Dell XPS 12 Review: A Jack of All Trades Flipscreen Ultrabook
by Jarred Walton on February 22, 2013 2:13 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Dell
- XPS
- Intel Insider
- Ultraportable
- hybrids
- Ultrabook
Dell XPS 12 Tablet Performance Summary
We have a separate set of benchmarks for tablets, which focus a lot less on outright performance. Needless to say, the gap between Core i7 ULV and typical ARM and Atom tablet SoCs is pretty huge. Our tablet comparisons are going to use different devices, so let’s start with another table of the various tablets. You’ll note that the CPUs, Graphics, and Storage are all substantially faster on the Core i5/i7 devices. We've also tested the XPS 12 with multiple browsers, just to make things slightly more interesting.
| Tablet Configuration Overview | ||||
| Device | CPU | Graphics | Storage | Battery |
| Acer Aspire S7-391-9886 | Intel i7-3517U | HD4000 | 2x128GB SSD | 35Wh |
| Acer W510 | Intel Atom Z2760 | SGX540 | 64GB eMMC | 27Wh |
| Dell XPS 12 | Intel i7-3517U | HD4000 | 256GB SSD | 47Wh |
| Microsoft Surface Pro | Intel i5-3317U | HD4000 | 128GB SSD | 42Wh |
| Microsoft Surface RT | NVIDIA Tegra 3 | GeForce | 64GB eMMC | 31.5Wh |
| Samsung ATIV Smart PC | Intel Atom Z2760 | SGX545 | 64GB eMMC | 30Wh |
| Samsung ATIV Tab | Qualcomm APQ8060A | Adreno 225 | 64GB eMMC | 30Wh |
As we’ve noted in the past, while ARM and Atom can run a light OS like Android fine, and even Windows RT works well, that doesn’t mean we have anywhere near the same level of compute available compared to a full Core i5/i7 processor. And it’s not just about the performance shown in the above charts; start copying data to or from one of the Intel Core devices and you’ll notice a stark contrast compared to tablets with their slow eMMC storage and generally inferior WiFi and USB connections. Which is fine, considering the cost of the Surface Pro is the lowest of the Core offerings we’ve tested and still tips the scales at $900.
Intel has two paths going forward, and both are going to be quite interesting. On the one hand, Core gets updated with Haswell in the near future, which should lower power requirements and perhaps close the gap in battery life between Core and ARM/Atom. Whether they can actually close it or merely narrow it is the bigger question, but we’ll wait and see. On the other side of the equation, Atom will get a significant upgrade at the end of this year (or early 2014), and this will be the first time Intel has really put some effort into improving Atom performance. With a new architecture and a process shrink to 22nm, Intel’s codename Merrifield will be their most serious attempt at beating ARM and other SoCs and getting into more smartphones and tablets.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
59 Comments
View All Comments
nagi603 - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
My thoughts exactly. I'm looking to replace a rapidly aging tablet PC, and just can't find a good, modern convertible / tablet to replace it with... A shame companies eschew either the 8 gigs of ram, the pen input, the big enough battery or the not-insane price.damianrobertjones - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
Lenovo Helix. HP 2760p (Ish)uditrana - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link
ThinkPad Helix?Fits everything but the insane price.
BrokenCrayons - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
Though really, for $1200+ dollars, I could buy a lot of ink pens and Marble Composition notebooks which don't seem to suffer from the same battery life problems that a tablet has and are probably somewhat lighter. Dropping one, even from the top of a building, or running over one with a car won't cause a significant enough amount of damage to make the notebook cease to operate either. Of course, you don't get an Internet connection to anything. Still, I'll take $1.75 each from Wally World plus a few cents for a good PaperMate pen for the durability, endurance, and weight savings.-BC
Rick83 - Saturday, February 23, 2013 - link
Weight saving?Have you ever tried to get 1200 dollars worth of pens and paper into your carry-on luggage?
On another note: I don't think the limitation matrix in the post three up is quite correct: Price should be replaced by "with a decent screen".
Currently not even 2500 dollars can buy something that's better in every way, compared to a Thinkpad X60 tablet from 5 years ago (which then cost around 2000 dollars, but was worth the money for those that were looking for pen support.)
twin - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
I think you mixed up the weight on the table. It shows 2.87 instead of 3.35lbs.Any plans to look at the Lenovo Helix in the future? thanks
JarredWalton - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
Oops... copy/paste of the Acer table and I missed updating the dimensions and weight. It's fixed now, thanks.As for the Helix, Lenovo has not seeded us with a laptop for review for several years, so unless that changes the only way to review it will be if one of us purchases one. I know personally it's more than I can spend, considering I have other laptops to use that don't cost me anything. I did play with it at CES, though, and it was decent; not sure about the mechanism for attaching to the keyboard base, as it just felt a bit clunky, but dockable tablets and devices always seem to have some issues there.
StormyParis - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
Darn the first picture is ungly, to the point of making the damn thing broken, I initially thought the screen was on the tablet, separated from the rest of the device.JarredWalton - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
The glossy display shows reflections quite well, so unless you really try to stage the photos you get a lot of stuff like that. Thought it was a nice shot for those that worry about glossy LCDs. :-)nerd1 - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
I wonder how long it takes to see the review of Ativ Smart PC (atom) and hopefully Ativ smart pc pro (i5 version)It literally took months...