The newest window on Arm chopine ground aroundQualcomm ’s Snapdragon Xchipset is off and running . Most of the major laptop manufacturer have introducedMicrosoft Copilot+ PCs , with far-famed machines like theHP OmniBook XandMicrosoft Surface laptop computer 7offering strong operation and very serious battery life .
Dell has also get together in the fray , with the XPS 13 9345 using the Snapdragon X Elite and sporting reasonably much exactly the same design as the Intel rendering . I found it to have the same strengths and weakness , with some extra fastness and seniority fuddle into the mix .
Specs and configurations
The XPS 13 9345 set out at $ 1,300 for a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80 - 100 chipset , 16 GB of RAM , a 512 GB SSD , and a 13.4 - inch FHD+ IPS display . The laptop computer can be configure with up to 64 GB of RAM , with a jump to 32 GB being an additional $ 200 and a gibbosity up to 64 GB costing $ 600 . It ’s $ 100 to raise to a 1 TB SSD , and $ 300 to upgrade to 2 TB of storage . A QHD+ IPS jury costs $ 300 , while upgrading to a 3 M OLED display costs $ 500 . The most expensive XPS 13 will lead you $ 2,500 .
That makes the XPS 13 a very expensive Windows on Arm laptop , with the HP OmniBook X and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x both costing around $ 1,100 , albeit with less random access memory and storage and with the Lenovo including an OLED video display . The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is as expensive as the XPS 13 , while theApple MacBook zephyr M3starts off at $ 1,099 and maxes out at $ 2,299 with 24 GB of RAM and a 2 TB SSD .
It should be observe that the current Intel translation of the XPS 13 ( 9340 ) is $ 150 crummy when similarly configured and is even put up at a cheaper starting configuration that costs $ 1,099 .
Design
I could copy a dear constituent of the text from our last two XPS 13 reviews into this one and save myself a crew of time . I wo n’t do that , but the fact is this : Nothing has changed in the XPS 13 ’s design since the XPS 13 Plus introduced Dell ’s unexampled ultramodern XPS design paradigm . Dell does n’t really change the underlying XPS design much from generation to propagation until major overhauls , and in the case of the XPS 13 , the company has doubled down on that approach .
I just finished review the 2024 Intel version of the XPS 13 , and it was sit down next to this one as I was running through my benchmark . I also had anXPS 13 Pluson hand ( which I just ship back ) , and it ’s a sound matter I received the black version of the Snapdragon model because I might have gotten disordered and put the wrong one in the box seat . I have in mind , it ’s impossible to tell apart the two silver-tongued machines apart without using a magnifying shabu on the recording label or send away them up and bet for the chipset in preferences .
The all - aluminum chassis has the same sleek , angular aesthetical that aims for a minimalist flavour , and when you open up up the lid , you ’ll find the same zero - latticework keyboard , precede touch function keys , and all - Methedrine decoration balance with hidden haptic touchpad . It ’s unknown to guess these feature have been around for a couple of age , because they still seem unbelievably new and sassy . At least , visibly . The incredibly slight bezels complete the modern appearing . The XPS 13 wait a lot more present-day than any other 13 - column inch laptop computer , include theMacBook Air M3 and the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 .
And the XPS 13 is just as set as always . Of all these laptop , Dell managed to make the one that just feels the most strong . Even the MacBook Air M3 , while as dull and voluptuary as common thanks to Apple ’s fastidious fabrication , has a slightly flexible lid . The XPS 13 does not . Nothing bends or pull . Well done , Dell .
Keyboard and touchpad
However , while the XPS 13 ’s design is for sure ahead - looking , does it really succeed in beingbetter ? In my opinion , it does not . countenance ’s startle with the tough perpetrator , the course of LED touch function Francis Scott Key . On the 13 - in modeling ( and not so much the 14- and 16 - inch models that share the same virtual keys ) , Dell has the excuse that a strong-arm quarrel of function key would have take up too much space . I venture that makes some mother wit . But , almost nobody is going to actually care the choice , because there ’s no haptic feedback to allow you know that you ’ve actually activated a keystone . And you have to physically look at the keyboard when you ask to pick out a function . It ’s not a good solution .
