Dell XPS 13 Snapdragon review: Compact, capable, costly

Let me put this upfront: If you are looking for a very powerful laptop that can handle your daily workload, studies and offers you the latest artificial intelligence features, then Dell XPS 13 is right now one of the best laptops you can find. With the new Snapdragon X Elite chipset, this laptop is a very capable Windows machine for working professionals or students, although it does cost some. And it’s lightweight. So much so that you can easily carry it in a handbag. I mean it is lighter than a large 1000-page book like the biography of Steve Jobs.
Anything else? Yes, there is. While the laptop is lightweight, has a good quality screen, which supports touch, and is fairly powerful, it has some quirks. Particularly with the design, which I think could have been better. But first specs
In India Dell has launched the new XPS 13 laptop in three variants. The base variant is priced at Rs 1,39,990, while the highest-end variant costs Rs 1,69,990. In this review we tested the 13.4- inch 3K OLED touch display variant which comes with Qualcomm X1 Elite chipset, paired with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. This variant costs Rs 1,55,289 on the Dell website.
The Dell XPS 13 9345 is a very lightweight machine. It weighs around 1.19 kgs to be more precise. It is lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Air, which weighs around 1.3 Kgs. At the same time, the XPS 13 has its own personality that makes it look unique. Personally I like its minimalistic design. It impressed me a lot. It’s sleek, has these distinct flat keys on the keyboard, complemented with some touch buttons. So minimalistic are aesthetics that it doesn’t even have marking lines around the trackpad.
But looks are one thing. The design also needs to complement the usage, and this is where I feel the XPS 13 could have been more polished. Dell has pushed minimalism a bit too far with this one. For example, the connecting ports. There are only two, supporting USB-C connectivity. And one of them is occupied by the charger when you are using the laptop while it is plugged in. This means everywhere I went with the laptop, I also had to carry a couple of extension cables and dongles. This though, to be fair to Dell, is an industry wide issue. You see the MacBook Air 13 I mentioned. It too has just two ports.
Another design choice that I personally didn’t like much is the lack of a visible trackpad. There’s no issue in functionality, as both the keys and trackpad work well. However, it gets smudged easily, and it interferes with my muscle memory. While scrolling, I often slid my finger too much and lost control of the cursor.
Then there is the somewhat wobbly palm rest. It could be specific to the unit I was trying but the right side of the laptop always wobbled a bit whenever I rested my palm on it while using it on a table. One more part that I would have liked more polished is the hinge of the display. It’s not very sturdy, and while working — or rather typing furiously as I am asked to do as a journalist doing breaking news — I could sometimes see the screen wobbling.
All in all, while the design surely looks aesthetically pleasing and minimalistic aesthetics always work best, there are some visible niggles that are a bit of a turn-off.
The XPS 13 is a 13.4-inch laptop, which might sound small, but it has thinner bezels. The company calls the display Infinity Display — likely an inspiration from those slick infinity pools — and it offers a surprisingly large screen area. Besides daily office work, I used the XPS 13 for binge-watching on Netflix, YouTube, and more, and I absolutely enjoyed the experience. With a 3K resolution of 2880 x 1800, the laptop delivers bright, crisp, and almost true-to-life images. However, it only offers a 60Hz refresh rate, which is a bit disappointing at this price range. But also do understand that this is not a gaming laptop, so you will not miss the higher refresh rate. For regular use, 60Hz is good enough. At least I didn’t notice any visible lag in scrolling or while switching between apps as I used it.
The touchscreen is also responsive, although I found myself using it less frequently. As a personal preference, I think I would have used the touchscreen more if the display allowed for 180-degree rotation. As for the brightness, the 500 nits felt sufficient, it provided a bright enough display to counter glare from sunlight or indoor lighting while working in bright environments. I also didn’t encounter any issues with viewing angles.
The big news with the new Dell XPS 13 is the new processor, which is Qualcomm Snapdragon X1 Elite. This is a big deal because until now we have mostly seen Intel or AMD chips in laptops. The X1 Elite brings with it a number of advantages, the biggest of which is going to be the battery life (more on this in a while), and performance in AI-related workload.
I primarily used the XPS 13 for office work, which included writing, editing images, creating photos with AI software, and managing CMS, and not once did I face any lag or issues. On top of that, what really impressed me was that the laptop didn’t overheat, nor did the fan make that annoying loud noise to dissipate heat. I even tested Microsoft AI software like co-creation features on Paint and other Windows apps like Copilot, and the XPS 13 handled everything very well.
Unlike many other laptops that heat up and turn the fans so loud like a tornado to disperse heat, the XPS 13 remains cool. Even during a benchmark test, the laptop didn’t heat up significantly, and the fan remained relatively quiet. Speaking of the processor’s power, the XPS 13 handled everything smoothly. In my Cinebench benchmark test, it scored around 119 points in single-core performance and approximately 744 points in multi-core, which is pretty good, near chipsets like Apple’s M1 Ultra.
On the privacy side, the XPS 13 offers both facial and fingerprint unlock, and both work quickly. Additionally, it has a feature where, if face lock is enabled and you step away from the display, the system locks automatically and unlocks as soon as you return. This feature I particularly liked given in office space we often forget to lock the device and someone might sneak a peek to your laptop screen.
The fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power button on the keyboard. However, there is no labelling on the button, and I found the placement a bit off since it’s located near the backspace key. I am used to having the delete button there, so while typing quickly, I often ended up turning the laptop off instead of deleting text. The delete button is just above it, by the way.
As for the other buttons, I really enjoyed typing on the keyboard. It lays flat and is the opposite of the clicky mechanical keyboards. It is soft when pressed but there is a bit of push back, which means you do get feedback while typing on the XPS 13. In other words, just the way it should be. If you like that clicky feel, you might not enjoy this one, but I appreciate the design and tactile feel. The keys are also backlit with three brightness options. However, the lighting isn’t very bright, so in well-lit environments, you might not even notice if the backlight is on or off.
The trackpad is smooth and accurate, though — as noted earlier — it is not marked and that could be an issue while using the laptop in lower light.
The XPS 13 is equipped with an 8W system that includes quad 2W woofers and 2W tweeters, tuned with Dolby Atmos. The speakers are loud and clear, without sounding squeaky. While watching videos, I never felt the need for an external audio device, as the XPS 13 provided clear, loud sound output.
Now the battery: for a compact and light laptop, the battery life of the new XPS 13 is decent, although given the Snapdragon X1 Elite, which is supposed to be better at power consumption than Intel or AMD chips, I had expected better. Often on the XPS 13 I worked for around 8 hours continuously, and fully charged it lasted the entire day. The charging is on the slower side, with the laptop fully charging in 2 to 3 hours.
I think the Dell XPS 13 is on the pricier side. Just a wee bit. It does offer good hardware, powerful performance that is good enough for regular office work, and design that is minimalistic and tasteful. Its display is lovely and the Snapdragon X Elite chipset handles day-to-day workloads smoothly, and the NPU chip inside it effectively manages the latest AI software and features. Additionally, the laptop offers strong privacy features, impressive audio quality, and excellent battery life, making it a well-rounded package.
But. There is always a but. The competition is strong. The Apple MacBook Air is equally versatile and, if you don’t have a preference for the Windows 11, is a better and cheaper option. Having said that if a Windows machine is what you want, a laptop on which you can do your office or college work, a laptop with which you can travel, you will find that the Dell XPS 13 is one of the better options available to you.