Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (2020)
Dell’s premium 2-in-1 XPS is one of the best Windows laptops around.
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (2020), also known as the Dell XPS 13 7390, is a major performance and specification update to Dell’s high-end 2-in-1 range, and could be the finest example there is of this popular best-of-both-worlds form factor.
Usually, 2-in-1 laptops function perfectly normally as standard touchscreen Windows laptops.
But they also offer a mechanism to flip the screen around and transform the laptop into a tablet, making easier to carry around and use when out and about.
The experience of using one is nothing at all like an iPad or Android tablet though and instead is closer to Microsoft’s Surface Pro. It’s a Windows 10 laptop after all, and it runs standard PC software, with touch interactions and an on-screen keyboard replacing the keyboard and mouse.
Design
Dell’s premium XPS design language casts off any notion that
Windows laptops lack the same chic or modern feel of Apple devices. In (almost) all areas the XPS 13 2-in-1 (2020) both looks and feels like a top quality product, and this goes a long way to justifying the price.
We had more than a few people coo at the slim design. It’s not as thin as a MacBook Air but it does retain the same strikingly thin appearance. It feels strong but highly portable, making good use of every millimetre of space on the chassis.
Strangely though, it still doesn’t feel overly light, despite only weighing 1.3kg, and it gives the impression of some solid heft when when carrying it. We suspect this is purely psychological though, due to the chunky solid feel of the metal lid, but this svelte design doesn’t really get in the way or make it less portable but instead somehow
With a modern 10nm Intel processor, the Dell XPS 13 7390 offers performance that is comparable with most Windows quad-core laptops and at times beats them.
works in its favour, reinforcing the notion that you’re holding a piece of quality well-built hardware.
With the lid closed the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (2020) is 13mm high at its thickest point and 7mm high at the narrowest with the lid open. Overall dimensions of
296 x 207 x 13mm (WxDxH) actually make it just slightly smaller than a MacBook Air in width and depth by a few millimetres, which may give you some idea of how thin and portable it really is.
Besides the striking physical appearance, the display is undoubtedly the next high quality feature that you’ll notice on the Dell XPS 13 7390. With bright and sharp colours, even just the Windows desktop and application icons stand out, along with imagery and movies across the Full HD+ (1920x 1200) resolution.
In keeping with modern trends,
ports are limited. You get two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, 3.5mm audio output and a MicroSD card slot. And that’s it. One of the USB-C ports is used for charging, leaving one lonely port for everything else.
Although Dell includes a USB-C to USB-A adapter in the box, there are no USB-A ports on the laptop itself. For people with a lot of peripherals, you’re either going to need a dock or perhaps use a secondary display with a built-in USB Hub.
Performance
With a modern 10nm Intel processor, the Dell XPS 13 7390 offers performance that is comparable with most Windows quad-core laptops and at times beats them.
Intel’s Core i7-1065G7 processor has hyper threading so appears as eight logical cores in Windows 10, idling at 1.5GHz, but in this laptop we measured it running at 2.9GHz over sustained periods during tests.
That’s pretty good, particularly since the 10nm processor drives great battery life when throttled down. The Cinebench score of 1,621 and Geekbench scores places it well within range of the top end of Windows performance. The top Intel and AMD desktop chips manage better scores in Geekbench, but make no mistake, with 16GB of DDR4 memory to boot, this laptop is more than capable of video editing, running complex audio software and photo editing.
When running intense applications that put the processor under stress, the fans audibly sped up to a kind of hiss rather than a whine. This is true on most laptops and wasn’t a notable issue here. When in less intensive tasks the 7390 is mostly silent.
As suggested above, gaming is not really an option with Intel’s Iris Plus graphics unless you’re playing vintage titles, browser games or specific games with very low graphics demands.
But this all changes with an eGPU enclosure, something we tested with the Dell XPS 13 7390 for surprisingly great results. Hooked up to one of the Thunderbolt 3 ports, we used the Dell XPS 13 with an eGPU enclosure and an AMD Radeon 5700 graphics card, and suddenly gaming became viable. eGPU enclosures cost quite a bit of money, however, and you need to purchase a graphics card on top of that, making this a relatively expensive way to run games on a non-gaming laptop. It’s not something we recommend for everyone.
Battery life
If the design and display are the first two real stand-out features of the Dell XPS 2-in-1 (2020), built atop solid performance foundations, then the battery life is what makes it a hat-trick for Dell.
In our test we enabled the low power Battery Saver option in Windows 10, set the screen brightness to 50% and the 1080p movie test going on repeat. 14 hours later, it was still running with over 10% of the battery remaining. That’s very impressive, enough to last a typical long-haul flight on a single charge and still provide entertainment for the taxi ride to your hotel.
A beautifully designed laptop with processing power that delivers a brilliant Windows environment for both general tasks and more intensive applications, making this the best 2-in-1 currently available. Orestis Bastounis