seen a lot of ads and such for Copilot PCs recently so thought it'd might be good to check one out finally. ASUS, Samsung and a host of other manufacturers have these however I went with the Dell just based off previous experience with them. SIZE: Really liking this 13" size. It's perfect for travel and functionality without giving up much of anything really....except screen size. WEIGHT: coming in at around 5 pounds or so, this is super lightweight by any laptop standards and carries easily. You'll have no problem throwing this in your bag/purse as it's thin, lightweight and very portable. The charger is also pretty small as well so no issues with toting that around either. FIT/FINISH: this is a really well put together laptop. The seams and construction of the laptop is really solid. The function keys are backlit and touch capacitive which looks really nice. The integrated touchpad looks really slick and functoins quite well. And the OLED screen is just gorgeous. Deep blacks and rich contrast from this display makes everything just pop that much more. YouTube or Netflix really comes through on this display. COPILOT: is actually quite interesting to use. From my experience, it's a bit more than just simple voice commands or questions. I tried it out by asking if the illuminated logo on my GPU can be changed? Pretty random question but it pulled back an actual answer, no...unfortunately, as well as posts and additional background info on my request. It further added to my inquiry by asking if I wanted to contact the manufacturer about this as well as local PC shops. I thought it was a bit much but, surprisingly, it answered my question and prompted me to continue the "conversation". Definitely will need some more playtime with this but, so far, it's actually been quite promising and useful.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life
    Cons mentioned:
    Arm64 architecture, Limited ports
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Fantastic Ultrabook - With Some Trade-Offs

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    As with many things in life, laptop design ultimately is a study in trade-offs. Power of the hardware vs battery life, size of the screen vs portability and so on. This Dell XPS 13 uses the power and power efficiency of the new Snapdragon X Elite processor to achieve a balance that few other computers I've seen can match - and I've seen quite a few in over 20 years as an IT professional. It's not perfect and some of the choices are a bit perplexing, but it's the best ultra-portable laptop I've yet seen. Is it for you? Read on to find out! The first thing that strikes you about this laptop when you unbox it is the design. It's fairly minimalist, particularly in the dark gray color, but it's amazing how thing and compact it is - it can even make the Macbook Air look a bit chunky. It does have some heft to it, but it's still easy to carry around all day and fit in a bag or backpack. The materials throughout are very high-end and the laptop is very well-built. The inside is even better looking with the screen surrounded by only the tiniest of bezels and a fully integrated / no outline trackpad (which is exactly where you think it would be so I've had no trouble with my fingers "finding" it and the click action haptics are very good). The keyboard is the full width of the laptop and the keys are densely packed (not chiclet style) which does take a bit to get used to but I've found them generally comfortable to type on once you get used to them. The function keys are touch spots that change from controlling things like the brightness and volume to the standard "F" keys when you hold the function key - the light up labels on the touch sports ch accordingly. There is a shockingly good (at least for how small it is) webcam in the top bezel. Let's come back to that screen for a moment. There are multiple screen options here - I'm using the OLED at "3K" resolution and it's a glorious thing - it gets super bright with blacks so deep that you have to see it to believe it and vibrant colors at all brightness levels. This might be as close to perfection as a laptop display can get (though, this not being a gaming PC, it is limited to 60Hz, but with great response times). It is somewhat smaller at 13.4" but that contributes to this being a super portable form factor. The "guts" of the laptop are perhaps the most special thing, with the new Snapdragon X Elite processor as the star of the show. This chip, and it's "ARM64" architecture (vs the normal "x86" architecture in standard Intel and AMD chip) sets a new standard for power efficiency and performance. ARM chips have long been power sippers - they're what's in your phone and most tablets after all - but only in recent years have they also been powerful enough to drive solid full computing experiences. Paired with 16GB of FAST DDR5 RAM, the X Elite is plenty to power through work and play - I haven't seen any slow downs while performing normal office tasks, browsing the web, playing media (locally or streamed), writing / compiling code or even editing photos / videos. This isn't really a gaming laptop, but the onboard graphics are sufficient for many older/mid-tier games or emulation and some higher end games will work as well. The CPU has a built-in NPU or neural processing unit to enable onboard/offline AI as part of the "Copilot+" PC program. I've been working with the various Copilot+ features for a week now and while some are incredibly useful, others need a bit more work. The most helpful features turn out to be the Windows Studio Effects for the webcam, which can perform real-time blurring / background changes much better than any I've seen in conferencing software (there are other effects too that are pretty cool). The Cocreate / Image Generator is decidedly a work in progress, but it IS helpful to have a generative AI that is creating along with you. Though to some extent your own creativity (or in my case, the lack thereof) will limit the ultimate output....it's still far better than anything I could create on my own and likely will only improve over time. Some of the applications demonstrated during the Copilot launch (such as LiquidText and DaVinci Resolve) haven't yet fully enabled AI features in their production builds so I expect that the NPU will only become more useful over time. The 512GB SSD is quick - and is user replaceable if you remove the bottom of the laptop (there's only one slot, so you'll have to image the operating system and all over to the new drive - that slot can hold a 2230 or 2280 sized PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD though the included heat spreader will only fit 2230s, so a 2280 will go without it). The SSD is the only user upgradeable part as all other components are soldiered to the motherboard except the battery (which can be replaced but of course not really upgraded). I've included a picture of the interior of the laptop with the bottom panel removed. Given the power-sipping nature of the ARM64 CPU, battery life is incredible, and I'm regularly seeing over 12-13 hours of normal usage with the laptop before charging. Charging is also fast, using USB-C and either the included 60W charger or another USB-C charger of similar power you might already have. So all that is great - you might then be asking what are those trade-offs I mentioned? Well, there are a few... * The ARM64 "Architecture" - Having an ARM CPU onboard enables incredible battery life with strong performance, BUT it does so at the cost of some compatibility. Application have been built for decades to play nicely on x86 based systems (which this isn't) so you'll need to either find new versions of applications compiled for ARM64 (Chrome browser and many other applications have these versions available if you look for them) OR rely on the Prism translation layer built into Windows. Translated applications (or, more properly, emulated applications) aren't quite as fast or power efficient as native applications, but they do largely work. That said, demanding applications (i.e., games or high end engineering tools) or applications that directly access the hardware (backup applications and device/printer drivers) may not run at all if you can't find ARM64 specific versions. For example, my Canon printer/scanner driver won't load on ARM64, so I have to use the Windows default driver which is ok but loses some of the capabilities of the device. This is probably the biggest trade-off for most. * Only two ports - To enable the minimalist design and keep the laptop small and thin, you only get two ports total, USB 4 on both sides that support Thunderbolt as well. These are powerful type-C ports that support full speed charging, video out and high speed data in and out. But there are only two of them (one on each side) and that plus the lack of other specific ports like HDMI or a headphone jack means that you'll almost certainly need a dock or dongle(s) to connect to your ecosystem. * The screen vs battery life - The 3K OLED panel on this laptop might be spectacular to look at, but opting for that screen really cuts in your battery life. While I'm seeing 12-13 hours, users with the fullHD base screen are reporting thtat they're seeing 19-20+ hours of battery life. Sure, both are all day and on balance, I'd rather have the really nice screen than be able to go two days without charging..but some folks might reasonably disagree. * Style vs the keyboard design - While I can certainly say that the design of the keyboard deck is astounding and striking, it might not be the most functional with the "touch" spots for the hotkeys/function keys and the "cammoflaged" touchpad. The keyboard also prioritizes design over functionality. Overall, I do like the balance that Dell has selected here on each of those trade-offs, I think they came out with a stunning laptop with great performance, a tremendous screen and strong battery life. If that sounds good to you, give the Dell XPS 13 a try today!