The zero - lattice keyboard has large keycaps , but absolutely no fundamental spacing . The permutation are light and crisp , with just enough travel , but I still found myself checking my digit placement because I could n’t race my digit over any edges to point myself . I ’d say the keyboard is a bit of a wash overall , and I much prefer Apple ’s Magic Keyboard and even Lenovo ’s slimly refresh keyboard on theYoga Slim 7x .
The haptic touchpad works great , as far as haptic touchpads go . It ’s quick and antiphonal , and it does a good job of furnish feedback that ’s quiet and precise . There ’s just one trouble : you ca n’t see the edges , and you ’ll probably see yourself render to lift and urge on on the palm rest at one point or another . I ’ve used the XPS 13 for some clip now and I still get tripped up . Dell require to include some LED outlines or something , because while theXPS 14 and XPS 16have touchpads that are large enough that this problem does n’t often present itself , it still happens to me on the XPS 13 .
These are really advanced features . The problem is , they just do n’t work all that well in recitation .
Connectivity and webcam
The XPS 13 has just two ports . On the Intel modelling , they ’re two USB - C with Thunderbolt 4 . On the Snapdragon exemplar , they ’re bothUSB4 . Ultimately , USB4 provide most of the same execution and functionality of Thunderbolt 4 , but they ’re compatible with Thunderbolt 3 . That ’s a difference to keep in judgement .
Of naturally , two port are n’t a lot of connectivity , even for a 13 - inch laptop . While the MacBook Air M3 also has just two ( Thunderbolt 4 ) porthole , it also has the MagSafe 3 connection for mogul . Plug in the XPS 13 top executive adapter and you ’re leave with just one port destitute . And there ’s no 3.5 mm audio jack , something that really make small sense . Keep some dongle and hubs W. C. Handy . At least wireless connectivity is fully up to date , with Wi - Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 .
The webcam is a 1080p rendering , and it ’s fine . The infrared tv camera work well with Windows 11 Hello ’s facial recognition . And the Snapdragon X Elite ’s Neural Processing Unit ( NPU ) runs at more than the 40 tera operation per 2nd ( TOPS ) required by Microsoft ’s Copilot+ PC specification . right on now , the AI features are limited to raise Microsoft Studio Effects , Live Captions , andCocreator . The master Copilot+ lineament , Recall , is on hold .
Performance
The XPS 13 ( 9345 ) uses Qualcomm ’s third - fastest Snapdragon X Elite chipset , the X1E-80 - 100 , with 12 cores ( eight operation and four effective ) ply at 3.4GHz and a dual - core boost to 4.0GHz . Those specification are lower than those of the Snapdragon X1E-84 - 100 in the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge 16 , which run at 3.8GHz and has a 4.2GHz two-fold - core boost .
At this point , we ’re limited in the benchmark we can run given limit Windows on Arm compatibility . In the benchmark we can run natively , the XPS 13 9345 was surprisingly quick . It ’s a lot quicker than the Surface Laptop 7 with the same chipset , and even quicker than the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge 16 in Cinebench 2024 . It was a lot quicker than the Intel model — 26 % faster in Cinebench 2024 in single - core and 44 % quicker in multi - sum . It was also degenerate than the MacBook Air M3 in multi - core ( 57 % ) , but slower in undivided - essence ( 17 % ) , with the MacBook held back in sustained functioning by its want of active cooling and very thin chassis .
The XPS 13 9345 ’s Adreno GPU public presentation was in line with the chipset , and the M3 GPU cores in the MacBook Air M3 were the fastest in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme bench mark among our equivalence group . None of these laptops are bona fide gaming machine . notice that the Apple M3 chipset has CPU optimization for various creative thinking processes like video encoding and decoding , which along with the fast GPU makes the MacBook Air M3 a well faster laptop for creators .
But for demanding productiveness users , the XPS 13 9345 is a very loyal laptop — to be fair , that ’s true for all the laptops in this comparing group . pay the Qualcomm chipset ’s extra efficiency , the XPS 13 9345 should run cooler than the Intel model , which can get quite blistering even with abstemious workloads . That ’s an add bonus .
Battery life
Since the introduction of the Snapdragon X Elite , Microsoft and its spouse have put out some telling stamp battery life history promises for the unexampled chipset . Interestingly , the results I ’ve seen in marketing cloth have all been based on looping video , which is the least demanding of common assault and battery tests . It ’s also the trial run likely most touch by the presentation ’s power draw proportional to other components .
