The XPS 13 keys do look plasticky and are labelled with an unusual font, but they give just the right amount of resistance when tapping away and are perfectly positioned apart for speedy typing. If you're not a fan then it's possible to set the laptop up to avoid the touch-based Tile interface and jump to the desktop as you please if you're a stringent trackpad and keyboard kind of person.Īnd using said features makes for a generally great typing experience. Microsoft has been pushing for touch-based design for a couple of years now.

Touchscreen was an inevitability given the Windows 8.1 operating system though. And because of that scale we did sometimes miss the small 'x' to close a window and such like too. We did find ourselves tapping at the screen multiple times to assert a virtual button press. The touch-sensitivity is reasonable, although not the best we've ever seen. In short we wouldn't be likely to use it too much, except for those almost compulsory side-swipe actions that Windows seems to like so much. We found it half useful for some tasks, and yet dirtying up the screen with fingerprints is an irritation on a laptop in our view. The addition of a touch-sensitive panel is one of those features that will divide some users. Pixel for pixel you can watch a Blu-ray quality movie and it looks amazing. Colours are bright, the viewing angle is wide and there's little more we could ask for on this front. The sheer amount of detail available at this 13.3-inch scale we think is just about the perfect balance. There are laptops out there with more significant resolution, but it's not all about the numbers. The Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution panel is among the highlights of the Dell XPS 13. No Ethernet port is a more common standard these days for the sake of size, but if this is important to you then you'll need to grab a converter for a wired connection. The USB sockets are on opposite sides of the base which is useful as many USB sticks have irritating oversize exteriors, but the lack of an SD socket is something we sorely missed. Just two USB sockets, a mini-DisplayPort and 3.5mm headphone jack complete the ins and outs. The only downer to the XPS is its lack of ports.

Pocket-Lint Recommendation: Nintendo Switch.

Pocket-Lint Recommendations: Xbox Console.

Pocket-Lint Recommendation: Google Nest.

Pocket-Lint Recommendation: Amazon Echo Devices.Pocket-Lint Recommendations: Fire TV Stick.

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