Dell XPS 13 OLED review

The latest XPS 13 model features a beautiful OLED panel that delivers rich image quality when you're streaming movies at home or editing video at work.

The Dell XPS OLED is an undeniably impressive laptop Dell has shrunk this 13.4-inch laptop to roughly the same size as the 11.6-inch model, yet still offers dynamic performance and relatively long battery life. 13 with the option to configure it with an OLED display, which is the icing on the cake for this premium small laptop. The display looks stellar, and while it doesn’t take a toll on battery life, it’s not as awful as previous OLED laptops we’ve tested. If you’re looking for the ultimate ultra-portable, it’s a worthy upgrade.

The 1080p display has a brightness of approximately 500 cd/m² and full sRGB coverage for accurate color right out of the box. If you need even sharper images and text, you can upgrade to a 3.5k OLED or 4k IPS panel. The battery lasts just over 10 hours for light productivity, 5 hours for video playback, and takes 2 hours to fully charge, and while there are only two USB-C ports, both are Thunderbolt 4 compatible for data transfer rates up to 40Gbps and 60Hz to dual 4k monitors. video output to dual 4k monitors at 60Hz.

Like most thin and light notebooks with CPUs low power consumption and integrated graphics, it does not have demanding workloads such as video editing or AAA gaming, but can handle common web browsing, text formatting, spreadsheets, video playback, and other It can only handle productivity tasks. Our Dell XPS has an Intel Core i3-1115G4 CPU, integrated Intel UHD graphics for 11th generation processors, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of storage.

Dell XPS 13 OLED review: Design

The Dell XPS 13 has been the benchmark for laptop design for the past few years. The wafer-thin bezel gives the laptop a sleek look, while providing more screen real estate. Laptops with a thick frame, like the MacBook Air M1, look woefully dated by comparison. The patterned interior cover, made of carbon fiber, adds an extra touch to the laptop. This contrasts nicely with the silver aluminum casing, which can be seen on both the lid and the edge that features all the ports. By using aluminum, the Dell XPS 13 has a sturdier build than LG Gram 16 magnesium or plastic Chromebooks.

That said, the XPS 13 still has a slight flex in the deck when you press down on the keyboard, so it’s not perfect in this regard. The XPS 13 OLED is a very slim laptop, and Dell claims it’s just 14.8mm. This also results in an impressively lightweight build, weighing in at 1.27kg. You can find cheaper laptops that weigh even less, like the Acer Swift 5, but they won’t feel or look as premium as the XPS 13 laptop. some of the usual port options on the XPS 13. You get 2x Thunderbolt 4, a MicroSD card reader, and a headphone jack, but that’s about it.

Keyboard and Touchpad

An improvement over previous XPS keyboards, the keys on the latest XPS 13 are quite comfortable to type on. The keys don’t click like those on competing laptops like the Specter x360 or MacBook Air, but they don’t feel stiff, either. There’s decent travel, enough to keep it from bottoming out, and the keys are adequately sized despite fitting onto a miniature deck. We also like the two-stage backlighting, which looks great against the all-white canvas. Those with large legs may find the minimum space cramped while frantically typing out a last-minute report, but it won’t be a problem for most people.

We typed at 117 words per minute with 95% accuracy, which beat my usual average of 109 words per minute with the same error rate. Sliding my index finger across the 4.4 x 2.5-inch touchpad felt like we were stroking the finest Mulberry silk. Soft, smooth, and highly responsive, the surface instantly reacted to my erratic movements and Windows 10 gestures like pinch-to-zoom and three-finger swipe to switch windows.

Dell XPS 13 OLED review: Display

The 3.5K OLED screen is a big selling point of this Dell XPS 13 configuration and looks gorgeous in person. With a native resolution of 3456 x 2160 pixels, it is not exactly 4K, but it is HDR capable, and movies and TV look beautiful on this screen. The OLED screen generates light for each pixel, which can be turned on and off individually, resulting in deep blacks and high contrast ratios. We were able to notice the smallest details, such as the gradation of sunlight reflecting off the actors’ faces in “The Expanse” or the glint of gold embroidery in a dark scene in “Knives Out”.

This display has the ability to make colors look vibrant, and reds and golds look great in dark scenes; we found that the XPS 13 with OLED can cover 117.3% of sRGB. In other words, we found that colors look very nice (and possibly oversaturated). This is better than the 13-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (sRGB 108.3%), but not as good as the 15-inch Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 (sRGB 120.2%).

