The gadgets’ market space is continuously experiencing a large influx of multimedia notebooks. Speaking of powerful notebooks, the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook with a Core i7 processor stands out as one of the latest powerful notebooks which can simply be described as good-looking, compact and highly mobile .
Display.
The dell XPS features a built-in resolution of 3200 × 1800 pixels as it is equipped with a glossy 13.3 inch display. It has a contrast ratio of 9281:1 and a brightness of about 231.1 cd/m2 compared to its identical model XPS 13-9343 Touchscreen Ultrabook with Core i5 which has a contrast of 2063:1 and an average brightness of 371.9 cd/m2.
Besides, dell has fortified XPS 13 with the IPS panel, making it easy to read from whatever angle, but with the 3.63 DeltaE deviation it lacks the ideal value of less than three making the display free from any bluish tints with a low maximum brightness and, thus, not suitable for outdoor use.
Framework.
Dell has designed the XPS 13 with features with silver and black color combination. The case which weighs 1.3 kg has sharper pointed corners which has been widely praised to look great. The carbon fiber has been traded for a single piece of curved aluminum to counterpart the lid, giving it a grander resistance to flex and twisting, with an amazing rigidity. This notebook also boasts of an excellent torsion resistance thanks to the display lid which also offers decent fortification against rear pressure.
Connectivity.
Despite the fact that it lacks the Ethernet and HDMI ports, XPS has the multipurpose mini-Display Port that can convert to HDMI, VGA or DVI; two USB 3.0 ports with powershare; SD card reader; charging port on the left side and Kensington Lock.
Input devices.
The basic input devices are the keyboard, touchpad and touchscreen. For the keyboard, the layout of the keys is superb with good spacing for speedy and sensibly perfect typing devoid of much of a transitional period. The touchscreen and the touchpad functions accurately.
Performance.
System performance.
Even though the higher pixel count of the display gives it 2719 points on the PC Mark 8 bench results, reducing the resolution to full-HD gives it about 3140 points.
For the PC Mark Benchmark tests, this notebook records powerful system performance which works smoothly and quickly by booting fast, courtesy of the powerful processor and the fast Solid State Disk.
Processor.
With the Intel Core i7-5500u dual core CPU, XPS 13 shows processor speeds of 2.9 – 3.0 GHz and 2.7 – 2.8 GHz for single and multi-thread respectively. The processor has a core speed of 2.4 GHz but the turbo can overclock both cores to 2.9 GHz. The turbo is constantly on the go irrespective of whether the note book is running on battery or plugged in.
Gaming performance.
With the dual channel RAM and HD Graphics 5500, the XPS 13 is able to support games at a lower resolution graphics settings with higher frame rates of +20% without stutters or lags.
GPU performance.
XPS 13 has showed best results on the 3D benchmark tests compared to other notebooks, thanks to the GPU which reaches speeds of up to 950 MHz and supports DirectX 11.2; and the HD Graphics 5500 that access the dual-channel RAM.
Storage devices.
XPS 13 comes fortified with the Samsung Solid State Disk that uses the M2 format making changing the drive possible. It has a raw size of 256 GB with user’s 200 GB.
Emissions.
The XPS 13 is almost inaudible when idle as the fun stops spinning when the notebook is idle. When running the notebook records 43.2 dB for the stress test.
For the heat emission, only one part of the framework close to the fan records a temperature of 40 degrees C.
Power consumption and battery run time.
XPS 13 has proven to use more power when under full load and records a relatively high power consumption of 7 to 11 watts when idle.
According to a WLAN test in power saver mode and a display brightness of 150 cd/m2, this notebook goes for 7 hours and 1 minute.
Verdict.
The XPS has an overall good performance compared to other notebooks in the market space. The well controlled temperature, brilliant chassis, good input devices and the marvelous system performance are worth mentioning. With the lack of the Ethernet and HDMI port and the disappointing QHD+ display, however, many business users and outdoor users may get discouraged.
Image Credit: cbsistatic.com
