The XPS lacks the Surface’s kickstand-style design, which lets you relaxation the display at any angle you want. The XPS 13 is held up by the folio, which slides down the again of the pill, locking in place with magnets. That means it is restricted to solely these angles the place there are magnets. The most evident is the primary, the angle you’d need for typing at a desk. After that, you need to slowly slide the folio down till you’re feeling it lock in place. There are three potential angles (that I may discover, anyway), however switching between them will not be so simple as it’s with the Surface.

As with any folio-style keyboard, typing in your lap is awkward, however potential. I wrote most of this overview with it balanced in my lap. That mentioned, when you primarily wish to sort with this in your lap, I’ve a tool for you. It’s known as a laptop computer.

Typing on the Dell folio keyboard will not be not like typing on the XPS 13 Plus. The keypress is shallower than an odd laptop computer, however nonetheless deep sufficient to really feel such as you pressed one thing, and the response is springy in a satisfying manner. One factor to notice is that this keyboard doesn’t tilt just like the Surface Pro.

Weighty Decisions

The different factor to think about is that, given that the majority of us do need a keyboard, pairing a 1.6-pound pill with a 1.26-pound keyboard offers you a 2.8-pound system. The Dell XPS 13 laptop computer weighs 2.6 kilos and has a display that may be adjusted to any angle. The fundamental motive I can see to select this over the laptop computer is for many who primarily need a Windows pill.

When it involves efficiency, the 2-in-1 XPS 13 proved curiously highly effective, contemplating its thermal limitations. In reality, it scored higher within the Geekbench take a look at suite than the XPS 13 laptop computer I briefly examined final yr. In idea these are the identical chip, and given the fanless design of the 2-in-1 I’d count on worse efficiency. And but, in benchmarks, it got here out barely forward. In real-world use, I didn’t battle or encounter any lag. And I spend most of my time in Windows utilizing Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which is notoriously heavy on the CPU.

Suffice to say that efficiency of the i5 mannequin, which makes use of a Twelfth-generation Intel U-Series processor, is nice sufficient for many of the use instances during which you’d need a hybrid system like this. If you are considering you need this for video enhancing, you’re incorrect. You don’t. Nor is it a superb gaming setup. But for searching the online, working with paperwork, and even enhancing very massive spreadsheets, the XPS 13 was loads snappy.

It comes with a really completely different—and in my opinion, a lot nicer—show than its laptop computer sibling. Like the Surface Pro, it makes use of a 3:2 ration display with a 2880 x 1920 pixel display. With 500 nits of brightness, it really works nice outdoor and is loads sharp. Dell additionally says there’s help for DisplayHDR 400 and Dolby Vision, which you will not discover within the XPS 13 laptop computer. It’s additionally protected by Gorilla Glass, and it is a touchscreen (it additionally works with the sold-separately stylus).