XPS 13 2-in-1 Review

22 Mar 2017

I’ve recently returned from a two-day business trip to Winnipeg. This was my first real opportunity to make use of my new Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 away from home. Overall, I was extremely happy with how the laptop performed.

Light
When travelling, light really does matter. Even if the laptop does spend 99% of its time on a table, you really appreciate how light the device is when you are travelling.

Battery
I spent the 2.5-hour flight watching Vikings as well as working on a Word document for work. The battery started at 100% and was still at 85% when we landed. The sound quality while using my 5-year-old noise cancelling Sony headphones was great. The screen was perfect in terms of brightness.

Performance
I only use my laptop for Office, web browsing and minor code fixes with Visual Code. For anything more advanced or performance intensive I used VPN and RDP to access my workstation at the office.

WiFi
So far the wireless on this laptop has been perfect. It has not had any issues connecting to any of the WiFi networks that I have come across.

Dell Active Pen
I purchased the Dell pen but never made use of it. I really have a hard time writing notes. I’m much quicker typing than writing by hand. It was the same when I had my Surface Pro.

Tablet Mode
I made considerably more use of the tablet mode on this trip than I have in the previous month I owned the device. I have to admit that this device is heavier to use as a tablet than the Surface Pro was. Browsing the internet in the hotel room while lying on my bed was more awkward with this laptop than the Surface Pro ever was.

"Lapability"
When I was a Surface fanatic, I felt that the “lapability” argument was overhyped. I felt that the Surface was just as usable on my lap as a regular laptop was. I’ve never been so wrong. Even with the Surface keyboard, there was never an easy way to use the laptop on my lap. I did not realize how much I missed this ability.

This laptop has been one of the best gadget purchases I have made in the past few years.