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Dell XPS 13 vs Microsoft Surface Laptop 4

Dell XPS 13

104 reviews

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Microsoft Surface Laptop 4

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4

76 reviews

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#5 most mentioned

Reddit · r/laptops

Best Windows Ultraportable Laptop

RTINGS · The 7 Best Laptops

Wirecutter · The 4 Best Windows Ultrabook 2021

#41 most mentioned

Reddit · r/SuggestALaptop

Great quality keyboard

Large keys with less gaps and low backlight bleed

Overall good quality

Compatible with Linux

Thunderbolt charging capabilities

Great battery life

Highly usable trackpad

Beautiful display with great colors, contrast, and saturation

10-point capacitive touch screen

Latest technology

Not budget friendly

May have issues with difficult monitor set ups

Not suitable for those who prefer Thinkpad or Spectre keyboards

Not upgradeable

Advertised battery life does not meet expectations

Cannot be converted to a slate or tablet

Verdict

The Dell XPS 13 is a premium laptop that can be configured with a touchscreen. It has a good quality keyboard and large keys with less gaps, and low backlight bleed. It also has an overall good quality, though it may have some issues with difficult monitor set ups. It is compatible with Linux and comes with Thunderbolt charging capabilities. However, it is on the expensive side.

Verdict

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 is a great choice for professionals looking for a powerful laptop with a sleek and sophisticated exterior. It features the latest technology, a 10-point capacitive touch screen, and a display that offers beautiful colors, contrast, and saturation without blasting your eyes with blue light. It also has great battery life and a trackpad that is highly usable. However, it is not upgradeable and the advertised battery life does not meet expectations.

Reviews by Topic

Our analysis shows how reviewers feel about different topics. Please note these are not full reviews.

Build Quality

Parents are replacing my Macbook Pro (2014) but I'd prefer to not get another Apple product ($1300 USD, United States)

Dell XPS is my vote. MacBook level build quality with a good range of options to fit your price and performance needs.

Positive

reddit.com/r/SuggestALaptop

A premium laptop with unique features that may make it worth the price

The build quality is exceptional, and while the device isn't the most repairable product on the market, Microsoft has gone through some lengths to help serviceability. The real trade-off is that the unique design means lower performance per dollar compared to the competition and lack of ports. Overall, it's a good laptop if you want a premium product with the Surface name and don't mind the few limitations of the device. Performance: The model reviewed here has the i5-1135G7, which is the lowest end variant of this unit, but if you haven't upgraded a computer in the past few years you will be shocked at the performance of mobile processors

Price/value Ratio

Overpriced Dell Chromebook

It was supposed to a Dell xps 13 9310 but it had the look and feel of a Dell 3100 chromebook. There is a $1500 difference in the price between the two models but it seemed like Amazon thought they were the same. I would not purchase this laptop unless you want an overpriced chromebook.

I had the Surface Laptop 3 (AMD and Intel) and now I have the 4..... three good improvements!

It put the wifi antennas in low-power mode so it took about 15 seconds for you to regain internet access when you lifted the lid up. Annoying! Now it's more like five seconds which is much more bearable. Thank you! I'm glad enough people complained for Microsoft to do something about this. So how's the value? Not great

Keyboard

Love the keyboard, horrible webcam (updated)

Love the keyboard. I'm a mechanical-keyboard type of person, and while I typically hate low-profiles, I liked the keyboard on this laptop enough that it was the decision-making factor when it came down to a few options. Handles smaller games great, professional looking and would recommend to anyone using it for non-webcam related purposes. Update: Some serious graphical glitches came with this laptop

Does Not Live Up to Great Reviews and Keyboard Sucks.

It is worse than the old Apple laptop keyboard. Plus, the chassis sags as you type. Really shoddy for the price.

Battery Life

So lightweight!

The battery life is very short (4ish hours) and it takes a long time to charge (about 1 1/2 hours). The brick on the cord gets very hot as it charges as does the bottom of the laptop. Otherwise it runs cool. I really like that there is no separate place to plug in the charger

Battery drained in less than 4 hours with normal use -

This is the case even when I turn off background app refreshing and turn on battery saver mode to 'always'. The 4 year old computer I replaced had a better battery than this system. Note - I received a replacement laptop thinking maybe something was wrong with the unit and found the replacement was the same. I went through all settings and tried to reduce power useage, but it still seems limited to 4 hours

Performance

BEWARE!!!! Paid full price for a new one and received a used one!!!

Laptop seems to be working "ok" as of now besides the WiFi issues everyone has been having and apps like Netflix and Hulu not properly working. Another thing that is concerning is the packaging. I'm pretty sure I was sent a used product considering it came in a cheap cardboard box and not in it's original XPS box/packaging. Also the laptop itself was not even wrapped in any kind of plastic or padding or anything and I am at a military base in Iraq

youtube

Surface Laptop Studio Review Ended in DISASTER

We could use the software to look at that. This is cool. Super flat heat pipe here going from the CPU over to an exhaust over here. So the intake is a...

Positive

Image Quality

Dell XPS 13 OLED (9310) review: Beautiful design topped with a gorgeous display

4-inch laptop to the point where it's roughly the same size as an 11.6-inch model and it still has spritely performance and relatively long battery life. Dell added the option to configure the XPS 13 with an OLED display (organic light-emitting diode) that is the cherry on top of this premium little laptop. The display looks stellar and while it hurts battery life some, it's not as horrific as past OLED laptops we've tested

Neutral

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (15-Inch) Review

When it comes to photo editing, the Surface Laptop 4 is no longer at the top of the pack. Both of the similarly priced competitors (the Inspiron and the Gram 17) managed to outperform it on our Adobe Photoshop test, which involves applying a series of 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG test image. While the video encoding and 3D rendering tests are purely CPU exercises, Photoshop taxes a system’s resources differently, which means that laptops with more powerful components don’t always finish more quickly.

Neutral

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