Dell XPS 13 OLED review: Audio

We’re surprised by the volume of the XPS 13’s speakers, loud enough to easily fill my relatively large living room. However, its placement on the lower sides of the laptop is not ideal. It means songs can sound muffled when listening to music with the laptop propped up on soft material, like exercise joggers. Placing the XPS 13 on my desk improved clarity when we listened to Still Woozy’s “Goodie Bag.” The song’s percussion and vocals were crisp, though the bass was missing. These speakers are passable, but a good pair of noise-canceling headphones will give you a big improvement in sound.

Dell XPS 13 OLED review: Graphics

The Intel Iris Xe graphics used in the XPS 13 are adequate for playing older and newer games at lower graphics settings. You can edit photos and videos and stream 4K content without lag, but don’t expect to play heavily loaded simulations or recent games at higher graphics settings.Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm In the benchmark (medium, 1080p), the XPS 13 recorded 15 fps, 20 fps premium laptop average, Specter x360 14 (20 fps, Iris Xe), MacBook Pro (29 fps, M1), Surface Laptop 4 (30 fps, Iris Xe In the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark, the XPS 13 scored 3,756, which was lower than the Surface Laptop 4 (5,089, 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD) and Specter x360 14 (4,229, 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD).

Dell XPS 13 OLED review: Performance

The Dell XPS 13 OLED comes with two processor options: Intel Core i5-1135G7 or Intel Core i7-1185G7. Dell sent me the latter. These are the exact same chips found with the previous model of the XPS 13, so don’t expect a performance jump here. But by using Intel’s latest generation of mobile chips for Ultrabook’s, there’s really no room for upgrades unless Dell switches to AMD. Performance is competitive with all Windows Ultrabook’s, with some of the best benchmark scores for a 13-inch laptop I’ve seen this year.

This means the Dell XPS 13 OLED easily outperforms productivity tasks and even dabbles in more demanding creative tasks like Photoshop and Premiere Pro. However, the MacBook Air M1 is still the fastest Ultrabook with far superior benchmark results compared with the XPS 13 OLED. It would be unfair to criticize Dell for this, but it’s still something to consider if high-speed performance is your priority.

Dell XPS 13 OLED review: Battery Life and Heat

Sadly, the addition of the 3.5K OLED screen comes at the expense of battery life. In our battery test, in which we set the screen brightness to 150 nits and let the laptop surf the web endlessly via Wi-Fi, the Dell XPS 13 with OLED lasted only less than 8 hours. 7:59 to be exact. That’s considerably less battery life than the 13-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (10:46) or 15-inch Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 (13:33.) If you’re inclined to use a Mac, the MacBook Air with M1 ( 14:41) or MacBook Pro with M1 (16:32) would have much longer battery life. For comparison, in our tests, the Dell XPS 13 with 4K non-OLED screen lasted even less time on a full charge (7:32) and the Dell XPS 13 with a 2K screen lasted longer (11:07) in the same test.

We plugged it in at a 5% charge rate, and after one hour it was at 51% charge rate. This is a sufficient charge rate for another 2-3 hours of use. To test the cooling performance of the XPS 13, we played a 15-minute 1080p video and measured certain parts of the laptop. The results showed adequate cooling. The touchpad reached 79 degrees Fahrenheit and the center of the keyboard reached 88 degrees Fahrenheit, both well below the 95 degrees Fahrenheit we find comfortable. The metal landing gear, however, reached 102 degrees.

Configuration Options

Upgrading from the basic FHD+ non-touch option to the OLED panel will cost an additional $400, equal to the cost of the full 4K IPS option, configured with an Intel Core i7-1185G7 CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB NV Me SSD would bring the starting price of the XPS 13 OLED to $1,649. From here, the only way to go is to upgrade the storage, which costs $150 for 1TB or $450 for a 2TB SSD. There is another option. Combining the Frost exterior with an Arctic White interior costs an extra $50; our Frost model with a 13.4″ 3.5K OLED screen, Core i7-1185G7 CPU, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD is $1,699.

Final Words

The Dell XPS 13 has long been one of our favorite Windows laptops, and the addition of a 3.5K OLED display only adds to its appeal. If you don’t care about image quality, it may not be worth paying a few hundred extra dollars, but considering that one of the big draws of the Dell XPS 13 is its beautiful, nearly edge-to-edge Infinity Edge display, paying more for an OLED on there is worth that it’s worth it.

George Southwell
George Southwell
George Southwell is a seasoned content editor at Bollyinside, renowned for his expertise in simplifying complex tech topics. Specializing in "Tips and Tricks" articles, he excels in breaking down iPhone, Android, hardware, and software insights. George's insatiable curiosity fuels his hobby of testing the latest tech updates, keeping him on the cutting edge.

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The Dell XPS 13 has long been one of our favorite Windows laptops, and the addition of a 3.5K OLED display only adds to its appeal.Dell XPS 13 OLED review