Tech Advisor – October 2019

OCTOBER 2019 • TECH ADVISOR 77

BUYING GUIDE

judging coil whine is that it’s often not always the same
from laptop to laptop – some units might have it, while
others won’t. It doesn’t help gauging the problem when
some people can hear it and some can’t, either.
The XPS 13s that we’ve tested over the years haven’t
exhibited coil whine – until now. The Dell XPS 13 9380
emitted a coil whine perceptible in a quiet room. The
whine seemed to emanate from the left side of the
unit, but we should note that it was intermittent and in
anofficeenvironment.Wehadtoputourheadalmost
onthe keyboard to hear it.
Is it something we think you should be concerned
about? Probably not, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t
mention it.

Verdict
Most will dismiss the Dell XPS 13 9380 as a ‘meh’
update.We’dtendtoagree,astheCPUupdateoffers
asmall (albeit real) performance bump. The problem
with that narrative is it ignores the position of the
strength the XPS 13 comes from. The previous model
reigned as most everyone’s top ultra-thin laptop,
including our own – until you got to the webcam
placement. By taking that criticism away, the already-
great Dell XPS 13 9380 is a better laptop.
While the version we’re reviewing today is over the
top with its 4K panel, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, Core
i7-8565U, and Windows Home, you can expect similar
performance in versions with smaller SSDs and lower-
resolution displays. In fact, we’d probably recommend
those first unless you absolutely are set on the 4K
panel. Gordon Mah Ung