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life
    Cons mentioned:
    Gaming
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 4 out of 5 stars

    Long battery life works like tablet

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    The laptop build quality is very good. It is slim, compact and sexy. The power brick is also small and compact. When boot up the first time, first windows update makes the laptop hot but after that the laptop only get warm during heavy load. The OLED screen is very beautiful and bright, thin bezel. It cannot open flat to 180 degree though. The keyboard is very nice to type on, they have large keys using the edge to edge design, except the up and down arrow keys, they are half height. If wanted to combine 2 keys into 1 key height, why not use a up down toggle button? The keys has decent amount of travel and are smooth when pressed. The touchpad does not have line to indicate its location, it looks pretty but I prefer location indicator. There is a touch bar/panel above the keyboard where the function keys are located, they looks beautiful but I prefer actual key as the touch panel does not provide any feedback. I cannot find the power button as it is not labeled and not in the documentation included with the laptop. The copilot key on the keyboard is very convenient, it opens up the chatGPT box where you can ask it to solve math problem, find answer, create a picture, summarize article or text etc. But it still need internet to work. The best AI feature that I like is Live Caption with Translation, it is very cool. I can speak Chinese or Spanish, it will translate into English or some other language I chose. The sound produced by the speaker is very good, even has some bass relatively speaking. I can feel the 360-degree spatial audio. Webcam mounted dead-center in the tiny bezel above screen. Unfortunately the webcam does not have a physical shutter. Webcam does comes with Windows Studio Effects to blur background and add filter effects. The download speed is very fast, 34GB in less than 5 minutes. The battery life is very good, casual usage will last a day. But when it is doing something heavy, it shows 80% battery can last 4h 39m but after using for a few hours, it shows 68% 9h 57m Installing Fortnite uses 20% battery live, but when trying to play it, I am getting launch error saying ARM64 not supported. When installing Need for Speed game, the battery change from 4h 39m to 2h 22m at 80% After install, battery went from 80% to 74% but battery life back to 4h 3m. Need for Speed also does not work, no sound and can't detect key press, loading is also slow. So this laptop is for office productivity, content consuming and casual gaming like a tablet. Many x86 app will not work on this laptop. Another con is the laptop only 2 usb-c ports.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Performance
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Slim, Light, and Powerful

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    This laptop is the best combination of portability and power that I have ever come across. It's only 13.4" and less than 6 pounds. If you are looking for a powerful and portable laptop that is designed to enhance Microsoft's AI products, this is it. Before I talk about the cool stuff that I tried out with the Copilot feature, here are some of the other things I liked most about this laptop: - The back-lit keyboard and track pad are nicely designed. While the key locations take some time to adjust to because there is less real estate available (it's a 13" laptop), the keys are responsive and I love the extra keys placed above the keyboard to control volume, brightness, etc. They are touch sensitive buttons rather than buttons that need to be pressed and they work well. I also love how the track pad is basically invisible which just gives the laptop a sleek design without impacting functionality. - The 16GB of RAM, a SSD, and a high end processor (Snapdragon X Elite) have this laptop handling any task(s) that I threw at it. There was nothing it couldn't do, from high end gaming to video editing. I love the fast boot and load times that the SSD helps provide. Copilot: - While you can use AI applications on most any device, this laptop is powerful enough to enhance the Copilot experience and use it the way it was intended. I've used it for several things over the past week including asking it to teach me some Spanish, write a few songs, and create fun quizzes to play with my family. I even had it design a logo for my daughter's soccer team! The most fun I had was creating stories with my kids. I had my son give me some parameters and then relayed those story parameters to the Copilot. It interpreted my voice perfectly using the onboard mic. Within 5-10 seconds, the app was reading us a story about a pirate that was going on an adventure to find treasure and included every story element that we asked for. It worked so well that I tried this again with my daughter. We laughed and laughed as we were read a story about "Princess Jellybean" who needed help from the 3 Little Pigs after her kingdom ran out of food. The possibilities for this application are impressive and I think that students and folks in the business world will get the most out of it. While the pricing for this laptop is on the high end, I found it to be well worth the investment. You certainly get what you pay for with this model. The performance, portability, and features are a terrific combination.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life
    Cons mentioned:
    Compatibility
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Impressively Fast; Some Limitations

