HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13: A Battle of the Elites

Wondering which is the best ultraportable laptop in the industry? Reading this HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13 comparison article is one way for you to find out.

HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13: At First Glance

For some years now, the HP Spectre x360 has been one of the best 2-in-1 laptops on the market. It has been able to earn itself a top seat amongst most of its competitors thanks to its elegant chassis, remarkable processing speeds, and excellent display options.

However, not every competition out there is willing to back down for the HP Spectre x360. One of the laptops that are heavily bringing the heat down on the HP Spectre x360 is the Dell XPS 13.

Offering an extra visual flair and better overall specs, the Dell XPS 13 aims to take the HP Spectre x360’s top seat for itself. However, the Dell XPS 13’s $1,179 price tag is more expensive compared to the HP Spectre x360’s $1,079 price.

With all of these in mind, which of the two laptops do you think will be the better option? We set out to get an answer to that by digging into their details in this article.

HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13: Design, Dimension and Weight

When it comes to design and build quality, you can’t go wrong with either one of these two laptops. However, while both laptops may seem to be well-matched in terms of build quality, it goes for a fact that the Spectre x360 has a more glamorous design.

The Spectre x360’s design will surely make your eyes roll in their sockets. It’s as if HP employed the service of a master gem cutter to come up with this beautiful piece.

Unlike the Dell XPS 13, which has a slab shape with rounded corners, the Spectre x360 has diamond-cut edges and sharp corners. These design elements give the Spectre x360 a distinct and angular appearance that makes it look luxurious.

Aside from these design elements I’ve mentioned, there’s still more to the luxurious look the Spectre x360 possesses. One of them is the beautiful silver-colored finish that spreads across the laptop’s entire body, except for its display bezels.

In case you don’t find the silver finish stylish enough, HP provides other color options, which include Nightfall Black and cerulean Poseidon Blue. With either of these extra color options, you will be experiencing the fullness of the Spectre x360’s wild style.

Another design element that adds to the luxurious look the Spectre x360 has is the fancy HP logo on its lid. It has a glossy coating that enables it to beautifully complement the laptop’s overall silver finish.

There’s also a fancy Spectre logo that beautifies each of the laptop’s dual hinges. While these hinges are incredibly sturdy, they are flexible enough to allow you to conveniently use the laptop in tablet mode.

It is very easy to flip the display panel around when you want to transition to tablet or tent mode. This laptop’s hinge has a good balance of flexibility and rigidity.

Consequently, this hinge is the element that establishes the most crucial difference between the HP Spectre x360 and Dell XPS 13. While the HP Spectre x360 is a 2-in-1 laptop that can transform into a tablet, the Dell XPS 13 is a regular laptop.

Although it’s not a 2-in-1 laptop like the Spectre x360, the Dell XPS 13 is also a total beauty. However, as I implied earlier, the XPS 13 follows a more simplistic design pattern compared to the Spectre x360.

The XPS 13 has smoothly curved edges and a single hinge center hinge. Moreover, it features a chrome-plated Dell logo on its lid.

Asides from the logo, the Dell XPS 13 has no other design flair going on. Its lines and angles are all straight, and there’s no form of an inscription on any other part of its body.

However, it does have a few things in common with the HP Spectre x360. First of all, the Dell XPS 13 also has a silver finish, but its black interior color theme spreads across its keyboard deck instead of just its display bezels.

Also, the Dell XPS 13 can come in another color variant. Just like our comparison review unit, the XPS 13 is also available in Frost White with a plain white interior.

Much to my pleasure, the Frost white model is extremely stunning to look at. It doesn’t only have a striking appearance; it also feels cool to touch.

To make it better, the XPS 13’s exterior and interior are resistant to stains and fingerprints. Dell says the XPS 13’s keyboard deck is built with their proprietary Winter White glass-fiber weave.

Hence, this laptop’s interior should be able to stay clean from stains and fingerprints.

Another impressive thing about the Dell XPS 13’s design is its CNC-machined aluminum construction. What this means is that the Dell XPS 13’s lid and chassis have been cut from two separate blocks of aluminum.

This construction method makes the Dell XPS 13 very light and compact for a 13-inch laptop. In fact, it is lighter and more compact than the HP Spectre x360.

