The following is a 100% authentic, 100% real review. I was not provided complimentary product nor was I compensated in any way for this review.
Dell is one of the leading manufacturers of computers. Among their latest high-end laptops is the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook. The laptop comes with features (hardware, design and performance) that attempt to compete with the top-of-the-line machines in the world of laptops. But how does the Ultrabook stack up?
Design Features
This laptop has been designed to be an “Ultrabook”, meaning that it is very light and compact yet its performance has not been in any way compromised. It weighs 1.356 kilograms, has a slim frame of around 6 to 18 millimeters and its housing is only 13.3”. The Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook comes with smooth sturdy covering made of aluminum makes it to look very crisp and clean. Its base is made of carbon fiber and it has a narrow white power LED which pulses gently when the laptop is on standby mode and its color changes to neon orange as the battery goes down.
Its battery indicator is a pinprick LED lights (5 white). On the right side of the laptop, it has a USB 3.0 port on its right side and a Mini DisplayPort. On the left side, there is a USB 2.0 port, one headset jack, power input jack.
Hardware
The Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Laptop comes with an Intel i5 dual core processor which and be upgraded to i7 dual core. It has a 128 GB hard disk, a dual channel of 4G RAM that is onboard running at 1333MHz, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, and dual-array microphones that are digital on either of the webcam’s sides. The microphone’s quality is good but not great.
It has a soft keyboard and is rather comfortable to use, considering its compact design. It is spill resistant and has a good feedback on presses and inputs. It also has a glass-integrated touchpad.
For connection, the options available are Wi-Fi connection, USB ports, Bluetooth and of course the Mini DisplayPort. The device is also ready for Intel’s Wi-Di (wireless display) and this is a great thing since you can share you display wirelessly with any devices that are compatible to it.
Display
Using the WLED technology to display, the Dell XPS 13 Ultra Book Laptop gives amazing display, which is 13.3” with a resolution of 1366×768. This makes high definition photos and videos to appear perfect. One unfortunate thing on display is that this laptop uses Intel’s HD 3000 GPU and it could have been better off with an AMD or NVIDIA.
Performance and Battery Life
This laptop has great performance because it runs of an Intel i5 Dual Core process clocked at 1.6GHz. It also has a whooping 4GB of the DDR3 (1333MHz) RAM. It loads window’s 7 in less than 14 seconds and all your HD videos and other programs will load instantly and run smoothly. While looping a 1080p high definition video, you can take six hours before recharging the battery.
Conclusion
The Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook laptop is a solid contender in the high-end mobile computing segment. It has a solid build, good battery life and above-average performance. Nothing stellar, but nothing at the bottom of the barrel either. The one thing that we miss is that this top-tier contender does not have an SD card slot.
