Dell XPS Thirteen hands-on: A makeover inner and outside

That sounds treasure loads, nonetheless on the skin the XPS Thirteen would not appear to have modified much. Not lower than, no longer whereas you happen to is doubtless to be attempting at the silver/grey version anyway. The rose gold/white edition, though, will carry your glimpse (for higher or worse). While I’m no longer a fan of the new color, I love that Dell chanced on one map to retain it from yellowing or getting stained.

The white XPS Thirteen uses a glass fiber weave with coating to quit discoloration, critically the areas the place your fingers rest. At some level of a recent briefing, a Dell procure confirmed me how marks from a Sharpie were with out issues cleaned off a sample swatch. Basically based fully on the corporate, this successfully repels most substances, nonetheless its kryptonite is mustard and sunscreen. So don’t articulate your computer to the seashore or a hotdog eating contest.

To boot to the new color, the XPS Thirteen additionally sports activities a thinner, lighter invent, now weighing in at 2.sixty seven pounds. That’s virtually featherweight, nonetheless nonetheless the XPS Thirteen has continuously been easy to carry spherical. Collected, we continuously love carrying a lighter load.

While the new XPS Thirteen quiet has the identical awkward webcam placement as its predecessor (at the bottom of the display veil veil), it be been upgraded to an infrared sensor for Windows Whats up toughen. With that, that it’s possible you’ll log into your computer with your face, or by the use of the fingerprint sensor embedded into the energy button. I did not get hang of to check either of these authentication strategies correct thru my demo, though.

Inner, the XPS Thirteen packs a quad-core eighth-expertise Intel processor that Dell says helps the new computer render and encode movies in Adobe Premiere Pro twice as swiftly as the 2015 mannequin. That’s factual one particular check to level how neatly the machine would possibly perhaps perhaps unbiased quiet sort, bear in mind the truth that — your expertise would possibly perhaps perhaps unbiased vary. There is additionally a brand new dual heat pipe and fan cooling machine, as neatly as Gore Thermal insulation covering sure components of the machine treasure the processor and GPU to retain temperatures low.

I did not get hang of to push the XPS Thirteen ample to basically check these efficiency and cooling claims correct thru my briefing, so we will must abet till we get hang of a overview unit. I did treasure the XPS Thirteen’s display veil veil, though. It is surrounded by the most novel version of Dell’s « InfinityEdge » bezel, which is now 23 p.c narrower than the outdated expertise. The border, which used to be barely there sooner than, now looks treasure it be nearly long previous — and the produce is a picture that blends into what’s within the abet of it whereas quiet managing to have a look at titillating and vibrant.

The display veil veil is now accessible up to 4K and helps a brand new suite of technologies called Dell Cinema. This allows HDR playback, Waves Maxx audio enhancements for « studio-quality » sound, as neatly as streaming prioritization to lessen buffer poke. At my hands-on, movies that Dell confirmed did appear to have deeper blacks and higher distinction ratios with the Cinema enhancements applied. It used to be annoying to infer the produce on the computer’s speaker sound quality and streaming bustle within the demo atmosphere, though.

All urged, the new XPS Thirteen feels treasure a neatly timed refresh, given the industry’s pivot to 4K HDR nowadays. It is piquant to retain refining and bettering an already successful product, nonetheless up to now it appears Dell’s most novel has what it takes to are residing up to the pleasing standing it has established with the XPS assortment. It’ll be accessible this day starting up at $1,000/£1,269, treasure its convertible brother.