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So you’re wondering about the new Skylake Dell XPS 13 ultrabook? As a primary Mac user I replaced my MacBook Pro with the Dell XPS 13 for the past month, and I’m here to share my experience and full review with you right now. Full Disclaimer: Dell did send this to me at no cost, but these are all my honest opinions. The Dell XPS 13 9350 was released in late 2015 and starts at $799. The model I have comes with Windows 10, Intel’s 6th generation Core i7 6500U 2.5Ghz processor, 16GB RAM, 1TB PCIe solid state drive, Intel HD 520 Graphics, and a 13.3″ Quad HD InfinityEdge touch display.

The Dell XPS 13 is currently the world’s smallest 13″ laptop, fitting a 13.3″ display into a typical 11″ laptop frame thanks to the nearly bezel-less display. The outside is made of silver aluminum that definitely shows off its simple yet durable design. The inside of the laptop has a smooth carbon fiber finish which looks nice but feels even nicer. The left side has the charging port, a new USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port, a USB 3.0 port, a headphone jack, a battery guage button, and the left speaker grill. The right side has a lock slot, a USB 3.0 port, an SD card reader, and the right speaker grill.

When I first saw this laptop I immediately thought “Yep this is definitely Dell’s attempt at a MacBook killer.” But it’s hard to determine exactly which MacBook is closest in similarity to the Dell XPS 13. It has a stunning screen like the 12″ Retina MacBook. It has the portability and slimness of the MacBook Air, and it has the power and ports comparable to the 13″ MacBook Pro. Obviously my 2009 15″ MacBook Pro is slower and bulkier than the Dell XPS 13, but I did install an SSD and more RAM in my MacBook Pro a few years ago so that’s why it has lasted me this long and still works perfectly. So let’s see how well the Dell XPS 13 performed for me during the past month.

Let’s start with the InfinityEdge touch display because it’s one of my favorite features. The 3200×1800 QHD screen is absolutely gorgeous. It’s boasting 5.7 million pixels. That’s 276 ppi compared to the 2015 Retina MacBook’s 226 ppi. The colors are rich with just the right amount of contrast, and since it is an IPS panel it has good viewing angles. It can get really bright too. As a YouTuber I love watching HD videos on full screen mode, and I’m sure photographers and graphic designers would love this display. The only downsides are that some apps haven’t updated to accommodate such a high resolution screen so those apps can appear as lower quality, and since the display has such a thin border Dell had to put the webcam in the bottom left which is kind of awkward. But hey, at least it’s an HD webcam unlike some other laptops. The touch screen is a glossy finish with scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass, but they do have a matte finish option for their non-QHD model if that’s what you prefer. Speaking of the touch screen capability, it’s definitely not necessary but it is fun to use and actually convenient to have. It’s very responsive. You’re probably saying “Andy, no way I would ever need a touch screen on my laptop.” But hear me out.

Let’s talk about one of the best yet most frustrating features of the Dell XPS 13: the touchpad. I’ll start by saying this is the best touchpad I’ve ever used on a Windows laptop. One of the reasons I immediately fell in love with my MacBook Pro when I first got it was the trackpad and mainly the 2-finger scrolling. Apple really mastered their trackpad, not just with the physical smoothness of touching it but with the smooth buttery 2 finger scrolling and multi-gestures. I’ve never had any problems with the Apple trackpad. For the most part, the Dell XPS 13 touchpad does a good job at implementing these features (I’ve especially enjoyed the three finger tap and swipe gestures) and the touchpad is comfortable to use.

However, the touchpad has big problems with certain apps, most importantly Google Chrome. This may be a Chrome issue or a Windows 10 driver issue because the touchpad works great in Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer. In those apps the 2-finger scrolling is almost always smooth. But in Google Chrome the touchpad constantly causes the page to jump up and down when trying to 2-finger scroll. I tried changing any relevant touchpad setting in Windows and nothing seemed to fix this problem. It’s extremely frustrating because I need precise smooth scrolling when responding to my YouTube comments one by one. I thought it was just me but it seems others are experiencing the same problem. So hopefully this gets fixed soon with an update. But that’s why the touch screen is convenient to have because I can scroll with the display instead of with the touchpad if needed. On the other hand, I love the keyboard. It has backlit chiclet style keys which I got accustomed to on my Mac and I seem to be able to type super fast like Bruce Almighty on this thing.

