24 OCTOBER2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE392
IT’SQUICKLYAPPARENTthaat,
yet again, Dell has created a
wonderful laptop in the new XPP
13,aswasthecasewiththe 2019
model(Shopper376)andseverralannual
modelsbeforethat.Highlyporttable,
comfortable to use,fast enough formost
tasks: the XPS 13 is all this and more,even if
Dell has bumped up the pricinggatad.
Pricesstartat£1,099,butwweetteesstteeddaa
higher £1,599 spec, containing an Intel Core
i7-1065G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a512GB
SSD,along with the Full HD+non-touch
displayoption. Youcan go fora4K
touchscreen instead, but you can expect to
payupto£1,699 forthe privilege.
Physically,there isn’t much difference
between the 2020 Dell XPS 13 and last year’s
model. Dimensions have been trimmed very
slightly –it’safew millimetres narrower and a
handful of grams lighter –but nothing that
would stop you in your tracks.
The port layout and selection has
changed abit,however. Whereasthe 2019
model included three USB Type-C ports, this
version has only two,although at least both
of these are Thunderbolt 3-enabled. The
handy LED battery gauge has disappeared,
too, leaving only the microSD slot and
3.5mm headset jack.
HELLOTHERE
Open up the laptop and you’ll see there have
been anumber of other minor physical
changes, some good, some bad. The keyboard
now stretches right to the edges of the
chassis, leaving amere 6mm of plastic on
either side.The new rectangular power
button/fingerprint reader now resides where
the Deletekey used to be,shunting the latter
acentimetre or so to the left.
DELL XPS13(2020)
★★★★★
£1,599•Fromwwww.dell.com
VERDICT
ThelatestinalonglineofplusshWindows 10
laptops,thenewXPS 13 exudeesquality
WINDOWS 10 ULTRAPORTABLE
face-recognition y
leavessomethingtobedesired,butthe
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major upgrades balance out cutbacks such
as the number of ports.
Other than the Deletekey,the rest of the
keyboard is sensibly laid out. The Shift, Tab,
Backspace and Enter keys are all in their right
and proper places, they’re nice and big, and
there are no other nasty surprises.
And, as ever,the typing feel of the Dell
XPS 13 (2020)’s keyboard is second to none.
Although there isn’t ahuge amount of travel,
you get loads of positive feedback, and every
time you press akey it’s accompanied by a
satisfying thunk. The touchpad is just as
good, with asilkysurface that delivers
precise cursor control.
THE BRIGHTANDTHE BOLD
Regardless of whether you opt forthe
1,920x1,200 displayorthe 3,840x2,400
touchscreen, both adopt asquarer 16:10
aspect ratio,which is better forreading and
working than the 16:9 of the 2019 design. We
can also attest that the cheaper option looks
splendid: like the Samsung Galaxy Book Ion
(page 16), it’s farbrighter than most laptops,
peaking at 572cd/m^2 ,and ahighcontrast
ratio of 1,777:1 ensures images on the screen
have plenty of presence.
Colour performance is excellent, too,
achieving 97.9% sRGB gamut coverage and
alow average delta-E of 1.4, signalling
most professional-quality accuracy.
ematt finish also helps see off any
ections from overhead lights, and that
hbrightness can repel glare when using
XPS 13 outside as well.
Asitusually does each year,Dell has
nsitioned quickly to the latest generation
ntel CPUs, followingupits first10th-gen
resh in late2019 with another set of
h-gen CPUs. Youhaveachoice of two
Uswith the 2020 Dell XPS 13: the 1GHz
ad-core Core i5-1035G1 and the 1.3GHz
ad-core Core i7-1065G7.
The Core i7,paired with 16GB of RAM,
tainly makes foranippy little laptop: it
red 103 in our 4K benchmarks, putting it
onequal(moreorless)footingasthesuperb
LenovoYogaC940(Shopper 387 ).
IIttssiinntteeggrraatteeddIInntteellIIrriissPPlluussGGrraapphhiiccssaarree
even toughenough to run some lower-
intensity games at decent frame rates. Dirt
Showdown produced asmooth 58fps, albeit
with High quality settings instead of Ultra.
More recent AAA games will seriously
struggle,however.
The 512GB SSD also managed avery high
sequential read speed of 2,640MB/s, though
writespeed couldn’t keep up,only reaching
1,214MB/s. The Core i5-powered Galaxy Book
Ion might have lower core CPU performance,
but its storage speed is much better balanced.
HOWMUCH LONGER
The Samsung also outlasted the new XPS 13
in our battery test, with Dell’s laptop lasting
10h 50m to the Galaxy Book Ion’s 13h 3m.
To be sure,anything over 10 hours is avery
fine showing indeed; Samsung’s incredible
achievement simply overshadows it.
The same could be said of these two
laptops on the whole.Even if it’s lost aport,
the XPS13largely improves on what was
already aconsistently excellent ultraportable
formula –and yet, the Galaxy Book Ion, with
its greater longevity,lower weight, wider
range of connectivity and more accessible
price,has stolen the limelight. Still, thereare
worse problems than having two fantastic
laptops to choose from.
JonathanBray
SPECIFICATIONS
Windowsoverall
Multitasking
Battery life
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
Seepage82for performance details
PROCESSORQuad-core1.3GHzIntel Core i7-1065G7•
RAM16GB•DIMENSIONS296x199x14.8mm•WEIGHT
1.2kg•SCREEN SIZE13.4in•SCREEN RESOLUTION
1,920x1,200•GRAPHICSADAPTORIntelIris Plus Graphics•
TOTAL STORAGE512GBSSD•OPERATINGSYSTEM
Windows10Home•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILS
http://www.dell.com•PART CODEcnx93002sc
10h50m
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