Dell XPS 13 9300: At First Glance
Dell’s XPS range has always been one of the best options when it comes to incredibly portable and powerful laptops. The Dell XPS 13 9300 laptop is no exception.
This laptop is a nearly perfect update of the already excellent XPS laptop. Despite its (XPS 13 9300) slightly larger display, it is now even more compact.
And as always, this laptop still looks amazing. What’s even better is that it packs impressive hardware specs in its small body.
Dell XPS 13 9300: Design, Dimension, and Weight
On your first encounter with the Dell XPS 13 9300, you will discover that Dell barely made any changes on the exterior of this laptop. It is still one of the best-looking laptops available for purchase.
The Dell XPS 13 9300 has been created from aluminum polished with CNC. The moment you pick this laptop up, you will feel how much thought Dell put into designing this laptop.
In all honesty, the construction of this laptop certainly matches its price tag.
Moreover, the Dell XPS 13 9300 has an incredibly slender chassis that feels light. This laptop measures 295.6 x 198.6 x 9.5 mm and weighs 1306.3 g.
Despite its delicate-looking form, the overall build of the Dell XPS 13 9300 feels sturdy. Its lid barely has any flex at all even when extreme pressure is exerted.
Furthermore, its nice looking silver coating also seems resistant to stains and scratches.
Just like its exterior, the interior part of this laptop is solid as well. This laptop’s display is coated with Gorilla glass for protection.
Furthermore, the keyboard deck is surrounded by a nice soft-touch carbon fiber palm rest. However, you will need to clean its surface constantly because it often tends to get greasy.
Moving to the keyboard itself, Dell continues to do a great job. The keys are well spaced over the laptop’s deck despite the limited space to work with.
Additionally, the keyboard keys have an awesome tactile feedback. They are also moderately sized.
Dell also fitted this laptop with a moderately sized touchpad. This touchpad is very smooth and responsive to multitouch gestures.
Furthermore, the port selection on the Dell XPS 13 9300 is not different from what we usually see in Dell’s XPS laptops. It has 2 USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2 Thunderbolt 3 with power delivery & DisplayPort, and a headphone jack.
In conclusion, the Dell XPS 13 9300 is a result of a careful and thoughtful design process. Its overall design and build are simply fantastic.
Therefore, it scores a nine in this review.
Dell XPS 13 9300: Processor (CPU) Performance
Dell equipped the Dell XPS 13 9300 with a quad-core Intel Core i7-1065G7. This processor has a base frequency of 1.30 GHz and a maximum frequency of 3.90 GHz.
Despite its fragile look, the Dell XPS 13 9300 has enough power to carry out any regular computing operation thanks to its Ice Lake CPU. However, this laptop might struggle with some demanding tasks such as video editing.
Aside from that, this laptop’s performance is impressive. Overall, it performed well on the benchmark tests that were carried out.
The Dell XPS 13 9300 scored 19,055 on a Geekbench 4 performance test – surpassing the 16,670 premium laptop average. It also did better than HP Spectre x360 that scored 18,408.
Furthermore, the 14-inch MacBook Pro was behind this laptop – it scored 18,222. Only the Surface Laptop Book 3 barely surpassed this laptop – it scored 19,078.
Hence, the Dell XPS 13 9300 scores an eight in this review for its impressive CPU performance.
Dell XPS 13 9300: Memory (RAM) Performance
The Dell XPS 13 9300 comes with 4 GB LPDDR4 RAM. Dell offers a maximum RAM size of 32 GB for this laptop’s RAM.
One major downside to this laptop’s memory is its single (non-removable) memory slot. The implication is that once you purchase the laptop, you will not be able to upgrade the memory.
This review focuses on the 16 GB RAM capacity. Equipped with this RAM, the Dell XPS 13 9300 proved to be fast at multitasking when I tested it for its RAM performance.
To begin with, launching apps on this laptop was incredibly fast. Although a laptop’s RAM is not the only contributing factor, it plays a major role.
On a more intensive test, this Dell laptop easily streamed a movie on Netflix while I had about 27 Chrome browser tabs opened. The workflow was smooth – I did not notice any stutter all through the test.
Furthermore, the laptop scored 6912 points on a PCMark 10 productivity test. It surpassed the MacBook Pro’s 4,786 score but couldn’t surpass the Surface Laptop 3’s 7275 score.
Nonetheless, the Dell XPS 13 9300 scores an eight in this RAM review for its multitasking performance.
