The 2019 Dell XPS 13 is more than a minor update if you look closely.
[This is a first-take review and is not comprehensive.]
How about a shot of Whiskey with that laptop? My XPS 13 9380 comes with:
- Intel Core i7 8565U “Whiskey Lake” processor (quad-core, 15 watts)
- 4K (3,840-by-2,160) touch display
- 16GB of LPDDR3 dual channel SDRAM (2133 MHz)
- Samsung 512GB NVMe solid-state drive (PM981).
I’ve just started using the XPS 13 9380. Here are my initial impressions. [This post was updated on Monday February 18, 2019.]
Keyboard*: good tactile feedback and travel when typing. Comparable to HP’s sublime keyboards on its EliteBook line.
Display: Notebookcheck says their XPS 9380 4K display uses a panel from AUO – not a Sharp panel, the latter Dell had been using for years. That’s not a subtle change. (I haven’t been able to verify if my unit has an AUO panel.)
Design: still one of the most compact 13-inch laptops on the planet. And this time Dell squeezes a webcam into the top bezel. It’s more compact than the 2018 MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and even the already-compact HP EliteBook X360 1030 G3.
Materials: The machined skin (on the one I’m using) has a different texture compared to the previous XPS 9370. I prefer the new texture on the 9380.
Color: the new frost white / “platinum silver” color is gorgeous. Beats the MacBook and HP silver exteriors.
Biometric ID / webcam: no more “Windows Hello” Face ID because the webcam has been moved from the bottom to the top of the display, where it belongs. Problem is, there isn’t enough space for the Windows Hello infrared (IR) cameras in the tiny sliver of space on the top bezel. But there’s fingerprint ID, very nicely integrated into the power button.
Performance: The XPS 13′s performance has always been at the high end for a thin-and-light laptop, aka, ultrabook. Notebookcheck has benchmarks that show an XPS 9380 standing up well to the competition with a Whisky Lake Core i5-8265U. My XPS 9380 has the slightly faster Whiskey Lake Core i7 8565U. Also worth noting: the Samsung PM981 SSD (in my unit) is one of the faster solid-state drives shipping in laptops today.
Weight: hasn’ t changed from 2018 at about 2.7 pounds. That’s about the same weight as the 2018 MacBook Air.
Speakers: the 9380 would be virtually perfect if it had better speakers. The speakers fall short of HP’s amazing speaker system on the EliteBook X360 1030 (G3) or the 2018 MacBook Air’s very solid speakers. Problem: the XPS 9380 needs more bass** to keep up with the competition. (I would strongly suggest that Dell address this on future XPS systems.)
Price: starts at $899. But a more realistic starting price is $1,209 with Core i5, 8GB, 256GB of storage, and a FHD (1,920-by-1,080) non-touch display. My unit is priced at about $2,000.
Verdict: Dell keeps refining the XPS 13 and it keeps getting better — there’s no doubt about that. It should definitely be at the very top of anyone’s 13-inch laptop list.
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NOTES:
*Keyboard update: keyboard is actually identical to 9370 (2018). In an earlier version of this post, I was comparing it to an older XPS 13 model.
**Part of the problem is speaker placement — they fire out from the sides of the laptop, not up. So, a lot of the sound goes sideways.
