Dell’s long-awaited XPS 13 2-in-1 is finally right here in our office, packing Intel’s
10th-gen Ice Lake 10nm CPU, which is a huge deal!
And I’ve gotta say that I couldn’t be more impressed by it.
It seems like Dell just went all out on this laptop this year, fixing so many of the issues
we had with the previous XPS 13.
In this review, we’re gonna look at basically everything from build quality, performance,
speakers, display quality, and much more!
But first, A huge Thanks to Intel and Micro Center for Providing us with this Dell XPS.
Micro Center has 25 stores nationwide with an impressive variety of electronics.
From Gaming, VR, computer parts like processors, graphics, and everything else needed to build
a PC.
They also have a huge variety of desktops, laptops, and all the accessories that you
need.
Not only that ebut also highly trained staff and low prices.
Check out a local Micro Center today to get your hands-on a variety of products before
purchasing or use the link below to view the 2019 Dell XPS 2 in 1 at microcenter.com.
It seems like this year, Dell made it their mission to fix the various things that we
had issues with in the past, I’ll explain all of those changes in a minute, but first,
I want to talk about why the new 10nm Ice Lake processor is such a big deal!
Intel usually upgrades their architecture every 2 years, but it’s been 4 years since
the last upgrade, so they’ve been working on 10nm tech for a long time!
And they definitely got it right, with WiFi 6 support, incredibly fast LPDDR4X RAM support,
and upgraded Iris Plus graphics in more of their chips.
The main benefit is that it’s much more efficient, so you’re getting more performance
while using less power and staying cooler than Dell’s recent standard XPS 13 laptop.
So you should see better battery life than on that model, it should feel cooler, and
the dual fans shouldn’t be as loud because of the new vapor chambers and hidden exhaust
venting near the hinge that won’t ever get blocked by your lap.
Compared to the 2017 model, you’ll get about 2 hours better battery life on the Full HD
model.
However, this model has the 4K display, so it definitely won’t get as much battery
life as the Full HD model.
It’s also packing the 4-core 1.5GHz 10nm processor, as well as a massive 32GB of 3733MHz
RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD.
Before we get into the really impressive performance benchmarks, let’s talk about the things
Dell has improved with this new XPS 13 2-in-1.
First off, it’s super compact, with it being impressively thin, light and smaller than
you’d expect from a 13” laptop, especially one with a hinge that can fold all the back.
And when you do use it like that in tablet mode with its touchscreen display, and there
seems to be magnets that hold both sides together nicely.
You can even configure Windows to automatically switch to tablet mode, and then use the optional
pen that can magnetically attach to the side of the XPS.
Build quality is better than its ever been since it’s machined out of a solid piece
of aluminum, just like MacBooks have been for years, which are known for their exceptional
build quality.
You can tell that it’s solid aluminum by looking at the sides of the laptop around
the ports, whereas it used to be plastic with thin aluminum covers.
On the bottom, Dell has added extra vents on the sides, with two of them being used
for the speakers, and they’ve also redesigned some of the air vents so they aren’t as
easily blocked anymore.
Opening it up, the hinge is now a lot easier to open with one hand, but unfortunately,
it gets pretty stiff before it reaches a comfortable viewing angle, so you have to use your other
hand anyway.
Still happy about the improvement, though.
On the inside, Dell chose to cover it with their high quality carbon fiber composite
finish, which protects from fingerprints, and it actually feels really nice on your
palm.
Now looking at the display, you can see why this laptop is so compact.
Not only are the bezels incredibly thin all-around, but the display is using a new 16:10 aspect
ratio, just like we love on our MacBooks, which is great for adding more vertical space
for browsing the web.
This was done by removing the Dell logo from the bottom, which I think makes for a very
clean look, and also relocating the webcam above the display.
With this move, they had to sacrifice Windows Hello, but I think it was well worth it.
Display quality itself is exceptional with more than 4K resolution and great color accuracy
as well.
The keyboard is no longer recessed into the casing as much as it was before, and it now
basically covers the full-width of the laptop, and it now looks incredibly clean.
I love what they did with the fingerprint sensor, switching from a circular power button
design on the standard XPS 13 to a stealthy-look that imitates the keys surrounding it.
The keys themselves are now wider with less space between them, so they’re easier to
accurately type on, and they’re now clickier as well.
There seems to be a bit less key travel this year, but it’s a really good middle-ground
compared to MacBook butterfly keys which noticeably lack depth.
The trackpad actually works and feels pretty nice, so we’re happy about that.
Again, I’d like to mention the new cooling system with a vapor chamber and hidden exhaust
fans to get it cool and quiet.
The down-firing speakers are louder and sound pretty good with very clear vocals, but they’re
still lacking volume.
Just take the iPhone 11 Pro, for example.
While not being as balanced, they’re actually louder than the speakers on this laptop.
***Sound comparison****
The XPS’s speakers definitely sound full and really high quality, but we wish they
were a bit louder.
A big plus is that you can get up to a 1TB NVMe SSD, which now uses 4 lanes, so we’re
seeing improved storage transfer speeds as you’ll see in a moment.
It’s also packing some killer wireless specs, like Bluetooth 5.0 and top-of-the-line WiFi
6, which is basically as future-proof as you can get right now.
As for ports, we still get a microSD card slot, and now we get two Thunderbolt 3 ports
on this year’s 2-in-1, which is nice!
We just wish Dell would have thrown in one or two extra USB-C ports on the more expensive
models.
This year, all of the components are soldered onto the motherboard, which is a downside
for upgradability, but that’s the price you have to pay to get such a thin and light,
premium design.
Now let’s get into performance benchmarks, the most impressive thing about this laptop.
For these, we’ll also toss in numbers from the 2019 XPS 13 9380.
In Geekbench 4’s CPU test, we’re seeing an extremely high single-core score along
with a very impressive multi-core score as well, especially since we know it’s more
efficient than before.
In the graphics test, we also got a pretty high OpenCL score, which isn’t as big of
an improvement as we were expecting, but it’s still really high considering it’s using
integrated graphics and not a dedicated graphics chip.
And then in Cinebench R15, we got a score of 781, which is improved over the XPS 13
9380, but not that big of a deal.
And finally, we tested storage speeds and we’re seeing a good improvement over the
previous XPS, which will help with the overall speed of the system.
The best thing about the new 10th gen processor is that we’re able to get even better performance
in a thinner chassis while getting improved battery life due to the increased efficiency.
This is the fully-loaded model priced at $2700, with a lot of the cost going to the 1TB NVMe
SSD, but it’s awesome that you can get the same exact 10th-gen Ice Lake i7 processor
and Iris Plus graphics on the model that costs $1650.
And that’s the one that we would recommend for most people looking for a premium portable
laptop with the best bang for the buck.
We’ll have links to these laptops down in the description below.
We also didn’t find any downsides with the 2-in-1 hinge, so if you don’t care at all
for using it as a tablet, you can still buy this model and use it like a standard laptop.
And to be completely honest, if you’re in the market for a premium 13” Windows laptop,
the 2019 XPS 13 2-in-1 is the best choice out there, thanks to it being the first laptop
packing the new 10nm Ice Lake processors and great overall quality, delivering a very refined
laptop experience.
If you enjoyed this review, make sure to tap that like button and click the circle above
to subscribe so you can see us compare it to a similarly-priced 13” MacBook Pro.
Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one!