In January, Dell announced its first Ultrabook at CES—the sleek and sturdy XPS 13. Last week, we conducted the Ultrabook Challenge in San Francisco, a series of "blind brand" tests where pass
ers-by compared the XPS 13 to top Ultrabooks in the market.
While the new XPS 13 has received kudos from major outlets like Gizmodo and TechCrunch, the team also wanted to hear initial feedback from typical consumers without the influence of brand perception.
Therefore, for the Ultrabook Challenge, team members removed all brand logos from contesting Ultrabooks including the XPS 13, MacBook Air, Asus Zenbook, Acer Aspire 53, HP Folio, and the Toshiba Protégé Z830. Passers-by were invited to approach a Dell branded truck parked in locations between the Ferry building and Fisherman’s Wharf to select their favorite Ultrabook for the following attributes: weight, materials, look, feel, heat distribution, and durability. The results were clearly positive–many participants chose the Dell XPS 13 as their favorite. Some popular features that were commonly called out were the edge-to-edge screen, compact size, Gorilla Glass, track pad, and backlit keyboard.
Dell celebrated the end of the San Francisco Ultrabook Challenge by hosting the Create.Work.Inspire event at Carte Blanche art gallery in the Mission district. Tech influencers, creatives, Ultrabook Challenge participants, and people off the street were welcome to experience the XPS 13 and enjoy artists presenting on how technology enables creativity. Many influencers live blogged at the event—check out the post Adam Mills from GottaBeMobile published last week for more details.
