Dell XPS 13 9310: At First Glance
This Dell’s sleek and Ultraportable laptop has been upgraded with an 11th Gen Tiger Lake processor. The laptop offers an enticing option for creatives and professionals because the processor upgrade is expected to deliver increased processing power.
Moreover, the Dell XPS 13 9310 appears to be taking on Apple’s MacBook Air and Pro 13. With its increased processing power and elegant design, the Dell XPS 13 9310 is definitely a force to reckon with.
Speaking of design, the Dell XPS 13 9310 still has its slender lightweight chassis. Therefore, it remains very portable.
Dell XPS 13 9310: Design, Dimension, and Weight
In comparison with the other XPS laptops, the Dell XPS 13 9310‘s design hasn’t changed that much. You still get the simple Silver finish on the outside and a very pleasing soft-touch interior.
The Dell XPS 13 9310’s design is absolutely lovable. Its design is a wonderfully balanced mix of simplicity and beauty.
This laptop is thin, and light, and it feels very premium. It measures 295.7 x 198.7 x 14.8 mm and weighs 1200 g.
Furthermore, the build quality of the laptop is excellent. You will hardly notice any flex when holding the Dell XPS 13 9310.
Moreover, Dell put more consideration into the durability of the Dell XPS 13 9310. One of the measures Dell took to ensure this is by double-dipping the laptop’s side aluminum to avoid scratches on its sides.
Dell also coated the laptop’s screen with Gorilla glass for added durability.
The screen itself is very beautiful. It is an awesome display that showcases one of the tiniest bezels you will see around a laptop’s display.
Moving on to keyboard design – even though the Dell XPS 13 9310 is a 13-inch laptop, you still get a well-spaced keyboard that offers a comfortable typing experience. Designed with Dell’s Chiclet keyboard – it utilizes all the available spaces on the laptop’s deck.
In addition to the laptop’s excellent keyboard, it’s glass touchpad is exceptionally smooth and responsive.
Furthermore, for a laptop with its form factor, this laptop’s port selection is just as basic as you would guess it to be. The Dell XPS 13 9310 offers just a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports and a headphone jack.
In conclusion, the Dell XPS 13 9310 scores a nine in this review for its solid build and premium design.
Dell XPS 13 9310: Processor (CPU) Performance
Dell equipped the Dell XPS 13 9310 with a quad-core Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor. This processor has a base frequency of 2.80 GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.70 GHz.
The Dell XPS 13 9310 showed obvious improvements in its CPU performance. However, there isn’t much difference in its performance of its new processor, compared to the Ice Lake processor that shipped with its predecessor.
With this Tiger Lake processor, the Dell XPS 13 9310 delivers most computing tasks exceptionally well. Computing operations like web browsing, coding, document editing, and light video editing all run smoothly on the Dell XPS 13 9310.
Moreover, the Dell XPS 13 9310 scored 5,254 on a Geekbench 5 overall performance test. It surpassed the HP Spectre that scored 4,074 and the 13-inch MacBook Pro that scored 4,399.
The Dell XPS 13 9310 has impressive processing power. Hence, it scores an eight in this review.
Dell XPS 13 9310: Memory (RAM) Performance
Dell offers two configurations for the Dell XPS 13 9310’s memory. You can buy this laptop with either a 16 GB or 32 GB LPDDR4 RAM.
This review focuses on the 16 GB RAM. With this RAM, the Dell XPS 13 9310 put on a solid performance when it was tested.
To offer you some test details – this laptop ran smoothly with 33 Chrome browser tabs (two were streaming YouTube videos) while I was sending messages on Slack. Even when I started streaming a movie on Netflix, this laptop didn’t slow down.
In addition to all those operations, I started running two programs simultaneously. The Dell XPS 13 9310 continued to run without hanging or slowing down.
Therefore, it scores an eight in this review for its ability to multitask smoothly.
Dell XPS 13 9310: Storage Options and Performance
The Dell XPS 13 9310 ships with 1 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD storage. The laptop also offers a microSD card reader for storage expansion.
1 TB storage is more than sufficient for regular file storage. You will have no problem storing your documents, photos, music, and videos.
Moreover, its solid-state drive improves its speed. On a file transfer test, the Dell XPS 13 9310 copied 4.97 GB of mixed media files at a transfer rate of 725.2 MBps.
In comparison, Dell XPS 13 9310 was much faster than the HP Spectre that copied the same file at 310 MBps. However, the Dell XPS 13 9310 couldn’t surpass the ZenBook 13‘s 964.6 MBps copy rate.
Nonetheless, the Dell XPS 13 9310 offers an impressive storage speed and capacity. Therefore, it scores an eight in this review.
Dell XPS 13 9310: Graphics Card Performance
The hardware improvement is not limited to the CPU. This laptop’s GPU was also changed to Intel’s new integrated graphics chip.
Furthermore, Dell XPS 13 9310 features an integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics card. This GPU has a base frequency of 300 MHz and a boost frequency of 1300 MHz.
The Dell XPS 13 9310 can play light games without problems. It can also run modern title games – but you might need to reduce graphics settings to play some games.
On Sid Meyer’s Civilization VI gaming test, the Dell XPS 13 9310 delivered 55 FPS, surpassing the 28 FPS premium laptop average. In comparison, the 13-inch MacBook Pro and the ZenBook 13 were nowhere near the Dell XPS 13 9310 – they offered 18 FPS and 21 FPS respectively.
In conclusion, this laptop offers surprisingly good gaming performance. Therefore, it scores seven in this review.
Dell XPS 13 9310: Battery Life and Performance
This laptop does not only offer an improved CPU and GPU performance, you also get to enjoy a longer battery life.
The Dell XPS 13 9310 comes with a 4-Cell 52 Whr battery. Dell claims that this laptop can last up to 18 hours.
However, the Dell XPS 13 9310 couldn’t offer the advertised 18 hours battery life when I tested its battery performance. It lasted 11 hours and 10 minutes on a continuous web surfing test.
Even though it didn’t offer the promised lifetime, the Dell XPS 13 9310’s battery life is excellent. Moreover, it exceeded the 9 hours 50 minutes premium laptop average. It also exceeded MacBook Pro’s 10 hours 25 minutes battery life.
However, the HP Spectre and the ZenBook 13 outperformed the Dell XPS 13 9310. the Spectre delivered 13 hours 20 minutes while the ZenBook 13 lasted 13 hours 50 minutes.
Nonetheless, the Dell XPS 13 9310 scores an eight in this review for its long battery life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, it is. The Dell XPS 13 9310 is one of the best laptops you can buy. Even though the previous model was great, Dell made more improvements to make it better.
The Dell XPS 13 9310 can play light games very well. It can also run modern title games. However, you might need to reduce graphics settings to play some of those modern title games.
No, it doesn’t. The Dell XPS 13 9310 comes with an InfinityEdge Non-Touch Anti-Glare display.
The Dell XPS 13 9310 uses a Windows 10 Pro 64-bits operating system.
All the Dell XPS 13 laptops are very good. It all depends on finding the one that best suits your needs. For instance, if you want better graphics performance, you can buy either the XPS 13 2-in-1 7390 or XPS 13 9310. For multi-core tasks, the XPS 13 9310 is a very good laptop.
Conclusion
There is a lot to like about the Dell XPS 13 9310. It is a nice upgrade over its previous model.
Moreover, its incredibly thin bezels, a comfortable keyboard, and long battery life are a few of its excellent features. Even in terms of performance, this laptop doesn’t disappoint.
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