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    The Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset has finally entered the PC CPU market. While Intel and AMD have dominated for decades, Qualcomm mostly limited its product to mobile devices, like tablets and phones. But the new Snapdragon X Elite comes to the PC market as a disrupter, and being based on ARM architecture instead of x86, Qualcomm gave some pretty impressive previews about speed and battery life blowing away anything from Intel and AMD. Several manufacturers onboarded Qualcomm, and Dell started with the XPS series (Extreme Performance System). Think of XPS as the luxury cars of computers, where new technology is usually introduced. Does the Snapdragon live up to the hype? Read on. Just as a by-the-way, this Dell XPS also comes with two other unique (but controversial) features. The first is capacitive function keys (including delete and ESC) and an invisible touchpad. I won't get to those in detail, except to say they functioned well and that I really didn't find them difficult to use. I really want to talk about the performance of this laptop. I want to start with one word--WOW. I always run Geekbench to test the speed of the CPU and GPU, and then CrystalMark to test the speed of the SSD. Compared to an Intel Ultra 5 and an Intel Core 7 on other newer laptops, the Qualcomm blew both of them away in both the single-core and mutli-core tests--by over 60%. For the GPU, the Core 7's integrated Iris graphics are no match for either the Ultra's integrated ARC or the Snapdragon's integrated Adreno. The Adreno and ARC were comparable in the Geekbench test, outperforming the Iris by 30%. In the read/write test, the PCIe drive matched some of the fastest speeds I have ever seen. Well, numbers are one thing, but how does this laptop perform with actual use? As I was installing all my software, I was looking for two things--compatibility and speed. Most Windows software is designed around the x86 architecture--not ARM architecture. In the background, this laptop runs much of the x86 software in an emulator--unbeknownst to the user--it all happens in the background. There is always a performance loss in an emulator, but I certainly did not notice it on the software I was using. However, I did run into some compatibility issues; ARM is not a panacea. But the speed in which the software loaded and then subsequently executed was impressively and noticiably faster than my other newer laptops based on the x86 archtiecture. Most of my software installed and ran completely without issue--Office, Minitab, Avast, Handbrake, IMGBurn, MoneyDance, PaintShop Pro, MathCAD, Hallmark, etc. But I did have compatibility issues with Minitool (I replaced it with Disk Genius), Adobe Acrobat Reader (I replaced it with the built-in PDF reader in Chrome / Edge), Malwarebytee (no replacement), and Canon / Brother TWAIN scanner drivers (use the built-in Windows drivers instead, but you lose some control panel functions unless you use 3rd party software like NAPS2 for scanning). For example, I could not use my printer's screen to scan a document to this laptop--I had to use the third party software instead (it worked fine, it's just learning to do it a different way now). I really think if the ARM movement gains steam that more of these compatibility issues will disappear over time. The incompatible software I mentioned either refused to install at all or would not run. I played some legacy games on the XPS 13, including MAME32 (old arcade game simulator) and Rails (an Empire Builder board game simulator). They both ran without issue. I did not try any other more intense gaming, but I can tell you from what I've read in computer magazines that gaming on an ARM-based machine often results in decreased frame rates, stuttering, and or flat-out no runs--especially for modern and GPU intense games. However, I cannot attest to that. The screen is gorgeous and bright, and operating the lid does not result in any panel flexing. The laptop is very well built and feels super premium. Overall, the weight comes in (with the nice compact charger) at just over 3 pounds--making it really portable. There are some users that don't like that there is no spacing between the keys. I did not find that bothersome at all. The keyboard had good action, though the keystrokes are shallow. The camera has very nice resolution, but there is no camera cover or blocker. Battery life on ARM-based CPUs is supposed to be unbelievably superior. This is not only because of the NPU delegating tasks, but also to the cleaner and less power-hungry ARM architecture. I did not experience superior battery life. Under normal use, I did notice that the fan ran much less and at lower speeds, and that the battery drained about 20% in about 2-3 hours. This was slightly better than what I get on a similar x86 laptop. However, when I pushed the system with a Handbrake video encoding task (which was at an impressive 75+ FPS), that took the battery down from 80% to 20% in a matter of 40 minutes and the fan was constantly running at a very high speed. So just like any other laptop, GPU intense tasks suck down the battery just as fast on this ARM machine as the x86 machines. Another thing I was a bit disappointed with was the number of ports on the laptop--just two USB-C ports. They are fast data transfer ports, but if you are using the charger, then you only have one port free. A small hub is a necessity if you want to use a USB-A device, a smart card, or even connect the laptop to a monitor. The last thing I want to talk about is the CoPilot features of this system. CoPilot has a long way to go, but it is early in development and can do some showy tasks presently. For example, in Paint, I used co-creator to generate a much better artistic rendering of a "road heading towards the sunset in the mountains" than I could ever draw. I also was able to use CoPilot in general to create a nice graphic of an intense chess match. There are some pretty basic camera effects available, as well. CoPilot can integrate with Microsoft Office to scan and gather information from your documents, but that requires a subscription service. However, as with many AI inquiries (like ChatGPT), asking questions of CoPilot often led to wrong or incomplete information. I also asked CoPilot to search my music library and play a certain song. It offered to open the Media Player for me, but would not play the song. Like I mentioned, CoPilot is early in development--it will continue to evolve. So what's the final verdict? This is one impressive laptop for speed and portability. The ARM architecture does present some challenges, but not for software that most people are using. As long as GPU loading is not intense, the battery life is much longer than the typical work day. The laptop is really portable, and to be honest, carrying around a small hub to be able to use other devices is really not that much of a hassle. I must admit that this ARM-architecture laptop surprised me in many positive ways.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Performance
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Light, Powerful and All day Battery life.

