The Dell XPS 13 (9345) swaps out Intel for Qualcomm in a laptop that's otherwise unchanged. Does that make it a better laptop?
Dell XPS 13 MSRP $1,300.00 Score Details “The Snapdragon X chip inside makes the Dell XPS 13 even better.” Pros Cons The newest Windows on Arm platform based around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chipset is off and running. Most of the major laptop manufacturers have introduced Microsoft Copilot+ PCs, with notable machines like the HP OmniBook X and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 offering strong performance and very good battery life.
It should be noted that the current Intel version of the XPS 13 is $150 cheaper when similarly configured and is even offered at a cheaper starting configuration that costs $1,099. And the XPS 13 is just as rigid as always. Of all these laptops, Dell managed to make the one that just feels the most solid. Even the MacBook Air M3, while as dense and luxurious as usual thanks to Apple’s fastidious manufacturing, has a slightly flexible lid. The XPS 13 does not. Nothing bends or twists. Well done, Dell.
These are really awesome modern features. The problem is, they just don’t work all that well in practice. Performance The XPS 13 uses Qualcomm’s third-fastest Snapdragon X Elite chipset, the X1E-80-100, with 12 cores running at 3.4GHz and a dual-core boost to 4.0GHz. Those specifications are lower than those of the Snapdragon X1E-84-100 in the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge 16, which runs at 3.8GHz and has a 4.2GHz dual-core boost.
Battery life Since the introduction of the Snapdragon X Elite, Microsoft and its partners have published some impressive battery life promises for the new chipset. Interestingly, the results I’ve seen in marketing materials have all been based on looping video, which is the least demanding of common battery tests. It’s also the test likely most impacted by the display’s power draw relative to other components.
The bottom line is that the Snapdragon X Elite chipset doesn’t seem to be as much of a battery life standout as we might have hoped, at least in these laptops. We’ll need to do more testing, and the XPS 13 9345 still had very good battery life. But the MacBook Air M3, the XPS 13’s most important competitor, remains way ahead — at least, when it’s doing real work.
Dell Laptops Snapdragon X Elite Windows On ARM XPS 13
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