Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
Dell XPS 13(2018)

Finally, the laptop that dominated “best of” lists of laptop for three years gets a makeover. The pioneer laptop manufacturer Dell is back with Dell XPS 13 2018 ultrabook. Every time Dell came with its range of XPS ultrabook, we’ve always heaped praises for it and there are many reasons for it.This range is a gorgeous and capable machines- with an ability to leave users awestruck! Once again Dell’s XPS 13 continues this tradition of excellence but there are some things missing -that Wow factor- the one which may hurt its users.So, here’s a detailed review of Dell XPS 13(2018).

Dell XPS13 is an easy to carry ultrabook which comes with i7-8550U. It is a well-known laptop and firstly, came out 4 years ago.The good part is they have been upgrading it since then. As usual, this time too it comes with a great 13-inch screen, near-less or thin bezels which they call infinity edge display-23% better than the last time. This laptop has been a very good competitor in the ultrabook market. It’s a very thin, light and powerful laptop packed with an 8th gen i7 quad-core processor- a perfect competitor to premium ultrabooks available in the market.

Now let’s talk about its build quality. The hinges used are very stiff and is sometimes tough to carry.It looks like a high-end machine- all thanks to its sleek aluminum case and rock solid build quality.This time Dell tried to make it more fashionable by adding a white interior to its rose-gold case but that doesn’t grab any attention of the users and many found it “cheap-looking”.The use of special woven-glass-fiber palm rest feels a bit comfortable and the company also claims it is also stain-resistant. This is a very thin laptop and very solid for its size but I am actually getting bored of its design, it’s not bad at all but it hasn’t changed since its first launch.So that turns out to be a bit monotonous for most of the users!

The display of the new XPS 13 is up to the mark and comes in two options- a 1080p display and a quad HD display option. The thin bezels make the machine look more attractive- machinery love at first sight! The 720p webcam is located at the bottom of its screen-a bit towards the center and you cannot expect a good camera on these thin bezels. So no rough comments on that! It is also equipped with four far-field microphones which makes it a bit convenient for the user to shout commands at Cortana, or smoothly chat with friends over Skype.

The port selection is not changed, a sigh of relief as it was already perfect. It comes with Thunderbolt 3 port but it has one limitation i.e., it is running only two PCIe lanes so when you’re using an external GPU: you don’t get the full bandwidth and for a laptop running an 8th generation CPU you must have 4 PCIe lanes(at least). But once again the same is not used by most of the users so can be ignored for the time being.

As discussed earlier, Dell XPS 13 comes with i7-8550U and coupled with Intel integrated UHD 620 graphics. A very powerful CPU and gives around 30% more performance than its previous generation- something impressive. This might be sad for the hardcore gamers but GPU is integrated so you should not expect more from it. You can play well-optimized games such as CS: Go, Overwatch etc on it but only on low-resolution settings and only for a moderate duration. You can use an external GPU but again you don’t get full bandwidth.So anyone in love with the design of the laptop but is looking for the gaming laptop, this isn’t my personal recommendation.

The battery life of this laptop is pretty amazing as compared to its previous versions and other ultrabooks available in the market. It offers a battery life of 10 hours roughly. Something that can be added to the pros list.

The keyboard provided is still a joy to type on, thanks to the 1.3 mm travel distance maintained between the keys! The touchpad also works fine and is up to the mark.

Now, talking about the pricing XPS 13 starts at $999 with an 8th gen Core i5 CPU along with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.Something decent! But I would personally recommend going for the $1,200 model at least, which has 8GB of RAM and a faster 256GB SSD. This ultra-portable notebook is surely a direct competitor to the Apple’s MacBook Pro which starts at $1300.

Final word, it is a very good looking ultrabook for its price point, it’s thin and light look makes it a wise choice. It also performed very well for moderate use but it’s definitely not built for gaming or high performance.