Our first impression on the new DELL XPS 13 (9343, 2015 Broadwell)

There seems to be a lot of fuzz going around the new XPS from DELL which is available with 13-inch display and various configurations. We had the opportunity to get our hands on the 13-inch variant and our first impressions are more than positive.

Design

The first thing you notice, before even opening the box, is that you’ve bought a premium device. The retail box is as minimalistic as the chassis of XSP 13. The top of the lid is fully covered in anodized aluminum with metallic gray. The only thing that sticks out is the DELL logo in the middle. The bottom is also in gray aluminum with rubber legs for keeping the ultrabook firmly in place and, of course – grills for dispersing the heat.


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The inside of the machine is way more exciting, though. The display is almost bezel-less and while only 13-inch, it packs a QHD panel, making the picture stunning. But as you know, pixels don’t always matter, so you will have to wait for our full review and see all of the qualities of the display. It is important to note that the XPS 13 can be found with either QHD or FHD resolution.


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However, the interior around the keyboard is in matte, rubber finish which gives the device a stylish and premium look, but it looks like a fingerprint magnet and it is easy to leave small smudges. Also, the material seems a little transparent and you can see the carbon fiber underneath, which is the main material used for the internal construction of the device. The keyboard also has a nice feel and keys feel light and provide a good tactile feedback.


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The dimensions are also impressive – 9 mm profile at the thinnest point and 15 mm at the back of the device. The width is 316 mm and depth of 205 mm, which for a 13-inch ultrabook is way above average. It also weighs around 1.34 kg and still feels sturdy, light and compact.

Hardware

We are happy to see that DELL is offering the XPS 13 in several variants and all of them include the new Broadwell series CPUs from Intel. The least expensive configuration has an FHD display, 128GB internal storage, 4GB of RAM, and Core i5-5200U CPU. The other two variants (significantly more expensive) are packing QHD touch displays, Core i5-5200U and Core i7-5500U CPUs along with 8GB of RAM and 256GB internal storage.

This being said, all three variants appear to be quite capable of dealing with normal business tasks and a bit more demanding applications. However, we will see the final results when we publish the full review of the model. In the meantime, you can check the performance of the Core i7-5500U in our review here.

How it looks on the inside

You can see all the internals in the picture below. Also, the XPS 13 uses 80 mm m.2 SATA device for the internal memory and we are quite impatient to see how the ultrabook handles big load and high temperatures.


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Specs sheet


XPS 13 Ultrabook Touch Notebook

ProcessorIntel Core i5-5200U (2-core, 2.20 – 2.70 GHz, 3MB cache) / Intel Core i7-5500U (2-core, 2.40 – 3.00 Ghz, 3MB cache)
RAM4GB (1x 4096MB) – DDR3, 1600MHz / 8GB (1x 8192MB) – DDR3, 1600MHz
Graphics cardIntel HD Graphics 5500 (integrated GPU)
HDD/SSD128GB SSD 0/ 256GB SSD
Display13.3-inch (33.78 cm.) – 1920×1080 (Full HD), infinity display / 13.3-inch (33.78 cm.) – 2560×1440 (QHD), infinity display
Optical drive
ConnectivityWi-Fi 802.11ac 2×2, Bluetooth 4.0
Other features
  • 1x USB 3.0
  • 1x USB 2.0
  • webcam
  • 3.5 mm jack for headphones or microphone
  • mini Display Port
  • HD Audio + Waves MaxxAudio 4, 1.5W x2 = 3W loud speakers
  • keyboard LED backlight
Battery52 WHr, 4-Cell Battery (integrated)
Thickness0.33-0.6″ (9-15mm)
Weight1.36

Stay tuned for our detailed review on the new XPS 13 (2015), which will be published soon.

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