Hardware Overview and CPU Performance

For this review, Dell sent out ane of the higher-spec'd XPS 13s, equipped with an Intel Core i7-6500U. This is a 14nm Skylake part with 2 cores and four threads, clocked at 2.5 GHz with Turbo Heave providing up to 3.ane GHz. It features four MB of L3 cache, and a TDP of 15W that matches every other U-series CPU in the Skylake line-up.

The graphics core in the i7-6500U is Intel's Hd 520, with 24 execution units clocked upwardly to 1,050 MHz. When you opt for a Core i7 part, you get a slight 50 MHz clock speed heave on the GPU compared to Core i5 and Core i3 parts, which shouldn't take a huge effect on operation. As this is a mid-level integrated GPU, it won't exist setting whatsoever functioning records, especially relative to a discrete GPU from Nvidia or AMD.

This review model is besides equipped with 8 GB of LPDDR3 at 1,866 MHz, a Samsung PM951 256 GB NVMe solid state drive, and a Dell Wireless 1820A solution providing Bluetooth 4.1 and dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/thou/n/ac on 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz networks with 2x2 MIMO. Thunderbolt three is provided through Intel's Alpine Ridge controller.

There are several other new Dell XPS 13 configurations available, the main ones of which I've listed below:

  • Core i3-6100U – iv GB RAM – 128 GB SSD – 1080p Non-Touch - $799
  • Cadre i5-6200U – 8 GB RAM – 128 GB SSD – 1080p Not-Touch - $999
  • Core i5-6200U – 8 GB RAM – 256 GB SSD – QHD+ Touchscreen - $1449
  • Core i7-6500U – viii GB RAM – 256 GB SSD – QHD+ Touchscreen - $1649 – (reviewed hither)
  • Cadre i7-6500U – 16 GB RAM – 512 GB SSD – QHD+ Touchscreen - $2079
  • Core i7-6500U – 16 GB RAM – one TB SSD – QHD+ Touchscreen - $2499

On top of that, you can configure some models to your liking. Bones upgrade paths are as follows:

  • 1080p non-touch on to QHD+ touchscreen display: +$300
  • 128 to 256 GB SSD: +$150
  • Windows ten Home 64-bit to Windows 10 Pro 64-bit: +$fifty

The base of operations model with the Core i3 CPU and 4 GB of RAM really isn't worth considering, as the Core i3 CPU lacks Turbo Boost, which makes it a fair bit slower than the Core i5 options. 4 GB of RAM is also besides restrictive for a modern ultrabook, and this model lacks any upgrade paths.

The cheapest QHD+ model can be purchased past adding the loftier-resolution display to the base Core i5 model: a configuration that volition prepare you lot back $1299. To get either xvi GB of RAM or an SSD larger than 256 GB, you'll have to purchase a Core i7 model with the QHD+ brandish.

Permit'due south get on with the benchmarks, starting with how the Cadre i7-6500U's CPU performs.

There's quite a scrap of interesting data in here. For starters, the new XPS xiii sees a performance regression compared to the early on 2022 model in ii of iii PCMark tests. The Core i7-equipped Surface Book likewise suffers relative to Broadwell laptops, and I suspect this is due to the increased display resolution of both laptops compared to the 1080p XPS 13 I tested terminal year.

In our encoding benchmarks, the new XPS 13 is only three percent slower than the Surface Book, which isn't surprising considering it's clocked iii.8% lower (2.5 GHz in the i7-6500U versus two.6 GHz in the i7-6600U).

The new XPS 13 was six percent faster than the Core i7-5600U-equipped Lenovo ThinkPad T450s in encoding tasks, which is a decent performance improvement because the i7-5600U is clocked iv percentage higher. Relative to the early 2022 XPS 13 and its Core i5-5200U, gains were much larger, with the new XPS 13 boasting a operation advantage of 24 percent. The i7-6500U is clocked 300 MHz higher than the i5-5200U, just there is certainly enough of a proceeds here to consider upgrading from a Broadwell Core i5 laptop to a Skylake Core i7 laptop.