In its defense, the HP Spectre x360 is also an extremely light and compact laptop.

Specifically, the HP Spectre x360 measures 306 x 218 x 13.6 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 1260 g. Meanwhile, the Dell XPS 13 measures 295.7 x 198.7 x 14.8 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 1200 g.

Despite the XPS 13’s lighter and slimmer build, it doesn’t feel less sturdy compared to the Spectre x360.

Moving on, for laptops that are as thin as the Spectre x360 and XPS 13, one would naturally expect to get average keyboards. However, this wasn’t the case with the Spectre x360 and XPS 13.

These two laptops offer an excellent typing experience.

Firstly, the HP Spectre x360’s keyboard has a fair amount of key travel and clickiness that makes it incredibly comfortable to type on. Moreover, the HP Spectre x360 has decently sized keys thanks to its edge-edge keyboard layout.

Similarly, the XPS 13 makes optimum use of the available space on its deck by utilizing an edge-to-edge keyboard. This design enables it to offer a good amount of key spacing.

Its keys are also responsive, with a good amount of key travel to offer just the right balance of clickiness and sensitivity. With all of that being said, both the Spectre x360 and XPS 13 offer a pretty much equal level of typing satisfaction.

While you get excellent tactile feedback from both laptops, they also have backlighting features to aid your typing sessions in the dark.

Before I proceed to compare the touchpads of these laptops, let me quickly explain what “key travel,” used earlier means. Key travel means the distance of a keyboard’s key state of rest to its fully depressed state.

Now let’s proceed to compare the touchpads of HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13.

Below both laptops’ keyboards, you get smoothly textured glass touchpads. Both laptops’ touchpads are very sensitive and responsive to touch and gestures.

They are sensitive enough to smoothly execute two and three-finger Windows 10 gestures. However, due to their sizes, people with large hands may find it a bit difficult to conveniently carry out these gestures.

The reason for this is that both laptops’ touchpads are wide but quite short. The HP Spectre x360’s touchpad measures 4.4 x 2.5 inches, while the Dell XPS 13’s touchpad measures 4.5 x 2.5 inches.

Away from the keyboards, you will discover that both laptops’ excellent space management didn’t end in their keyboard section. It appears as though one of the ways they used to reduce their overall footprint is by reducing the sizes of their bezels.

Let’s consider the HP Spectre x360. HP was able to make the display bezels on this laptop thin enough in order to effectively reduce its footprint.

However, while the bezels on the Spectre x360 are very slim, they are nowhere near the thinness of the Dell XPS 13’s bezels.

As for their display, the XPS 13 comes with a 13.4-inch display that has an unusual aspect ratio of 16:10. The HP Spectre x360’s display, on the other hand, has a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Concerning the details of their displays, the HP Spectre x360 comes with a 13.3-inch FHD touchscreen display that offers a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Meanwhile, the Dell XPS 13’s display is not a touchscreen.

However, it comes with an FHD+ display that has a slightly better screen resolution of 1920 x 1200. As a result, images on the Dell XPS 13 have more quality compared to the ones the Spectre x360 produces.

Also, the Dell XPS 13’s display can get brighter than the HP Spectre x360’s display. While the XPS 13 can offer 469 nits of brightness, the Spectre x360 can’t offer beyond 391 nits of brightness.

Though the difference in the quality of both laptops’ displays is quite obvious, they both produce vibrant images with sharp and deep colors. Unfortunately, both laptops’ excellent output quality doesn’t extend to their speakers.

Their down-firing speakers aren’t the loudest, but they produce sounds that are good enough to make watching movies pleasurable. Just ensure you place either of the two laptops on a desk or flat solid surface in order for you to get slightly louder sound output.

If you place them on your lap or bed while listening to music or watching movies, the audio will sound muffled.

In terms of port selection, both laptops are quite short on ports, but the Dell XPS 13 has less port selection because of its slimmer build.

For more details, the Dell XPS 13 comes with just 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports. Meanwhile, the HP Spectre x360 comes with 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 port and 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports.

Overall, the HP Spectre x360 and Dell XPS 13 have awesome designs and build. They nearly match each other in every aspect of this comparison.

