Dell’s cheapest XPS 13 yet, the 9370 is just $900
Dell adds an 8th-gen Core i3 option that may actually be faster than the previous 7th-gen Core i5 version.
If you’ve been coveting an 8th-gen Dell XPS 13 but couldn’t quite justify the price, here’s some good news for you: The company has just added a Core i3 version that’s a hundred bucks cheaper.
Announced at IFA in Berlin, Germany, the XPS 13 9370 features a dual-core 8th-gen Core i3-8130u, 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM, a 128GB SATA SSD, and 1080p panel for $900.
Don’t turn your nose up at the thought of a low-rent Core i3. It’s likely to be nearly as fast if not faster than the previous XPS 13
model with a midrange Core i5 inside of it. We can say this with some confidence because Dell’s redesigned XPS 13 9570 (reviewed at go.pcworld.com/xps3) hammered the previous version, thanks to its enhanced cooling. Dell likely used the same cooling system in the Core i3 too, which means greater performance.
Intel’s trick with the 8th-generation CPUS is to give you features the previous generation didn’t have at all. A Dell XPS 13 9560, for example, with a dual-core 7th-gen Core i3, gave you Hyper-threading, a good thing. The 8th-gen Core i3 takes that Hyper-threading and adds the ability to boost up to 3.4GHZ. With the addition of better cooling, there’s a very good chance the New XPS 13 9570 with a Core i3 will match the older XPS 13 9560 with a Core i5-7200u inside of it.
Much of the rest of the XPS 13 is the same, including the tiny size, low weight, and top-notch build quality. But at $899, this new model suddenly makes the XPS 13 attainable for a lot more people.