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    PROS: The 3k OLED Screen is Gorgeous and rich in color All day Battery life Performance champ on productivity Copilot+ is amazing and at your fingertips CONS: Expensive Windows ARM Dells newest XPS laptop features a Qualcomm Snapdragon X chipset! This powers Microsoft Copilot+ PC which comes with a promised long battery life and fast productivity performance. This XPS 13 9345 comes in weighing only 2.6lbs and is very thin and lightweight. My laptop came with a 13.4” OLED 3k Display,16GB of RAM and a 512GD SSB. It also features Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 and Windows on Arm with a Snapdragon X Elite 12 core processor. The Build: It features a very modern smooth all aluminum build with some light up led touch keys up board and screen! It feels solid in your hand as you move around with it yet it’s light and not cumbersome. I traveled with it and used it on the go and was not heavy light other traditional laptops that have bigger components and heatsinks that are an inch thick. This is thin and light. To make room for it being thin and light they have a USB-C plug but no Headphone jack. I didn’t mind as I have wireless headphones which worked amazingly with Bluetooth 5.4. The nice addition about 5.4 is that I was able to be away from the laptop to another side of the house almost 100 feet away and didn’t lose connection. Plus, it is very efficient and does not draw a lot of power on your battery. The Wifi-7 paired nicely with my Orbi 970 Wi-Fi Mish System and had 1.5GB Speeds constantly no drops. How does it perform overall? Well, I was impressed I spent 14 hours nonstop on it writing a paper, watching YouTube, listening to music and even tried Steam. I had to find ARM compatible games which were few and far between on STEAMS platform, but they are out there. Just don’t expect powerhouse graphics to be pumping through QUALCOMM’s graphics chip. I am happy to say I was left with 38 percent battery life after all said and done for the day. I benchmarked this against my Surface 7 and its processor beat it on Single and Multi by about 15% and Geek bench as well Snapdragons processor beat the Surface. While the Windows running on ARM seemed to push into an emulator aspect of X86 some compatibility issues arise but had to work around lots of my normal programs. What I really enjoyed was the Copilot+, the manual prompts took a little getting used to but once I figured out how to prompt correctly and ask what I wanted and how I wanted it was nice addition. Especially if you’re a student, then this feature will come in handy trying to find peer review sources and context and clarification. This Computer is jammed packed with the latest technology from WIFI-7, BT 5.4 and the State-of-the-art Snapdragon X Elite 12 core processor. If you are looking for some cutting edge technology that has a huge upside in potential as more applications roll out then this would be great for you!

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Oled display, Performance
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 4 out of 5 stars

    Incredible laptop--but AI features underwhelm

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    The Dell XPS 13 CoPilot+ PC is an impressive compact and portable laptop. The Snapdragon X Elite processor delivers very good performance and excellent battery life for most productivity needs, with its neural processing units delivering the ability to do on-device AI processing. The OLED screen is absolutely gorgeous and a real highlight. However, the Windows on ARM Copilot+ AI offerings aren’t going to blow you away to say the least, and there are some design choices that might alienate some users. Still, though, the overall effect is a laptop that should highly please most people. Underneath the hood is a Snapdragon X Elite X1E80100 SoC with 12 CPU cores, the Adreno X1-85 GPU, and a 45 TOPS (trillions of operations/second) neural processing unit (NPU). The latter is what powers its ability to do on-device AI tasks. This is backed by 16GB of fast LPDDR5 RAM that is not upgradeable. Storage is provided by the 512GB Kioxia BG6 SSD. It’s rated for 4800MB/s read and 4000MB/s write at maximum; my testing saw it outperform those marks with 5032MB/s read and 4375MB/s write. Subjectively, performance is great, with excellent responsiveness. Many apps now have a native Windows on ARM version, and for those that don’t, Windows has a translation layer called Prism to allow for x86 apps to still work. Running the ARM version of Cinebench 2024, repeated tests (10 minutes) saw scores average around 970pts, a very good multicore score. This also serves a stress test for the CPU, as it engages all the cores at once. It was one of the very few times I heard the active cooling engage, and the device was warm but not hot. The chassis is very thin and light. It feels incredibly well-built and sturdy, but with the screen going all the way to the edge on the top, and the keyboard doing the same along the sides of the bottom, I’d fear for this if it took a fall. (But less so than if this were made out of plastic.) Partly a choice, undoubtedly, of the thin design is the dearth of ports: 2 USB 4 Type-C ports, one on each side. And you have to use one of those for charging, so if you’re tethered to the wall–thankfully less common due to the battery life–you’re going to have to get by with just one port. You’ll probably find yourself investing in some sort of dongle(s). There’s also no 3.5mm audio jack, either, unfortunately. The design choices may or may not bother you. I didn’t like the look of the keyboard and thought I’d hate it. While I’ll never call it my favorite, my first impression was wrong: I thought I’d have trouble with it, but it turned out I didn’t. Typing was fluid and quiet. More controversial are the function “keys” and the trackpad. The function keys/media controls aren’t physical but instead virtual keys across the top, and the problem with virtual keys is just that–you don’t have that physical interaction with a button. It looks cool, but I’m not sure exactly what problem this was meant to solve. Secondly, the trackpad isn’t marked in any way. You have a sense, of course, that it’s roughly below the space bar, but the specific boundaries aren’t shown. In practice, this is less of a problem than I feared, as I found I could somewhat intuitively guess where I ought to use it, but again, why? Other than that, it’s a perfectly responsive trackpad. I am an AI enthusiast and have been using AI tools and features for several years. While the NPU will be useful to power some interesting features, the ones currently available are underwhelming. The 3 features are Live Caption, which can provide real time captions/translations for videos that lack them, CoCreator in Paint, and Windows Studio Effects for the webcam. Live caption is useful enough if you find a video without such captions, but such captioning is common on most video services. CoCreate allows you to start a drawing in Paint, and add a written prompt, which will then use your drawing and prompt to create an image locally. (However, it only works with an internet connection, which defeats the purpose of on-device AI!) Studio Effects contains features like eye contact (makes it look like you're looking at the camera when you’re not–I didn’t get this to work), and some background effects and creative filters that frankly underwhelm at best and look hideously unnatural at worst. There’s definitely some good cases for on-device AI, but these aren’t those. I’m sure this power will be properly harnessed eventually, but right now, I wouldn’t consider those features as particularly compelling selling points. If the AI features are underwhelming, should that be particularly held against this version of XPS 13? I don’t think so–there’s plenty here to love without it. The performance and efficiency are top notch, especially multicore, with exceptionally long battery life. The OLED screen is nothing short of gorgeous–razor sharp, with glorious contrast, great colors, and plenty of brightness. The screen alone is well worth consideration on its own, and it’s an important part of what makes for a good PC. I think the compelling AI applications will eventually come, but in the meantime, everything else on this laptop is more than sufficient to make it worthy of your consideration. Dell’s built a great machine around this Snapdragon processor.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Oled display
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 4 out of 5 stars

