With both beauty and brawn, Dell’s latest XPS 13 is exactly what I’m looking for in a PC

Dell has been an active player in the computing industry for decades, and over time the company has developed and released a vast array of PCs. The company’s premium XPS series has proven particularly successful in recent years, owing to the line’s focus on high-end build quality, powerful internal components, and quirky-yet-endearing design considerations.

Now, Dell has retooled its unique XPS 13 notebook to include Intel’s latest processing package on the inside — a variant of its Core Ultra Series 2 chip. Is the one-two punch of ‘Intel Inside’ and an unorthodox physical design enough to make the new XPS 13 a winner? I put the laptop through its paces to find out.

Editor’s Choice

Dell XPS 13 (Intel Core Ultra Series 2)

Dell’s latest-generation XPS laptop offers a 13-inch display panel, a touch bar-esque row of function keys, and Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 processor.

Pros & Cons

• Display is silky smooth
• Includes presence sensing tech
• Unique and recognizable design

• Haptic trackpad isn’t the best out there
• Fairly light on port selection
• Capacitive touch function row is an acquired taste

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Price, availability, and specs

As far as premium 13-inch laptops go, the Dell XPS 13 fits right in with its peers. The device is slim and compact, with dimensions of 0.60 x 11.62 x 7.84-inches (15.30 x 295.30 x 199.10 mm). It’s also nice and lightweight, tipping the scales at 2.70 lbs (1.22 kg).

The XPS 13 packs a ton of tech into its svelte chassis, including a 1080p FHD webcam, an IR sensor for facial unlock, dual microphones, 8W quad speakers, a 55Hw battery cell, a large haptic trackpad, a fingerprint sensor, and more. The one compromise here comes in the form of port selection — the device features only two Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C ports, with no headphone jack or SD card reader in sight.

Powering the XPS 13 is one of Intel’s latest-generation notebook processors, the Core Ultra 7 Series 2. The big story with this chipset is that it’s much more efficient at performing general compute tasks when compared with the previous generation offering. Depending on which configuration you spring for, you’ll receive either the 256V variant of the processor, or the more powerful 258V version.

Outfitted with this new Core Ultra 7 Series 2 processor, the Dell XPS 13 is now broadly available for purchase. The base model costs $1,400, and comes with the 256V chip variant, 16 GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and a non-touch FHD+ (1920 x 1200 pixel resolution) display panel.

A more powerful $1,700 version is also available, which ships with the more capable 258V chip, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Finally, a top-of-the-line model can be had for $2,000, which adds a touch-enabled 3K (2880 x 1800 pixel resolution) OLED screen to the mix.

What I liked about the Dell XPS 13

The XPS 13 offers the complete package

Right off the bat, I’d like to commend Dell for its decision to engineer a trend-bucking notebook. There are only so many ways to make a thin-and-light laptop stand out from the crowd, and with the XPS 13, Dell has developed a design language that’s both attractive and non-gaudy.

The device’s large trackpad is seamlessly integrated into the palm rest area, resulting in a clean appearance. Its chiclet keyboard ditches island-style keys in favor of a ‘spaceless’ look, and the function row swaps tactile switches for capacitive buttons that light up.

I was initially concerned that these hardware decisions would result in usability issues, but my fears of a form-over-function scenario were (mostly) unfounded. My hands naturally gravitate towards the trackpad area, making the lack of visual demarcation a non-issue. The keyboard is satisfying to type on, even without the more typical spacing of other notebooks in this class. The capacitive function row, meanwhile, is a bit of a mixed bag — more on that in a bit.

With the Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2 processor at the helm, the XPS 13’s internals are as impressive as its exterior design is. My review unit featured the 256V variant of the chipset, which achieved a Geekbench 6 benchmarking score of 2,552 in single-core and 9,865 in multi-core. These are impressive numbers for such a thin laptop. The product is capable of some heavy workloads, though it’s not designed with intense gaming, 3D rendering, or video editing work in mind.

