The fireworks of new laptops at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019 don’t seem to stop at Dell either. Also the extremely compact Dell XPS 13 was presented in Las Vegas in a new edition with updated components and a number of detail improvements.
Weighing only 1.23 kg and measuring 302 x 199 x 7.8 to 11.6 mm, the device is supposed to impress with its combination of extremely good mobility, long battery life and still powerful hardware. Despite the very thin frame of the “InfinityEdge Display”, Dell has succeeded in integrating a webcam above the screen. According to the company, with a diameter of only 2.25 mm it is the most innovative camera in a laptop to date. The almost perfect workmanship and the high-quality materials can still be found in the latest offshoot of the XPS series. The housing is completely CNC milled from a single aluminium block. Despite its low weight and narrow frame, Dell can build an Ultrabook that will not be damaged during frequent transport.
The Dell XPS 13 also incorporates the first technology called “GORE™ Thermal Insulation”, whose thermal conductivity is below that of air. This allows Dell to insulate the notebook and expel heat directly from the components, resulting in a cooler, more powerful system.
Core i7 – 16 GByte RAM and 2 TB SSD
According to its manufacturer, the Dell XPS 13 offers the highest performance in the class of 13-inch ultrabooks in its maximum configuration variant. Only Intel Core processors of the eighth generation are offered, starting with the Core i3 8145U (2 cores, 2.1 GHz clock, 3.9 GHz turbo), the Core i5 8265U (4 cores, 1.6 GHz clock, 3.9 GHz turbo), and the Core i7 8565U (4 cores, 1.8 GHz clock, 4.60 GHz turbo). Dedicated graphics cards are not offered, instead Dell uses the Intel UHD Graphics 620 integrated in the CPUs. The main memory contains between 4 GByte and 16 GByte DDR3. There are no more conventional hard disks with the XPS 13. The configurable SSDs offer between 128 GByte and a maximum of 2 TB storage capacity.
There are also three display versions to choose from, all of which offer one hundred percent coverage of the sRGB color space, HDR, a brightness of 400 cd/m² and a contrast ratio of 1500:1. The standard 13.3 panel offers Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels), alternatively a Full HD display and a 4K display (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) with touch support are available.
According to Dell, the 52 Wh battery that is unfortunately permanently installed should allow a maximum battery life of up to 21 hours. The connection possibilities are relatively large, considering the case size, with two Thunderbolt 3 and one USB 3.1 port as well as a card reader and a jack plug. For an extra charge, a docking station is also available, which is connected via Thunderbolt.
The Ultrabook will be available tomorrow (January 9th) in the first configuration options. The silver case with a wrist-rest made of carbon and the case in rose gold with a wrist-rest made of white glass fiber are offered for the time being. The other colour combinations can be ordered from Dell later in February. The smallest version of the Dell XPS 13 is already available for 899.99 dollars. Since Dell also wants to address professional users such as developers with the notebook, it is also available with pre-installed Ubuntu Linux 18.04 in addition to Windows 10 Home and Pro.