Where there are obvious differences in their design features, they close down on each other in some other aspects. At the end of the day, picking between the two laptops’ will be based on whether you want a convertible laptop or a regular laptop.

The decision could also be dependent on whether you want a flashy laptop or a simple-looking one.

With all of these being said, both laptops score a nine in this HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13 design and build comparison.

HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13: Processor (CPU) Performance

The HP Spectre x360 and Dell XPS 13 are quite different when it comes to their processor configurations.

HP equips the Spectre x360 with a quad-core Intel Core i5-8250U processor. Meanwhile, the Dell XPS 13 comes with a quad-core Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor.

Since their processor configurations are not similar, the Spectre x360 and XPS 13 have varying processor operation speeds. To be more specific, the Spectre x360’s Intel Core i5-8250U processor has a base frequency of 1.60 GHz and a maximum frequency of 3.40 GHz.

Meanwhile, the Dell XPS 13’s Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor has a base frequency of 2.80 GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.70 GHz.

Given the level of their processor configurations, one would expect exceptional processing power from the two laptops. Fortunately, neither of them disappoints.

In fact, the Dell XPS 13 also has Intel Evo certification to prove it can offer efficient performance. This means that Dell has worked with Intel to further improve the laptop’s hardware for maximum power output in terms of speed and efficiency.

As expected, the effect of the Intel Evo certification is evident in the XPS 13’s performance. The Dell XPS 13 has enough muscle to handle your regular computing operations and even the more intensive ones.

Likewise, the HP Spectre x360 is also quite powerful. It will easily handle both regular and intensive computing operations.

You will be able to smoothly execute minor operations like web surfing, document creation, or sending of emails on either of the two laptops. In addition to handling minor computing tasks, they will be able to handle more intensive operations like photo and video editing too.

To further confirm their performance efficiency, I checked both laptops’ Cinebench R23 performance. In case you aren’t familiar with Cinebench R23, it is a benchmark tool that tests the efficiency of a processor’s performance.

It performs its test in two different sections. Firstly, it creates a test scenario where only one of the processor cores will be put under computing workload.

At the end of the test, it rates the processor’s performance with a score known as the single-core test score.

There’s also the multi-core aspect, where the benchmark runs the test by subjecting more than one of the processor cores to an intensive workload. At the end of this aspect, it also assigns a score to indicate the processor’s performance.

Overall, the higher the laptop scores on each of these aspects, the better its performance capability.

Retrieving both laptops’ scores on this test allowed us to confirm the Dell XPS 13’s superior processor power. It dominated the HP Spectre x360 in the two aspects of the test.

To give more detail, the Dell XPS 13 scored 1402 in the single-core aspect of the test. Meanwhile, the HP Spectre x360 achieved a lesser score of 1380 points.

In the multi-core aspect, the Dell XPS 13 continued to impress more with a score of 4946 points while the HP Spectre x360 had a score of 4212 points.

Due to the nature of these results, we conclude that the Dell XPS 13 is superior to the HP Spectre x360 in terms of processing power. As a result, the Dell XPS 13 wins in this round.

So, the Dell XPS 13 scores a nine in this HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13 processor performance comparison. Meanwhile, the HP Spectre x360 scores an eight.

HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13: Memory (RAM) Performance

The HP Spectre x360 and Dell XPS 13 are quite different in terms of their memory configurations too. HP equips the Spectre x360 with an 8 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM.

You can also equip the laptop with a 16 GB memory size, but you don’t get more than that.

The Dell XPS 13, on the other hand, can either come equipped with 16 GB or 32 GB LPDDR4 RAM. Aside from the XPS 13’s better memory size options, its LPDDR4 is better than the Spectre x360’s LPDDR3 RAM.

Basically, the LPDDR4 is a newer RAM technology compared to the LPDDR3 standard. Being more recent, LPDDR4 is built with improved technology which aims to double the data rates it can operate at.

In addition to its superior transfer rate, the LPDDR4 doesn’t consume as much power as the LPDDR3, and it has faster operational speeds.

That being said, the HP Spectre x360’s memory performance isn’t bad despite being equipped with the LPDDR3 type of RAM. Just like the Dell XPS 13, the HP Spectre x360 can handle several complex tasks simultaneously.