    13" OLED sturdy ARM on Win11 laptop

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    Dell - XPS 13 - Copilot+ PC - 13.4" OLED Touch-Screen Laptop - Snapdragon X Elite w/ Dual Core Boost - 16GB Memory - 512GB SSD – Graphite The Dell XPS-13 Copilot+PC with Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 chipset (12 core Qualcomm Oryon 4.01GHz) and OLED (2880 x 1800) screen (Qualcomm Adreno GPU) is a 23.4-inch laptop that weighs 5.8 lbs. and is ruggedly built. Its design is just like the 2024 Intel version of the XPS 13, but this unit is powered by a 64-bit ARM processor. The all-aluminum chassis is sleek looking, and one opens it up to a zero-lattice keyboard, LED touch function keys, and an all-glass palm rest with a hidden haptic touchpad. This thing is solid with no flex to it. The almost zero clearance bezel and the OLED touchscreen display finish up that Wow look. The model I am using has 16GB of memory, a PCIe 512GB SSD, and that beautiful OLED display. Other options are available at other price points. First off, the keyboard and the LED touch function keys are not haptic, and until the keyboard is activated, you don’t even know they are there. Since there is no feedback, you must physically look at the keys to know what you select. Considering that the function keys in any laptop are unique in their placement and function other than the f1-f2 usage, I didn’t find this to be a show-stopper. The zero-lattice keyboard has large keycaps with a good feel, being light and crisp and with enough travel to make using the keyboard comfortable. There is a CoPilot key for instant access to AI queries. The Haptic touchpad is responsive, quiet, and precise. It would have been nice to have some kind of outline to show where it was exactly, but with long-term use, this may not be a niggling problem. For connectivity, there are two USB 4 type C ports. Both ports can be used for the small power brick connection to deliver power and can be used as a DisplayPort or typical 40Gbps data transfer. For wireless connections, it comes with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. There is no headphone jack (3.5mm audio jack). You might need to consider a USB C hub to flesh out connections if this setup doesn’t suit your style of computing. The 1080P camera works well with infrared features, functions with the Windows Hello facial recognition feature, and is a decent webcam. The Snapdragon NPU (Neural Processing Unit) runs at a reported 40+TOPS (Tera Operations Per second) which is required by Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC specification. At this point the AI features are limited to Live Captions, CoCreator and the enhanced Microsoft Studio Effects. Testing the product with included programs: Cocreator: This is an interesting feature within the Paint program. However, the instructions on how to use it are poor. I had to research it on the web before I fully understood what to do. First, you have to color the canvas for the AI to create something interesting. If you leave it white, the AI makes a pale, washed-out jumbled image. The example created (see attached picture) shows how I colored the canvas in the upper right and then 3 examples of how the AI interpreted the instructions “Girl drawing landscape”. Within the program, you have the opportunity to choose 1 of 6 styles; I have the oil painting and anime styles in this example, along with the option to let the AI decide the style. The images created are quite detailed – but you occasionally get artifacts like the extra arm in the image the AI generated on its own. The drawback I found was that once the AI came up with a composition it did not vary from it and did not offer you any other version. In this case, the location of the girl and the kind of background did not change – nor were you offered anything new. You would have to change the instructions to get anything new. Windows Studio Effects: The instructions do not point you to where you can find this feature, and while the two blur effects are done well – the portrait light makes very little change, and the three creative features don’t really work. Once you choose one of the creative features, you cannot eliminate it – the artifacts it creates will stay in your image. These are the six options the feature gives you: Portrait light – very subtle enhancements of the lighting on your face Portrait blur – a light blur of background excellent job of delineating your head Standard blur – standard blur, excellent job delineating your head with no artifacts Creative filter: Illustrated – added little anime characters in the background – no real change Creative filter: Animated – looked the same as the illustrated version Creative filter: Watercolor - looked the same as the illustrated version Live Captions First, this program was hard to find and understand how to use. I had to search for it on the web to get the instructions, and you have to turn it on each time you want to use it. If you have it on, you can play several files, and it will translate each one, but if you close the file, you have to reset the feature to have it work again. This feature works well with minimal misses in translating the speech (less than 2%). I I tested it with recordings in the following languages: Russian, Mandarin, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Vietnamese. The only drawback was the lag time in translating phrases—this was more noticeable when the individual kept talking. For the most part, it translated all of the phrases, but if the person spoke too quickly, it sometimes skipped over a few words. The computer handled the AI features well, including a program that used AI to upscale a blurry image. There was no real lag time on the AI image creations and only a slight lag time on the language translation program. Conclusions: It is a good productivity machine and performs well under load with lower heat generation and good battery life. I expected more battery life with the snapdragon hardware but I would say it closely compares to a x86 unit. It can get a little warm on your legs with long sessions in performance activities as the cooler air output is at the back of the keyboard right under the monitor. The OLED touch display has an impressive black and Color rendition. I used both my finger and a touch Stylus, and both had good accuracy. They managed to put in four speakers, with two tweeters and two woofers into this small laptop. The unit puts out impressive sound considering the size, with only a slight distortion at maximum volume. Netflix loads and works, and you can’t help but be impressed with the quality of the video on the OLED monitor. Playing a dark movie like Terminator 2 or The New Ghostbusters gives you a smooth movie with brilliant colors and superb blacks. Everything is crisp and clear, with no artifacts or smearing during high-action scenes. Older videos that are not in HDR are still rendered well. The music and sound effects are impressive on the small speakers, but to truly get into things, you will want to hook up some Bluetooth speakers. It does not work as a gamer machine, and there are still some issues with the compatibility of programs at this stage with the ARM processor hardware and the massaged version of Windows 11 (Windows 11 on ARM). I haven’t tried Microsoft Prism Emulator as I have only had this PC for less than a week, but it is something worth looking into for emulating x86 apps on this platform. I would recommend this compact 13 inch, well-built machine. Yep, some software tech needs to catch up, but all in all, it is a nice little laptop, and I look forward to the software improvements that are sure to come out in the near future.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Keyboard
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Laptop Of The Year

