Dell XPS 12 Review
Pros
- Beautiful touch screen display
- Seamless tablet experience
- Excellent build quality
- Good keyboard and touchpad
Cons
- Lack of ports (no media card reader)
- Screen-heavy design
- Some software issues
Quick Take:
The XPS 12 is not inexpensive (starting at $1,200) but you're getting a quality machine with the best of the tablet and notebook worlds.
This premium convertible Ultrabook features a carbon fiber and aluminum construction, full 1080p IPS touch enabled display and of course Windows 8. Is this computer worth the premium price? Read our full review.
Overview
This is one of the first Windows 8 specific notebooks that converts to a tablet in seconds. It has a beautiful display, clean design and excellent build quality. Other highlights include an excellent backlit keyboard and touchpad, decent battery life and fast performance; it even has solid speakers. If you're looking for a Windows 8 computer and want the full experience, this is your $1,199 ticket.
Build and Design
The XPS 12 Convertible Touch Ultrabook takes a design element from the older Dell Inspiron Duo netbook and features a display that flips inside the frame to turn into a tablet. This mechanism is rock solid and works well. The display is held in place by a series of magnets once rotated into the desired position and there's no chance of dislodging it unintentionally. The major drawback to this design is that it's screen-heavy; this makes it impractical to use the touch screen while in notebook mode because it will tip backward if touched. It's a little awkward.
In tablet mode the XPS 12 can be held in any position. The cooling fan is hidden inside the chassis so it can't be blocked. It's comfortable to hold; I like the rubberized exterior surfaces. The display surface is glass and is easy to track fingers over. The overall tablet experience is seamless.
The build quality of the XPS 12 is outstanding. It's made from a combination of carbon fiber, aluminum and magnesium. The result is a strong-yet-lightweight (3.35 pounds) design that doesn't bend or flex. It's difficult to find anything wrong with the build quality or spotless attention to detail.
Aside from the quality and unique screen flipping mechanism the XPS 12's design is rather nondescript, a good thing in my book; this computer doesn't look any flasher than it has to. I like how the palm rest and keyboard keys have a rubberized surface which is durable and hides fingerprints and dust. There's no glossy surfaces on this entire notebook save for the Gorilla glass display surface; it gets smudged up easily but that's unavoidable given its touch screen nature.
As with most modern Ultrabooks and convertible notebooks, the bottom of the XPS 12 lacks any of the traditional access panels for upgrading RAM or the storage drive. Granted, most people buying this PC won't ever consider upgrading it themselves. If you want to do affordable upgrades on your own then be prepared to remove the 10 Torx screws in order to disassemble the chassis.
Input and Output Ports
If the XPS 12 is lacking in any area it's in port variety and quantity; it has just two USB 3.0 ports and a mini-DisplayPort connector. It lacks Ethernet, VGA, HDMI, ExpressCard, and a media card reader; the latter is borderline unforgivable. Something else I miss from the XPS 12 is the lack of a storage drive activity light.
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| Left: Display rotation button, power switch, volume up/down button, left speaker | Right: Right speaker, battery indicator button, 2x USB 3.0, mini-DisplayPort, AC power jack |
Keyboard and Touchpad
The XPS 12 includes a full-size keyboard with a Chiclet-style layout (extra spacing between the keys). It is backlit with white LEDs and automatically varies the level of brightness. This keyboard has the most pleasant tactile feedback of any Ultrabook keyboard I've used - finally a keyboard with a normal amount of key travel.
The keys have a slightly grippy rubberized surface like the rest of the palm rest area. It's reasonably quiet to type on. The only thing to note is that the home, end, page up and page down keys are integrated as secondary functions into the arrow keys; this is more or less expected on a notebook this small but a con nonetheless.
The Cypress touchpad is a clickpad; press down anywhere to produce a click. It's quite usable and I didn't have accuracy issues. Clicks take just the right amount of effort. The rubberized surface helps accuracy. My only real complaint is the clicks are too loud for my taste; they should be as close to silent as possible.
Screen and Speakers
The screen is the biggest highlight of this notebook - it's beautiful to look at and the touch screen accuracy is perfect. The Gorilla Glass surface is supposedly more resistant to scratching than normal glass; its slick surface means it's easy to slide fingers across. The downsides of the glass surface are that it does get smudged up with fingerprints (I suppose that's unavoidable with a touch screen) and overhead and ambient lighting creates distracting reflections.
Another truly appreciated aspect of this display is the full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels). This translates into a ton of working space and the ability to use two windows side by side. It's especially an asset when using the XPS 12 in tablet mode especially in portrait orientation because so many lines of text are visible at once. And because this is an IPS (In-Plane Switching) display, the picture looks the same no matter which angle you're viewing from (unlimited viewing angles).
On top of all this the display is extra bright and has excellent contrast; whites and blacks truly stand out. Saturation is good too - images look like they have the appropriate amount of color without going overboard.
The XPS 12 has two speakers which face out the sides of the chassis. This is an unusual layout; it makes sense to have them externally facing since this notebook can turn into a tablet though. The speakers have a good range of mids and highs with a hint of bass; they're overall surprisingly full sounding given their size and location. It's hard to complain.
