Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei Matebook X Pro: Which is More Powerful?

Are you looking for a powerful premium laptop? If yes, you will find this Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei Matebook X Pro comparison article useful.

Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei Matebook X Pro: At First Glance

There’s no way the brand “Dell” wouldn’t come to mind during conversations about the biggest manufacturers in the laptop market. After all, they’ve been able to seal a spot amongst the biggest laptop brands thanks to the value they offer.

Out of all the laptops they offer, their signature range – the Dell XPS series – happens to be one of the most value-oriented product lines they offer. This is why the Dell XPS 13 ranks amongst the best of the best premium laptops.

Amongst the few laptops capable of competing with the Dell XPS 13 is the Huawei Matebook X Pro from Huawei’s Matebook range. The Matebook X Pro is slightly more expensive than the XPS 13, but it boasts the hardware to back its price up.

Can the Huawei Matebook X Pro get a win over the Dell XPS 13 in terms of overall power and value? Let’s find out together in subsequent sections of this comparison article!

Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei Matebook X Pro: Design, Dimension, and Weight

Both the Dell XPS 13 and Huawei MateBook X Pro have ventured into the laptop scene as game-changers in their own way. The Dell XPS 13, in its own way, has set the standards for how attractive a mid-range laptop should be.

Meanwhile, the MateBook X Pro – since its first release – has integrated the MacBook-like design theme into a Windows-based design. They’ve become the gold standard for full-fledged Windows systems looking to adopt MacBook-like styling.

Before we fully analyze the idea behind Huwaei’s MacBook-like design theme, let’s consider the Dell XPS 13’s design first.

It may sound like excessive praise, but the Dell XPS 13 is just as stunning as the media hype it receives. The Dell XPS 13 is beautifully coated in silver with a frosted finish that elevates its simple appearance.

In fact, the Dell XPS 13 is one of those laptops with simple aesthetic elements but a luxurious-looking overall design. I guess we could say that this is a result of an engineering masterclass from Dell’s engineers.

Every single one of its design elements is perfectly streamlined to give it that “wow-factor”. There are no unnecessary markings, lines, or angles on the Dell XPS 13’s chassis.

It’s just straight lines and well-rounded corners.

The Huawei MateBook X Pro is in the same business of “simplicity is beautiful”. As I stated earlier, it follows in the same footsteps of Apple’s MacBook design theme, so it stresses simplicity in its overall design theme.

Huawei doesn’t outrightly copy the MacBook design, though. They’ve been able to beautifully apply the MacBook design theme to building their own design formula.

As a result, you can expect some underlying similarities between the Huawei MateBook X Pro and Apple’s MacBook. The Huawei MateBook X Pro has straight lines linked together with well-rounded, smooth corners.

This design feature makes the Huawei MateBook X Pro share something in common with the Dell XPS 13. In fact, that’s not the only design element it shares with the XPS 13.

The Huawei MateBook X Pro also comes in a Frosted Silver color like the XPS 13.

As a result, it’s possible to think the Dell XPS 13 and MateBook X Pro are the same laptops when looking from a distance. The Dell logo and “HUAWEI” inscription on MateBook X Pro’s lid would be the first major design elements to help differentiate them.

Also, it could be easier to differentiate them if your MateBook X Pro unit comes in the optional Space Grey or Emerald Green color variants. With the Frost Silver variant, anyone could confuse the Dell laptop with the HUAWEI laptop.

To make it more complex, both laptops have nearly the same sizes – the Dell XPS 13 is more compact though. While the MateBook X Pro measures 304 x 217 x 14.6 mm (W x D x H), the Dell XPS 13 measures 295.7 x 198.7 x 14.8 mm (W x D x H).

One of the reasons for the Huawei MateBook X Pro’s larger size is its slightly bigger display. Compared to the XPS 13’s 13.4-inch display, the MateBook X Pro features a 13.9-inch display.

Another reason for the MateBook X Pro’s larger size is its 3:2 display aspect ratio. This makes it taller than a widescreen 16:9 display on regular laptops, including the 16:10 display on the Dell XPS 13.

To be fair, the Dell XPS 13’s irregular display is also tall, but the MateBook X Pro’s display is taller. At the end of the day, both laptops’ tall displays come to good use.

Their tall display makes it possible to view more information with less scrolling. They are handy for executing work tasks like word processing and spreadsheet package preparation.

In addition, you will be impressed by how many websites content you can view at once on both laptops without the need to scroll.

