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The MacBook Air is getting serious competition from an unexpected source

Published Feb 22nd, 2015 10:00AM EST
MacBook Air Vs. Dell XPS 13

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Dell seems to have gotten a lot more innovative ever since going private. Both Ars Technica and AnandTech have just published reviews of Dell’s new XPS 13 ultrabook and they both came away very impressed.

RELATED: Dell’s decade of product flops shows the dangers of scrambling to follow Apple

AnandTech’s benchmarks, for instance, show that the FHD XPS 13 has insanely good battery life that bests the MacBook Air and every other laptop on the market in terms of both light and heavy usage. In its concluding remarks, AnandTech praised the XPS 13’s for having “high quality build materials, a good keyboard, a good trackpad, and the latest generation Intel Ultrabook processor all inside a chassis with a display that is two sizes too big stuffed into it.”

Ars, meanwhile, writes that the XPS 13 not only matches what Apple offers with the MacBook Air but actually beats it.

“It’s a 13-inch Ultrabook in the body of an 11-inch Ultrabook,” Ars writes. “This extraordinary size is paired with an attractive, high-resolution screen, nice keyboard, and a decent touchpad, and the whole unit feels solid and well-built.”

Dell first unveiled the XPS 13 at CES this year and at the time we were impressed by its display that’s as close to bezel-free as we’ve seen on an ultrabook. We can’t wait to try the machine out for ourselves to see if it matches up with the significant hype.

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.