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    For the past week, I've been testing the Dell XPS 13 Copilot+ PC with the OLED touchscreen. This is one of the first ARM-based Windows PCs on the market, and overall, it's probably the best all-around laptop I've used this year. When I unboxed the laptop, I could immediately tell I was in for a treat. Inside the box were the laptop, a 9-foot USB-C laptop charger, and some minimal documentation. The only thing missing was a USB-A dongle or hub. Outside of the new processor, the first thing that stands out is the OLED touchscreen. The backlighting is super bright, the picture is extremely clear, text is crisp, and colors are vibrant. The next standout features are the keyboard and trackpad. Typing on this laptop is a dream. Key presses are comfortable, the keyboard backlight is adequate, and the digital function keys work flawlessly. The fully flat trackpad is a marvel of trackpad engineering. It's completely smooth and accurate. Surprisingly, it still clicks when pressing right or left. As for the processor and Microsoft Copilot, they work very well together. If it weren't for the Snapdragon sticker, I wouldn't have known I was working with an ARM-based chip. Copilot is a cool feature. I haven't fully figured it out yet, but it seems to require an internet connection to work. The battery life is fantastic. Normally, an OLED screen would drain a laptop's battery. But on this laptop, it doesn't. I was getting a whopping 10 hours of productivity, and it only took about 45 minutes to fully recharge. With that said, the exceptional battery life, sleek design, and OLED screen make this XPS 13 the best laptop I have used this year. I highly recommend it.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Elegant, fast, efficient and AI Ready w Copilot+

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    As a creator I am always looking for products to help me get things done fast and efficient. And the Dell XPS 13 has exceeded all my expectations. The Dell XPS 13 (model XPS9345-SX12807BLK-PUS) is a premium laptop that combines innovative technology with a sleek design. This model is equipped with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and a spectacular 13.4-inch OLED touchscreen display. And this laptop is powered by the Snapdragon X Elite processor that includes a dual core boost, it gives exceptional performance and efficiency so let me explain further while trying to keep it short. The XPS 13 is powered by the Snapdragon X Elite processor that means that this processor delivers impressive performance, handling multitasking and demanding applications such as editing videos effortlessness. The XPS with Copilot+ was created for AI and it is the most powerful, intelligent and efficient processor created for Windows in its class. The 16GB of RAM ensures smooth operation even when running multiple applications simultaneously and the 512GB SSD provides sufficient storage space and fast data access speeds. And there are other combinations to consider, such as an upgrade to 32 GB and 1000 GB just in case you can use more speed and storage. The XPS 13 is popular for its elegant and uncluttered design. Crafted from machined aluminum and Gorilla Glass 3, it is both tough and lightweight, weighing just 2.6 pounds and measuring 14.8mm in thickness. The sophisticated Graphite finish gives it a modern and professional look. One of the standout features of this model is its 13.4-inch OLED touchscreen display. With a resolution of 3k 2880 x 1800 at 60Hz, the screen with 400 nits of brightness offers vibrant colors, deep blacks, and excellent contrast. The OLED technology ensures true color accuracy and wide viewing angles, making it ideal for creators like myself or professionals and multimedia enthusiasts. The laptop has different connections including 2 USB-C ports, as well as wireless Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. As for the battery life, this is one of the features I like most, the XPS 13 has an impressive battery life, with one charge it has let me work all day even while making it work extra hard. The XPS 13 has a comfortable and quiet keyboard; the seamless large glass touchpad is also amazing, and intuitive touch function row is easy to use, can switch easily and lock it on either row. The Dolby Atmos and 8W quad-speaker design delivers 360 degree spatial rich and immersive audio and with Bluetooth 5.4 I can connect my headphones, earbuds speakers and enjoy even further. Overall, the Dell XPS 13 (model XPS9345-SX12807BLK-PUS) is a premium laptop that not only does it look elegant, it also shines in its performance, and all of its features. The OLED touchscreen, powerful processor, and advanced AI capabilities make it a versatile choice for both professionals and everyday users.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life, Oled display
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    Superior Laptop of my dreams!

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    This Dell XPS 13 is everything you could want in a compact laptop – it feels like a premium piece of equipment. One, the OLED screen, woah, so beautiful, crisp and clear picture. Also, it’s a touch screen – ultra responsive. I really like the track pad, it looks like it doesn’t have one, but it’s there, also ultra responsive. The keyboard feels great under my fingers, nice size, I love the top illuminated buttons, your esc, F keys, etc – it’s a nice new touch. The face recognition is excellent, I haven’t had any issue with it knowing my face quickly. The Snapdragon X Elite processor is amazingly fast. Co-pilot, a new feature for me, I could see this being a rabbit hole! I asked it to write a poem about a 16-year-old cat and it gave a prompt, funny response, and continued prompting me to learn more. It’s very interesting and entertaining. The graphite color is very nice. It’s fairly light weight but does feel substantial. The battery life has been great! This does only have 2 USB-C ports so you may need some additional adapters or dongles, but really, that’s not a big deal. The charging adapter and cable are compact, and it does charge quickly. Overall, this is an amazing laptop and if it’s within your budget you will not be disappointed with it. It’s super smooth, super quick, has all the new features you could want and will be future proof for some time.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 4 out of 5 stars

