Dell XPS 13 for music production

The XPS series from Dell are premium laptops for that combine all the best in the company, light weight and long battery life.

The 2021 Dell XPS 13 for music production 2 in 1 is an evolutionary update from the previous year. The laptop is still as light and tiny as ever, but 11th generation processors from Intel are now available.

The Dell XPS 13 laptop for music production has been the most interesting laptop in the thin-and-light segment for the past few years. I would call XPS an "ultrabook", but this concept, according to Intel, has already outlived its usefulness. Now we need to say "laptop on the Evo platform."

Given the materials, design, features, and price, it's clear that the target audience for a laptop is upper-middle-income people looking for a quality Windows PC.

And the screen aspect ratio of 16 to 10 hints that one of the target audience groups are managers and office workers. It probably is. The last couple of times that I saw the Dell XPS 13 live is proof of this. At the airport, a man in a good suit, despite the fact that it was already around midnight, was actively typing something on a laptop. And the second time, a business girl with Dell XPS 13 for music production under her arm in a beautiful Mercedes came to find out about taxes at the same time as me. Judging by her question, she is the owner of some small business.

Equipment

Usually we don’t stop at the configuration of laptops, since there is nothing interesting here. But let's make an exception for Dell.

In addition to a laptop and a compact 45W charger, the kit includes an adapter from Type-C to classic USB Type-A. By the way, the laptop also supports charging through the universal 65 W charging from Xiaomi.

Along the way, I can not kick Dell for the lack of a stylus in the kit.

Appearance

The design of the Dell XPS 13 for music production 2 in 1 has not changed since last year. There is still the same brushed aluminum and carbon fiber in the keyboard area. And, of course, the laptop is easy to open with one hand.

Screen and webcam

There are 2 screen options to choose from:

13.4" FHD (1920 x 1200) 60Hz touchscreen display with dirt-resistant light-absorbing coating, 100% sRGB color gamut, 450 nits, wide viewing angle, low blue light, narrow bezel, technology Eyesafe®, Corning Gorilla Glass 5, active stylus support

13.4" Ultra HD (3840 x 2400) 60Hz touchscreen, dirt-resistant light-absorbing coating, 90% DCI-P3 color gamut, 450 nits, wide viewing angle, low blue light, narrow bezel , Eyesafe® technology, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 coating, active stylus support

To put it simply, there is 4K with 90% DCI-P3 color gamut and Full HD with 100% sRGB coverage. Given the screen size, I would suggest taking Full HD. This choice will have a positive effect on battery life. The increased color gamut and high resolution are, of course, good, but you are unlikely to take this laptop for design tasks.

Both screen options are covered with a large protective glass Gorilla Glass 5, so you can not be afraid of large scratches. Perhaps the main advantage of the screen is its high brightness. With the declared 450 nits, the test model gave out a “honest” 500 nits. With such brightness, it is comfortable to work with a laptop even in the park, sitting on a bench on a clear day.

In the US, Dell introduced a version with an OLED screen a couple of weeks ago. It has a resolution of 3456 x 2160 and a brightness of 400 nits. Should I wait for an OLED screen? Of course, it has better color reproduction and contrast. But here you need to understand what tasks you need a laptop for. If you sit in Excel or mail, then where is the OLED screen?

Surprisingly, Dell persists in stocking its best laptops with 720p webcams. Apparently, behind this lies a certain statement to the world. Well… so be it.

The camera has standard 720p quality. It's embarrassing that, unlike Lenovo and HP, which have started stocking their laptops with shutters or even physical camera shutdowns, Dell is ignoring this trend. In my opinion, in vain, since with the increased number of video events via Zoom and other platforms, for example, I am glad that I can just close the webcam and not be afraid that I will accidentally click on something and get on the air.

There is also Windows Hello so that the laptop recognizes the owner in person. The power button also has a fingerprint scanner. However, I practically did not use it during the test. The laptop is instantly unlocked and so on.

