CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1
The hard drive read and write tests were very good.
PCMARK 7
You can see the individual scores by clicking on each image below.
POWERMARK
Final Thoughts
For Dell’s first step into the world of Ultrabooks, they have done a really good job!
The XPS 13 looks very nice, and sleek, and has a beautiful 1,366×768 screen, which provides extremely clear and sharp images. Dell have managed to deliver the 13” screen onto the XPS without making the lid larger, making it smaller than it’s competitors, including the Apple MacBook Air (see the pictures earlier in the review).
Using it in very light environments (such as outside on a sunny day) gave a fair bit of glare though. Inside was no problem at all.
The keyboard was well spaced and easy to use, and the addition of backlit keys was very useful in low light and dark scenarios.
Battery life was pretty good – with our various tests ranging from a little under 5 and a half hours using testing scenarios in Powermark, all the way up to around 8 hours if we turned everything down or off and only used it for simple tasks. All in all this should give you enough battery life for everyday tasks.
The hard drive was very fast and copy to and from it was quick and painless.
Booting from completely powered off only took a few seconds, and coming back to life after being in standby was almost instant! This is something I really love about the XPS 13, being able to open the lid, do something quickly, and shut the lid again all in the time that some machines take to power up.
We had the Core i5 model for review and it worked great – I would like to see how the i7 compares though. If you just want to do emails, Internet surfing and productivity type tasks, the i5 would probably be fine for your needs. If you want to something more processor intensive, then it’s the i7.
One thing that wasn’t that great was the lack of connectivity. There isn’t a built-in Ethernet port, if you want to use Ethernet then you will have to buy the optional Ethernet dongle (the same as you have to do for the MacBook Air). For most people though using Wireless should be sufficient.
There is a single USB 3.0 port and another USB 2.0 port, a Display Port and a headphone socket. That’s it, nothing else.
Weight wise, the XPS 13 was very light at around 1.4KG, it is also smaller that other similar ultrabooks, as mentioned above.
Prices start from £949, with a number of different configuration options available.
This is certainly a really great bit of kit, but the lack of connectivity and the slightly high price tag for the higher spec model means it just misses out on our Gold Award. However, if you are in the market for a great looking and great performing ultrabook, and you don’t mind the lack of connectivity and the price tag, then definitely consider the Dell XPS 13.
In fact, if the price were to drop, I might even consider replacing my Air one day!
