Dell XPS 13 2019: a flawless ultraportable

Construction

The Dell XPS 13 received the 2019-2020 dev.rankuzz.com Star in the Laptop category at our dev.rankuzz.com Star Event.

From year to year, the XPS 13 evolves little, but always in the right direction. The 2019 vintage thus keeps everything that makes the strength of the range, namely an excellent finish, a chassis mixing aluminum and carbon fiber, and an overall design of great sobriety. The matt treatment on the top of the hood is both pleasant visually and to the touch and only the brand logo disturbs its light gray dress. The model we are testing here is a little different, however, since the interior of the chassis opts for white and, above all, an area around the keyboard in the "honeycomb" style, slightly grainy under the fingers. Exit therefore the very dirty rubber coating of previous generations of XPS 13. We will not complain.

The keyboard is not perfect, but still offers a pleasant typing and you will have no problem typing a long text. The keys are quite small, but the run is relatively long and the return is good. We still regret that it does not occupy the entire width of the chassis and that some keys are really reduced in size. The touchpad is quite small, but responds perfectly and is very pleasant to use.

Connectivity side, we are dealing with "all USB-C", since we take advantage of two Thunderbolt 3 ports (one of which is used for charging) and a USB-C 3.1 port. In addition, there is a mini-jack port and a microSD card reader. Note that Dell provides a USB-C to USB-A adapter in the box.

Finally, be aware that the Dell XPS 13 heats little and, above all, remains very quiet. After an hour of benchmarking under Unigine Heaven, the chassis rises to a maximum of 47.1 ° C at the front, just above the keyboard, and 51.6 ° C under the chassis. The hot spots are also very localized. The ventilation remains very discreet and only a very slight breath is heard, the latter always remaining below 37 dB. It is therefore almost inaudible in a room.

---

---

Screen

The Dell XPS 13 tested here offers a 13.3-inch screen in 16: 9 format. The matte screen used is IPS type and displays a Full HD definition. Very classic features for an ultraportable in this range.

First good point to note: the screen / facade ratio remains impressive, even if it is now overtaken by certain competitors, in particular at Asus or Huawei. The broadband fault in the lower part, which brings the occupancy rate to 87%. A figure that is still very good.

contrast 1555: 1 Delta E 1.7 temperature 6710 K

In general, the screen of the Dell XPS 13 is excellent in all respects, as confirmed by the results of our probe. First of all, there is a particularly good readability, thanks to several good points: the matt slab largely limits reflections, the brightness rises to 413 cd / m² and the contrast ratio reaches 1,555: 1. Enough to work serenely outdoors.

The colorimetry particularly impresses on this screen, since there is an excellent Delta E of 1.7 and a color temperature set at 6,710 K. Recall that the Delta E represents the difference between the actual colors and the colors displayed and that it is considered very good below 3. The color temperature must be as close as possible to 6,500 K in order to benefit from a balanced gray gradient, which does not draw towards blue or towards the Red. The rendering is therefore particularly faithful and balanced here.

The only downside, but whose impact is less for a laptop that is not dedicated to gaming: the high remanence of the screen, measured here at 20 ms.

---

---

Performances

Our test configuration of the Dell XPS 13 is equipped with an Intel Core i7-8565U processor ("Whiskey Lake" generation, 4 cores / 8 threads, frequencies ranging from 1.8 to 4.6 GHz), 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD. Note that the PC is also available in "Core i3-8145U" and "Core i5-8265U" versions.

A rather muscular configuration for an ultraportable and guaranteed to work in very good conditions with a wide variety of applications. Multitasking will not be a problem and you can open several navigation tabs. We thus benefit from a very fluid and responsive Windows 10. This PC remains however little adapted to heavy tasks, such as video editing or very advanced photo editing. Video games are also almost prohibited due to the lack of a dedicated graphics card.

Our power index based on a series of benchmarks (3D calculation, photo editing, audio and video conversion, file compression) reaches the very good score of 89, which places it slightly above most of its competitors equipped with 'an equivalent configuration.

---

---

Mobility / Autonomy

Thanks to its reduced measurements, the Dell XPS 13 is a model of transportability and compactness. It only weighs 1.2 kg for 302 x 199 x 11.6 mm. A perfect travel companion. The charger that accompanies it is also particularly discreet.

Autonomy is particularly good here: our streaming video playback test (Netflix in Chrome, screen brightness at 200 cd / m², headphones plugged in and keyboard backlight off) thus ran for 10 h 52 min before the PC does not shut down. You won't have to worry if you forget to go to work without your charger, you won't need it all day.

---

---

Audio

The speakers of the Dell XPS 13 are trapped on the sides of the chassis and have tiny grilles, which results in a very skimpy sound. Fortunately, the pre-installed Waves MaxxAudioPro software defaults to fairly sound EQ, which significantly improves balance and at least allows voices to be intelligible.

The headphone output is much more convincing and offers a very satisfactory rendering (figures above). We note in particular a high output power, a low distortion as well as an excellent dynamic range. The vast majority of helmets on the market will adapt perfectly. In short, this headphone output makes up for the weaknesses of the speakers and, in general, the minimum service is largely assured.

---

---

Conclusion

The Dell XPS 13 is, once again, one of the best ultraportables on the market. This 2019 edition does not change much, but improves on a few important points: increased autonomy, slight performance gain and less messy chassis. In addition, the screen of this model is one of the most convincing we have ever seen. A safe bet, once again.

---

---