    Another XPS Windows Laptop with a Snappy Twist

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    Dell makes awesome Windows laptops and have done so for years with their XPS line-up. These laptops are their powerful, thin and light ultra-premium laptops that tend to push the envelope in terms of styling, specs, form and function and the XPS 13 Copilot+ looks just like its predecessors in the linup with nearly identical sleek looks and shape with a dazzling OLED screen and bright backlit keyboard all in a premium aluminum clamshell design. So what's the twist? This Windows laptop is actually running on an ARM CPU. Yep, no x86 from AMD or Intel here. This Snapdragon X Elite is closer to a beefy cell phone or tablet chip than a traditional laptop CPU, which is similar to Apple's approach with their own Apple M silicon for MacBooks. This isn't the first time Microsoft has tried to port Windows to ARM, but it seems like this time (3rd major try), both Microsoft and Qualcomm have put a real effort into making this a good solution that is competitive with Intel/AMD offerings. So Microsoft and Qualcomm are trying to use the NPU, or Neural Processing Unit, as the big differentiator in making this a Copilot+ PC. In simpler terms, this just means this chipset has a dedicated AI processor with a minimum performance level that allows the laptop to process Generative AI requests locally using a pre-packaged model on the laptop without having to reach back out to the cloud to the latest generative AI models that are constantly being trained and updated. This is good and bad. The good part is that you don't risk uploading your data or sensitive info to the cloud to process AI requests and you also don't need a persistent internet connection. You also aren't going to get throttled on free editions of AI like you will using the cloud versions. The downside is you are always going to be limited to older versions of AI and the requests definitely process slower than they do on Cloud instances. In terms of actual usage, I found software support was good for most basic and expected functions, and performance for *supported* applications was also very good. The downside is that Windows is either running apps that are optimized natively for the ARM chip but if no optimization exists, they are running on an x86 to ARM emulator. While the emulator is much better than previous versions in that they allow most apps to "run" the results can vary vastly in terms of performance and stability. I was able to run Office (no surprise given Microsoft's backing), RDP, all major browsers, Outlook mail, and all Windows built-in apps. I wasn't able to really game at all...while launchers and some games would partially load, when it came time to enter the game things would take forever to load and then crash. No Diablo 4 farming for now. Very hit and miss, while an older XPS13 with i7-1068G would at least run it on very low settings at 720p. I couldn't change the resolution in Diablo 4 on this XPS13 which is again, probably why the game actually crashed. This is a FANTASTIC multimedia and movie/show watching laptop with its great battery life, gorgeous OLED display and solid speakers. BT headphones are still recommended for a great flying or travel experience in a light package. A big selling point for this laptop is because it is ARM and designed originally for mobile phones, the laptop has amazing battery life. You can use it all day and the laptop drains slowly. It also doesn't get loud or hot because the Snapdragon SoC (System on a chip) is so efficient. You can quickly close the lid and come back 2 days later and that battery might only be 1% different than when you were using it. That's pretty amazing power gating. Some downsides, I don't love the keyboard on this model XPS13. The keys are all squared up next to each other like chiclets, very similar to older multimedia wireless keyboards. The key caps are all flat, no beveled or raised edges so you don't really get any feeling cues on where the keys end and begin. There isn't a lot of travel and while typing feels OK, I still prefer some of the older models in terms of responsiveness. The top row of keys is capacitive touch and cleverly switch between the multi-function Fn keys and the F keys, the backlight actually changes dynamically when you hit Fn and you can also lock and change the function to multi-function or F keys. The WiFi on the laptop is very fast, WiFi 7 and Qualcomm is a leader in wireless technology. I am really surprised they didn't include a cellular modem. I am actually very disappointed there's no 5G capability (with additional plan) because Qualcomm is a leader here, but that would really set this laptop free as an amazing portable option with 5G connectivity everywhere. I also wish the laptop had more RAM. Apparently the ARM to x86 emulated version of Windows didn't help reduce bloat at all because this laptop uses 11/16GB after literally just booting up. 512GB is also really low storage and I'm not even sure if it can be replaced or increased or of the storage is soldered on. The SSD included is Kioxia which is formerly Toshiba's SSD business and it is pretty slow storage, so an upgrade would be welcome. Lastly, the Copilot+ functionality is not impressive right now. I am hoping it improves later. I had a really hard time trying to edit a picture I uploaded and have Dall-E 3 modify it with AI. Anything chatbot related was super hit or miss and needed additional clarification, where I felt the online versions of Chat GPT seemed more aware and accurate. I don't think this laptop is worth it if Copilot+ is what you are looking to have locally, and as mentioned there are a lot of compatibility issues still. One example is Adobe software suite, I wasn't able to run Photoshop to edit photos but Adobe is promising to update support optimized for Snapdragon X ARM CPUs soon. If you wanted something with great battery life, fast and responsive performance in most Windows apps, a great light portable laptop to watch movies and TV on the go, and something to use for basic productivity and paying the bills etc. then I think this is a good option, but you'll want to consider the upcoming Intel/AMD options with NPUs that support Copilot+ where you'll probably have to decide between app compatibility and battery life.

    I would recommend this to a friend
  • Pros mentioned:
    Battery life
    Tech Insider Network Member

    Rated 4 out of 5 stars

    Nice but not for the AI features

    |
    Tech Insider Network Member
    Posted .
    This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.

