Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review

Ultrabooks are an interesting phenomenon.  It's like the industry took a long hard look at the emaciated netbook market and decided consumers deserved better.  Thank God.  We're big fans of the thin and light trend in notebooks, and netbook price points are something we all can appreciate.  However, as performance enthusiasts, netbooks just leave us flat, to be honest; no matter how small they are, how inexpensive or how miserly they are on power consumption.  It's encouraging to see the burgeoning ultrabook market take flight with virtually all of the major players behind the vision Intel helped inspire.
                               

Processor Options	Intel® Core™ i5 2467M Dual Core (1.60GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0 to 2.30GHz)Intel® Core™ i7 2637M Dual Core (1.70GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0 to 2.80GHz)
Chipset	Intel® QS67
Dimensions (HxWxD)	Height: 0.24-0.71" / Width: 12.4" / Depth 8.1"
Starting at Weight	Starting at 2.99lbs (1.36kg)
Display	13.3" HD WLED, 300-nit (1366x768) edge-to-edge Gorilla® Glass
Construction	Machined aluminum in silver, Carbon fiber composite base Magnesium palm rest with soft touch paint
System Memory	4GB dual channel DDR3* 1333MHz; on board
Graphics	Intel® HD 3000 graphics
Battery	47WHr battery; 6-Cell Li-Polymer (built-in) Up to 8 hours, 53 minutes battery life*
AC Adapter	45W AC adaptor
Hard Drive Options	128GB or 256GB SSD drive option
Keyboard / Touchpad	Standard full size, backlit chiclet keyboard; spill-resistant Glass integrated button touchpad with gesture support
Wireless Connectivity	Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 802.11 a/g/n with Intel® Smart Connect Technology + Bluetooth 3.0, Intel® Wireless Display ready*
Sound	High Definition Audio + Waves MaxxAudio® 4 1.5W x2 = 3W total
Webcam	1.3MP webcam with dual array digital microphones
Ports and Connectors	USB 3.0 (1)+ USB 2.0 with PowerShare (1); mini DisplayPort (1); Headset Jack (1)
Productivity & Entertainment Software	Adobe® Reader X, Microsoft® Office Starter (reduced–functionality versions of Word and Excel with advertising), WebCam Central, Skype™* with H.264 enablement, Skyhook (post launch), Internet Explorer, Windows Live™ Essentials Wave 4, McAfee SecurityCenter trial, Dell DataSafe, Dell Stage
Operating System Options	Windows® 7 Home Premium, Windows® 7 Professional, Windows® 7 Ultimate
Pricing:	$1499 as tested - 256GB SSD, Core i7-2637M $999 - 128GB SSD, Core i5-2467M

Roomy, Multi-Gesture Touchpad

 The XPS 13 provides a good-sized touch pad that's roughly 3.9 inches wide and 2.2 inches deep. Fingers easily slide across the flat black surface, which is clickable everywhere except near the innermost edge. There's a faint hint of a short line in the middle near the outside edge to indicate distinct areas for right- and left-mouse click actions. Palm rejection works well when typing documents, as does multi-finger mouse control for things like click-and-drag.

Multi-finger gestures, such as two-finger drag, let you scroll up and down long pages in a document or Web browser. In Windows Explorer, three-finger swipes to either the left or the right go forward and backward to previous Web pages.

Four fingers take the place of Alt-Tab on a keyboard – swiping down toward the outside of the case switches to the next task in the list. Swiping up with four fingers brings up a dialog showing all currently running applications. Swiping left or right brings up the 3-D viewer.

Gestures bring a new set of things to remember, but they also potentially change the way you accomplish familiar tasks in a positive fashion. Once you get the hang of using a gesture, it becomes more a part of your normal activity in much the same way as a keyboard shortcut.

The larger touchpad area makes it easier to accomplish gestures – such as the one with four fingers. The bottom line is the XPS 13 touch pad lets your fingers handle tasks that previously required you to move your hand to the keyboard.

Battery

No contest here: the Folio 13 gets an impressive 8-9 hours on a single charge with regular use, while the XPS 13 got between 5.5 and 6 hours on a similar load. The negligible extra size and weight of the Folio are a clear advantage here, and while the XPS’ tapering body (and integrated battery meter) are nice, there’s just no way to make up for the time difference. Both batteries are integrated and can’t be swapped, so if you’re a regular long-haul traveler, the Folio is your friend.