Keyboard and touchpad

The laptop uses a keyboard with ultra-short key travel. Before buying, I recommend trying the keyboard in action.

You can praise Dell for separate arrow keys and separate PgUp and PgDn buttons. Home, End, Delete, Insert run on top. This is a great solution. It will be convenient to use hotkey combinations in office tasks. The laptop has a white backlight with two brightness modes.

The touchpad is almost standard. 0.8 cm increased horizontally and a couple of millimeters vertically. Supports gestures, the bottom of the touchpad simulates mouse keys.

Performance

The user can choose from the entire line of 11th generation Intel processors - from i3 to i7, made according to the 10 nm process technology. Previously, I would recommend taking the i5 as a worthy compromise, but now that the integrated graphics have become quite powerful, it is perhaps worth paying attention to the i7. Many people think that they do not play games, but from time to time interesting stories come out that you want to get acquainted with. And nobody canceled World of Tanks.

To upgrade, users have access to an SSD drive in the M.2 slot. But if you decide to upgrade, then it may be worth contacting a professional. The screws are easily removed with the right screwdriver. I lifted the front part, but to remove the back, you need to make an effort, and I almost had enough nerves. When bending, you can see how the board bends a little along the way. And here, with all determination, force must be exerted. The M.2 slot is located under a temperature-removing overlay, which I didn’t have the courage to remove already.

Let's start with the SSD speed test. In general, not bad, but I expected performance above 3000 mb / s. As I understand it, it's a lottery. If you're lucky, you'll get an SSD from Samsung, where the top speeds are, and an SSD from another manufacturer may also drop out (KIOXIA in a test copy). However, the laptop still boots in 6 seconds.

The laptop's performance can be described as being perfect for Excel (fast processor, plenty of RAM, fast SSD), great for Photoshop (even in complex large projects where a file weighs under 250 MB), and even Adobe Premiere can work well with 4K content (you won’t get much pleasure from work, but the laptop will do its job).

A pretty obvious point, but after gaming laptops, it's a bit off the mark that the performance of the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 for music production is no different whether the laptop is plugged in or not.

The new graphics from Intel makes it possible to play games. We can say that the Dell XPS 13 for music production 2 in 1 2021 is made for World of Tanks (especially with a Full HD screen). I also launched Assassin's Creed Odyssey. You can play in Full HD (1920 by 1200 pixels - the laptop has an aspect ratio of 16 by 10) at the lowest settings - 22-25 frames. Accordingly, the conclusion is simple. Relatively well, you can play AAA games from 2 years ago, and all casual and indie games go with a bang.

Battery life

In terms of battery life with the Dell XPS 13 laptop for music production, the question is complex. On the one hand, the EVO platform guarantees at least 9 hours of work in everyday tasks. In fact, a laptop, for example, can play YouTube videos for 11 hours. And this is an excellent indicator, hinting that the laptop will allow you to spend a fruitful working day. But under maximum load (for example, in World of Tanks or a stress test), the laptop will last 1.5-2 hours.

On the other hand, there are now macbooks on the M1 chip, giving much longer battery life. But of course, if you want Windows and a premium design, then there are no alternatives. Although, of course, you can look at designs from HP. And Lenovo, for my taste, is still slightly inferior in premium to the XPS line.

By the way, Dell has a proprietary utility for extending battery life - Dell Power Manager. Maybe I didn’t figure it out, but it seems that they removed the option to limit the battery charge (for example, charge only up to 60%) when the laptop is connected to the network. Now you can only set the hours when you need full capacity and when you don't.

Impression and conclusions

The 2021 Dell XPS 13 for music production 2-in-1 is a great premium thin and light laptop. And the impressions from it by default are only the most positive. It turns on quickly, all programs and games open and download with lightning speed, while the laptop is quiet, and even sitting half a meter away from it, you will not guess that it passes the stability stress test under maximum load.

You can work like with a regular laptop, you can fold it into a tablet, you can play World of Tanks with pleasure.