The flagship Dell laptop is back for 2019, also this season is a return to form to the Dell XPS 13. This top laptop has addressed its most glaring defect, the webcam, whereas creating the battery life considerably longer.

Beyond that, but the Dell XPS 13 has not changed much, rather continuing the lineage of one of the top laptops on earth. However, the new XPS 13 arrives in the middle of a high-end laptop scene that has changed radically in the previous calendar year. So, particularly in the surface of Asus and Huawei's sharp increase, the XPS 13's location in the podium has changed.

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Therefore, although the Dell XPS 13 is not the best laptop on the planet this season, it's still a laptop to conquer 2019.

Price and availability

Dell needs $899 for the starting configuration of this XPS 13 from the US -- just like last time. This cost gives you an 8th-generation Intel Core i3 processor, 4GB of 2,133MHz DDR3 memory and a 128GB PCIe SSD under a 13.3-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) Infinity Edge display.

There are 3 other available configurations, together with the highest-end alternative such as an 8th generation quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory and a 2TB PCIe SSD -- all forcing a 4K (3840 x 2160) touchscreen. This version requires a whopping $2,609.

All configurations can be found in Dell's three colours: silver-on-black, improved gold-on-white along with a fresh frost-on-white scheme. The version that you see configured here will cost a cool $2,549.

In the United Kingdom, the XPS 13 begins at £1,379 to an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD behind a 4K touchscreen; nonetheless, it begins at AU$2,299 at Australia for the very same internals using a Full HD display.

There are loads of configuration options on the market, but you will find far more for US clients than people in the United Kingdom and Australia. However, higher storage choices are secured behind some high cost hikes. However, that does not alter how the Dell XPS 13 remains competitive with powered competitions -- save for the mind boggling worth of this flagship Huawei MateBook X Pro, particularly in the luxury.

Design, display and screen

At first glance, the Dell XPS 13 seems like last year's version, and that is mainly the situation here. But, Dell did not take an'when it is not broke' approach this year, but ultimately solved the laptop's most glaring design flaw: that the webcam is finally over the display.

Dell is very proud of its new 2.25 millimeter webcam, two decades in the making, which isn't just small enough to fit over the display, but utilizes a 720p widescreen sensor paired with four far-field microphones for sparking Cortana or Alexa in a space.

The webcam probably will not blow your head, but we appreciate that the broader framework for shooting co-workers or friends with us more readily. Taking 0.9 megapixel stills and 720p video, you're look locate in encounters, just don't anticipate Twitch broadcaster caliber here.

The build quality and layout language will be exactly like before. The laptop is just as light and thin as last year in 0.46 inches (11.6mm) and 2.7 lbs (1.23kg), respectively. The Dell XPS 13 also sticks to the exact same anodized aluminum screen lid and base, combined with a woven carbon fiber (or glass fiber onto light color versions ) keyboard .

As well as the keyboard itself is equally as punchy and reactive as before, and also the glass-coated touchpad is excellent as ever. This is one of the regions where it really was not broken and is in no need of mending.

The identical lineup of ports is here too, with just two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, 1 USB-C 3.1 port, a micro SD card slot and a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. This is 1 step ahead of several competing laptops, together with lots of using only USB-C 3.1 rather than the exceptional Thunderbolt 3 benchmark.

In terms of the display, in addition, it stays unchanged, and it is equally as rich and vibrant as ever in either the Full HD and 4K touchscreen alternatives; the bezels across the display are nearly non-existent, needless to say.

Particularly in the 4K model analyzed here, we locate that the 100% sRGB colour reproduction through Dell's Cinema Color tools to be excellent, complimented by some popping up HDR methods along with 400 nits of brightness. The 4K panel is quite sharp, but it is still somewhat excessive for a 13.3-inch seeing region.

All told, there was not much that needed to be changed about the XPS 13 design, except for this one miniature elephant in the room.

Performance

As you would anticipate, the XPS 13 of 2019 is slightly greater compared to last year's version in only about every class, especially battery life. A lot of the hardware inside is nigh equal to last year's should not only barely improved.

As an example, the processor inside is simply the most recent iteration on the 8th-generation series of Intel processors, especially the Intel Whisky Lake Core i7-8565U in here in contrast to last year's Kaby Lake R Core i7-8550U. Both processors operate in precisely the exact same frequency, but the newer version is significantly more efficient inside precisely the exact same power profile and so marginally more powerful.

You may observe this in our marginally improved PCMark 8 Geekbench 4 (Single-Core) outcomes, whereas movie performance gains are insignificant at greatest as anticipated. The same as this past year, this version employs the exact same Gore insulation found inside the Mars rover for greater thermal control and consequently more powerful theoretical performance.

This will observe the XPS 13 totally tear through overall computing tasks and upward to deal with a video encoding or spreadsheet search task easily. We had no difficulty running many apps at the same time on the apparatus. However, we can readily see most PC games along with other media-rich professional tasks offering this laptop a run for the money.

Battery life

Dell promises around 12 hours of usage in the 4K version of this XPS 13, derived from a MobileMark 2014 benchmark rating. Meanwhile, the Full HD version lasts around 21 hours at precisely the exact same test. Obviously, our evaluations produced nowhere near the exact amounts, as is anticipated.

But, our tests did reveal a notable rise in battery lifetime year-on-year, especially the neighborhood movie playback benchmark. The XPS 13 lasted almost 3 hours more than the former version in this test.

General usage is going to find an increase in endurance, judging by this laptop's lead to the PCMark 8 Battery standard. In that evaluation, we saw that the 2019 XPS 13 continue for 21 minutes more than the 2018 version -- an 8% increase, all informed.

You still will not find all-day battery life in the 4K Dell XPS 13, but it is vastly improved anyhow, along with the Full HD version will probably get you through the whole work day based on these amounts. However, this really is impressive longevity to get a 4K display.

Software and features

Dell is unsurprisingly light on the exceptional applications front, with only a couple of apps getting pre-installed on the operating system. McAfee or Norton antivirus suites are no longer included instead of a spattering of Dell-made apps.

The most noteworthy of which are Dell Mobile Connect, Dell Update, and Dell Power Manager. The former allows you to join your Android phone or iPhone along with your pc, handling it directly from the Windows 10 interface. Dell Update pulls in new support files straight from Dell when required. Ultimately, Dell Power Manager provides detailed controls for your laptop's battery and power profile which Windows otherwise does not.

As for unique hardware features, the optional fingerprint reader inserted into the power button is sleek and discreet while being rapid sufficient for fast logins. That said, we do favor biometric login through infrared detection, as it is just that much quicker.

General assessment

Dell has now gone and created just about every potential improvement into the XPS 13 in 2019. The webcam is at the proper place and no more in quality for what it took to get there. Even better, the battery lifestyle has witnessed a sizable improvement too.

It has happened all of the while everything else concerning the laptop has kept its storied, amazing quality, in the chassis design to the energy profile of the elements inside. This is precisely the identical laptop as a year ago, just better.

But compared against the present laptop 2018 and in the time of writing, the Huawei MateBook X Pro, the XPS 13 still struggles to compete on value. In other words, it is possible to get far better hardware in most regards for less from their Huawei laptop in both of its accessible configurations. While it is not quite the'Best in Class' laptop for 2019, we nevertheless look at the Dell XPS 13 one of the best laptops on earth.