You will also be impressed by the incredibly thin bezels surrounding their displays. Apparently, both the Dell XPS 13 and MateBook X Pro are a few of the laptops that push the bezeless look to the compact laptop scene.

The almost invisible bezels surrounding their display add to the viewing experience both laptops have to offer. Speaking of the viewing experience, you will be left in awe by the quality both laptops’ displays have to offer.

They reproduce images and texts with good color accuracy and precise details. As a result, the contents on their display appear to be very sharp and crispy.

While both laptops come equipped with excellent displays, the features they offer are quite different. To begin with, the Dell XPS 13’s display offers a Full HD screen resolution of 1920 x 1200.

Meanwhile, the MateBook X Pro offers a better QHD resolution of 3000 x 2000. Due to this difference, the MateBook X Pro’s display tends to offer slightly better performance.

The MateBook X Pro’s display can also get slightly brighter than the Dell XPS 13’s display. While the Dell XPS 13 offers a maximum brightness of 500 nits, the MateBook X Pro’s display offers a maximum brightness of 530 nits.

Still on the outputs, the sound production on both laptops is quite impressive. With the MateBook X Pro, you get a dual top-firing speaker set positioned on either of the laptop’s keyboard.

The speakers produce crisp and sharp sounds, and they also get decently loud. However, they don’t produce bass sounds with enough oomph.

Since the speakers don’t feature audio tuning software, you will have to get an external speaker if you are not satisfied with the sound production.

The Dell XPS 13’s speaker set, on the other hand, comes with Waves MaxxAudio Pro for audio tuning. This feature enhances the sound production on the Dell XPS 13.

As a result, it offers good sound quality with a touch of bass. If it wasn’t for the addition of the sound tuning software, the Dell XPS 13’s sound quality could have been less impressive compared to the MateBook X Pro’s.

The reason for this is that top-firing speakers, similar to the speakers in MateBook X Pro, typically produce better sound quality. In comparison, down-firing speakers, like the one on the XPS 13, produce inferior sound quality.

In their defense, Dell has a good reason for not equipping the XPS 13 with top-firing speakers. Firstly, there’s no way they could have positioned the speakers on the display bezels because of how thin they are.

Also, instead of placing the speakers on the keyboard deck, Dell utilized the space for extending the keyboard across the deck. Unlike the MateBook X Pro, the Dell XPS 13 features a nearly edge-to-edge keyboard layout.

As a result, the keys on the Dell XPS 13’s keyboard are fairly large and well-spaced. They also have satisfying deep key travels as well as an appropriate amount of clickiness to them.

For those that are not familiar with what key travel means, I will explain. Key travel is the amount of distance a key needs to travel from its resting position to its actuation point, where it can register an input.

Although the Huawei MateBook X Pro doesn’t feature an edge-to-edge keyboard layout, its keys are still fairly large. They also have a good amount of space between them.

In use, this laptop’s keys feel good to touch. They do not feel too loose and they have deep key travels.

Take note that this laptop’s keyboard also features a webcam because Huawei couldn’t fit the webcam to the top bezel of the laptop. It is positioned between the F6 and F7 keys.

This webcam looks like a regular key. To activate the camera, all you need to do is press it, and you will see the camera pop up.

While it is a good innovation, it’s not the best solution. The reason for this is that it will often just stare up your nose when in use instead of focusing on your face.

Aside from this, every other thing about the Huawei MateBook X Pro’s keyboard is good.

Its glass touchpad is also excellent. It is smooth and sensitive to touches as well as Windows 10 multitouch gestures.

The Dell XPS 13’s glass touchpad is also good. It is sensitive to Windows 10 multitouch gestures, and you will also find it smooth enough for regular touchpad operations.

One thing I must mention about both laptops’ bases is the amount of rigidity they have in them. There’s no form of bending, twisting, or flexes in both laptops.

According to Dell, the XPS 13’s solid build is all thanks to its construction process. The Dell XPS 13’s chassis and lid have been cut from two separate blocks of aluminum, thereby reinforcing its rigidity.

Huawei didn’t use the same construction process to build the MateBook X Pro, but they did build it using an all-aluminum construction. This makes the MateBook X Pro solid enough as well.

Despite the rigidity of both laptops’ builds, they are both very light. To give you more detail, the Dell XPS 13 weighs just 1200 g while the MateBook X Pro weighs 1330 g.

As with their weight, the laptops are also reasonably sized. Specifically, the Dell XPS 13 9310 measures 295.7 x 198.7 x 14.8 mm (W x D x H).

In comparison, the Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 has a dimension of 304 x 217 x 14.6 mm (W x D x H).

