Dell XPS 13 (Intel Core Ultra 2nd Gen, 2025) review: still one of the best laptops money can buy

Posted by Oriccabattery01 from the Business category at 19 Feb 2025 05:55:19 am.

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Dell and Intel team up to deliver a powerhouse ultrabook
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</figure> Verdict 
The latest Dell XPS 13 brings Intel's Lunar Lake chips to the iconic laptop line, delivering truly all-day battery life and strong performance across the board in a sleek and stylish MacBook-esque design. However, issues with the XPS redesign remain, with its edgeless trackpad and adaptive function bar creating some problems with usability that prevent it from reaching true greatness.
 Pros

+Gorgeous 3K OLED screen
+Best-in-class battery life
+Strong overall performance
+Copilot+ ready

Cons

-Not enough ports
-Touchpad and touch bar hurt accessibility

also:Replacement battery for Dell XPS 13 7390 2-In-1
 Dell XPS 13: Two-minute review <figure class="wp-block-image"> The Dell XPS 13 pictured on a white surface in front of a window with two potted plants.

The Dell XPS 13 pictured on a white surface in front of a window with two potted plants.

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Dell's XPS 13 laptop line has been kicking about for quite a while now, and it's come a long way. The XPS brand debuted more than two decades ago, with the very first XPS laptop launching back in 2007; needless to say, the latest iteration of the Dell XPS 13 looks and feels far more modern, sharing very little DNA with that first XPS laptop, and it's (almost) flawless.
 
Sporting the same sleek design we saw in the2024 Dell XPS 13with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip, the new model basically takes everything that laptop did and does it better, thanks to new Lunar Lake processors fromIntel. In our review model, that's the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, which delivers staggeringly good battery life and a general uptick in performance over the Snapdragon model.
 
When I say staggeringly good, I do meanstaggeringlygood – I'll get into the details later in this review, but in our video playback test the Lunar Lake XPS 13 clocked in just shy of 24 hours, beating most of the machines on our current list of thebest laptops. In terms of general use, it can literally go for days without a charge if you're just doing basic tasks like word processing and answering emails. It feels like a giant middle finger from Dell and Intel to theMacBook Air's generational drops in battery life, and I'm so here for it.
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Performance-wise, things are a bit less impressive, but still basically excellent. The laptop ran smoothly no matter what I threw at it, and overall performance in my benchmarking tests exceeded that offered by the previous Snapdragon-powered XPS 13 – and many other laptops at this price point.
 
Speaking of price, I should probably clarify right now that thisisn'ta cheap laptop; our review unit is priced at $1,999.99 / £2,049 / AU$3,998.50, placing it squarely in 'premium ultrabook' territory. Still, it delivers great value for money when you look at the specs and performance, with an absolutely gorgeousOLEDdisplay
 
The only reason this isn't an immediate five-star review is the fact that Dell hasn't resolved some issues with the design that I've noticed in previous models, dating back to the2023 Dell XPS 13 Plus. These are mainly related to usability and accessibility; while the designlooksincredible, the edgeless touchpad and lack of physical Fn keys hurt the laptop's functionality a little, stopping it from achieving perfection.
 
Despite these niggling issues, the new XPS 13 is still an absolutely fantastic laptop that I'd happily use for the next five years or more – how do you feel about letting me keep this one, Dell?
 
also:Replacement battery for Dell XPS 13 9300 9310 2020
 Dell XPS 13: Price and availability

How much does it cost?Starts at $1,199.99 / £1,399 / AU$3,198.80
When is it available?Available now
Where can you get it?Available in the US, UK, and Australia

There are multiple configurations of the 2nd-gen Intel Core Ultra version of the XPS 13, with prices starting at $1,199.99 / £1,399 / AU$3,198.80 for the non-touchscreen model. In a strange twist, the Core Ultra 5 configuration is actually $50moreexpensivein the US for no discernible reason; elsewhere, that's the cheapest model.
 
You'll likely at least want a touchscreen and a Core Ultra 7 processor to get the full experience from this laptop, which is what our review unit offers, and that model checks in at a cool $1,999.99 / £2,049 / AU$3,998.50 – certainly not inexpensive, but about par for the course for premium ultrabooks. It is notably more expensive than the latest M3 MacBook Air, which is almost a year old now – in other words, macOS fans likely won't be making the switch toWindows 11based on this review.
 
The top-end configuration of the Dell XPS 13 will cost you $2,349.99 / £2,634 / AU$4,899.40, and offers an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V chip, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of SSD storage, and the same lovely 3K OLED touchscreen in my review model.

