The XPS was already a really good ultrabook. But in 2020, Dell completely revamped the XPS 13 and made it even better. Here’s what changed: The display, the keyboard, the processor, the design. . . basically everything you care about has been improved. You’ll want to seriously consider the XPS 13 if you’re in the market for an ultrabook.
Once again the Thuums team poured through all the YouTube content on the Dell XPS 13 for 2020 and compiled the top experts’ opinions to make your shopping experience quicker, easier and more informed. Read on, watch and enjoy!
The Design / Chassis
The experts loved the look and feel of the new XPS 13. It’s thin, it’s light and it just looks good. You can get it in Frost white with the composite fiber palmrest or in Platinum silver with the black carbon fiber palmrest. Either is great but the silver is recommended because the backlit keyboard lights up better on the silver. White seems to wash out the backlighting a bit but really it’s no big deal if you love white.
It comes with two Thunderbolt 3 ports (one on each side), a headphone jack and a microSD card reader. Some people may complain that there aren’t more ports. This really isn’t an issue for most people but if you’re someone who is going to plugin a bunch of external devices, you can always purchase a dongle to get more ports. But for those who are using the XPS as it’s meant to be used, an ultrabook, 2 ports should be enough.
As for size and weight it comes in at .58” thick and 2.6lbs. If you upgrade to the touchscreen model, it will be 2.8lbs. And this is great considering it’s built out of machined aluminum which makes it a super durable laptop. In fact, Lisa from MobileTechReview describes it as “being built like a tank.”
Lisa Talking About the Build Quality
Another design feature to take note of is that you can now open the 2020 XPS 13 with one hand thanks to the redesigned hinge. While you can open it with one hand, the new hinge is strong and rigid like you’d hope and even when using the touchscreen the screen doesn’t move around. Again, a great new design feature. Well done Dell!
The Display
The Dell XPS 13 comes standard with a 1920×1200 full HD, infinity edge display. There are two upgrade options. If you’d like you can upgrade to a touch display which could be useful depending on how you use your laptop. The other option is to upgrade to a 4K display. Whatever you choose, you can be confident that you’ll have beautiful colors, brightness and contrast.
Another fantastic improvement is the change to aspect ratio. Dell changed the screen from a 16:9 aspect ratio to 16:10. This may not seem like a big deal but the increased size is enough to make the experience noticeably better. Dell got the extra screen size by reducing the bezel, which is almost non-existent. How small the bezel is comes to life when you compare it to the the MacBook, which looks huge in comparison. Hardware Canucks echoes our opinion saying that “the screen is stunning and an engineering marvel”. The display has beautiful colors, brightness and contrast.
Hardware Canucks Summing Thoughts on the Display
Another improvement related to the screen is the webcam placement. Dell was able to move the camera to the top of the screen to the position most of us would expect. The camera is still just 720p which is just about the only thing we can find about this laptop to complain about.
Keyboard
Dell also redesigned the keyboard and again, this is a big improvement over last year’s model. The keys are good size. They have good travel and a nice feel. It’s a really comfortable keyboard to work on. Matthew Moniz raved about the keyboard as well saying that “Dell always makes the best keyboard decks.”
Matthew Moniz on the New Keyboard
The redesigned keyboard also created space so that the trackpad could be enlarged. The extra size is nice and the accuracy and responsiveness of the trackpad is very nice. The keyboard also has a power button that doubles as a fingerprint ID for security.
Speakers
While most laptops manufacturers have been ignoring or destroying the quality of speakers on laptops, the Dell XPS 13 has really nice speakers. Are they as good as the speakers in the MacBook Pro? No. But they will not disappoint you with their sound quality. To hear the difference between last year’s XPS, this year’s XPS and the MacBook, take a look at the sound comparison David Lee did.
David Lee Compares the Speakers to the MacBook Pro
Battery
The battery is a 4-Cell Battery, 52 Whr battery. Battery life comparisons in real life can always be interesting because so many things can impact a test. Nonetheless, the new XPS 13 has outstanding battery life. Depending on what you’re doing you’ll get at least 8-9 hours of life and potential even more if not running heavy workloads.
Now if you’re a previous Dell user you may notice a feature missing on the new XPS 13. The battery life indicator that was on the outside chassis is gone. This isn’t a big deal but for previous Dell users, but you may miss having it.
Performance
Again Dell made improvements. They upgrade the CPU from last year’s Comet Lake processor to Intel’s 10th generation Ice Lake CPUs. Bottom line is that this processor is fast. While not a gaming laptop by any means, it’s playable for games that aren’t super graphically intense. You may not think that’s saying much, but for a super small ultrabook this is a pretty amazing feature.
Inside the XPS 13 you’ll see that it has two fans and most of its components are integrated so you can’t upgrade them. The one component you can upgrade later on is the harddrive. What does this mean? It means that you should consider upgrading the memory. It comes standard with 8GB of memory but considering programs keep requiring more RAM, it’s good to consider an upgrade from the 8GB.
Models
Three are a number of models to choose from. The base XPS 13 2020 starts at $999 with the Intel 10th generation i3 Processor, 8GB of memory, 256GB SSD harddrive, and the non-touch display. You can get a touch display, 10th Generation Intel i5 processor with 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD harddrive for $1,149. We’d recommend considering an upgrade to a model with the 10th Generation Intel i7 processor and 16GB of memory. A standard model with this configuration starts at $1,399 with the non-touch screen. Of course if you want to get crazy the top end model starts at $2,199 and you can upgrade from there.
The Bottom Line
This is a great computer. It’s well designed. It’s durable. It has a great display and keyboard. It’s both portable and powerful. It has very good battery life. Basically this is the gold standard of ultrabooks. Hardware Canucks summarizes the experts feelings about this laptop when he says: “This is the gold standard of ultrabooks!”
Hardware Canucks Summing it All Up