Overall, the Huawei MateBook X Pro is bigger and weightier than the Dell XPS 13 9310.

In terms of ports, both laptops are limited. While the Dell XPS 13 features just 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, the MateBook X Pro comes with 2 USB Type-C ports and 1 USB 3.0 Type-A port.

Overall, it’s a bit difficult to pick an outright winner between the Dell XPS 13 and MateBook X Pro in this section. Both laptops feature beautiful designs, they are both sturdy, and they offer varying features that cross out each other at different levels.

By “different levels,” I mean their display features, sound system, port selection, and a few others.

With that being said, both laptops finish this section in a tie. They both score a nine in this Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei MateBook X Pro design comparison section.

Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei MateBook X Pro: Processor (CPU) Performance

The Dell XPS 13 and Huawei MateBook X Pro both come with core-i7 Intel processors. However, their processor configurations belong to different generations.

To give more detail, the Dell XPS 13 comes with a quad-core Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor. This processor is an 11th-generation Intel i7 processor that runs on a base frequency of 2.80 GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.70 GHz.

The MateBook X Pro, on the other hand, features a quad-core Intel Core i7-10510U processor. Unlike the XPS 13’s processor, the MateBook X Pro’s processor is a 10th generation i7 processor.

It has a base frequency of 1.80 GHz and a boost frequency of 4.90 GHz.

Considering the processor specs, the Dell XPS 13 offers a better processor. However, both processors are high-end by all standards.

As you would expect from high-end processors, these processors make the two laptops very powerful. In real-world use, both laptops are capable of displaying extreme computing power.

They have no issues handling day-to-day computing operations like web surfing or document creation and editing. Both laptops are also equally capable of flexing their computing power when it comes to executing more intensive computing operations.

Come to think of it; Dell claims that the hardware on the XPS 13 comes with Intel Evo certification. This means that they worked with Intel to optimize the XPS 13’s hardware in order to increase its speed, efficiency, and overall performance.

The Dell XPS 13’s excellent real-world performance shows this and the result of the benchmark test further validates its Intel certification. Just so you know, the benchmark test I considered for this section is the Cinebench R20 test.

Basically, this benchmark tests the performance of a laptop’s processor. It runs its test in two areas.

The first area is known as the single-core aspect, where it tests for when only one of the processor cores is running under computing load. At the end of this section of the test, the benchmark rates the laptop by assigning it a single-core test score.

In the other area known as the multi-core test, the benchmark tests for when more than one of the processor cores is running under computing load. Depending on how well the laptop performs, it also assigns it a score in this section.

Generally, the higher a laptop scores in both sections, the better performance it can offer.

On this test, the Dell XPS 13 achieved an impressive score of 475 in the single-core performance aspect. It was able to outperform the Huawei MateBook X Pro, which scored 403 points.

The Dell XPS 13 also outperformed the Huawei MateBook X Pro in the multi-core aspect of the test. While the Dell XPS 13 scored 1564 points, the Huawei MateBook X Pro scored a lesser 1087 points.

Since it outperformed the Huawei MateBook X Pro in the benchmark tests, the Dell XPS 13 wins this round. Thus, the Dell XPS 13 scores a nine in this Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei MateBook X Pro processor performance comparison.

Meanwhile, the Huawei MateBook X Pro scores an eight.

Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei MateBook X Pro: Memory (RAM) Performance

The Dell XPS 13 and Huawei MateBook X Pro are quite different in terms of their memory configurations.

You can equip your Dell XPS 13 laptop with either 16 GB or 32 GB LPDDR4 RAM. Meanwhile, Huawei ships the MateBook X Pro with 8 GB LPDDR3 RAM, but you can upgrade its size to a maximum supported size of 16 GB.

For the record, our Dell XPS 13 and MateBook X Pro comparison review units feature the 16 GB sizes of their RAM types. Even though they feature the same RAM sizes, I expect to get better memory performance from the XPS 13.

This is because it features a more powerful memory type – LPDDR4.

Its LPDDR4 RAM is known to be a more recent DDR RAM. Hence, it is built with more advanced technology, and it is generally faster and more efficient than the LPDDR3 memory type.

When I considered their real-world memory performance, the difference in their efficiency wasn’t very glaring. Their performance difference was more visible in the benchmark test.

We’ll get into the benchmark test aspect shortly after I’ve talked about their real-world performance.

In terms of their real-world performance, both laptops can conveniently run 30 Chrome browser tabs while playing three 1080p YouTube videos. During these simultaneous operations, you can also run a few apps like Spotify or Twitter.