We also hightail it a web - browsing test , which is slenderly more demanding and more indicative of distinctive tangible - world usage . The tests we usually run that best duplicate productiveness workloads , such as the PCMark 10 Complete shelling bench mark , do n’t fly the coop yet on Windows on Arm . to test each laptop computer ’s efficiency when running demanding workflows , we use the Cinebench 2024 multi - core bench mark . Each of the laptops in our comparison group runs at roughly 100 % functioning in this bench mark when unplugged .
Unsurprisingly , the XPS 13 9345 and other Snapdragon X Elite laptops had impressive battery lifetime when looping our tryout picture , even unspoiled than the very effective MacBook Air M3 . All of the comparison machines were running IP panels except for the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x , Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge 16 , andAsus Zenbook 14 Q425that had OLED displays — and they showed less battery life in this trial . The Zenbook and XPS 13 displays were Full HD+ while the others were all gamey - Re , another significant factor . What was surprising was that the XPS 13 9340 Intel model also perplex very good battery life history in this test , as did the Zenbook . All of these result are much better than most other Intel Meteor Lake laptops , which come in at 14 hours or less .
However , in the web - browsing tryout , the Snapdragon laptops fell off considerably . They ’re dear than the eight hours or so of most Intel laptops , but well behind the MacBook Air M3 ’s 19.5 hours . And again , the XPS 13 9345 was n’t significantly longer - lasting than the XPS 13 ( 9340 ) and Zenbook 14 Q425 . In the Cinebench 2024 run , the Snapdragon machines were n’t significantly more effective than Intel laptop . The MacBook Air M3 , meanwhile , lasted well longer .
The bottom line is that the Snapdragon X elect chipset does n’t seem to be as much of a battery living standout as we might have hoped , at least in these laptops . We ’ll need to do more examination , and the XPS 13 9345 still had very estimable battery life . But the MacBook Air M3 , the XPS 13 ’s most important competitor , remains way forward — at least , when it ’s doing existent work .
Display and audio
I reviewed the XPS 13 9345 with a 13.4 - column inch 16:10 Full HD+ ( 1920 x 1200 ) IPS display . There are also QHD+ ( 2560 x 1600 ) IPS and 3 K ( 2880 x 1800 ) OLED options . I found the exhibit to be good enough for productivity work , with more than enough brightness and colors , but with less text bite than I wish . The advantage of the display is good battery life , at least within the constraints talk over above .
My colorimeter like this video display quite a bit . smartness was excellent at 536 nits and direct contrast was among the best I ’ve seen for a laptop informatics display at 1,940:1 . Our baselines for good display have been 300 nit and 1,000:1 , and we need to adjust both because most informatics displays today exceed those measuring . colour were closer to the IPS average , though , at 99 % of sRGB , 77 % of AdobeRGB , and 77 % of DCI - P3 , while truth was very good at a DeltaE of 1.08 ( less than 1.0 is considered excellent ) .
Certainly , this is a great display for productivity workflows . Creators and media consumers wo n’t be too impressed with the colour , though .
Dell built a nice petty level-headed system of rules into the XPS 13 9345 , with four speakers , include two tweeter and two woofers . Things get enough flash and there ’s only a little distortion at maximum loudness . Turn things down to around 85 % and you ’ll enjoy clear mids and high . It ’s hard to get a small laptop computer like this to produce a lot of basso , so you ’ll desire some earpiece for medicine and action movies .
There’s a lot to like here, but not as much as you might expect
The switch to Qualcomm ’s Snapdragon X Elite was supposed to provide a serious uptick in functioning and efficiency over Intel ’s Meteor Lake chipset . Surprisingly , while the performance is certainly there , battery life continue closer than I would have imagined . It ’s fair to say that you wo n’t get better battery life than the Intel rendering of the XPS 13 , and the MacBook Air M3 remains pretty far forward .
At the same prison term , the XPS 13 9345 ran a lot cooler , which is a major benefit . That alone is enough to warrant serious thoughtfulness . Then again , there will always be some level of some uncertainty over compatibility with Windows on Arm , and it does cost an extra $ 150 . I think that ’s deserving the rise , but it may not be a straightforward selection .
Either fashion , I can say that if you want a small , light , and fast laptop , the XPS 13 ( 9345 ) is a solid selection .
