Dell XPS 13 (Q1 2013) Ultrabook Review: What a Difference 1080p Makes
by Dustin Sklavos on March 21, 2013 5:00 AM ESTSystem Performance
Jarred has been heavily revising our notebook/ultrabook benchmarking suite for 2013, essentially lining up our tests with the convergence between tablets and notebooks and allowing for more direct comparison (as discussed here). This is a good thing moving forward, but unfortunately means that good comparison points between notebooks are presently a bit few and far between. I've included information on the 2012 model where possible, though, so you can see how the generational difference has impacted the XPS 13.
Despite operating at roughly the same clocks, the Ivy Bridge i5-3337U runs absolutely roughshod on last generation's high end i7-2637M. Additionally, the HD 4000 in the i5-3337U is DirectX 11 capable where the HD 3000 was not, allowing us to run 3DMark11.
What's also interesting and helpful is to note the difference between the current high end ULV part, the i7-3517U and the i5-3337U. Or, more accurately, the lack thereof. The XPS 13 can be upgraded to an i7-3537U (another 100MHz clock jump), but as you can see it's an exceedingly incremental improvement and not worth spending money for.
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Exelius - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
At least on my MacBook Air, I nearly constantly bump up into the 8GB RAM limitations. All I really need to have open are Xcode, VMWare Fusion and a few Chrome windows.jeffkro - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
I agree, If you are going to do that level of intense work you will want a nice 22"+ 1080p monitor, full keyboard, and a mouse. This is why I don't think desktop computing will disappear, we will probably loose the big tower but not everything else.jeffkro - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
PS this is also why metro will stink for productivity. You can't have a large monitor with multiple windows spread out on it. MS is going to shut this crowd out.jeffkro - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
The life of a laptop is a few years, buy, use, forget about it.frozentundra123456 - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
Would be nice if the price was 900.00. At this price, one could get a windows tablet and a conventional laptop for heavier use. Or you could get a nice gaming laptop. Or a MacBook Air.For someone on the go though, like a student, I could see paying the price. Wonder what battery life is like?
retrospooty - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
I got to play with one of these for a day setting it up for one of our users... REally great laptop in every way except the screen. The res was great at 1080p, but still a crappy screen. Like most Dell internal LCD's it was too dim even at max brightness and the colors were washed out. IT looked like a TN panel to me.Brunnis - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
I thought the same thing when my colleague got his the other day. Both him and me were appalled by the horribly low brightness. We tried maxing the brightness on the laptop, in Windows power management settings and in another location (don't remember exactly where). It wasn't until we entered the advanced settings for the power scheme and disabled a power saving setting under the monitor section that we got full brightness. And boy is it bright! It's considerably brighter than my Mac Book Air at max.Comparing the colors to a 27" Dell U2713HM, the XPS 13 looks excellent as well. So, no, this is definitely not a crappy display.
Death666Angel - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
Did you read the article? This thing achieves 477cd/m² which is nearly enough to operate in full sunlight. It also says that by default the option for the adaptive brightness is on. If you don't disable that in the energy options, you will not be able to get the real brightness. *facepalm*retrospooty - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
chill out man. I did all that and had it at absolute max brightness in the driver as well as power settings and and the physical controls on the keyboard and it was still shitty. Maybe an anomaly.ghm3 - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
"Windows 8 64-bit SP1"That was fast... Isn't this due in August or something? (which is still less than a year...)