Dell XPS 13 (early and late 2015 models)

What's Hot: Incredibly small, light and attractive. Solid build with quality materials, excellent display options with tiny bezel. Low starting price, impressive battery life for non-touch models.

What's Not: Desirable options like a touch screen and 8 gigs of RAM quickly escalate price.

The new Dell XPS 13 is the best new laptop of 2015. Hey, I know I wrote that on January 22, when the year was still very young, but it's December 2015 now and I've updated this review to add the Intel Skylake late 2015 model refresh, and it still stands as the best traditional (non-convertible) design Windows 13 inch Ultrabook on the market. Why? It's a 13.3" Ultrabook that's the size of an 11.6" to 12" model, it weighs just 2.6 lbs. and the 1080p model has insane battery life. A trifecta of portability, light weight and great battery life make this an excellent laptop. Better yet, it has good performance thanks to the Intel 5th and 6th generation U series CPUs. We're thrilled to see U here rather than the slower Broadwell Core M used in the very first 5th gen Intel portables that hit in Q4 2014.

The 2015 Dell XPS 13 starts at $799 and ends at $1,599. For $799 you'll get a 5th (now 6th) generation Intel Core i3 CPU, 4 gigs of RAM, a 128 gig SSD and a non-touch matte 1080p display. Really, it's hard to imagine a cutting edge, high end Ultrabook in 2015 without a touch screen! For $899 you'll move up to a 2.2 GHz Core i5. Want a more modern 8 gigs of RAM? That will set you back a pricey $100. RAM is soldered on board, so you can't upgrade it yourself later. Want a 256 gig SSD? That's also a $100 upcharge. The model many folks will covet is the $1,399 configuration with the QHD+ touch screen, 8 gigs of RAM and a 256 gig SSD. All models have a backlit keyboard, Dell (Broadcom) dual band WiFi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0. We'd be pretty happy with the $999 non-touch Core i5 with 8 gigs of RAM and a 128 gig SSD (you can always upgrade the SSD later if you need more space).

A Modern Look

The latest Dell XPS 13 has a fresh look. Yes, there's some older gen XPS 13 DNA here, including the silver aluminum lid with Dell logo, patterned carbon fiber on the interior and Dell's very good and distinctive keyboard. But the new kid on the block is significantly smaller and the corners are more angular so it doesn't look like a silver lozenge. The bottom is aluminum now rather than carbon fiber, but the bottom zone design cues are otherwise similar to the outgoing model with the two horizontal rubber strips for grip that are raised to provide some room for ventilation. As ever with the XPS line, the machine feels extremely rigid, durable and solid with no flex or creaks.

The XPS 13's footprint and thickness are nearly identical to the Microsoft Surface Pro 4, which is pretty impressive since the Surface Pro 4 is a tablet with flappy keyboard attachment rather than a full-fledged laptop. The sides are tapered from 0.6" at the back to 0.33" at the front, with silver sandwiching black. Thankfully, Dell left enough room for ports and there are two USB 3.0 ports (one on each side), a mini DisplayPort (use a miniDP to HDMI adapter if you need HDMI), 3.5mm combo audio and an SD card slot (a card will stick out with 1/3 exposed). Note that the late 2015 model does away with the mini DisplayPort and replaces it with a USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port-- forward thinking, but it's a bit hard to find USB-C cables and adapters right now. Dell's USB-C adapter sells for $75 and it adds HDMI 2.0, Ethernet, USB 3.0 and VGA when connected to the laptop's USB-C port.

The bottom panel is affixed with several Torx screws, and you'll need to remove that panel to access the battery, M.2 SSD slot and socketed wireless card.

Beyond the size and weight, the show stealer is Dell's Infinity display with impossibly small bezels that remind us more of a newer flat screen TV than a laptop. Those 5mm bezels mean there's no room for a webcam above the display, so it's located at the lower left corner of the display bezel. It's guaranteed to provide unflattering video chat footage--few of us look good from under the chin. Despite the nearly non-existent bezels, the display panel is rigid and strong and relatively thick. The display itself? Gorgeous! Unlike the Lenovo Yoga 900 and HP Spectre x360, it doesn't "yoga" into a tablet nor does it separate into two pieces like the HP Envy x2 13. The XPS 13 has a traditional laptop hinge that tips back approximately 30 degrees beyond upright to target the laptop crowd rather than those in the market for a 2-in-1.

Display

The XPS 13 is available with a retro non-touch 1080p screen or a glossy QHD+ 3200 x 1800 touch screen. The only thing retro about the non-touch screen is the lack of touch. Otherwise it's a thoroughly modern Sharp IGZO full HD 1920 x 1080 matte panel with very good color gamut, good 800:1 contrast, low 0.2 black levels and plenty of brightness. In fact, given the conventional laptop rather than convertible design and Windows 10 making navigation without touch easier, I can understand the appeal of the more affordable display. I also appreciate a matte display since it looks brighter and isn't marred by reflections. While some matte displays have matte coatings that make things look murky or grainy, the XPS 13 looks clear and very colorful. If you look carefully, you'll see a wee bit of grain on white (predominantly white web pages and blank Word documents) but it's very minor compared to many matte panels. Dell claims high brightness and indeed the panel looks bright, though it was impossible to accurately measure with our Spyder Pro colorimeter since the panel dynamically adjusts brightness in zones and for certain colors to save power (this isn't the same thing as auto-brightness or ambient light sensor brightness that can be easily disabled).

For those of you who enjoy the new Windows Start environment (aka Metro) and associated apps from the Windows Store, they won't be a joy without touch. I do wish Dell offered an in-between display option--1080p touch, but alas they don't. If you want touch, you're also getting a 3200 x 1800 display. Big specs sell, and Dell has to combat the Lenovo Yoga 900 running at the same resolution, so QHD+ it is. We have both the 1080p and QHD+ versions in for review and both share a similar color gamut, contrast ratio and brightness levels. Our units measured 78% of Adobe RGB, 99% of sRGB to match the best laptop displays on the market. Note that unlike the XPS 15 late 2015 model with a 4K IGZO display, the XPS 13 doesn't offer near full Adobe RGB coverage (a rare feature in laptops). The glossy QHD+ version is covered with Gorilla Glass NBT unlike the matte version.

IGZO panels use less power, and that helps the 1080p non-touch XPS 13 achieve its stellar battery life. That said, the higher resolution model does consume more power and Dell estimates it at 12 hours of battery life vs. 15 for the non-touch model. Touch adds some weight too, so the touch model weighs 2.8 lbs. vs. 2.6 lbs. for the non-touch XPS 13.