Review: Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 Laptop

Dell's XPS 13 laptops are some of our favorites. The latest version did not wow us like past releases, but the XPS line remains thin, light, powerful enough, and an overall good deal for a premium laptop.

For years now, Dell has produced a convertible 2-in-1 version of the XPS 13 that was essentially a laptop with a 360-degree hinge. This year, however, Dell has done something different with the 2-in-1, morphing it into what amounts to a tablet with a detachable keyboard. This new version has more in common with the Surface Pro 9 than the XPS 13 laptops.

In some ways, the XPS 13 2-in-1 bests the Surface Pro at its own game, but in other potentially important ways, it does not. Still, if you're determined to have a Windows tablet, this is an attractive pick. 

Photograph: Dell

I've been testing Dell XPS 13s for seven years now. I even bought one years ago (the last developer edition with a nose cam, alas) but my first impression of the new 2-in-1 version was: This is not an XPS 13. After weeks of using it, I still stand by that. There is much to like here, but thinking of this as an XPS 13 does this hybrid laptop-tablet a disservice. This is something else entirely.

Dell sells the XPS 13 2-in-1 in a variety of configurations, starting at $1,049, but that does not get you the keyboard folio, which is a $100 add-on. You definitely want the keyboard, too. Without it, the XPS 13 is considerably less useful (mostly due to Windows 11's tablet limitations).

Call the starting price $1,149 then. That gets you an Intel Core i5, 8 GB of RAM and a 256-GB SSD. The configuration I tested had the i5 processor, but bumped the RAM to 16 GB and the SSD to 512 GB, which brings your total price to $1,299 (including the folio Keyboard). For reference, a Microsoft Surface Pro 9 with similar specs would set you back $1,399 and have only a 256-GB SSD. 

Fully decked out, the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 with an i7 chip, 1-TB SSD, folio keyboard, and stylus is $1,699 to the fully decked-out Surface 9's $2,600 (though the Surface would have 32 GB of RAM, which is not an option on the Dell). The XPS is the clear winner when it comes to price, but there are some trade-offs.

Photograph: Dell

The XPS lacks the Surface's kickstand-style design, which allows you to rest the screen at any angle you like. The XPS 13 is held up by the folio, which slides down the back of the tablet, locking in place with magnets. That means it's limited to only those angles where there are magnets. The most obvious is the first, the angle you'd want for typing at a desk. After that, you have to slowly slide the folio down until you feel it lock in place. There are three possible angles (that I could find, anyway), but switching between them is not as simple as it is with the Surface.

As with any folio-style keyboard, typing in your lap is awkward, but possible. I wrote most of this review with it balanced in my lap. That said, if you primarily want to type with this in your lap, I have a device for you. It's called a laptop.

Typing on the Dell folio keyboard is not unlike typing on the XPS 13 Plus. The keypress is shallower than an ordinary laptop, but still deep enough to feel like you pressed something, and the response is springy in a satisfying way. One thing to note is that this keyboard does not tilt like the Surface Pro.

The other thing to consider is that, given that most of us do want a keyboard, pairing a 1.6-pound tablet with a 1.26-pound keyboard gives you a 2.8-pound device. The Dell XPS 13 laptop weighs 2.6 pounds and has a screen that can be adjusted to any angle. The main reason I can see to pick this over the laptop is for those who primarily want a Windows tablet.

When it comes to performance, the 2-in-1 XPS 13 proved curiously powerful, considering its thermal limitations. In fact, it scored better in the Geekbench test suite than the XPS 13 laptop I briefly tested last year. In theory these are the same chip, and given the fanless design of the 2-in-1 I would expect worse performance. And yet, in benchmarks, it came out slightly ahead. In real-world use, I did not struggle or encounter any lag. And I spend most of my time in Windows using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which is notoriously heavy on the CPU.

Suffice to say that performance of the i5 model, which uses a 12th-generation Intel U-Series processor, is good enough for most of the use cases in which you'd want a hybrid device like this. If you're thinking you want this for video editing, you are wrong. You do not. Nor is it a good gaming setup. But for browsing the web, working with documents, and even editing very large spreadsheets, the XPS 13 was plenty snappy.

It comes with a very different—and in my view, much nicer—display than its laptop sibling. Like the Surface Pro, it uses a 3:2 ration screen with a 2880 x 1920 pixel screen. With 500 nits of brightness, it works great outdoors and is plenty sharp. Dell also says there's support for DisplayHDR 400 and Dolby Vision, which you won't find in the XPS 13 laptop. It's also protected by Gorilla Glass, and it's a touchscreen (it also works with the sold-separately stylus).

Another place where the tablet XPS 13 outshines its laptop sibling is the webcam, which is a 5-MP camera that streams very nice 1080p video. I'd really love to see this camera in the regular laptop.

Photograph: Dell

Dell XPS 13s have never had many ports and every year we seem to get fewer. Like the XPS 13 laptop, the 2-in-1 has just two Thunderbolt 4 ports. You do get adapters for any USB-A devices and a 3.5-mm headphone jack, but seriously, Dell, just build a headphone jack into the device.

Probably the biggest disappointment of the XPS 13 2-in-1 is battery life. In our standard local video playback battery test, I got only six hours and 43 minutes of battery life. In real-life use, I didn't ever manage to get through a workday without plugging in. Battery life is only marginally worse than the Surface Pro, so it's not bad for a Windows tablet, but it's a far cry from what you’d get with even an average laptop.

The final thing I will note is that so far there is no developer edition of the 2-in-1 with Ubuntu Linux installed by default. I was able to install and run Arch Linux without any major issues, but you might run into some hardware compatibility issues with older Linux Kernels. Touch support varies considerably across Linux desktops, but in my experience it's generally no worse than Windows, which isn't that great.

The real problem with the XPS 13 2-in-1 is the same problem with the Surface tablets: Windows just isn't that great on a tablet. Interacting with it is tedious. Even the most recent version of Android offers a better experience. Most of the time when I used the Dell as a tablet, I lasted about ten minutes before I found myself muttering something about a damn keyboard. Still, if you're sold on a Windows tablet, the XPS 13 makes a compelling, cheaper alternative to a Surface.