We’re in a laptop CPU war, and Dell’s XPS 13 is a highly contested battleground. At IFA 2024, Intel has launched its new Core Ultra processors, now in their Series 2 (or second generation), and they make a couple of impressive claims over the Qualcomm Snapdragon X model.
First off, the battery can supposedly last for 26 hours while streaming video, which beats Qualcomm’s claims by at least four hours. How that will play out in actual testing, we’ll have to wait and see, but it certainly sounds promising.
It should be noted that 26 hours of battery life is only quoted for the lower-resolution FHD+ (1900 x 1200) model. The higher-resolution options tax the battery a bit harder, including the model that comes with tandem OLED, which Dell estimates to get just 14 hours in this same test.
While it sounds like the 1200p model gets the best battery life of the available options, the XPS 13 remains the only laptop to offer tandem OLED as an option. The technology debuted on the iPad Pro earlier this year, as well as on the previous-gen Intel Meteor Lake XPS 13. It remains an option here, offering better battery life than conventional OLED. The tandem OLED panel tops out at 400 nits, though, while the IPS panel goes up to 500 nits.
Beyond longevity, the new XPS 13 also has a more powerful neural processing unit (NPU),capable of 48 tera operations per second (TOPS). This puts it above the 40 TOPS of the Snapdragon X Elite and a significant step up from 10 TOPS of the previous generation of Intel chips. Unfortunately, there isn’t a ton of benefit to having a powerful dedicated NPU. Recall was supposed to be the headlining Windows feature to utilize the NPU, but it’s been delayed and sullied by security concerns.
Dell does claim that the NPU can enable “advanced AI capabilities such as test and image creation and faster photo or video editing.” We’ve seen a few use cases, such as Cocreator in Paint, but it still feels like the early days for the technology, with these Copilot+ features coming in the future.
Dell’s new XPS 13 is available for preorder today with a starting configuration price of $1,400. That makes it the priciest version of the XPS 13, though it comes with a fairly loaded spec sheet, including 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Even still, when similarly configured, it’s overall more expensive than the Snapdragon X Elite version by $100.
Interestingly, Dell is currently selling the Qualcomm version for $999, which is a killer deal given what it comes with. The Meteor Lake (or Core Ultra Series 1) XPS 13 will remain in the lineup, currently with a starting price of $1,149 for a configuration that starts with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.