Now let’s talk about where the Dell XPS 13 really shines: mobility and performance. It weighs less than 3lbs and is super thin, making it one of the most portable laptops out right now. It’s much easier to carry around compared to my 15″ MacBook Pro. It has a 56 watt hour battery that lasts a decent amount of time. I’m getting around 6-12 hours of battery life on a single charge, closer to 6 hours when I’m streaming Spotify and watching YouTube videos the whole time and closer to 12 hours when I have the brightness down and I’m just browsing the web or typing notes. It takes about 2 and a half hours to fully charge the battery while using the laptop. In addition, you can purchase the separate Dell Power Companion which is a portable battery that can charge your XPS 13 and other devices in case you need some extra power for a special trip.

On the performance side of things, with Intel’s 6th generation Core i7 Skylake processor and 16GB of DDR3 RAM, the XPS 13 is a speedy machine and can handle nearly any day-to-day task. The 1TB PCIe solid state drive has considerably fast read and write speeds which you will notice when the laptop starts up from a cold boot in about 10 seconds flat. I was able to copy 16.5 GB of video files from my SD card onto the Dell’s SSD in 3 minutes 31 seconds compared to a copy time of 3 minutes 14 seconds on my 2012 Mac Mini’s Fusion Drive. Like with any solid state drive, apps load very quickly and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten stuck with the spinning circle of death. I tend to have a ton of browser tabs open at the same time and the XPS 13 was able to handle it just fine, no stuttering or freezing up. It scored a 3279 for single-core and 6868 for multi-core on the GeekBench benchmark tests. So even though this ultrabook was primarily designed with mobility in mind, it is still fast and powerful. Don’t expect to edit 4K videos or render 3D graphics without struggling, but it can definitely handle casual HD video editing and other multimedia work like Photoshop. Another exciting feature is the new USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port, which has transfer speeds up to 8x faster than USB 3.0 and is twice as fast as Thunderbolt 2. The USB-C port has the ability to charge the XPS 13 and power up to two 4K displays. If you need more ports, you can purchase the Dell Adapter which can turn the USB 3.0 port into a single hub for Ethernet, USB, HDMI, and VGA ports.

As you can see I really do enjoy this new Dell XPS 13. Even with its minor flaws like having to uninstall bloatware and McAfee right out of the box, or having to manually update the drivers and BIOS to solve screen flickering and battery problems, or the speakers making a slight popping sound every now and then. Those types of inconveniences usually don’t happen with Macs since the software and hardware are from the same company. Not saying they never happen, but it is just a different experience. So is the Dell XPS 13 better than the MacBook or MacBook Air? That totally depends on what you’re specifically looking for out of a laptop. For me personally, I own an iPhone and as a video producer I use Apple’s Final Cut Pro X to edit all my videos so it just makes sense for me to use a Mac unless I want to start using a completely different video editing app. So a Mac would be best for you if you’re like me and you’re already invested in the Apple ecosystem, maybe you own an iPhone or iPad and you want the additional benefits of owning a Mac because of the tight integration between iOS and OS X. One of the features I really missed when I was using the XPS 13 was the ability to respond to texts from my laptop. You can do that with a Mac if you use an iPhone. So that’s just one example. The biggest thing holding me back is Final Cut Pro. As long as I’m using that exclusively I can’t permanently move to a Windows laptop.

However if you’re not already invested in the Apple ecosystem and you’re looking for a small, compact, yet fast laptop that looks good and feels solid then you should definitely consider the Dell XPS 13 9350. Other than it being the best Windows ultrabook of 2016, if I had to pick one word to describe the XPS 13 it would be: Productivity. This is perfect for people who are always on the go but still need a strong machine to help them get things done quickly. That’s why I’m keeping mine and will continue to use it as my go-to travel laptop when I don’t need to do any video editing.

The Dell XPS 13 gets a thumbs-up from me. What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know!