A compact AI-powered Windows laptop

A refreshing design that does compromise a bit on practicality

The laptop has a premium metal unibody design. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

I love the look and feel of the Dell XPS 13, and it has the charm of making almost any other laptop look dated. It not only looks great, but it is also one of the most compact 13-inch laptops, featuring very narrow bezels and a full-metal unibody design. For someone who prefers a MacBook over a Windows laptop any given day, the XPS 13 won me over.

However, the XPS 13 doesn’t come without its share of compromises. With just two USB-C ports, this is the first laptop that I have tested so far that doesn’t even come with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Unlike a MacBook Air, with both USB-C ports on the same side, the XPS 13 has one port on each side, which is definitely a relief, especially for someone like me, who loves to keep the laptop plugged into power and also to an external monitor, where in this case, I took the help of Honeywell USB-C docking station, which also added all the ports that I was missing on this machine, including RJ45 ethernet jack, SD card slot, USB-A ports, and even a VGA port.

If you are coming from a laptop with an extensive I/O, then adjusting to the XPS 13 will take some time. However, if you are already living the dongle life, then you will feel right at home.

Tandem OLED, but on a laptop

The screen on this laptop is bright and colour-accurate. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

Hands down, the Dell XPS 13 has one of the best screens ever featured on a 13-inch laptop, and it uses the latest Tandem OLED technology, similar to that of the latest iPad Pro M4. This multi-layer OLED panel ensures excellent colour reproduction and brightness levels. This is a 13.4-inch 3K (2880 x 1800) resolution touch panel with an anti-reflective coating, offering excellent viewing angles and brightness levels while consuming less power. However, the screen refresh rate on this machine is limited to just 60Hz, and if you want a variant with a 120Hz refresh rate, you have to settle for a regular IPS LCD panel.

From watching movies to making sketches, the OLED panel on the Dell XPS 13 is excellent, especially indoors. With a peak-rated brightness of just 400 nits, this definitely isn’t the brightest screen on a laptop. If you are looking for a compact laptop with a great touch display, the Dell XPS 13 is as good as it gets.

An infinite trackpad and a great keyboard

The trackpad makes this laptop look futuristic. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

What really sets the Dell XPS 13 apart from its contemporaries is its trackpad and keyboard. The trackpad on this machine has no physical borders, which gives it a very futuristic look, and the same also goes for the keyboard, which has very minimal gaps between the keys. While I took a while to get used to this setup, I started enjoying it in just a few days of time. However, I am not a fan of capacitive function keys, and these are as problematic as the discontinued Touch Bar on the Apple MacBook Pro.

An AI-first laptop that works flawlessly

The laptop offers excellent CPU and GPU performance even in battery mode. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

Performance and battery life aren’t an issue on the Dell XPS 13, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite X1E-80100 processor, which is slightly more capable than the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78100, powering the Asus Vivobook S15 Copilot+ PC (review). The laptop also offers up to 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of fast NVMe Gen4 SSD, similar to other laptops of this class.

In terms of performance, despite being smaller than the Asus Vivobook S15 Copilot+ PC, it outperforms it both in CPU and GPU benchmarks. When it comes to everyday usage, it performs as expected, and I did not notice any lag or stutter even when I was testing this machine on the battery. In fact, I got slightly better gaming performance while playing GTA: V with an average FPS of around 80 at 1080p resolution, which is strange but definitely a good thing, especially for gamers who are always on the go.

A dedicated NPU to power AI experiences

The dedicated NPU handles on-device AI tasks. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The Hexagon NPU on the Snapdragon X Elite enables various AI experiences on the Dell XPS 13, including the upcoming Recall feature, which will be available exclusively on the Copilot+ branded PCs. On top of that, apps like Teams can also make use of this AI to generate custom backgrounds during a video call in real time. Co-creator is another app that lets you generate images; however, despite on-device processing, all these features do require an active internet connection.

A laptop that can last all day

The battery can last for more than a day. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

Since I have been testing the Dell XPS 13, it has replaced my work laptop, and can easily last for an entire day on a single charge. While I was not able to replicate Dell’s claim of 16 hours of battery life, in my testing, the device easily lasted for over 8 to 10 hours. This means, I can charge it once and don’t have to worry about battery life for the entire workday.

A powerful and premium Windows laptop

A compact and premium Windows laptop. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The Dell XPS 13 is one of the most premium compact laptops of 2024, which even matches the performance and efficiency of a modern MacBook. Not only that, it has a great display and an excellent set of speakers, and its unique take on the keyboard and trackpad makes it stand out from the crowd. This laptop is not for everyone who just wants a laptop; instead, this machine is for those who value and appreciate premium products with cutting-edge technology.