The new XPS 13 Ultrabook was introduced and like many of its predecessors, it pushes a high level of mobility but marries that with lead edge industrial design and top tier product protection. The Dell XPS 13 is similarly designed with a 13-inch display in a 11-inch case making it an extremely small footprint. The hallmarks of XPS 13 Ultrabook are the excellent materials of construction, low power consumption and decent performance.
On the other end of the spectrum are ultrabooks that aim to redefine the term premium, incorporating goodies like Gorilla Glass, full-size SSDs (compared to the mSATA SSD cache that meets the minimum ultrabook requirements), soft-touch surfaces, single-piece aluminum designs, and more.
Dell’s XPS 13 is technically a last generation ultrabook, coming equipped with a 2nd gen Sandy Bridge Core i5 processor, but in our eyes this is a perfect reasonable sacrifice to get a boat load of premium features at a bargain price. The specs list gets you the dual-core Core i5, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB SSD; but the real value is in every nook and cranny of the XPS 13.
It starts with a carbon fiber base for added durability over aluminum and lower weight. The top cover does use aluminum, making for a computer that is 6mm thick at the front and just 18mm in the rear. Even the palm rest of made of magnesium and covered in lush soft touch paint.
The XPS 13 Ultrabook is a slim 6 mm at its thinnest point (only 18 mm at its thickest point), and features a 33.7 cm (13.3) HD display cleverly fit into a footprint that's similar to an 27.9 cm laptop.
XPS 13 boots in as little as 8 seconds and resumes from sleep mode in just 1 second (4 seconds from deep sleep). A solid-state drive and Intel® Rapid Start Technology make it possible.