For clarity, our HP Spectre x360 and Dell XPS 13 comparison review units come with 16 GB RAM.

With either of these laptops, you will be able to download videos simultaneously and run multiple browser tabs along with other operations.

For example, both laptops can run smoothly with 30 Chrome tabs while playing four 1080p YouTube videos and streaming music on Spotify. Also, during your multitasking operations, you will be able to switch between different operations without noticing serious lags.

In order to get further clarifications concerning the efficiency of these laptops’ memory performance, I checked a benchmark result test. This benchmark test is the popular PCMark 10 test.

For those that don’t know what the PCMark 10 is, I will explain.

The PCMark 10 is a benchmark tool used for assessing how well a laptop can handle multiple memory-intensive tasks. It carries out its tests by simulating a variety of productivity tasks like web browsing, document creation, video conferencing, etc.

At the end of the test, it rates the efficiency of the laptop with a score. Essentially, the higher the score, the better the laptop’s performance.

The results both laptops had on this test reaffirm the level of efficiency they can offer in terms of memory performance. However, the results also show that the Dell XPS 13 can offer slightly better memory performance compared to the HP Spectre x360.

To make you understand better, let’s consider both laptops’ benchmark test results.

While the HP Spectre x360 had a score of 4531 points, the Dell XPS 13 did better with a score of 5177 points. For this reason, the Dell XPS 13 wins this section of the comparison as well.

Thus, the Dell XPS 13 scores a nine in this HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13 memory performance comparison. Meanwhile, the HP Spectre x360 scores an eight.

HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13: Storage Options and Performance

Surprisingly, the HP Spectre x360 and Dell XPS 13 feature the exact same storage drive types. Both laptops come equipped with PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD storage drives.

Another common thing between both laptops’ storage configurations is the extra storage option they offer. Aside from their primary storage sizes, they also come with a microSD media card reader each for external storage expansion.

Speaking of their primary storage sizes, this is where the major difference between both laptops’ storage configurations is. Whereas the HP Spectre x360 comes with a 256 GB SSD, the Dell XPS 13 features a much larger 1 TB SSD storage.

Fortunately, the Spectre x360’s smaller storage size doesn’t stop it from offering operation speeds that are nearly as fast as the XPS 13’s. First of all, let’s consider how both laptops fared on a real-world file transfer (or copy) test.

Basically, this test requires that a laptop copy a 4.97 GB file from another file storage source. Based on the performance records, it took the HP Spectre x360 11 seconds to copy the file at a transfer rate of 452.6 MBps.

The Dell XPS 13, on the other hand, completed the task at a faster rate. With a transfer rate of 806.2 MBps, it took the Dell XPS 13 just 6 seconds to copy the file.

With these numbers, one would expect the Dell XPS 13 to also outperform the HP Spectre x360 in the benchmark test too. In the next few paragraphs, we will see whether this assumption is accurate.

Before I give more details about their benchmark results, I would like to state that we considered the CrystalDiskMark benchmark for the storage test. For those wondering what it is, it is a benchmark tool for assessing the operating speeds of a storage drive.

Performance-wise, the Dell XPS 13 was able to outperform the HP Spectre x360 in terms of their sequential read speeds. While the XPS 13 has a sequential read speed of 1726 MBps, the Spectre x360 has a slower sequential read speed of 1660 MBps.

However, the Spectre x360 beats the XPS 13 in terms of sequential write speeds. The Spectre x360 offers a better sequential write speed of 1422 MBps compared to the XPS 13’s 1310 MBps.

Nonetheless, this round still goes to the Dell XPS 13 for its higher storage capacity and faster overall storage speed. Hence, the Dell XPS 13 scores a nine in this HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13 storage performance comparison.

Meanwhile, the HP Spectre x360 scores an eight.

Just in case you are wondering what read and write speeds mean, I will quickly explain before I round off this section. Read speed is the measurement of the amount of time it will take a laptop to open a file stored in its storage disk.

Meanwhile, write speed is the measurement of the amount of time it will take a laptop to save a file on its storage disk.

HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13: Graphics Card Performance

Though the HP Spectre x360 and Dell XPS 13 both feature Intel graphics cards, their configurations are different.