Dell XPS 13 9300: Storage Options and Performance
Dell ships this laptop with a 2 TB PCle Gen 3 M.2 SSD. Additionally, you also get a microSD card reader for storage expansion.
Aside from its sufficient storage capacity, the Dell XPS 13 9300 offers good storage speed. On a CrystalDiskMark test, the Dell XPS 13 9300 recorded a sequential read speed of 2231 MBps and a sequential write speed of 1049 MBps.
Furthermore, the Dell XPS 13 9300 also performed well in the file transfer test even though it was a bit shy of the category average. It copied a 4.97 GB mixed media file in 8.5 seconds at a rate of 611.1 MBps.
As noted in the last paragraph, Dell XPS 13 9300 came slightly short of the 622 MBps category average copy speed. However, it performed better than the Surface Laptop 3’s 541 MBps copy rate.
Additionally, the file copy rate of Dell XPS 13 9300 did better than Spectre x360’s 318 MBps copy rate. However, Dell XPS 13 9300 was nowhere near the MacBook Pro’s 2,573 MBps copy rate.
Nonetheless, the Dell XPS 13 9300 scores an eight in this review for its relatively fast storage speed.
Dell XPS 13 9300: Graphics Card Performance
Dell offers two configurations for this laptop’s graphics card. You can buy the laptop with either an integrated Intel UHD Graphics or an integrated Iris Plus graphics card.
The Intel UHD graphics card has a base frequency of 300 MHz and a boost frequency of 1050 MHz. However, the Iris Plus graphics card has a base frequency of 300 MHz and a boost frequency of 1100 MHz.
Unfortunately, neither of these graphics cards come with a dedicated VRAM. But then, both graphics cards perform as expected in relation to other laptops equipped with the same GPU.
This review focuses on the Intel Iris Plus GPU. With this GPU, the Dell XPS 13 9300 played Dirt 3 at 60 FPS, Dota 2 Reborn at 48 FPS, and X Plane 11.11 at 27 FPS.
Overall, this laptop offers a manageable gaming experience even though the laptop is not designed for gaming.
Unfortunately, based on its below-average gaming performance, I can only give it a six in this review.
Dell XPS 13 9300: Battery Life and Performance
Dell equipped XPS 13 9300 with a 4-Cell, 52 Whr battery. The laptop offers a battery life that should last you an entire day of work. It lasted 12 hours and 40 minutes on a battery test that involved continuous web surfing.
However, the laptop should last you some extra hours after a full work day’s activities – provided you don’t run many intensive computing operations.
Unfortunately, charging this laptop from 0-100% is slower than most of its competitors – takes over 2 hours compared to the 1.5 hours most laptops require.
On the brighter side, for battery life comparison, the Dell XPS 13 9300 exceeded the premium laptop’s average battery life of 8 hours 50 minutes. It also outlasted the Surface Laptop 3 that lasted 9 hours 20 minutes.
Finally, it scores a nine in this review for its excellent battery life.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Dell XPS 13 9300 is a premium laptop that offers all you will expect of a premium laptop. It offers excellent performance, long battery life, and an amazing design.
Overall, this laptop worths every penny Dell charges for it. This laptop offers enough value for its price.
The new Dell XPS 13 9300 has a larger display than the previous Dell XPS 13 model. Despite the larger display, the new XPS 13 is more compact than its predecessor.
Overall, this new model has a smaller, sleeker, and better design than the old model. Aside from its design, this new model is also more powerful, thanks to its improved CPU.
Dell offers the option for a touchscreen. Therefore, you can either decide to purchase the touchscreen model or the non-touch model
Generally, Dell and Apple have different focal points that they offer their users. Apple mainly offers a great design, better customer service, and a smooth user experience. However, if you want better value for your money, a more powerful laptop, and Windows OS, you should consider Dell laptops.
The Dell XPS 13 9300 offers a playable gaming experience even though the laptop is not designed for gaming. It played Dirt 3 at 60 FPS, Dota 2 Reborn at 48 FPS, and X Plane 11.11 at 27 FPS.
Conclusion
The Dell XPS 13 9300 can be regarded as a standard for most Ultrabooks. It offers amazing performance, a good battery life, and a fantastic design.
If you want a portable laptop with dependable performance, you should consider the Dell XPS 13 9300.
The major setback for this laptop is its lack of a dedicated graphics card. nonetheless, it is an excellent laptop.
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