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 Laptop Performance Summary
We’re taking the same approach to benchmarks that we used with the Acer S7 and Surface Pro reviews—which is to say, we’ll use all of our typical laptop benchmarks along with some of the tablet-centric benchmarks to round things out. Performance as you’d expect is basically on par with other Core i7 ULV offerings (e.g. Acer S7), so faster than the Surface Pro, substantially faster than any non-Core products, but worse battery life than ARM offerings. Given the size and weight, this is much more a part of the laptop with a touchscreen crowd as opposed to being a tablet with laptop aspects, so our primary focus will be on how it compares with other laptops. Here’s the quick overview of the base components for the various laptops we’re including. Note that at present, only the XPS 12, Acer S7, Surface Pro, and Vizio CT15 were tested with Windows 8; the rest were running Windows 7.
| Laptop Configuration Overview | ||||
| Laptop | CPU | Graphics | Storage | Battery |
| Acer Aspire S7-391-9886 | Intel i7-3517U | HD4000 | 2x128GB SSD | 35Wh |
| Apple MacBook Air 13 (Mid-2012) | Intel i5-3427U | HD4000 | 256GB SSD | 50Wh |
| ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB71 | Intel i7-3517U | HD4000 | 256GB SSD | 50Wh |
| Dell XPS 12 | Intel i7-3517U | HD4000 | 256GB SSD | 47Wh |
| Dell XPS 13 | Intel i7-2637M | HD3000 | 256GB SSD | 47Wh |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | Intel i7-3667U | HD4000 | 2x128GB SSDs | 56Wh |
| HP Folio 13 | Intel i5-2467M | HD3000 | 128GB SSD | 60Wh |
| Intel IVB Ultrabook Prototype | Intel i5-3427U | HD4000 | 240GB SSD | 47Wh |
| Microsoft Surface Pro | Intel i5-3317U | HD4000 | 128GB | 42Wh |
| Toshiba Satellite U845-S406 | Intel i5-3317U | HD4000 | 500+32GB Hybrid | 54Wh |
| Toshiba Satellite U845W-S410 | Intel i5-3317U | HD4000 | 500+32GB Hybrid | 54Wh |
| VizioCT15 | Intel i7-3517U | HD4000 | 256GB SSD | 52Wh |
There aren’t really any surprises here; the XPS 12 performs right about where we’d expect. Acer’s S7 does come in slightly ahead in most benchmarks, which is interesting considering it’s thinner and thus cooling the chip (and enabling higher Turbo Boost clocks) should in theory be more difficult, but clearly that’s not the case. Whether it’s a lack of fine tuning for performance, minor differences in other components, or prioritizing quiet over fast, unless you’re really concerned about a difference of a few percent all of the i7-3517U Ultrabooks perform about the same. Actually, that’s not quite true, as Windows 7 models seem to hold a slight performance advantage in several tests as well (particularly battery life, which we’ll get to in a moment).
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trekker99 - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
I have no problems with the wifi, so it could be dodgy hardware. There was a wireless driver update in mid Jan also.Agree on the touchpad though, The driver update in late Jan helps somewhat.
retrospooty - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
"’I'm no longer confident that our testing procedure works properly for Windows 8 laptops. "Its not you its Dell. I just set up an XPS 13 with the new 1080p option yesterday (for one of our users, not mine). Absolutely brilliant laptop in every way, except the LCD. Great res, but the color is just... wrong. I never really noticed it before, but I then looked at some other Dell's. We use mostly enterprise class Latitudes at work. I checked 6 others of various models and ages. They all sucked. Even the more expensive ones with high res screens were awful in Win 7 as well.
Termie - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
Jarred - I agree with you that 8GB should now be standard, but you have a mistake on the first page: "$45 for 2x8GB at retail" - that should say 2x4GB. Also, memory prices are actually rising very quickly, so right now that's more like $50. Nonetheless, it's a great point, so I wanted to make sure your message doesn't get lost in that typo.JarredWalton - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
Fixed, thanks!ssj3gohan - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
I don't understand why laptop/tablet manufacturers even bother with 2x2 2.4/5GHz-only wireless-N if you can get 3x3 with dual frontends (i.e. simultaneous 2.4 and 5GHz communication, not just different bands on one or the other) for just a couple dollars extra BOM?I wasn't surprised to find a subpar wireless module (as a matter of fact, exactly the same as in the xps 12) in my budget laptop. There every dollar matters. Not in the XPS...
guidryp - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
What's to understand?Same reason they use a third rate trackpad, same reason for small size of RAM, with expensive upgrade costs:
They are in this to make money.
$50 saved on production, using cheaper components in several areas, is $ 50 000 000 of additional profit on a million units.
Last I checked registered charities weren't building consumer electronics.
Every make of Consumer electronics does this (as do most other consumer goods).
CeriseCogburn - Monday, March 4, 2013 - link
That's a great excuse for making another unsatisfactory piece of crap. They really do have everyone brainwashed like robotic retards.The era of the brand new high end junk, it's top of the.... and every flappy lipped turd pub economist knows why they did it...
Crap is crap and they charge $50 more anyway.
jhoff80 - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
Honestly? It could be much worse. At least this has a generally stable Intel Wireless card.The Surface Pro, supposedly Microsoft's flagship device, uses Marvell wireless and Bluetooth, and there's nothing but issues there.
The same goes for the Surface RT's Marvell Wifi, which maybe, possibly, supposedly, is going to finally get a Wifi fix in the firmware in March.
Egg - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
"while ARM and Atom can run a light OS like Atom fine"While I'd love to have a truly light OS on a microkernel, I think Android was meant here.
JarredWalton - Friday, February 22, 2013 - link
Yup, fixed. Thanks!