Price score:4/5

also:Replacement battery for Dell XPS 13 9370 13-9370-D1605G 13 9370 FHD i5
 Dell XPS 13: Specs <figure class="wp-block-table"> ASUS Zenbook S 14

CPU	Up to Intel Core Ultra 9 288V
GPU	Intel Arc Graphics
RAM	Up to 32GB LPDDR5X
Display	Up to 13.4-inch 3K (2880 x 1800) OLED, 60Hz
Storage	Up to 2TB SSD
Ports	2x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C
Wireless	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Weight	2.70lbs / 1.21kg
Dimension	11.6 x 7.8 x 0.58 inches / 29.5 x 19.9 x 1.48cm

</figure> Dell XPS 13: Design <figure class="wp-block-image">

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Lightweight but sturdy
Looks fantastic
Still has some accessibility issues

Aesthetically speaking, Dell didn't need to change a thing for this new iteration of the XPS 13: it's still rocking the same sleek chassis as last year's model, combining a modern style with a robust traditional clamshell design in either Platinum (featured here) or Graphite colorways.
 
The screen is the star of the show here: my review unit has the top-spec 3K (2880 x 1800) InfinityEdge OLED touch display, and it's glorious. Colors are bright and vivid, contrast is deep, and picture quality is generally very sharp and detailed. Even in more demanding tests that battered the frame rate a bit (like 3DMark's Time Spy benchmark), it looked magnificent.
 
The keyboard feels great to type on, with a decent amount of key travel and a satisfying bounce despite the super-thin chassis (it measures just 1.48cm in total thickness), and the cool backlighting makes it easy to use in low-light conditions. Naturally, it features a dedicated Copilot key as well as a fingerprint scanner integrated into the power button.
 
Unfortunately, I have the aforementioned beef with aspects of the keyboard and touchpad layout. The touchpad is 'invisible', integrated edgelessly into the palm rest, and while it's very responsive, and the palm rejection works perfectly, the lack of tactile edges is actually a little irritating in practice. While testing the XPS 13, I would sometimes unknowingly slide my fingertip past the edge of the pad's sensor range and try to click, to no avail.
 
These frustrations continue with the function bar above the keyboard, which is actually an LED-backlit touch bar that can swap seamlessly between traditional Fn keys and media keys when you hold down the Fn button. While this is a clever (and rather visually satisfying) solution, the lack of physical feedback is annoying, and in brightly-lit conditions – like working outside on a sunny day – these backlit 'keys' become virtually impossible to actually see. It's annoying, and both of these problems pose accessibility issues for sight-impaired users; not being able to feel a button or the edge of the touchpad with your finger would make using this laptop extremely difficult for a blind or partially-sighted person, even with screen reader tools.
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The quad-array speakers and 1080p webcam are both very good – not the best I've ever seen, but perfectly capable of handling high-quality video calls and even playing music or videos out loud. I do generally recommend using a headset over integrated speakers when it comes to laptops (especially for gaming), but these do the job well. The webcam array also features an IR camera for facial recognition logins, although it lacks any sort of privacy shutter or kill switch, which would have been a nice inclusion for security-conscious users.
 
In terms of overall construction, this is one very sturdy laptop in spite of its thin-and-light design. The outer metal shell is scratch-resistant machined aluminum with a matte finish (though it does pick up fingerprints), and the internal plastic of the keyboard and palm rest feels durable too.
 
One downside to the overall design is the dearth of physical ports: you get two Thunderbolt 4 USB-Cs, and that's literally it. No USB-A, no Ethernet or video output (although those USB-C ports do support DisplayPort video), no microSD slot, not even a humble 3.5mm audio jack. I get it; USB-C is a great multipurpose connection standard, and this sort of port layout is increasingly common in modern ultrabooks, but if you need to use the laptop while it's plugged in, you're limited to just a single Thunderbolt port, which is a shame. Prepare to buy a USB-C hub if you're planning to connect a lot of devices to your XPS 13, basically.

Design score:4/5

also:Replacement adapter for Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320
 Dell XPS 13: Performance

Lunar Lake performs excellently
Copilot+ works as advertised

As expected, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V in my XPS 13 review unit performs admirably, delivering strong performance in virtually every department, helped along by its hefty 32GB of DDR5 memory. It's truly mind-blowing to me how rapidly laptops have improved in the past decade. Speaking as someone who's been testing them for years, being able to play modern games on an ultralight compact laptop like this just feels unreal.
 
That said, this isn't a gaming laptop – though I'll discuss the graphical performance in a bit – so let's focus on what the XPS 13 is really for: everyday productivity. Across almost all of our synthetic benchmarks, it beats last year's Snapdragon X Elite model handily by a decent margin. Multi-core performance in Geekbench 6.4 was notably a bit weaker, but still good, while single-core performance was stronger.
 
Dell XPS 13 review: Benchmarks
 
Here's how theDell XPS 13 (Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, 2024)performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
3DMark:Night Raid: 34,618; Fire Strike: 9,058; Time Spy: 4,407; Steel Nomad: 889
Cinebench R23:Multi-core: 8,494; Single-core: 1,874
Geekbench 6.4:Multicore: 11,001; Single-core: 2,716
Geekbench AI:Single Precision Score: 2,359; Half Precision Score: 1,217; Quantized Score: 4,811
PCMark 10:6,827
Crossmark:Overall: 1,839; Productivity: 1,684; Creativity: 2,174; Responsiveness: 1,467
Sid Meier's Civilization VI:(1080p, Ultra): 65fps; (1080p, Low): 155fps
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test):23 hours, 26 minutes
 
In any case, when it came to real-world use, I had zero problems. Opening 20 Chrome tabs and multitasking between them caused no slowdown, and the laptop boots up and wakes from sleep mode incredibly fast. General responsiveness and functionality were excellent. Dell's own pre-installed software is here, naturally, but it's mercifully quite unobtrusive – no bloatware here, besides the usual Windows 11 stuff.
 