    I think Microsoft and Qualcomm could have sold these as ARM based Windows laptops and just touted the increased battery life and efficiency without throwing in the Copilot+ stuff. Because the laptop is pretty nice for a small, well performing laptop that can last a long time without being on a charger, but the AI stuff is pretty underwhelming. Setup is your standard Windows setup. Run through the prompts. There's a point where it asks for some registration information for McAfee which I was thankfully able to skip since I promptly uninstalled that after setup was done. Otherwise, not too much added from a stock Windows install. I was a little sad to see that some of the Dell processes were running in x86 mode instead of having native ARM versions but I'm sure wrinkles like that will get ironed out over time. McAfee was the only thing I found installed by Dell that needed to be uninstalled. The rest were all of the Office and OneNote translation files that for whatever reason always take an eternity to "uninstall", but those come with most Windows setups now a days. Using the system was quite nice. Mostly just because it didn't really feel like an ARM based system. I know Adobe is planning on updating their suite to be optimized for ARM and the Snapdragon in time. It's also not a gaming machine so your results will definitely vary there. This is a transitional time. I think Windows is working well enough on an ARM based processor this time around (after many failed attempts in the past) that it will actually stick around due to it's increased efficiency and battery life. This means all the rough edges of software that doesn't work well under the x86 emulation layer should eventually come out with native ARM binaries (so long as the application in question is still actively developed). For things that are supported, I found that I couldn't tell I wasn't running one of my many other x86 based Windows systems. The hardware here is also quite nice. The machine has a good weight to it. It's not crazy light but it's not going to put any extra strain on your bag when you take it with you. The graphite color looks good. The screen looks really good. Deep blacks. Nice contrast and colors. Probably one of the highlights. The trackpad (I still find it cumbersome to reach out to touch my monitor so I found myself using the trackpad more than anything) is completely hidden in the wrist rest. It's where you would assume it is, so I didn't have any problems with missing it even though I couldn't see it at all. I actually thought it was a nice touch. The keyboard is... I still haven't made a full decision yet. The keys are all completely square and right next to each other. It doesn't feel awful to type on but coming from a mechanical keyboard it takes a bit to get used to. I think it looks really nice. I just don't know if I'm sold on the design yet. I would have probably preferred some bevels and standard looking keys. The function row is also capacitive which I'm really not a fan of. It's cute that the backlights switch from F-keys to Fn keys when you press the Fn button, but I just hate the contrast in how they feel when I'm typing on a tactile keyboard and then press ESC with no feedback. As a developer, I don't press ESC infrequently. Keyboard is probably my least favorite part of this laptop even if I say I'm still on the fence about it. Now the "big" thing that Microsoft is pushing here is the Copilot+ features. I'm just not on bored with any of them except for the live captions. The generative AI features in their present state just aren't that compelling. The standard Copilot button (and key, now) is alright but definitely doesn't feel revolutionary by any stretch. I wouldn't say it outperforms the most current AI chat models out there right now. It works. The dedicated key on the keyboard actually does make me pull it up a little more often. But it's just nothing very special or revolutionary. The Windows Studio Effects aren't very new or crazy. Keeping you in frame feels a little slow and since it's digitally zooming into you, you're losing some image quality. The blurred background just don't feel super useful, especially when you consider the quality of the camera that comes equipped on this laptop (it's not good). The eye contact faker is probably the most useful thing but it still felt subpar. If you load up Paint, you can try out their co-creator features that lets your draw some stuff (this is where the touch screen comes in handy but I'm going to need a stylus or something) and then you tell co-creator what your vision is and it'll transform it into something. You have a creativity slider that 70+ (which is where it starts out) just seems to almost disregard your drawing completely and then anything under 70 just looks like your drawing but with the lines smoothed out or moved slightly. I assume if you feed it good prompts it will probably do a better job but I wasn't able to get anything very useful out of it. You can also use just the standard image generator as well. I'm pretty sure it's using DALL-E 3. You get 50 tokens to spend. I'm not sure how often they regenerate but the fact that you're using tokens tells me this feature is not being done on device. I'm not sure how much of the AI chip is being used for live captions. It's an accessibility feature in my non-copilot+ Windows PCs as well. Maybe the NPU just processes it a bit more efficiently and quicker. But this is probably the most useful of the AI features at the current time. Being able to turn on a YouTube video that doesn't have captions or a Twitch (or other live stream) and just turn on system-wide captions is really awesome. The biggest plus side to the AI chip is the fact that most of the AI stuff is done on your device so you don't have to upload anything to the cloud and all your information stays on your system. While I appreciate that and all, using models that aren't up to par with most sophisticated online models just doesn't make the feature all that useful to me. Would I love to see Microsoft improve these models over time and add more AI features that are actually useful (which still running on your device), of course! I hope they do. For right now, I don't see the AI features getting a ton of use from me. Overall, I like the laptop. Something portable and powerful with a long lasting battery is great for me to take with me to a coffee shop or just my couch without needing to worry about needing the cord an hour or 2 later. I feel like the current offerings are adding a bit of a premium price for being new and bundling the not so useful AI stuff right now so it will be up to you to decide if it's currently worth the price or it fits your budget. But I think it's a good laptop if you're looking for productivity without the wires.

    I would recommend this to a friend

What experts are saying

Powered by alaTest

Rating 4.2 out of 5 stars with 6 reviews

The analysis of all aggregated expert reviews shows that the reviewers are positive about durability, screen, portability and battery. Editors are less positive about price. Using an algorithm based on product age, reviewers ratings history, popularity, product category expertise and other factors, this product gets an alaTest Expert Rating of 95/100 = Excellent quality.
  • TechRadarRating, 4.5 out of 5Allisa James on August 2, 2024

    Dell XPS 13 9345 review: the best XPS 13 everThe Dell XPS 13 9345 is easily the best of the XPS 13 line

    Full Review
  • Laptop MagRating, 4 out of 5Rami Tabari on July 20, 2024

    Dell XPS 13 9345 (Snapdragon X Elite) review: Lighter than air — the MacBook AirRedefining the thin-and-light laptop

    Full Review
  • StuffRating, 4 out of 5Tom Morgan-Freelander on September 9, 2024

    Dell XPS 13 (9345) review: Snapdragon ultraportable lacks substanceIt puts form ahead of function in a few key areas, but the Dell XPS 13 isn't short of desktop power thanks to its Qualcomm internals

    Full Review
  • Tom's HardwareRating, 4.5 out of 5Brandon Hill on July 30, 2024

    Dell XPS 13 (9345) review: Same great looks, now with Snapdragon X EliteDell's sleek XPS 13 paired with Qualcomm's efficient Snapdragon X Elite make for a compelling ultraportable.

    Full Review
  • TechgoonduAlfred Siew on September 12, 2024

    Dell XPS 13 (9345) review: Qualcomm chip to the fore - TechgoonduSporting a Qualcomm X Elite chip. the Dell XPS 13 (9345) performs well in everyday and AI tasks, while offering great battery life.

    Full Review
  • eftm.com.auRating, 3.9 out of 5Scott Plowman on September 11, 2024

    Dell XPS 13 (9345) review: Snapdragon X chipset but continuing the XPS traditionsDell has introduced a new XPS 13 laptop but with a different spin -- a Snapdragon X processor powering it. We've used XPS 13 laptops in the past and have

    Full Review