Though Dell touts the Dell XPS 13 Plus as a premium laptop computer that competes with the Acer Swift 3 OLED we not too long ago reviewed and Apple’s MacBook Air particularly, right here at Digit we do not overview these premium laptops. In our testing classes, they fall beneath skinny and light-weight premium laptops. Whereas these are definitely quick and highly effective machines, and should not have any drawback with most artistic workloads, they cannot compete with devoted artistic laptops like MSI’s Z16P and Gigabyte’s AERO 16, which additionally pack highly effective particular graphics processors to deal with rendering workloads.
That being stated, the Dell XPS line of laptops has persistently been the greatest performer over the years, and the newest Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 is definitely no slouch both. The machine we acquired got here with a Twelfth Gen Intel Core i7-1260P processor, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 1TB of NVMe SSD storage, and an attractive 16:10 4K touchscreen show. For graphics, you have received built-in Intel Iris Xe graphics, and it all is available in a compact bundle that weighs simply over 1.2kg. The specs are definitely improbable on paper, learn on to learn the way the Dell XPS 13 Plus fared in our benchmarks.
Dell XPS 13 Plus – construct and design
Let’s begin first with meeting and design. The brand new Dell XPS 13 Plus just about matches the XPS laptop computer lineup in terms of aesthetics, however the new XPS 13 Plus has some noticeable modifications whenever you open the lid. The very first thing you may discover is the keyboard. Dell has ditched the chiclet-style keyboard and as an alternative makes use of a extra conventional keyboard format; a welcome change in our opinion.
There are no areas between the keys, in addition to conventional operate keys. As an alternative, there’s a capacitive contact panel at the high of the keyboard. The whole width of the case is used for the keyboard, which offers first rate key sizes and an total nice typing expertise. Even with the quick distance, it is in all probability the most gratifying typing expertise on a skinny and light-weight keyboard. The ability button is situated in the higher proper nook of the keyboard, and in addition serves as a fingerprint scanner. Plus, it is slim sufficient that it will not get in the means of your typing.
As for the capacitive operate key pad, it’s situated the place the operate keys would in any other case be and is all the time illuminated. The symbols will present both the particular features related to them, comparable to adjusting brightness, quantity, and so forth., or your common F keys, relying on whether or not you are holding down the Fn key. Nevertheless, we weren’t large followers of the touchpad. We did not see it serve any extra function aside from being a gimmick, and it additionally acted just a little finicky at occasions. We would like keys as an alternative.
Subsequent, we transfer on to the touchpad, which blends completely with the palm space of the Dell XPS 13 Plus and makes use of a single piece of glass. When you’re used to utilizing the touchpad, you should not have any issues, however it may be a bit complicated to inform precisely the place the touchpad begins and ends. Particularly whenever you’re attempting to right-click one thing.
The XPS 13 Plus has an 89 % screen-to-body ratio because of slim bezels; one other level in its favor in terms of development and design.
The general construct of the XPS 13 Plus may be very strong because of its largely aluminum physique, and we did not discover any flex in the base or lid.
Dell XPS 13 Plus – I/O ports, webcam
Over the years, there’s been a pattern in XPS notebooks to ditch ports with every iteration. The brand new XPS 13 Plus solely has two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports; one on both facet and that is it. They ditched the 3.5mm stereo jack and card reader that have been current on the earlier XPS 13. We actually do not perceive why they did that, however we undoubtedly felt the lack of ports when utilizing the XPS. 13 Plus.
The XPS 13 comes with a 720p webcam, which was a little bit of a shock; we anticipated a 1080p sensor. Nonetheless, picture high quality is first rate in good lighting circumstances.
Dell XPS 13 Plus – Show
The XPS 13 Plus incorporates a UHD+ 4K touchscreen show with a 60Hz refresh fee. The show’s claimed brightness is 500 nits, however we received nearer to a peak common brightness of 400 throughout testing.
As for shade accuracy, the Dell XPS 13 Plus achieved 99.9% sRGB protection and 82.2% DCI-P3 protection. Whereas these are good marks, it isn’t the greatest show we have examined, even on this phase. Each the Lenovo Yoga 9i and the Acer Swift 3 OLED scored a lot larger in the show space. Nevertheless, it ought to work properly in your photograph and video creator workloads.
Dell XPS 13 Plus – Efficiency
Since the specs of the XPS 13 Plus are similar to the Lenovo Yoga 9i, we’ll examine the two laptops. The XPS 13 Plus is powered by a top-of-the-line Twelfth-generation Intel Core i7-1260P processor, which is barely barely inferior to the i7-1280P present in the Lenovo Yoga 9i. The benchmark outcomes additionally replicate the similar, however the XPS 13 Plus even manages to outperform the Yoga 9 in some checks. Both means, you may get nice efficiency from the XPS 13 Plus.
PCMark 10
(*13*)
Cinebench R20, R23
7-ZIP
Talking of reminiscence, the XPS 13 Plus and Yoga 9i are geared up with 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM with a clock frequency of 5200 MHz. our outcomes on AIDA64, they are largely very shut, however the Yoga 9i has a slight edge.
AIDA64
As for storage, once more, each of those laptops include 1TB Samsung SSDs, however right here the Dell XPS 13 Plus outperforms the Yoga 9i in virtually each side, as seen in our CrystalDiskMark checks, so you may undoubtedly get an ultra-fast SSD in your cellular creator wants.
CrystalDiskMark
We discovered the Dell XPS 13 Plus to be rather more laggy than the Yoga 9i, and the solely answer could be to place the laptop computer into productiveness mode. Whereas this definitely helps with efficiency, the followers begin to get fairly loud. The laptop computer normally additionally heats up extra, so you must hold this in thoughts.
This was most evident in our artificial GPU checks we ran for built-in graphics. Once more, each laptops include built-in Intel Iris Xe graphics, however the Dell XPS 13 Plus is a little bit of a loser. The scores are nonetheless good, and the presence of two Thunderbolt 4 ports means you need to use an exterior GPU for graphics-intensive workloads.
3DMark
The Dell XPS 13 Plus is definitely considered one of the strongest skinny and light-weight premium laptops we have examined this 12 months, however it’s not the greatest.
Dell XPS 13 Plus – Verdict
The brand new Dell XPS 13 Plus has a number of instantly noticeable modifications in comparison with its predecessors, the first of which is the keyboard. The capacitive touchpad that replaces the operate keys did not really feel prefer it served any extra function, extra like a gimmick. The {hardware} inside the XPS 13 Plus is top-notch, together with the show, and Dell has gone to nice lengths to squeeze extra efficiency out of the XPS 13 Plus, together with a efficiency mode that makes the laptop computer’s followers run sooner (and louder), however it additionally impacts total battery life. We definitely felt an absence of I/O port choices, though the two remaining ports are Thunderbolt 4 ports (which are fairly versatile). General, the Dell XPS 13 Plus remains to be an ideal machine, however it does lack sure elements.
