Dell XPS 13

Is this year’s XPS extra special? Dell’s new integrated GPU puts gaming potential on the ultraportable.

Dell’s XPS range has long been one of the best available professional ultrabooks, but the late 2020 XPS 13 (9310) has upped the ante with a new processor and a considerable price cut that puts it, once again, at the top of the game.

The XPS range pioneered the race for the best screen to body ratio with its ultra slim infinity bezels, and it’s improved on them again this year by another eight percent over the earlier 2020 XPS 13. This 16 by 10, 13.4-inch display can be configured with either a 500 nit Full HD+ or a 4K HDR screen with a DCI P3 colour gamut. While the 4K model has touchscreen capabilities you can opt for a non-touch variation of the 1080p screen, but all three offer Dolby Vision for HDR media playback.

This device is powered by a new range of 11th Generation Intel processors that see pretty normal generational boosts in performance of between five and 20 percent across various work benchmarks, but they also come with a new range of integrated GPUs that have a massive impact on graphical performance. On demanding tasks the Intel Iris Xe Graphics on the XPS 13 (9310) doubled the performance of the Intel Iris Plus Graphics that we saw on the previous generation. This is enough of a performance bump to put light 1080p gaming within reach, offering playable frame rates of around 30fps on current titles like The Division 2, Metro: Exodus and Civilization VI

when running Low graphical settings at 1080p resolutions. The same settings get closer to 60fps averages on Total War Saga: Troy and F1 2020 and you’ll get much faster frame rates on less demanding titles like Fortnite or Rocket League.

The late 2020 XPS 13 (9310) comes with either an Intel Core i5-1135G7 or a Core i7-1165G7 CPU locally and each starts with respective RRPs of $2,399 and $2,899 for the non touch FullHD models. If you want the touch panel it’ll cost an extra $100 while the 4K screen will add $500 to the bill. While the i5 variant comes with 8GB of RAM, the i7 model comes with either 16GB or 32GB and can expand the included PCIe SSD storage from 512 GB to 1TB.

The new XPS 13 also sees an improvement in processor efficiency that generates a 20 percent increase in 1080p movie playback lifespan. The new seven hour total achieved by the 48Wh battery isn’t quite what you need for a full day of productivity, but it is more than enough to get you through most of a daily workload.

Dell’s still using fibreglass for the palm rest surround to insulate your hands from the internals and it’s available in either black or white colourings with a honed silver or frost coloured metal chassis to match. It’s a worthy consideration since the late 2020 XPS 13 runs hot, with CPU cores frequently spiking to 100 degrees.

Considering that it’s also got a decent set of speakers, a comfortable keyboard, a responsive trackpad and sufficient webcam capabilities, the late 2020 XPS 13 ticks every box it needs to be a great ultrabook.

Solid integrated graphics improvements and a local price cut put the XPS 13 back on top of the pile of professional ultrabooks.