PC World - USA (2020-02)

42 PCWorld FEBRUARY 2020

REVIEWS DELL XPS 13 2-IN-1 VS. HP SPECTRE X360 13

Both companies recently

released new models, so it’s

time to pit Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1

7390 against HP’s 5th-gen

Spectre x360 13t in an epic

battle, which we’ll recount

blow by blow as we talk

specs, features, performance,

and more.

SPECS

On specs, both rivals are very

similar. Both are based on

Intel’s new 10nm, 10th-Core

i7-1065G7 chip. The RAM is similar, too, with

LPDDR4X/3733 in both. The Dell does,

however, offer a higher optional maximum of

32GB of LPDDR4X.

Both have 4K screen options, so there’s a

tie. The technologies differ, though: IPS with

the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, and AMOLED with the

HP Spectre x360 13t.

The only internal spec that varies is

storage. Our XPS 13 2-in-1 7390 features a

Kioxia BG4 TLC SSD NVMe PCIe drive. If

you’ve never heard of Kioxia, it’s just the new

name for Toshiba. Our Spectre x360 13t

featured an Intel Optane H10 drive, an option

sold at Best Buy at the 512GB capacity. Both

laptops offer larger capacities on their

websites, but the Dell stops at 1TB, while HP

offers up to a 2TB NVMe PCIe drive.

You can argue the merits of the

technologies and the capacities, but we’re

going to declare this a tie, as each has specs

the other doesn’t offer.

Winner: Tie

STORAGE

There’s more to the storage story on these

laptops, what you might call two schools of

thought, so we’re giving it a dedicated

category.

Dell’s storage philosophy with the XPS 13

2-in-1 suggests that consumers are willing to

think of their laptops as phones. Because 99

percent of users never replace SSDs, Dell

solders it in place and takes the dividends to

make the laptop thinner and smaller. Indeed,

between the two laptops, the Dell is thinner

by about 1.5mm to 2mm.

HP, on the other hand, sticks with the

tried-and-true M.2 standard for storage,

though it’s not meant to be upgraded by

Dell (left); HP (right).