To start with, the HP Spectre x360 features an integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 GPU. This graphics card has a base frequency of 300 MHz and a boost frequency of 1100 MHz.

The Dell XPS 13, on the other hand, comes with an integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics card. This graphics card is capable of offering a base frequency of 300 MHz and a boost frequency of 1300 MHz.

With their integrated Intel graphics cards, neither of the laptops will be able to conveniently play every modern game at high frame rates. You shouldn’t also expect them to be capable of smoothly executing real-time 3D rendering.

However, what these laptops can offer you fit in the roles of lightweight gaming notebooks. In case you are wondering, you should know that the XPS 13 has the capability to play modern games at better frame rates compared to the Spectre x360.

I will provide some real-world gaming test results to back this claim.

On a gaming test where both laptops run The Witcher 3, the Spectre x360 was able to offer smooth frame rates of 64.4 frames per second. The XPS 13, on the other hand, offered better frame rates of 86.2 frames per second.

When I checked for another test, I discovered that the XPS 13 still performed better than the Spectre x360. This time it was with the Dota 2 Reborn game.

While the Spectre x360 played the game at frame rates of 75.9 frames per second, the XPS 13 offered better frame rates of 109 frames per second.

Even when I moved on to the benchmark performance test, I discovered that the Dell XPS 13 still had a firm grip on its champion’s crown. It still outperformed the HP Spectre x360.

For the record, the benchmark test I considered is the 3DMark 11 benchmark test. This benchmark helps to test a laptop’s ability to handle graphically intensive tasks.

It does this by simulating various graphics-based operations such as gaming, picture editing, or 3D model rendering. After the test, it assigns a score that represents the laptop’s graphics card performance level.

Generally, the higher this score is, the better the laptop’s graphics performance ability.

As I stated earlier, the Dell XPS 13 performed better than the HP Spectre x360 on this test. While the Spectre x360 had an overall score of 5952 points, the XPS 13 achieved a better score of 7018 points.

Since the Dell XPS 13 outperformed the HP Spectre x360 in all the tests I considered, it emerges victorious over the Spectre x360.

The Dell XPS 13 scores an eight in this HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13 graphics card performance comparison. Meanwhile, the HP Spectre x360 scores a seven.

HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13: Battery Life and Performance

The HP Spectre x360 and Dell XPS 13 are very different when it comes to their battery configurations. While the Spectre x360 comes with a 3-cell, 60 Wh Li-ion polymer battery, the XPS 13 features a 4-Cell 52 Whr battery.

In terms of the runtimes these batteries can offer, you also get varying runtimes. To discover how long these laptops’ batteries can last, I consulted the records of their web surfing battery tests.

Basically, the web surfing test is a way of testing a laptop’s battery runtime by subjecting it to a continuous web surfing session with Wi-Fi. On this test, the HP Spectre x360 lasted for 7 hours and 46 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Dell XPS 13 lasted for 10 hours and 43 minutes.

When the workload on both laptops was increased beyond just regular web surfing, their battery runtimes drastically reduced. While the Spectre x360 lasted for just 2 hours and 37 minutes, the XPS 13 lasted for 3 hours and 25 minutes.

At the end of the day, it is evident that the Dell XPS 13 can offer a better battery runtime compared to the HP Spectre x360. As a result, the Dell XPS 13 is crowned the winner of this round.

Consequently, the Dell XPS 13 scores an eight in this HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13 battery life performance comparison. On the other hand, the HP spectre x360 scores a seven.

Our Rating Summary

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

At the end of the day, we have a clear winner between HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13. The Dell XPS 13 does a clean sweep of all the aspects we considered, thanks to its more powerful specifications.

With its more powerful specs as well as its higher maximum RAM and storage sizes, the XPS 13 outclasses the Spectre x360. Nonetheless, the HP Spectre x360 is a good laptop that I would recommend to someone in need of an efficient 2-in-1 laptop.

Overall, both laptops are the perfect examples of ideal Ultrabook laptops, but ultimately, the Dell XPS 13 is the better laptop of the two.

Hence, based on our comprehensive comparison of the HP Spectre x360 vs Dell XPS 13, we recommend the Dell XPS 13 9310.

However, if you prefer 2-in-1 laptops to traditional laptops, then you can consider the HP Spectre x360.

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