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More impressive is the sheer efficiency of the processing package: the XPS 13’s fans hardly ever whirl up outside of the installation of Windows Updates, and battery life and standby time are both excellent for a device with x86-based architecture. I regularly get through a day with 20% battery left in the tank, with a moderate workflow consisting of video streaming, word processing, multi-tabbed web browsing, and some light photo editing.

My review unit’s unremarkable FHD+ screen resolution may have also helped out in the stamina department. The 120Hz adaptive refresh rate can cycle down to 30Hz, as well, which can help to squeeze out even more juice. The OLED panel is only available in the highest-end XPS 13 configuration, unfortunately, but the chosen LCD panel in the base model is pleasant and plenty bright at 500 nits at its peak.

I’m a fan of Dell’s decision to include human presence detecting sensors in the XPS 13. This extra bit of hardware is able to detect when you’re at your desk and facing your computer screen, as well as when you’ve left to go brew yet another coffee. I wish all large screened devices offered this feature, as I find it helpful from both a convenience and a security standpoint.

The inclusion of a stealthily hidden fingerprint sensor within the keyboard’s power button might be my favorite aspect of the entire hardware package. The capacitive sensor is fast, responsive, and useful. I do love Windows Hello facial recognition — which the XPS 13 also offers — but I find it to be slow to initiate on any and all Windows 11 devices.

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What I didn’t like about the Dell XPS 13

Some smaller details still need ironing out

As mentioned, the XPS 13’s capacitive keyboard function row took me some time to get used to. The touch-sensitive buttons are perfectly sensitive and accurate to tap on, but the lack of physical feedback never stopped feeling somewhat uncanny. I do wish these buttons offered some sort of haptic feedback, perhaps akin to the device’s motorized trackpad.

Speaking of the trackpad, it’s a fairly decent one overall. It uses haptic feedback to simulate a physical clicking sensation, as opposed to a more typical diving board trackpad solution. The result is a touch surface that can be pressed down equally on all four corners, and a set of software options to adjust the intensity of its tactility.

I firmly believe that haptic trackpads are the way forward in consumer laptops, and I’m happy with the inclusion of one in the XPS 13. That being said, this isn’t the best implementation of the tech that I’ve seen. When compared to the almost magical experience provided by Apple Macs or Microsoft Surface PCs, Dell’s version feels slightly more rattley and hollow by comparison.

My other major hardware gripe comes down to port selection. The two Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C ports are powerful and flexible, to be sure, but I would’ve loved to have seen a third socket fitted in for good measure. When using one of the two ports to charge the device, it leaves only a single additional port for connecting to other I/O accessories.

Then, of course, there’s the AI aspect of the XPS 13. The internal Core Ultra 7 Series 2 chip offers the required minimum of 40+ trillion operations per second (TOPS) to enable Microsoft’s Copilot+ suite of features, though I’ve yet to find many compelling use cases on this front.

A slew of Windows Studio Effects are available, which allow for background blur and automatic facial framing during video calls, but the flagship Windows Recall feature isn’t yet available in stable form for testing.

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Should you buy the Dell XPS 13?

If you’re tired of boring and uninspired laptop designs, then the XPS 13 is your antidote

In the vast and dynamic world of Windows PCs, Dell has continually made a name for itself with its unique hardware designs, its experimental nature, and its wholehearted embrace of Intel. The XPS 13, then, is an exemplar of the company’s ethos.

As one of the first notebooks to adopt Intel’s second-generation Core Ultra chips, the Dell XPS benefits greatly from major efficiency gains, without sacrificing performance in the process. The XPS offers enough headroom for moderately taxing workloads, without overbearing fan noise or the pain of having to rush to a power outlet at midday.

While keeping both power and efficiency metrics reined in, Dell has also managed to deliver a package that looks and feels wholly unique. The sleekly hidden touchpad, as well as the capacitive touch function row, are quirky design considerations. They certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste, and the latter takes a while to acclimate to, but I personally can’t get enough of these elements when put together into a single, coherent package.

This device was provided to Pocket-lint by Dell.

Editor’s Choice

Dell XPS 13 (Intel Core Ultra Series 2)