- Hey guys, this is Austin.
This plain-looking box containsone of the most exciting laptops I've seen in quite a while.
This is the Dell XPS 13.
I really do like the LG Gram.
So, we've already donea full video on this.
What's nice is, is thatwhen I'm at the office, I can plug it in via USB-Cto a monitor and use it like a desktop for stufflike email and notes.
When I'm on the go, not onlydoes it have some of the best battery life I've ever tested, but it's also superlightweight and portable.
That's where the XPS 13 comes in.
(tapping) (thudding)Ahhhhh.
So the XPS 13 has been aroundfor a couple years now.
But, this is the most recent version.
What makes it reallyspecial is that it is one of the very first laptops to ship with the eighth generationIntel Core processors.
Now, normally, that doesn'tsound like it would be any kind of huge difference, but in this case, it means that it's going to be a lot faster.
At least, I hope so.
One of the nice things aboutthe XPS 13 is that it actually is made out of aluminum.
I can immediately tell that,while it is definitely a little bit heavier than the Gram,it feels really substantial.
Pop this guy open, and oneof the first things you're going to see is the fairlylarge 13.
3-inch display and a very, very small chassis.
So, when the XPS 13 first came out, this sort of bezel was really impressive.
Now, it's getting alittle bit more common, but it still looks really nice.
The outside of the XPS 13 is all aluminum, but on the inside it hasthis carbon fiber finish.
It actually feels pretty good.
It almost feels a little bit more rubbery than you would expect out of carbon fiber.
But, it's nice and comfortable.
There's also a nice selection of ports.
So, not only do we have our power in, but we also have a Thunderbolt 3 port, which you can also useto power the laptop, a USB 3.
0 port, headphone jack, as well as the battery indicator, which looks like it's dead, which is cool.
If we flip it over to the other side, what you're going to findis another USB 3.
0 port as well as a full size SD card reader.
Having that Thunderbolt 3 port is nice, as not only does itdouble as a USB-C port, but you can also do stuff likeconnect a 4K monitor to it, accept power in, and intheory, you could connect it to an external GPU forbetter gaming performance, although unfortunately, itonly uses two lanes of PCIe, which means that's probablynot going to be a great idea.
It will get bottlenecked.
The display is 13.
3 incheswith a 1080p resolution, but it is not a touch screen.
If you want that, you have toupgrade to the 1800p model, which is a lot more expensive.
Now, I actually like 1080p as I feel like it's a good sorta sweet spot between screen resolutionas well as battery life, and this panel is decent.
So, the color is fine, viewing angles are solid.
However, it just doesn't get quite as bright as I would like.
The biggest problem withthe display is that means that the webcam has to beput in the left corner, which means that it looks really weird.
Not only are you looking up at my nose, but I'm always looking tothe side of the laptop.
- Hey guys, this is Austin.
This laptop might have some of the best battery life in the world.
- And this laptop haspretty decent speakers.
So, one of my issues with theGram was that the speakers were a little bit tinny.
However, here, even thoughthey're not front firing, they come out the sides, it sounds a lot better.
I also like the keyboard and trackpad.
So, the keyboard has nicespacing, the feel is good, and it's backlit.
The trackpad uses WindowsPrecision drivers.
So, no, it's not quiteas good as something like a glass trackpad on a MacBook,but it is right up there.
My only real issue isthat to get a touchscreen, you have to pay another $350, which to me is kind of hard to justify.
What really makes this newXPS 13 stand out though are those eighthgeneration Core processors.
Now, typically, when yougo from one processor to the next as far as generations go, it's usually not a huge difference.
But with this guy, we're goingfrom dual-core processors to quad-core.
And in a small, thin, andlight laptop like this, that makes a huge difference.
This XPS 13 is powered by the i7-8550U.
So, the base clock is 1.
8 gigahertz, but it's almost always above that as you guys will see in a minute.
It can turbo all the wayup to four gigahertz.
Now, that's backed up byeight gigabytes of RAM and a 256 gig NVMe SSD.
Run this guy through Geekbench, I legitimately had totriple check my results.
Not only is this one of thefastest laptops I've ever tested as far as single thread performance goes, but even with multi thread,it is right up there with high-end Core i7s fromgaming laptops of last year.
One thing to keep in mindis that this is still a 15-watt processor, sofor longer, sustained use, such as gaming or rendering, you will see the clock speed start to dip.
But, for most stuff likevideo editing or web browsing, you're gonna see it be incredibly fast.
Unfortunately, gamingperformance doesn't see the same kind of gains.
So, here on Rocket League,we're getting anywhere between 40 to 50 framesper second at 720p quality, which is fine for lighter titles, but it's really not goingto see a major benefit over something like Skylake or Kaby Lake.
Under normal usage, thelaptop is basically silent.
However, once you fireup something like a game or some video editing, you'llsee that the fan does get a little bit noisy.
Dell claims that you canget 13 hours of battery life streaming video, and about22 hours of light usage, which might be a littlebit of an exaggeration, but with a 60 watt-hour battery,it should absolutely last you all day.
There is a lot to like with the XPS 13.
So at $1300, I feel like this spec is a little bit expensive.
However, once you can actuallyget a Core i5 in this guy, and especially if theyadded a more affordable touchscreen version, thisis gonna be hard to beat.
I am really excited to seethese new processors roll out to more and more laptops.
Having this much power insuch a thin and light laptop, honestly is a game changer for me.
So, what do you guysthink about the XPS 13, as well as these neweighth gen processors? Let me know in the comments below and I will catch you in the next one.
Source: Youtube
No comments:
Post a Comment