Dell XPS 13 reviewed: a win for portability

Taking your work to go is the domain of the 13 inch laptop, and in the latest XPS 13, Dell is making Snapdragon work well for Windows in your day to day.

Working from anywhere you want is one of today’s modern joys many of us can take for granted. Thanks to improvements in computing hardware and power, nearly anyone who relies on a computer to do their day-to-day job can do so from any computer, and any laptop can let you work from anywhere, as well.

Of course, laptops come in all sorts of sizes and weights, with screens ranging from 10 inches to 17 and higher, but the focus is typically always the same: total portability with maximum power for the size and a battery that keeps on keepin’ on.

In the past few years, that goal is hitting its stride, no doubt thanks to all the hardware improvements. Bigger batteries, better processors, and so on all lead to the major changes in laptops.

This year, we could be seeing one of the more intriguing blends around, as the one of the leading makers of mobile hardware lends its expertise to laptops, as well. A change from the usual assortment of Intel and AMD, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon in PCs is finding a middle ground for high-end hardware optimised for mobility.

And Dell’s 2024 XPS 13 is all about that, as it taps the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite for a thin, light, and properly portable take on computing you can take anywhere.

Design

With a design reminiscent of the rest of the Dell XPS line, the XPS 13 offers a sleek, slim, and small take on what a laptop can be.

The casing is aluminium and built to be lightweight, helping the laptop achieve a roughly 1.19kg weight dependent on the option you get. And when you open the laptop, it’s as minimalist as the look of the machine.

No space is wasted. Your keyboard stretches from each edge, and the screen is mostly the same, save for a slim black bezels encasing the display on all sides. No Dell logo, no extras.

You can’t even see your trackpad, thanks in part to Dell fading it into the wrist pad. You’ll know where it is — the same place it has always been: under the space bar. But that doesn’t matter.

The look of the XPS 13 is pure minimalism. It’s a professional grey laptop that still manages to look different from everything else out there.

It’s the same, but different in about the best way possible.

Features

Underneath, it is different, thanks in part to the use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite under the hood. That alone makes it distinct from the Intel Core Ultra models around, with the memory set to a minimum of 16GB in the range, but arriving in 32GB for our review model.

You’ll see a minimum of 512GB of storage (which was what ours came with) and Windows 11 Home out of the box, though you can opt for Pro if you so choose.

Physical port options are limited — two USB-C ports for the entire machine and that’s it — while wireless is covered using 802.11/a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, making it fast across all of the current standards.

You’ll also find four speakers, a Full HD camera, an infrared camera used for facial security and a fingerprint reader in Windows Hello, and a glass trackpad hidden in the wrist-pad.

Display

There’s also the screen, and there’s where you have a choice.

Our review model included the 13.4 inch Full HD+ 1920×1200 120Hz variant without touch, though depending on how much you want to spend, there’s also an option of a touch-sensitive 2880×1800 13.4 inch display for a little more oomph.

Protecting either is a layer of Corning’s scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass, giving you a sense of durability screens aren’t always imparted with.

Durability aside, the display was bright enough and clear, and the display was one of the “anti-glare” varieties, making it quite easy to look at even with the sunlight behind us. There’s a little bit of glare, truth be told, but we could see it all.

In-use

A large keyboard helps you get stuck into what you’re doing, and given the specs, it should be pretty clear that “productivity” is what this laptop is focused for. The big keyboard and lack of a discrete graphics are key to that.

Interestingly, the keyboard is just that little bit bigger than it feels it needs to be. The keys are large and spacious, but unlike most island-key setups, there’s no framing. This can make the keyboard feel both spacious and cramped at times, simply because some keys initially feel bigger than they should.

It’s a bit of a vibe, but the good news is you get over it fairly quickly. After a small adjustment to how you type, you can quickly get comfortable with the slightly larger tray of the XPS, and focus on where that trackpad is.

Where is that trackpad, you ask? It’s hidden as part of the design in the wrist pad, just below the space bar where you’d expect it to be.

Initially, it too is a bit of a way with messing with your head, but like the keyboard adjustments, it won’t take long for the teething issue to be sorted and for your mouse position to return to its regularly scheduled program.

Performance

Power the XPS 13 9345 on and the system snaps to attention with a speed we’ve not seen from a PC in quite some time. Most PCs are fast, sure. This PC is always ready.

Bring it out of standby and it is ready for you to login and do your work. No wait, no fuss. It’s great.

Testing the hardware sees the Snapdragon X Elite inside hold its own, delivering perfectly fine CPU performance, even compared with some of the Intel Core Ultra laptops we’ve seen this year. It doesn’t quite have the edge on graphics performance, something that’s not a total surprise, but it handles regular work day activities well.

