Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook | Review

Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook | Review

When Late Steve jobs Launched Macbook Air, conjuring it Magically from a Letter Envelope, Windows OEM Manufacturers felt an earthquake in their Market. After much hardwork and Time, Windows OEM manufacturers with the help of Intel have finally brought a Competitor to Macbook Air. They chose to Name it ‘ Ultrabook ‘. The Same way as Samsung Note lies in between Tablet and Smartphone but better than both and worse than both in many aspects, Ultrabooks are something in between Tablet and Laptop, which also has Pros and Cons attached to them.

Dell Stepped into Ultrabook Market to challenge Apple and other OEM manufacture like  Zenbook UX31 or the Acer Aspire S3 with XPS 13. Dell XPS 13 is the Smallest 13 inch Ultrabook in the Market. Lets see What it has to Offer.

Packaging of Dell XPS 13

Dell XPS comes in Black Box which makes the ultrabook seem huge. But once opened, there is another simple, minimalist dual Tone Flap Box in which lies the Ultrabook. The Charger is huge when compared to Ultrabook. There are paper Manuals and CDs provided with XPS 13. Although XPS 13 doesn’t has any CD reader.

Hardware

Dell XPS 13 offers core i5 with  128 GB , 256 GB SSD and core i7 with 256GB SSD all three configs with 4GB RAM.
Dell XPS 13 has 3 variants

• i5, 128 GB SSD, 4GB RAM
• i5, 256 GB SSD, 4GB RAM
• i7, 256 GB SSD, 4GB RAM

Since, Ultrabooks are challenging Macbook Air, they seem to share similar Design. Dell tried in every aspect to Clone Macbook Air without trying to literally Copy Macbook Air.  Dell XPS 13‘s Design is inspired from MAcbook Air like many other ultrabooks in the market. Dell still has many difference from Air. The Base of XPS 13 is made of Carbon which gives it a Royal feel plus sturdiness and it also helps to separate the  Heat of Book from your Lap. The top is made of Aluminium with Dell Logo embossed in the center like all dell laptops. The aluminium does its work by not taking any Fingerprint. Inside, Keyboard is Painted with smooth touch paint aka rubber paint and also the keys are slightly curved which are backlighted which are one of the Best aspect of XPS 13. The Carbon Fibre and The Paint on keyboard do a Decent job keeping the Heat of ultrabook away from your Hands and Lap.

Ports are comprised of a Power, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Stereo/ Audio Jack, a mini Display Port. There’s no port to attach your wired Internet Connection via Ethernet Adapter, Nor is any Sd card Reader or DVD/CD reader. A five-dot LED battery life gauge on the right, with a button to turn it on which displays Battery Level. Speaking of LEDs, there’s a tiny LED bar up front that serves as a power (white), sleep (pulsing white) and low battery (pulsing orange) indicator.

One more thing I Liked about XPS 13 is that it has no regulatory symbols and the Windows product key or any type of Tacky Desk Stickers. You will only Required details about laptop under a Locking Metal Flop on the Bottom Center of XPS 13.

Performance of Ultrabook by Dell

The Laptop took Boot up time ranging from 17 secs to 25 secs in different Instants. So on an Average, it took 19 secs for the laptop to boot in. It rose from sleep in a flick of secs. It never seems the Laptop sleeps, but the Indicator I meant above does inform you about ultrabook’s State.

An Intel Core i5-2467M CPU with 4 GB RAM and a 128 GB SSD claims to speed up tasks, which sets it apart from ordinary laptops. Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit has been provided with the device, in addition to a host of other software. McAfee SecurityCenter comes preinstalled to protect against viruses and malware.
The Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU is not meant for gaming, but it doesn’t disappoint with its multimedia performance because it can effortlessly play even 1080p movies without stuttering.It can handle almost every computing task with ease. It gets a bit warm when stressed for a few minutes, but nothing that will cook your thighs. The ventilation due to carbon fibre at the bottom is adequate to dissipate heat.

The speaker quality is surprisingly good for such constrained dimensions, and we found it to be much better than most laptops I had used thus far.

Battery Life of Dell XPS

One of the most important aspects of any portable device is its battery life. The XPS 13 comes with a 6-cell, 47 Wh battery, which lasted a little over 5 hours of normal use. We also ran the Battery Eaterbenchmark in the Classic and Reader mode. The ultrabook lasted for 1 hour 56 minutes in the former and 5 hours 36 minutes in the latter. This puts it in the same league as many of the laptops in our earlier tests. Charging the ultrabook completely takes a little over 3 hours, and the total electricity consumption for this is 0.06 kWh.

Pros

• Excellent look, feel, and build quality
• Surprisingly good keyboard
• Decent Speakers

Cons

• touchy trackpad
• mediocre display

Conclusion / Verdict of Dell XPS 13

The Dell’s XPS 13 surely justifies the name as Ultrabook. It does its work, and Entertains you when Required. Although the Lappy is more intended to Workaholic person’s rather than entertainment, because of the Viewing angles of LCD.
If we forgive the shortness of LCD and few ports, Dell XPS 13 is the Best Ultrabook in the Market. With the tag of Best comes a big Price Tag and it Proves to be one of the pricy ultrabook.