Throughout the process of these activities, you won’t notice any lags on either laptop.

As for their benchmark performance, I retrieved both laptops’ results in the PCMark 10 benchmark test. In case you aren’t familiar with PCMark 10 benchmark, it is a tool that tests the performance of a laptop’s memory.

It runs this test by simulating several synthetic and real-world memory-intensive tasks. The PCMark 10 simulates tasks like video conferencing, sending of emails, and web browsing.

This benchmark indicates a laptop’s memory performance by rating it with a score based on how well it passed the test. Basically, higher scores mean better performances.

As I mentioned earlier, both laptops’ scores on this test made the gap between their memory capabilities become clearer. While the MateBook X Pro achieved a score of 3861 points, the Dell XPS 13 did much better with a score of 5177 points.

For this reason, the Dell XPS 13 comes out victorious in this round too. So, it scores a nine in this Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei MateBook X Pro memory performance comparison.

The Huawei MateBook X Pro, on the other hand, scores an eight.

Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei MateBook X Pro: Storage Options and Performance

Surprisingly, both the Dell XPS 13 and Huawei MateBook X Pro feature the same storage configurations. Both laptops come with 1 TB SSD storage types.

The only difference between both laptops’ storage configurations is that Dell also offers a microSD card reader for external storage. Meanwhile, Huawei doesn’t offer a microSD card for expanding storage on the MateBook X Pro.

Regardless, the 1 TB storage space on both laptops will be sufficient for most of your storage needs.

Aside from their large capacity, both laptops’ SSD storage drives also help to improve their overall performance speed.

You may be thinking both laptops’ storage speeds will be the same since they feature the same drive size and type, but it is not exactly so.

Since other hardware components will also have a hand in general performance speeds, their storage speeds differ. The tests I considered helped to confirm this theory.

To begin with, I considered the file transfer test, where laptops are made to copy a 4.97 GB file from another source onto their storage drive.

It was surprising to see the MateBook X Pro finally take a stand up to the Dell XPS 13 in what had seem like a nearly flawless battle so far. The MateBook X Pro was able to copy the file in lesser time than the Dell XPS 13 did.

To give more detail, it took the Dell XPS 13 6 seconds to copy the file at a transfer rate of 806.2 MBps. Meanwhile, it took the MateBook X Pro just 4 seconds to copy the same file at a transfer rate of 1,146 MBps.

As for the benchmark performance test, their results do not distinctively show the winner. While the Dell XPS 13 offered a better read speed compared to the MateBook X Pro, the MateBook X Pro had offered a better write speed.

Before I go into the details, you should know that the benchmark test I considered for this section is the CrystalDiskMark benchmark. This benchmark tests a computer’s storage disk to check for its read and write speeds.

In case you are not familiar with what read and write speeds mean, I will explain. Read speed is the time it takes a laptop to open a file from its storage disk.

Meanwhile, write speed is the amount of time it takes the laptop to store a file onto its storage disk.

That being said, the Dell XPS 13 offered a sequential read speed of 1726 MBps. Meanwhile, the MateBook X Pro offers a slightly slower sequential read speed of 1668.67 MBps.

In terms of their read speeds, the Huawei MateBook X Pro did much better. It recorded a sequential write speed of 1905.1 MBps.

Meanwhile, the Dell XPS 13 was far behind with its 1310 MBps sequential write speed.

If we were to evaluate their benchmark performance critically, it wouldn’t be absurd to give the MateBook X Pro the win in this aspect. After all, the Dell XPS 13 is only faster in terms of read speed by just a little margin.

The MateBook X Pro outperformed the Dell XPS 13 by a lot in the real-world test as well as in terms of their write speeds. For this reason, this round goes to the Huawei MateBook X Pro.

In conclusion, the Huawei MateBook X Pro scores a nine in this Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei MateBook X Pro storage performance comparison section. Meanwhile, the Dell XPS 13 scores an eight.

Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei MateBook X Pro: Graphics Card Performance

There’s a huge difference between both laptops when it comes to their graphics card configurations. While Dell ships the XPS 13 with only one GPU configuration, the MateBook X Pro could come with two configurations.

To start with, Dell equips the XPS 13 with an integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics card. This graphics card has a base frequency of 300 MHz and a boost frequency of 1300 MHz.

The MateBook X Pro, on the other hand, can come with an integrated Intel UHD Graphics card. You can also buy the laptop with a more powerful dedicated NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics card.

