Since we introduced it, our XPS 13 Ultrabook has become one of Dell’s most decorated products, winning 52 awards across 18 countries through Q3 last year. How do we go about improving on it? By offering it with a stunning full HD display. This new version of the XPS 13 is now available to customers in the United States and select countries around the world, starting at $1,399.99. We will also offer the full HD display as the standard display for the XPS 13 Developer Edition, the laptop based on Project Sputnik. More details on that soon.
If you were keeping up with Dell news last month at CES, you may have seen preview blog posts from sites like Engadget and The Verge. I’ll take some time to dig into the details a bit more. First and foremost, the 1920 x 1080 Full HD display on this thing is gorgeous. The new 1080p display contains almost 2x the pixels of a typical 720p display, and the difference is noticeable. Everything looks sharper, whether you are viewing high resolution images, watching 1080p video or even reading text on an eBook or a web page.
More pixels also means you’ll have more screen real estate, so you will see more of that spreadsheet (see image below) or that you’ll be able to see more detail in a high resolution image than you would compared to a typical notebook screen.
Note: Click on the above image to see a larger version of it. It is not a picture of the actual full HD display. I included it as an example of the larger viewing area the full HD panel provides. (Notice more lines of the spreadsheet on the FHD screen.)
Beyond the sharpness, colors are stunning. Part of the reason is that the full HD display offers a 72% color gamut vs. the 45% color gamut on the standard panel. Without going deep into the technical details, that means the new display can reproduce a wider range of colors compared to the standard display, and that difference is noticeable. Another benefit of the full HD panel is that viewing angles are much wider compared to the standard display—178 degrees versus 80. This means you will see the improved visual quality that the full HD display offers whether you are viewing it directly or pretty far off to the side. And finally, the full HD screen is brighter than typical laptop screens as well—at 350 nits, it is up to 75% brighter than a typical 200-nit display.
I know some folks may judge the XPS 13 against the MacBook Pro 13, but in terms of size and weight, I think the MacBook Air 13 is a more realistic compare. The XPS 13 is smaller than the MacBook Air 13 because we fit a 13-inch screen into something barely bigger than an 11-inch footprint. The 1080p display offers 44% more pixels than the 900p display that it currently offers. For those who want to compare it against the MacBook Pro 13, while the retina version does offer a higher resolution, it also adds several hundred dollars to the price and over a half pound of weight in the process.
All the other features that made the XPS 13 popular overall—like its sleek, thin lightweight but sturdy design, backlit keyboard, the soft-touch palmrest, edge-to-edge display, and great-sounding speakers are all still there. And because it’s built around third-generation i5 and i7 processors and integrated HD 4000 graphics, you don’t have to compromise on performance.
All the enterprise-ready features that have made it popular in businesses like ProSupport, configuration services, asset tagging, BitLocker data encryption and others are still supported. IT administrators looking to automate the OS deployment process can utilize the XPS 13 CAB files as well.
For customers in the United States, there are two XPS 13 configs with the full HD display. One with an i5 processor for $1,399.99 and one with an i7 processor for $1,599.99. With the XPS 13 full HD display and other improvements, we hope you’ll think one of our most awarded laptops is even better. If you have questions or comments, feel free to let me know in the comments below, or reach out to me at @LionelatDell on Twitter.