Given that the Core Ultra 7 258V packs an Intel AI Boost neural processing unit (NPU), I put that to the test as well. In the Geekbench AI benchmark, it produced a quantized score of 4,811; a reasonable showing, but weak compared to a system with a discrete GPU for advanced AI processing. However, in practice, Windows Copilot worked quickly and effectively on the XPS 13.
 
The Dell XPS 13 handled everything I threw at it with relative calm, only spinning up its fans to any noticeable volume during the 3DMark rendering tests. In most tests, I heard barely a whisper from the fans, and general use was completely silent most of the time.
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Intel's focus on power efficiency and thermal performance for the 2nd-gen Core Ultra chips has clearly paid off. The laptop barely got warm throughout my entire testing process – opting for a rear exhaust vent rather than the underside vents I often see on ultrabooks was a wise move from Dell, as it means using the laptop on a soft surface (like a duvet, or your own thighs) won't block any heat output.
 
When it comes to gaming, it's surprisingly viable on the XPS 13: toss in features like Intel XeSS upscaling (orAMD's open-source FSR 3.1), and you can reasonably play the vast majority of PC games on this laptop, even modern titles – just be aware that you'll probably need to tweak down some of the graphical settings in order to get a decent frame rate. This certainly isn't one of thebest gaming laptops, but it'll happily stand up to a bit of casual gaming when the workday is done.
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Performance score:4.5/5

Dell XPS 13: Battery 
You probably got this from me raving about the battery further up in this review, butwowzers. Yeah, never saying that again. Seriously though, the battery life on this thing is absurd, beating out virtually every other laptop I've tested. Dell promised 24-hour battery life, and I'll be damned if it didn't deliver.
 
Our battery test involves running a looped 1080p video clip with the laptop set to standard power efficiency mode in Windows 11, with Bluetooth off, the volume at zero, and brightness at 50%. Running on battery power, the XPS 13 shut down after 23 hours and 26 minutes of playback – if you were using it at minimum brightness with additional low-power modes enabled, you could probably stretch it even further.
 
Granted, this isn't indicative of everyday use; many people will want brightness set to maximum or Bluetooth turned on to support a mouse or headset (because, you know... not enough ports on this bad boy). Still, it's a phenomenal showing that batters most of the competition, and virtually guarantees that this laptop will see you through a full workday.
 
One thing I really value in a laptop battery is its ability to hold charge when turned off or in sleep mode, and the XPS 13 also excels in this area. After sitting on a desk for several days, unplugged and unused, I cracked it open and found it still had more than 50% battery. Thanks to Thunderbolt 4 power delivery, it also charges very fast, going from empty to 80%-plus in one hour when not in use.

Battery score:5/5

Should you buy the Dell XPS 13? <figure class="wp-block-table"> NotesRating

Value	Undeniably a rather expensive laptop, but it delivers your money's worth with strong performance and design that looks and feels premium.	4/5
Design	Sleek, compact, and visually appealing, the XPS 13 looks good and knows it. I just wish Dell would sort out the accessibility issues with the 'invisible' touchpad.	4/5
Performance	Strong productivity performance across the board is coupled with surprisingly decent gaming chops, even if multi-core performance in synthetic tests was a little slower than I'd hoped to see.	4.5/5
Battery	With truly all-day battery life off a single charge, the XPS 13 with Intel Lunar Lake proves that it can go the distance.	5/5

</figure> Buy it if... 
You need long battery life
If you want your laptop to last through a full day's work and then some (or you're just prone to forgetting your charger), then Dell has you covered.
 
You want something lightweight but powerful
With a thin chassis and low overall package weight, the XPS 13 is a compact powerhouse that doesn't skimp on performance for its lightweight design.
 
You want to use AI locally
Intel’s Lunar Lake chips bring boosted NPU performance against previous models, so anyone who wants an ultrabook capable of running on-device AI tools should consider the XPS 13.
 Don't buy it if... 
You’re on a tight budget
Even though it backs up its price tag with excellent performance and a strong spec sheet, there's no denying that the Dell XPS 13 is a pricey piece of hardware.
 
You're sight-impaired
The edgeless touchpad and lack of tactile feedback on the function bar above the keyboard will prove to be a real issue for blind or partially-sighted users – this feels like a case of form over function.
 
You like plugging stuff in
Two USB-Cs, Dell? That's all we get? A measly showing for physical connectivity, something that won't bother some users but will really irritate others.

Tags: Dell XPS 13 (Intel Core Ultra 2nd Gen, 2025)

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