Small change

Otherwise, though, it’s still the Dell XPS 13 we all know and love. Its dimensions are a touch more generous – it’s a few millimetres narrower and a handful of grams lighter – but nothing that would stop you in your tracks.

The port layout and selection has changed, though. Where last year you had three USB-C ports – one USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gbits/sec) and two Thunderbolt 3 – this year you have only two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports. The handy LED battery gauge has disappeared too, but thankfully Dell has retained the microSD slot and 3.5mm headset jack.

Open up the laptop and there are a number of other minor physical changes, some good, some bad. The keyboard now stretches right to the edges of the chassis, leaving a mere 6mm gap either side. The new rectangular power button/fingerprint reader now resides where the Delete

“The internals have been given a boost to the best tenth-gen Intel CPUs. Otherwise, it’s still the excellent laptop it was”

key used to be, shunting it a centimetre or so to the left. And the webcam set into the bezel above the screen has gained a couple of extra eyes, which is what enables Windows Hello face-recognition login.

I’ve tested both login methods and they work just as reliably as you’d expect. As a regular video-call webcam, the new Windows Hello camera does leave something to be desired, though. The picture lacks crispness (resolution is limited to 720p) and the autoexposure often struggles with extremes of light and dark. Microsoft’s 1080p webcams are far superior to this one. Having said that, the microphone works well and the speakers are loud and clear enough for podcasts and conference calls.

Type cast

Moving around core keys such as Delete is normally enough to raise my blood pressure a few notches, but thankfully the rest of the keyboard is sensibly laid out. The Shift, Tab,