If you get the MateBook X Pro with the Intel UHD Graphics card, you will get a base frequency of 300 MHz and a boost frequency of 1150 MHz. Meanwhile, the NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics card can offer a base frequency of 1519 MHz and a boost frequency of 1582 MHz.

For the record, our MateBook X Pro review unit features the GeForce MX250 graphics card. With this graphics card, the MateBook X Pro should be able to offer satisfactory gaming performances even though it is not a gaming laptop.

Based on the real-world gaming test results, the MateBook X Pro is indeed capable of playing a few intensive games with low gaming settings. For example, it was able to run The Witcher at frame rates of 52 frames per second.

The Dell XPS 13 shouldn’t be sidelined, too, when it comes to gaming. Though it also can’t fully serve as a gaming laptop, it can play some intensive games at low gaming settings.

Just like the MateBook X Pro, the Dell XPS 13 was also able to run The Witcher. In fact, it offered slightly better frame rates compared to the one the MateBook X Pro offered.

The Dell XPS 13 was able to run the game at frame rates of 86.2 frames per second.

On another test where both laptops ran Dota 2 Reborn, the MateBook X Pro was able to offer better frame rates compared to the XPS 13. The Huawei MateBook X Pro ran the game at frame rates of 112 frames per second.

Meanwhile, the Dell XPS 13 was only able to offer frame rates of 109 frames per second.

Since the real-world gaming tests could not help us outrightly decide the winner between the two laptops, I moved on to benchmark tests. The benchmark test I made use of is known as the 3DMark 11 benchmark test.

Basically, this benchmark tests a laptop’s graphics capabilities by simulating graphically intensive tasks. It ascertains how well a laptop can handle graphically-related tasks.

In this test, the higher a laptop scores, the better its graphics performance capabilities. While the MateBook X Pro achieved a score of 3963 points in this test, the Dell XPS 13 was able to do much better with a score of 7018 points.

Judging by their results in this test, it is clear that the Dell XPS 13 can offer a better graphics performance compared to the MateBook X Pro. As a result, the Dell XPS 13 wins this section of the comparison.

The Dell XPS 13 scores an eight in this Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei MateBook X Pro graphics card performance comparison. Meanwhile, the Huawei MateBook X Pro scores a seven.

Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei MateBook X Pro: Battery Life and Performance

Just like the graphic configuration, the battery configurations on the Dell XPS 13 and Huawei MateBook X Pro differ. Dell equips the XPS 13 with an integrated 4-Cell 52 Whr battery.

Meanwhile, Huawei ships its MateBook X Pro with 56 Wh Lithium polymer battery.

Apart from the configuration details they provided, the manufacturers of both laptops also made mentioned the runtimes you should expect from them. To begin with, Dell promises that the XPS 13 will be able to last for 18 hours and 49 minutes.

Meanwhile, Huawei promises that the MateBook X Pro will be able to last for 13 hours before it runs out of power.

In order to ascertain the validity of the promised runtimes, I retrieved a record of both laptops’ web surfing tests. In case you are wondering, the continuous web surfing test checks how long a laptop can last under a continuous web surfing session.

On this test, the Dell XPS 13 lasted for 10 hours and 43 minutes. Even though it didn’t tally with the runtime Dell promised, it is a good runtime for a laptop that’s as powerful as the Dell XPS 13.

The MateBook X Pro, on the other hand, lasted for 10 hours and 22 minutes. Like in the case of the Dell XPS 13, the MateBook X Pro didn’t last as long as Huawei promised, but the runtime it offers is fair enough.

In comparison, though, the Dell XPS 13 outlasts the Huawei MateBook X Pro. As a result, the Dell XPS 13 wins this round.

Therefore, the Dell XPS 13 scores a nine in this Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei MateBook X Pro battery life performance comparison. Meanwhile, the Huawei MateBook X Pro scores an eight.

Our Rating Summary

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Overall, both the Dell XPS 13 and Huawei MateBook X Pro adequately put their credibility on show in this comparison. Both laptops are, without a doubt, very deserving of the premium laptop tag.

While an impressive display of quality was on show throughout, the XPS 13 was able to maintain its top spot as it nearly did a clean sweep. It might lack the storage speeds the MateBook X Pro offers, but it offers a more balanced overall power.

That being said, the Dell XPS 13 is more suitable for serving general computing purposes. It is also more affordable compared to the Huawei MateBook X Pro.

Nonetheless, based on our comprehensive comparison of the Dell XPS 13 vs Huawei Matebook X Pro, we recommend the Dell XPS 13 9310.

However, if you are searching for the Apple design aesthetics in a Windows laptop, the MateBook X Pro is one to get.

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