Performance and Benchmarks
Our Dell XPS 12 Convertible Touch Ultrabook review unit has the following specifications:
- 12.5-inch glass touch-enabled display with wide viewing angles (IPS panel with 1920x1080 resolution)
- Windows 8 64-bit
- Intel Core i5-3317U dual-core processor (1.7GHz, up to 2.6GHz Turbo Boost, 3MB cache, 17W TDP)
- Integrated Intel HD graphics
- 4GB DDR3-1600 RAM (8GB max.)
- 128GB mSATA Solid State Drive (Samsung SSD PM830)
- Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235
- Integrated Bluetooth 3.0
- Integrated HD webcam
- No internal optical drive
- 1-year limited warranty (Dell Pro Support)
- 6-cell 47WHr
- Weight: 3.35 lbs.
- Dimensions: 12.48 x 8.46 x 0.59~0.79 inches
- Price as configured: $1,199.99
Although this is the XPS 12's base configuration it provides more than enough power for most usages. The notebook is offered with a slightly faster Core i7 processor, up to 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD; the top-end model with all of the aforementioned upgrades runs $1,699.99 as of writing -- ouch!
One area where the XPS 12 fails to deliver is 3D gaming -- a drawback to the integrated Intel HD graphics -- but the integrated graphics are more than adequate for Windows 8's app tile animations and basic browser-based games.
The XPS 12's overall performance is very good in Windows 8; I noticed no signs of slowness or hesitation when in notebook or tablet mode. The low voltage i5 processor is fast enough for nearly everything including some light Photoshop and helps keep the heat down and battery life up. 4GB of RAM is more than adequate for normal usage; 8GB is nice but probably a waste for most users. The 128GB SSD is a fast Samsung 830 series mSATA model. Remember Dell offers the XPS 12 with a 256GB version as well.
wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):
PCMark 7 is a newer benchmark and measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):
3DMark 11 measures overall system performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):
CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:
Heat and Noise
The XPS 12 has a single fan located at the back left corner of the chassis. Exhausted air is deflected off the display hinge where it then escapes. Normally I'm not a fan of this layout but it makes sense given the XPS 12 doubles as a tablet and will be held from nearly everywhere; the fan's output needs to be shielded from covering hands so it isn't blocked.
For normal usage (Internet surfing and so on) the XPS 12 remains room temperature with no sign of heat generation. Under full load it can get a bit warmer on the left side but just barely so. The XPS 12 runs a bit warmer in tablet mode but again never approaches the "hey, this thing is getting warm" threshold. The fan is audible under load and makes a slight whine but shouldn't be audible in a less than quiet atmosphere. Overall the cooling solution works well.
Battery Life
For the battery life test in Windows 8 we use Powermark; it's a combination of web browsing, word processing, gaming and video playback workloads. This new test is far more strenuous than our previous test and better simulates real world usage. As a result the battery life scores are considerably lower.
Powermark battery life test results (higher scores mean better battery life):
The Dell XPS 12 ran for 3 hours and 29 minutes on its built-in 6-cell battery (47WHr). This would be somewhere between five and six hours on our old benchmark that simulated continuous web browsing. Overall this is a decent but not outstanding time for an ultraportable notebook.
Software and Windows 8
I had my share of issues with the included software, namely Windows 8. I'm unable to determine whether the issues are directly related to Windows 8, the XPS 12 or both. Issues I experienced:
- The touch functionality would occasionally stop working everywhere in the system, resolved by restarting the system.
- The system didn't always shut off correctly, requiring a hard shutdown (holding the power button for five seconds).
- Whenever an app was purchased in the Windows 8 app store, the touch functionality would stop working in the app store.
- Occasionally I could not restore full screen brightness after coming out of standby.
Conclusion
The Dell XPS 12 brings the full Windows 8 experience to the table thanks to its convertible tablet form factor. Dell's screen flipping mechanism is as unique as it is rock solid; it turns into a great tablet in a matter of seconds. The 12.5-inch display is absolutely beautiful and the touch screen functionality works perfectly in Windows 8. The screen's full HD resolution (1920x1080) has tons of space to use two windows side by side or look at high-res pictures and video in exquisite detail. And if you don't want to use the tablet mode, the XPS 12's backlit keyboard and clickpad are fantastic.
The XPS 12's build quality is superb thanks to extensive use of carbon fiber and metal alloy; it's quite portable at under 0.8" thin and 3.4 pounds. The battery life is 3.5 hours using our new test (it would be 5+ on our old test) which is reasonable for an ultraportable notebook. System performance is good thanks to the Core i5 processor and 128GB Samsung SSD.
Our complaints are few but notable. First is the very limited variety of ports -- just two USB 3.0 and a mini-DisplayPort; there's no Ethernet or media card reader (the latter is especially disappointing). Next is the screen-heavy design; it's not practical to use the touch screen in laptop mode because it wants to tip backward. Lastly there's the minor software issues I experienced (either a driver issue with the XPS 12, Windows 8 or both). Those software issues can probably be fixed with a downloadable update in the future, and the lack of media card reader might only be an issue for people who regularly transfer digital photos in this way.
At $1,200 starting the XPS 12 is not inexpensive but you're getting a quality machine with the best of the tablet and notebook worlds.
Pros:
- Beautiful touch screen display
- Seamless tablet experience
- Excellent build quality
- Good keyboard and touchpad
Cons:
- Lack of ports (no media card reader)
- Screen-heavy design
- Some software issues
Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
Price/Value Rating
* Ratings averaged to produce final score
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
Price/Value Rating
* Ratings averaged to produce final score
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