Dell’s XPS 13 is their official entry into the ultrabook market. On the outside, it doesn’t look terribly different from other ultrabooks (hello teardrop design!), but a closer examination reveals that Dell took a very interesting approach to the materials they used in their machine. Namely, carbon fibre.
The carbon fibre shell that covers the bottom of the laptop not only cuts down on weight adds rigidity, but also keeps the base from heating up and scorching a hole in your pants when your laptop is on your lap. On the palm rest, Dell gave the XPS 13 a matte, pitch black, soft-touch surface that’s surprisingly attractive.
Under the hood, the XPS 13 has all the familiar Ultrabook signifiers: Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB RAM and a 128GB SSD. Release date is still up in the air, but expect to see this in stores for $US1000 when it arrives.
Sam
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 1:42 PMSoooo sick of seeing photos of of Ultrabook’s sitting next to MacBook Air’s.
An Ultrabook’s competition is other Ultrabook’s. People who want an Air are going to buy one, people who want an Ultrabook have an (increasingly) much larger range to choose from, so comparing them against each other would be a LOT more helpful.
Sam
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 1:44 PMBy the way, that isn’t aimed specifically at Gizmodo; more of a gripe with media coverage generally about the product type.
Uncle Bob
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 2:01 PMSam, you are partially correct.
However a lot of people are buying MacBook Airs for the sole purpose of running Windows on them, simply because they still seem to offer the most complete package. This should change this year with the Windows crew catching up.
Nathan
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 11:56 AMApple providing the “most complete package”? You mean most expensive and under-spec package I presume?
Macca
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 2:01 PMSo an Air isn’t an ultrabook? And they probably compared it to a computer they had on hand.
MotorMouth
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 3:10 PMI think it makes perfect sense. The current Air has been around a year or so longer and makes a perfect, consistent point of comparison. If you put one Ultrabook up against another, it only tells which of those two is the thinnest, whereas if you compare each and every one to an Air, you get a better idea of how a bunch of them compare.
David
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 2:13 PMnow shots of the carbon fibre bottom? graphics card? it is a xps so……?
Nicholas
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 2:42 PMI’m doubting it has discrete graphics.. but damn if it did it’s got me sold.
MotorMouth
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 3:14 PMI think Media Accelerator 3000 is getting right up there now. My graphics test always involves Autodesk Combustion and it’s OpenGL particle system. It is the most finicky thing when it comes to graphics but I get realtime performance from my Zenbook – that’s 25fps playback whilst doing realtime editing of the motion path and other parameters. That’s something Radeon cards still struggle with (because they don’t put any effort into OpenGL). Even 3DS Max works OK with it.
vin
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 2:28 PMUS$1000 will somehow = AU$1300
Nicholas
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 2:43 PMLike I said on the lifehacker article I think it was – Dell has pretty epic sales every now and again to bring stuff in line with/lower than US prices, so 1300 would really not be all that bad.
Nicholas
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 3:07 PMLooking at the top pic the screen res doesn’t look promising.. seems to be the usual 1366×768 crap. But knowing Dell there might just be an upgrade option… hoping.. hoping..
Bob Roberts
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 3:47 PMExcept that AUD is more valuable than USD at the moment. $1000 USD = $972 AUD. Even including 10% GST at 1:1 this should be $1100 AUD maximum. Since they’re all shipped in from Asia somewhere (likely China), shipping should be equal if not cheaper to Oz.
So no, $1300 would be a rip off.
Ken
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 9:52 PMUmm…Dell Australia needs big sales just to come close to matching the normal retail US prices. And I’ve seen some huge sales at Dell US all the time, with huge coupon savings that dwarf anything the Dell Oz offers…
All in all, doesn’t really equate well.
Dell Australia sale ~ Dell US normal prices
Dell US sales >> Dell Australia sales
MotorMouth
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 3:22 PMI don’t like the chrome bezel around the base, it makes it look cheap and nasty. Carbon fibre might be good for saving weight but how well does this thing dissipate heat? That would be my biggest concern. A hot lap at least means that heat is escaping from the guts of the thing.
Stew
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 4:21 PMI can wrap my un-gloved palm around the single carbon fibre muffler of my 1000cc motorbike immediately after a long highway ride without burning myself. If that’s anything to go on, carbon fibre dissipates heat very well. I could NOT do that with the previous all-metal dual-muffler system where each pipe only got 1/2 the engine’s exhaust!
MotorMouth
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 2:18 PMThat’s actually the opposite. If the outside of the thing is cool and you know that it has been passing a lot of very hot gas through it, then none of that heat has escaped through the thing, just through the hole at the back. After all, your fridge doesn’t feel cold on the outside because its job is to hold the cold inside and not let it escape. So the cooler my laptop feels on the outside, the more worried I’d be that it is frying itself inside.
Cameron
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 4:08 PMAnother dell laptop with a half a keyboard. Seriously, why do these companies continue to remove some of these basic keys form their laptop keyboards? Apple can do it because OSX doesn’t use things like [Insert], [Home], [Delete/Backspace], [Menu], ect. but Windows users actually have use for these keys, DON’T REMOVE THEM!
chugs
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 9:53 AMif the keyboard is munted then there is no way i’d get it. pretty sexy though