Dell XPS 13 (Intel Lunar Lake) Review: Out with a theme

The Dell XPS 13 was the best laptop from the high -light Windows computer you can get, with amazing building quality, good battery life, and choosing a decent port (and at the end, a service camera that can be served). but It reached its climax in 2020 The slide has been since then. I got OLED screen options The battery lifetime floats. Then there was Re -designing puzzle This made the keyboard and tracking panel and choosing the port worse, associated with Gen Intel chips, the twelfth stage, so Still It was a bad battery, and Very hot running.

The new Intel Lunar Lake fixes some of these problems, but improving performance and the beautiful OLED screen cannot compensate for the defective design. With sponge keyboard, embarrassing function row, trivial ports, this laptop is very frustrated for use – sad SEDOFF for the name XPS that was transferred once.

Dell XPS 13 (model 9350), which was released in late 2024, is the x86 counterpart Snapdragon x Elite version that we tested last summer. It starts from $ 1,399 for CPU Intel Core Ultra 7 256V (Lunar Lake), 16 GB RAM, 512 GB NVME SSD, and 13.4 -inch inch 1920 x 1200 with update up to 120 Hz. The $ 1,699 audit unit contains a touch screen of 60 Hz 4K, Oled, but is identical to the basic model.

This is a large -scale OLED screen that is largely the largest highlight of XPS 13. It is very sharp with the original 2880 x 1800, its colors and contrast incredibly burdened. The maximum of 400 brightness networks with HDR (I measured 455 reunions in my review unit) is sufficient to be useless abroad in all the most direct direct sunlight, and because it maintains exceptional contrast even when they are assembled. It is definitely worth $ 300.

The quality of construction and elegant design of this laptop is really another. At a price of 2.7 pounds, he got a little weight for its built -in size, and feels that it is strong without elasticity or raying even if you put pressure on its main surface or cover. The 1080p web camera is also a nice upgrade, making a sharp image (although it lacks the privacy cover). But the new XPS 13 is what is inside: an Intel processor that connects the battery life needle and performance. The battery life was a real challenge on the XPS of the previous generation, but the eight cores of Lunar Lake 256V (four performance / four efficiency cores) really advanced. It offers energy when he can easily, through eight to 10 hours filled with dozens of open and active chrome tabs, cross video call or recession, and write documents. More than twelve hours lasted in our battery -ending test.

This is not effective in power like M3 MacBook AirAnd that will make you through part of The second day From working before you have to connect it. It has not been aimed for a long time ago like the ARM version of XPS 13 with the Snapdragon X Elite processor, which lasted for more than 15 and a half hours in the battery -threatening test. But it is a significant improvement in previous models (and with the OLED screen, no less). Five years have passed since we saw Intel XPS 13 lasts longer than seven hoursAnd OLED models that we tested 2021 and 2022 Reduce it to five hours. But in order to be fair to Dell, the exciting battery life of Windows from that era was mostly due to the deficiencies in Intel’s deficiencies 12th And 13 general treatments.

In terms of performance, the Core Ultra 7 256V of XPS 13 feels annoying-even while multiple tasks around applications spread across three virtual desktops. Its standard degrees are close to other laptops that we have experienced, like the biggest Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition And Acer Swift 14 AI. In a single core standards, it speeds up like Snapdragon x Elite X1E80100 in ARM XPS 13 and AMD Ryzen Ai 9 Hx370 in Asus’ Zenbook S 16. He cannot keep up with Snapdragon or Ryzen chips in multiple standards, but both CPUs of 12 Cores; 256V has eight. A part of me is always famous for more strength and more nuclei, but I used the moon lake through a few thin laptops and different lighting at this stage, and it is completely good.

Intel ARC 140V graphics is almost not good like Radeon 890M in AMD chip, but the new XPS 13 can play some modern games. in Heldivers 2, At low -resolution graphics settings and 1920 x 1200 accuracy, average tire rates reached 40 frames per second, although sometimes in low thirties during the feverish moments. One player game like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle It was a little better – in the range of 50 frames per second with dynamic resolution scaling, although he had a lot of screening without activating Vsync. (Remember, people, this is a highly productive laptop, so even the smallest ingenuity of games is a bonus.)

Good battery life, solid performance and great screen are a large part of the battle. Unfortunately, they are in the wrong laptop. If Dell is only stuck with The design it was using late in 2023This could have been a great laptop. Instead, XPS 13 suffers from a re -design keyboard XPS 13 plus in 2022 and It was completely brought to the XPS line in 2024.

First: the cursed keyboard. Planning without a gap and spring keys feel that it makes work more difficult. Me, no Want To write on this thing. My fingers often feel lost, my writing flow, and make more typographical errors than usual.

Then there is the capacity of the capacity. No physical notes are made when pressed, and here there is an escape key. It is strange that you have to look down or search for a blind person every time you want to use one of the jobs there, especially with these spring material keys. It is attractive like writing on a wood board.

This keyboard was bad in 2022, and it should have been left for death when Dell cut 13 Plus. There are much better laptop keyboards, on MacBooks and laptops alike. I liked the feeling of writing from Lenovo Yoga Slim 7I And different Asus Zephyrus Poor computers games I used. Even separate keyboard cover Asus Rog Flow Z13 It is more satisfied to write.

The simple, non -welded tracking plate looks thorny and cold, but it is not overly consistent and sensitive, and additional / additional clicks are often recorded when I quickly transfer the click or click and withdraw. It is disappointment, especially since I am the best haptic tracking panels. This is one of being good, but there Better examples elsewhere.

XPS still has only one USB-C port on the left and one on the right. At least they are Thunderbolt 4, but this still seems to be an old Apple chase – by years, before you return Apple Magsafe to MacBook Air. XPS does not even serve the headphone socket. Apple has never bend over the lowest level in its MacBooks devices, not even in the Jony Ive -over-Ever-Ever. It gives a lower way to overcome the CRAPPY XPS 13, which barely has any end. (Yes, there is Bluetooth, or you can use USB-C headphones, but remember-only two outlets. The head, and the microSD opening. At this time, it is still on the chips of the old Meteor Lake and is likely not to be updated.

With the Lunar Lake, Dell did a good job in fixing the main palaces such as battery life, performance and thermal design – although this has a greater relationship to forming defects in its previous chips more than anything Dell. The OLED screen is amazing. But it is not sufficient to compensate for the absence of ports or unpleasant functional description keyboard to use.

XPS 13 was the best alternative to MacBook Air Windows. If Dell simply holds the Lunar Lake Slides Group and the OLED screen in the same structure you used 2022 xps 13It will remain in running. As, Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition It is a good option, unless you depend on programs that do not work yet with Windows on Arm. Asus’ Zenbook A14 and Lenovo’s Thinkpad X9 Both seem to shoot directly at MacBook Air. And of course, there Next M4 MacBook Air itself.

This is likely to be the last XPS 13, and it may be a great Swan song. But Dell chose to intervene with a working design, just like choosing to replace its long commercial brands such as XPS, Lattude, and Precision with Unacarent general names such as Dell Plus and Dell Pro Max Premium. These imitation mistakes are tragic farewell to the XPS line, which, at least, is always worth attention. Does anyone pay attention to the Dell installment?

Photography Antonio C. De Bendito / The Forge