The less glossy my laptop interior is, the happier I am. Something must be said for the all-over use of matte black as well. The backlight is bright, but not overpowering against the all-black keys and keyboard tray. The keyboard is shallow but very pleasant to use, with a soft, clack-free touch. It's not as nice-looking as the all-over smooth body of the Air. Two raised channels allow heat to escape from a bottom vent, but also raise the entire system by a few millimeters. If not for the circular Dell logo replacing the circular Apple logo on the back, you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference with the lid closed. When you pick it up for the first time, it's heavier than you expect.Īnd the comparison to the MacBook Air is an apt one, as this is the most Air-like ultrabook to date, more so even than the Asus Zenbook UX31. Although, with the bigger screen and edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass, it feels dense. It falls right between the 11-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Air. In reality, it's not exactly that compact, but it is a bit smaller than other 13-inch ultrabooks.

Dell claims this is a 13-inch screen in a chassis more like an 11-inch laptop's.

The first thing you notice about the XPS 13 is how small it looks. As it is, it's still in the running, but it's not a blowout win. If the battery life and screen (both image quality and resolution) were better, it could be the best of the current ultrabooks. The backlit keyboard, large touch pad, edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass over the display, and the small footprint all add up to an impressive package. It's not quite a 13-inch laptop in an 11-inch body, but it's in the ballpark. Working in Dell's favor are the system's excellent build quality-the body is a mix of aluminum, magnesium alloy, and carbon fiber-and its smaller footprint. This is Dell's first ultrabook (an Intel designation for laptops with certain specs-essentially a Windows MacBook Air), and even though the company is a little late to that particular game, the XPS 13 nails a lot of what makes for a good ultrabook experience.Īt $999 for a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) and Intel Core i5-2467M CPU, the XPS 13 is reasonably priced, although Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, and others offer similar specs for $100 or so less. The first Very Important Laptop of 2012 has arrived, in the form of the new Dell XPS 13.

Dell xps 13 2012 weight