We spent our time with the laptop typing and working and emailing and web surfing, and it’s definitely suited for those activities, though folks who want to do some graphics and games may want to look to Dell’s slightly bigger sibling, the XPS 14, and its dedicated graphics chip.

Battery

Whatever you choose to use the XPS 13 for, you should find a relatively decent battery life waiting for you, provided you keep to that vibe of “work” and “productivity”.

Testing with our regular work — writing, emails, the regular rigamarole — we found a battery life ranging from 10 to 14 hours, which isn’t bad at all. It’s not quite the 18 possible from the M3 MacBook Air, but the 14 isn’t too far off. A formidable result, for sure.

Dell has also made the power pack worth carrying around, thanks in part to what looks like a use of gallium nitride. Sporting a truly compact 60 watt charger, the XPS 13 9345 only really asks you to carry the three-prong cable and a long USB-C extra, cables that could also be used to charge your phone these days.

The compact power brick design isn’t quite as clever as the plug on an Apple laptop — who really wants to carry an extra cable for the wall?! — but it’s a lot better than other laptop makers, too. Plus the tiny size of the 60W charger is a welcome change.

Value

At $2098 in Australia for the 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD option, Dell’s XPS 13 is actually priced quite well, competing with the obvious contender from Apple in an almost identical way.

While the M3 MacBook Air starts at $1799, that’s for the 256GB and 8GB RAM option. The model that competes with the 512GB XPS 13 is a 512GB/8GB Air, and it carries a nearly identical $2099 price, albeit with less RAM.

Our review 2024 XPS 13 was set up with 32GB RAM and 1TB storage, and that’s found for $2197, barely a hundred dollars more for double the memory and space.

That puts the Dell XPS 13 on pretty solid footing for value, even if Dell does miss out in the sub-$2K starting price. Minor issue, all the same. There’s acceptable value for what Dell is delivering. It’s even clearer value than the similar 14 inch Snapdragon model from HP, the $2599 OmniBook X 14.

What needs work?

Credit to Dell where it’s due, there is a lot about the Snapdragon Dell XPS 13 to fall in love with. The screen is nice, the keyboard is great, and the design is minimalist but light enough that you’re not going to notice much of anything that’s missing.

One thing that is, however, is the 3.5mm headset port, and it’s omission is a bit of a first for us in laptop reviews. Tablets haven’t seen the headphone port for a while — iPad Air and iPad Pro, we’re looking at you — but laptops always see it. Even Apple hasn’t dropped it.

Dell has, however, with no 3.5mm port on the XPS 13 9345, likely suggesting you bring your own wireless earphones. There are plenty of wireless earphones out there and a few wireless headphones to pick from, as well, so it’s not a major loss, but definitely worth noting.

Especially when there are also only two USB-C ports on the XPS 13 9345. That’s one on each side, ideally covering power and something else.

You can break out a USB-C port with an accessory, say a port replicator, and having the ports on either side means you’re not going to cover them up with the accessory, but the low number of ports is worth a mention all the same.

What we loved

Despite these points, there isn’t much to hate about the Snapdragon Dell XPS 13. On the other hand, there’s plenty to love, it seems.

The size, the weight, the design, and even the long battery life.

Could the keyboard feel a little better spaced? Sure. We’ve never seen a caps lock or shift key as big as these before, but it’s difficult to fault beyond this.

Would the function keys feel better with some haptic or tactile feedback? One hundred percent, but you’re not going to be leaning in and prodding the escape key as much as the rest of the solid keyboard, so it’s a minor issue in the grand scheme of things.

Overall, it’s the balance of everything that makes the XPS 13 so brilliant. For the sake of portability, Dell has focused on perfection. And it has managed to do it while keeping the size down beautifully.

Compare the XPS 13 to the M3 MacBook Air 13, and you’ll find two similarly sized laptops, but Dell has the upperhand in terms of shaving those millimetres off.

We can actually sit the Dell inside the Apple and see the borders of the latter. It’s impressive for sure.

Final thoughts (TLDR)

Compact laptops are always a bit of a gamble, largely because they’re about compromise. What do you sacrifice in the process?

Do you use a less impressive screen, or do you sacrifice capability? Can you live without an abundance of ports, and is battery life going to take a hit due to that slim and svelte size?

These are all questions that matter when you weigh up most compact laptops, but not with Dell’s Snapdragon XPS 13. Out of these, the only one that really feels relevant is the port number, and these days, it’s more or less the norm anyway.

Built with a choice of great screens, capable performance, and a beautiful slim and light style, the Dell XPS 13 is a win for portability in today’s world.

Tiny and mighty, this is easily one of the best notebooks of 2024. It’s such a lovely laptop, we don’t want to give it back. Highly recommended.