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00:00Get over here!
00:02Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here, and this is a review of the brand new XPS 13 for 2018. So this thing's been redesigned
00:08It's got a fresh new look and the original XPS 13 or I should say the previous generation of XPS 13
00:14That style has been around since
00:172015 it's been around for a while the design has gone a little bit old and they finally refreshed the whole thing
00:22So this thing now comes in a new design. It's thinner. It's lighter and it's significantly smaller than the previous generation
00:28I think it's only like 24% smaller than the previous generation
00:31Which is very noticeable see on camera or just if you look at it and pictures and stuff like that
00:36You can't really tell but when you hold it in person, especially if you compare it with the old one right beside it
00:40It's a very noticeable difference in weight and in size and I think it's a really nice looking device
00:45So one of the best things about the XPS lineup is that they don't copy MacBooks
00:49They just kind of make their own thing and it's distinctly a very XPS looking machine
00:53And I think it looks quite good
00:55The big change though in terms of the aesthetics is this new glass fiber weave and it looks awesome
00:59So the original XPS 13 and 15 had this black carbon fiber material that looked really good
01:06Honestly, I think this looks better
01:07So the one difference though is that this material is it doesn't have that rubber finish that the XPS 13 and 15 had from last
01:15Generation it was almost like a soft touch material. This feels it's kind of like a regular I want to say plastic
01:21It's not plastic, but it feels kind of like a smoother and harder finish, which isn't as inviting to use
01:26It's more of a technical material, but it does look really good. Now. This material does have some kind of stain resistance to it
01:32I tried putting some pen on it doesn't stain like you can just wipe it off pretty easily
01:35It's supposed to look fresh and it does I think it looks really really good
01:40So they've matched the white interior with the rose gold metal for the top surface
01:45They call it rose gold
01:46But it's much less pink than a lot of rose gold materials from other companies and I'm rocking a dbrand skin on mine because seriously
01:52This looks super fly marble top gold trim white interior. I mean
01:58This is fresh AF
02:00One of the few complaints I had about the previous XPS 13 was the power supply
02:04So this finally uses a USB-C port to charge it
02:07I know the old one could use USB-C, but it included a barrel plug as like the AC adapter
02:12I like USB-C much more for 2018. Now the rest of the USB ports are all USB-C as well and they have a micro SD
02:19I like the USB-C's and they include an adapter for USB-A connections, but I don't love the micro SD slot
02:25I feel like it's something not a lot of people will use
02:27But it is there in case you want it. Now in terms of the Thunderbolt 3 ports
02:31They support four lanes of PCIe and it's something that bothered some people with the previous generation
02:36They only supported two lanes of PCIe for external GPU connections. Now you get all four
02:42The webcam on this laptop has been updated and now supports Windows Hello for secure logins now
02:46It's still located at the bottom. So the camera looks up your nose and the image quality isn't amazing or anything
02:51It's kind of your standard webcam for an ultrabook, but it does keep the bezels really thin
02:55One thing I don't like though is that the white trim like on the white model that black camera cutout is a bit of an eyesore
03:01So if you don't use your camera very often or if you just want a more secure camera thing
03:04You can get some privacy stickers from dbrand cover it up and it looks a lot cleaner
03:08The bezels on the previous XPS 13 are already really thin. These are even thinner. I think it's like 23% thinner
03:14It's just a more immersive experience when you're using this screen
03:17The screen itself is covered in Gorilla Glass 4 and I'm running a 1080p panel and it's bright with decent color accuracy
03:23It does come in a new 4k panel with a hundred percent sRGB if you need something for color accurate work
03:29Now the performance on this thing is good as you expect because an 8th gen CPU for multi-core applications
03:35These 8th gen CPUs can fly. I tried to run Intel XTU on this laptop. It does throttle
03:40It's kind of expected considering the size and everything on this laptop, but I had big dreams
03:44So the thermals on this system have been changed
03:47So this is now running a new thermal management thing called Gore thermal material and I'm not sure exactly what it is
03:53But it's supposed to be some advanced material that they use in space programs and stuff
03:56It's a good thermal solution
03:58But it's not amazing like if you're hoping to go full turbo on all four cores for an extended period of time
04:03It's not gonna happen. It will throttle. The good thing is that the fans are really quiet on idle and on full load
04:09Gaming performance isn't amazing. It's running an Intel UHD 620
04:13So you're gonna get some pretty mediocre frame rates unless you're playing some really light games
04:17The keyboard feels really similar to the previous generation to me
04:20It's a little bit different visually like the keys are a little bit larger and the layout has changed a bit
04:25Page up, page down have their own keys, but the typing experience feels really similar to the old one
04:29I think a lot of people will enjoy using this keyboard
04:31The trackpad is I think it's identical. They might be using the exact same one. It feels good, windows precision, glass surface
04:38It's a good trackpad. Okay, let's take a look at the internals
04:41It's a fast drive, PM 961, user replaceable. The Wi-Fi card looks to be built on board
04:46But it can run the Intel 8265. So if you want a good Wi-Fi card, I'd go with that one
04:51The battery is 52 watts. It's smaller than before the previous generation had a 60 watt battery
04:56But remember it's a smaller chassis. You kind of expect it to have a smaller battery as well
05:00But the good thing is though the battery life is still really really good
05:03I'm getting around 11 hours of battery life on this thing with the screen at 250 nits
05:07All right, the speakers they're mounted on the side. So they're positioned reasonably well
05:12I prefer them to be kind of on the keyboard facing up, but this is a decent location
05:16It does have new software
05:17But I feel like the actual audio quality and clarity sounds pretty much exactly the same as the previous generation
05:23Which is good, but not great. The coil whine, so people that are interested whether or not this thing has coil whine
05:28I have one unit. It's a review unit
05:30So the this unit did not have it, but the responsible thing for me to say is that I can't tell yet
05:35I feel like I would need hundreds of XPS 13 to be able to tell you whether or not this thing has an issue or
05:40Not, but this particular unit did not have it
05:43Overall great laptop. I think that Dell did a really good job this year and honestly
05:48There's so little to dislike about this thing, but there's one thing I want to get off my chest
05:52This was a redesign
05:53They had an opportunity to make something completely brand new in aesthetics and an appearance and they went with something that is just it feels
06:00Too familiar to the old one. So the old one
06:03Was a good design
06:04But if you didn't know that this was a new version and you had the black version particularly like the black and silver version of this
06:11You wouldn't be able to tell immediately that it was a new version
06:13There was a new updated version of the XPS 13 because it looks so similar
06:17It is thinner smaller lighter all that stuff
06:20But I mean you could have done something crazy Dell you could have made something like completely fresh now
06:27I know Dell is more conservative company. They're kind of like business oriented enterprise oriented
06:31So I get it, but me personally, I would have loved to see something
06:35Just completely different visually, but it's a fantastic product
06:39If you're looking for a thin and light laptop, this thing should be near the top of the list
06:43Okay. Hope you guys enjoyed this video thumbs if you liked it subs if you loved it. See you guys next time
06:50You