Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here
And this is a review of the brand new XPS 13 for 2018. So this thing's been redesigned
It's got a fresh new look, and the original XPS 13
Or I should say the previous generation of XPS 13, that style has been around since 2015
It's been around for a while. The design has gotten a little bit old
And they finally refreshed the whole thing, so this thing now comes in a new design
It's thinner, it's lighter and it's significantly smaller than the previous generation
I think it's something like 24 percent smaller than the previous generation
which is very noticeable
See, on camera, or just, if you look at it on pictures and stuff like that, you can't really tell
But when you hold it in person, especially when you are comparing it
with the old one, right beside it,
it's a very noticeable difference. In weight and in size.
And I think it's a really nice looking device.
So, one of the best things about the XPS lineup is that they don't copy MacBooks.
They just kinda make their own thing.
And it's distinctly, a very XPS-looking machine
and I think it looks quite good.
The big change though in terms the aesthetics is this new glass fiber weave
And it looks awesome so, the original XPS 13 and 15
had this black carbon fiber material. That looks really good
Honestly, I think this looks better, so the one difference though
is that this material is, it doesn't have that rubber finish that
the XPS 13 and 15 had from last generation. It was almost like a soft touch material
This feels just kind of like a regular-
I want to say plastic, it's not plastic,
but it feels kind of like a smoother and harder finish
which isn't as inviting to use. It's more of a technical material
But it does look really good
Now, this material does have some kind of stain resistance to it
I tried putting some pen on it. It doesn't stain, like you can just wipe it off pretty easily
It's supposed to look fresh, and it does. I think it looks really really good
So they've matched the white interior with a rose gold metal for the top surface
They call it rose gold, but it's much less pink
than a lot of rose gold materials from other companies
And I'm rocking a dbrand skin on mine because seriously,
this looks super fly. Marble top, gold trim, white interior. I mean
This is fresh AF!
One of the few complaints ahead about the previous XPS 13 was the power supply
So this finally uses a USB-C port to charge it
I know the old one could use USB-C, but it included a barrel plug as like the AC adapter
I like USB-C much more for 2018
Now, the rest of the USB ports are all USB-C as well
And they have a microSD. I like the USB-C's
and they include an adapter for USB-A connections, but I don't love the microSD slot
I feel like it's something that not a lot of people will use, but it is there in case you want it
Now, in terms of the Thunderbolt 3 ports, they support four lanes of PCIe
And it's something that bothered some people with the previous generation
They only supported two lanes of PCIe for external GPU connections. Now you get all four
The webcam on this laptop has been updated and now supports Windows Hello for secure logins
Now, it's still located at the bottom so the camera looks up your nose
and the image quality isn't amazing or anything, it's kind of your standard webcam for an ultrabook,
but, it does keep the bezels really thin
One thing, I don't like though is that, the white trim, like on the white model
That black camera cut out is a bit of an eyesore
So if you don't use your camera very often
or if you just want a more secure camera thing,
you can get some privacy stickers from dbrand, cover it up and it looks a lot cleaner.
The bezels on the previous XPS 13 are already really thin
These are even thinner, I think it's like 23% thinner
It's just a more immersive experience when you're using this screen
The screen itself is covered in Gorilla Glass 4
And I'm running a 1080p panel, and it's bright with decent color accuracy
It does come in a new 4K panel with a hundred percent sRGB
if you need something for color accurate work
Now the performance on this thing is good as you expect because it's 8th gen CPU
For multi-core applications, these 8th gen CPUs can fly. I tried to run Intel XTU on this laptop
It does throttle. it's kind of expected considering the size and everything on this laptop
But I had big dreams. So the thermals on this system have been changed
So this is now running a new thermal management thing called Gore thermal material,
and I'm not sure exactly what it is
But it's supposed to be some advanced material that they use in space programs and stuff
It's a good thermal solution
But it's not amazing like, if you're hoping to go full turbo
on all four cores for an extended period of time,
It's not going to happen. It will throttle
The good thing is that the fans are really quiet on idle and on full load
Gaming performance isn't amazing
It's running an Intel UHD 620
So we're gonna get some pretty mediocre frame rates
unless you're playing some really light games
The keyboard feels really similar to the previous generation to me
It's a little bit different visually like the keys are a little bit larger and
the layout's changed a bit. Page Up, Page Down have their own keys
But the typing experience feels really similar to the old one
I think a lot of people will enjoy using this keyboard
The trackpad is... I think it's identical, I mean
They might be using the exact same one
It feels good. Windows Precision, glass surface. It's a good trackpad
Okay, let's take a look at the internals
It's a fast drive, PM961, user-replaceable. The Wi-Fi card looks to be built on board
But it can run the Intel 8265 so if you want a good Wi-Fi card, I'd go with that one
The battery is 52 watts. It's smaller than before, the previous generation had a 60 watt battery,
but remember, it's a smaller chassis
You kind of expect it to have a smaller battery as well
But the good thing is though, the battery life is still really, really good
I'm getting around 11 hours of battery life on this thing with the screen at 250 nits
Alright, the speakers
They're mounted on the side, so they're positioned reasonably well,
I prefer them to be kind of on the keyboard facing up
But this is a decent location. It does have new software
But I feel like the actual audio quality and clarity sounds
pretty much exactly the same as the previous generation
which is good, but not great
The coil whines, so people that are interested whether or not this thing has coil whine
I have one unit, it's review unit so... this unit did not have it
But the responsible thing for me to say is that I can't tell yet
I feel like I would need hundreds of XPS 13's
to be able to tell you whether or not this thing has an issue or not
but this particular unit did not have it
Overall, great laptop. I think that Dell did a really good job this year, and honestly,
There's so little to dislike about this thing,
but there's one thing I want to get off my chest. This was a redesign
They had an opportunity to make something
completely brand new in aesthetics and in appearance
And they went with something that is just-
it feels too familiar to the old one, so the old one
was a good design, but if you didn't know that this was a new version
and you had the black version, particularly like the black and silver version of this
You wouldn't be able to tell immediately that it was a new version,
there was a new updated version of the XPS 13
because it looks so similar. It is thinner, smaller, lighter, all that stuff
But... I mean, you could've done something crazy, Dell!
You could've made something like completely fresh
Now, I know Dell's a more conservative company
They're kind of like business oriented, enterprise oriented, so I get it,
But me personally, I would love to see something
Just completely different, visually
But it's a fantastic product. If you're looking for a thin and light laptop,
this thing should be near the top of the list.
Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video!
Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it!
See you guys next time!