- Hey guys, this is Austin.
This plain-looking box contains one of the most exciting
laptops I've seen in quite a while.
This is the Dell XPS 13.
I really do like the LG Gram.
So, we've already done a full video on this.
What's nice is, is that when I'm at the office,
I can plug it in via USB-C to a monitor and use it
like a desktop for stuff like email and notes.
When I'm on the go, not only does it have some of the best
battery life I've ever tested,
but it's also super lightweight and portable.
That's where the XPS 13 comes in.
(tapping)
(thudding) Ahhhhh.
So the XPS 13 has been around for a couple years now.
But, this is the most recent version.
What makes it really special is that it is one
of the very first laptops to ship with
the eighth generation Intel Core processors.
Now, normally, that doesn't sound like it would be
any kind of huge difference,
but in this case, it means that it's going
to be a lot faster.
At least, I hope so.
One of the nice things about the XPS 13 is that it actually
is made out of aluminum.
I can immediately tell that, while it is definitely a little
bit heavier than the Gram, it feels really substantial.
Pop this guy open, and one of the first things you're
going to see is the fairly large 13.3-inch display
and a very, very small chassis.
So, when the XPS 13 first came out,
this sort of bezel was really impressive.
Now, it's getting a little bit more common,
but it still looks really nice.
The outside of the XPS 13 is all aluminum,
but on the inside it has this carbon fiber finish.
It actually feels pretty good.
It almost feels a little bit more rubbery
than you would expect out of carbon fiber.
But, it's nice and comfortable.
There's also a nice selection of ports.
So, not only do we have our power in,
but we also have a Thunderbolt 3 port,
which you can also use to power the laptop,
a USB 3.0 port, headphone jack,
as well as the battery indicator,
which looks like it's dead, which is cool.
If we flip it over to the other side,
what you're going to find is another USB 3.0 port
as well as a full size SD card reader.
Having that Thunderbolt 3 port is nice,
as not only does it double as a USB-C port,
but you can also do stuff like connect a 4K monitor to it,
accept power in, and in theory, you could connect it
to an external GPU for better gaming performance,
although unfortunately, it only uses two lanes of PCIe,
which means that's probably not going to be a great idea.
It will get bottlenecked.
The display is 13.3 inches with a 1080p resolution,
but it is not a touch screen.
If you want that, you have to upgrade to the 1800p model,
which is a lot more expensive.
Now, I actually like 1080p
as I feel like it's a good sorta sweet spot
between screen resolution as well as battery life,
and this panel is decent.
So, the color is fine,
viewing angles are solid.
However, it just doesn't get quite
as bright as I would like.
The biggest problem with the display is that means
that the webcam has to be put in the left corner,
which means that it looks really weird.
Not only are you looking up at my nose,
but I'm always looking to the side of the laptop.
- Hey guys, this is Austin.
This laptop might have some of
the best battery life in the world.
- And this laptop has pretty decent speakers.
So, one of my issues with the Gram was that the speakers
were a little bit tinny.
However, here, even though they're not front firing,
they come out the sides,
it sounds a lot better.
I also like the keyboard and trackpad.
So, the keyboard has nice spacing, the feel is good,
and it's backlit.
The trackpad uses Windows Precision drivers.
So, no, it's not quite as good as something like
a glass trackpad on a MacBook, but it is right up there.
My only real issue is that to get a touchscreen,
you have to pay another $350,
which to me is kind of hard to justify.
What really makes this new XPS 13 stand out though
are those eighth generation Core processors.
Now, typically, when you go from one processor
to the next as far as generations go,
it's usually not a huge difference.
But with this guy, we're going from dual-core processors
to quad-core.
And in a small, thin, and light laptop like this,
that makes a huge difference.
This XPS 13 is powered by the i7-8550U.
So, the base clock is 1.8 gigahertz,
but it's almost always above that
as you guys will see in a minute.
It can turbo all the way up to four gigahertz.
Now, that's backed up by eight gigabytes of RAM
and a 256 gig NVMe SSD.
Run this guy through Geekbench,
I legitimately had to triple check my results.
Not only is this one of the fastest laptops I've ever tested
as far as single thread performance goes,
but even with multi thread, it is right up there
with high-end Core i7s from gaming laptops of last year.
One thing to keep in mind is that this is still
a 15-watt processor, so for longer, sustained use,
such as gaming or rendering,
you will see the clock speed start to dip.
But, for most stuff like video editing or web browsing,
you're gonna see it be incredibly fast.
Unfortunately, gaming performance doesn't see
the same kind of gains.
So, here on Rocket League, we're getting anywhere
between 40 to 50 frames per second at 720p quality,
which is fine for lighter titles,
but it's really not going to see a major benefit
over something like Skylake or Kaby Lake.
Under normal usage, the laptop is basically silent.
However, once you fire up something like a game
or some video editing, you'll see that the fan does get
a little bit noisy.
Dell claims that you can get 13 hours of battery life
streaming video, and about 22 hours of light usage,
which might be a little bit of an exaggeration,
but with a 60 watt-hour battery, it should absolutely
last you all day.
There is a lot to like with the XPS 13.
So at $1300, I feel like this spec
is a little bit expensive.
However, once you can actually get a Core i5 in this guy,
and especially if they added a more affordable
touchscreen version, this is gonna be hard to beat.
I am really excited to see these new processors roll out
to more and more laptops.
Having this much power in such a thin and light laptop,
honestly is a game changer for me.
So, what do you guys think about the XPS 13,
as well as these new eighth gen processors?
Let me know in the comments below
and I will catch you in the next one.