40 PCWorld JULY 2020REVIEWS THE BEST DELL XPS 13
winner for each, and you can skip to the
section that interests you most by clicking a
link on the left.
Note that this story is based primarily on
the high-end XPS 13 models Dell sent us to
test. We do have some advice for those
looking at lower-cost XPS 13 versions—check
out the budget XPS 13 section for more.ALL THE DELL XPS MODELS
EXPLAINED
There are three Dell XPS 13 models to choose
from at the moment:XPS 13 2-in-1 7390: A fresh start
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 7390 was a complete
redesign. As a convertible, it can function as a
laptop as well as a tablet, or in A-frame “tent”
mode for presentations.
When the XPS 13 2-in-1 7390 debuted in
the fall of 2019, it was the first laptop basedon Intel’s most advanced 10th-gen, 10nm Ice
Lake CPUs, and it was the poster child for the
Intel’s lofty Project Athena (go.pcworld.com/
ioat) aspirations too.
Besides the 360-degree design, it has
pen support, a 16:10 aspect ratio screen,
advanced copper vapor chamber cooling,
and a new MagLev 2 keyboard. It also made a
few hard choices to achieve its thin profile,
such as a soldered-in permanent SSD. The
laptop has been one of the fastest Ice Lake
laptops. Read our full XPS 13 7390 2-in-1
review (go.pcworld.com/xp90).XPS 13 7390: Moving to a six-core CPU
The Dell XPS 13 7390 is essentially an internal
upgrade of the previous XPS 13 9380 (go.
pcworld.com/xp80; remember, the model
numbers make no sense), but it was still a
major change as it moved to Intel’s 6-core
Core i7-10710U CPU over the previousDell’s XPS 13 2-in-1 7390 (left) is slightly heavier than the XPS 13 7390 (right.)