Dell XPS 13 vs Thinkpad X1 Carbon: Which One is for You?

This is the comparison between the Dell XPS 13 and Thinkpad X1 Carbon

DELL XPS 13	THINKPAD X1 CARBON
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Gorgeous design with a new Frost White color option. Class-leading performance. Gorgeous 4K display. InfinityEdge bezels with properly placed webcam.	Almost 16 hours of battery life. Excellence in every detail. Durable chassis. Plenty of ports. RJ45 connector. 3-year warranty. Adapters included.
CONS	CONS
Below-average battery life. No USB-A or HDMI connectivity. Loaded configs are pricey. Doesn’t support Windows Hello facial login.	No “WWAN-ready”. Ethernet requires a dongle. The trackpad could be better. High surface temperatures under load. More expensive than similar competitors.

SPECIFICATIONS

Experts Reviews for Dell XPS 13:

By  HotHardware 
The Dell XPS 13 7390 is a premium laptop in every way, from its understated industrial design and razer-sharp 4K IPS touch-enabled display to its excellent performance. While we really miss Dell’s Ice Lake processor options from the 2-in-1 version, we’re still confident in bestowing this machine a HotHardware Recommended award.

By  Expert Reviews 
Inevitably, every convertible design has its trade-offs but, for my money, the XPS 13 2-in-1 is the most attractive take I’ve seen on the idea. Dell has created a superb, uncompromising laptop, which just happens to also offer the convenient option of…

By The Verge 
The six-core XPS 13 is a strange computer. It feels like a holdover until something better is available in both design and internals. That first part probably isn’t too far off, since CES 2020 is just about a month away, but it’s hard to say how long it will be before Intel introduces Ice Lake chips that have six cores, a 10-nanometer die, and the improved Iris Plus Graphics. Once that happens, then we’ll have some real performance jumps in the thin and light category to celebrate.

By hitechcentury.com
Our review unit’s configuration of the XPS 13 with an 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and a 4K touchscreen display is the most powerful available but it also drains the most juice from the provided 52Whr battery. With a normal use case of web browsing,…

By  goodhousekeeping.co.uk 
If you are willing to splash out on a reliable laptop then the Dell XPS 13 9380 will be well worth it. Perfect for working on the go, its slim and light design will be comfortable on your lap and it copes well with office software and photo editing. The…

Experts Reviews for Thinkpad X1 Carbon:

By TechSpot 
Lenovo’s signature business ultraportable is now in its 5th generation, adding new Intel Kaby Lake processors and a larger battery without sacrificing portability. And after using this laptop for a few weeks now, it’s clear that Lenovo’s minor year-on-year improvements have led to a stunning device that’s the best ThinkPad ultraportable yet.

By  HotHardware 
Lenovo also continues to deliver the best laptop keyboard designs in the business, in our humble opinion. They’re a refreshing, professional-grade departure from the all-too common and often uncomfortable chiclet style keyboard found on so many machines. The ThinkPad name has always meant “business,” but also for the mainstream user that wants a well-built, high performance premium ultrabook, you can’t go wrong with the new 5th generation Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

By cnet
This isn’t the most feature-packed or stylish system. But it does have the classic look and the performance, battery life and light weight a traveler needs from a traditional laptop.

By NotebookCheck 
The combination of high-quality chassis, large screen, excellent input devices, comprehensive port selection, long battery runtimes and the high mobility still results in an extremely compelling and currently almost rivaled package, despite the mentioned drawbacks.

By  au.pcmag.com
The latest Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch is an incredibly thin and light business ultrabook that features a premium design with a 14-inch touch screen and all-day battery…

DESIGN

Dell XPS 13:

For the full HD design, I’ve been editing videos and pictures on this XPS and at 13 inches I just really don’t think 4k is a necessity but more of a nice thing to have if you have a specific purpose for that the third and final thing, I’d like to talk about is the ergonomics and well entertainment you guys aren’t all work oh yeah you’re a little bit of play I watch a ton of shows and movies on airplanes so I do consume the content as well as make the content so if you’re always on the go obviously form factor is important.

Thinkpad X1 Carbon:

The x1 carbon is thinner and lighter than ever what else is new well there’s a brighter you HD display with HDR 400 support a better sound system more far-field microphones and the usual processor and performance upgrades oh and there’s an optional carbon fiber weave pattern for those bored with a plain black lid but these are pretty incremental updates and rivals like Dell and HP, as well as newer players like Microsoft and Huawei are giving Lenovo stiff competition so the question is are these minor tweaks enough to maintain the X one’s reputation as one of the best laptops around every time I pick up an excellent carbon I’m impressed the 14 inch laptop.

WEIGHT & DIMENSIONS

Dell XPS 13:

The Dell smallest 33.8cm (13.3) With a bezel only 5.2 mm thin, starting at only 1.22kg and measuring a super slim 9-15 mm, the XPS 13 is exceptionally thin and light.

Thinkpad X1 Carbon:

One of the 14-inch laptops you can get, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon has the same, slim dimensions (12.7 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches) and 2.5-pound weight as the laptop’s immediate predecessor.

KEYBOARD AND TOUCHPAD

Dell XPS 13:

I’m a really big fan of this trackpad it feels fantastic but the new maglev keyboard is a little too shallow for my taste but again thin laptop my understand 45 watt charger is tiny look at this thing compared to the one for my 95 70 and the camera is now officially on top no more seeing people type while you’re skyping with it so I imagine the same laptop you answer emails on get presentations with is the same one than you watched YouTube videos at home or maybe some Netflix on a flight Oh a quick little side note a little pro tip for you guys if you go to the Microsoft Store Netflix actually has an app where you can download your shows download all of your Netflix content to watch offline on your Windows laptop.

Thinkpad X1 Carbon:

ThinkPads consistently have great keyboards and the excellent carbon once again gets it right mostly anyway, I love the deep travel and comfortable keys and typing on a think pad feels like a luxury compared to the merely decent keyboards on the laptops you and maple 14 but, I have an issue with some of the button placements on the x1 carbon in particular. I hate where the left control button sits instead of being the left mouse button on the bottom row it’s actually the second-last and a function key sits on the end that might make perfect sense of you’re coming over from a macbook but as a pc person. I am used to the arrangement being the other way around and it really messed up my flow when using keyboard shortcuts it’s really frustrating to think you’re hitting ctrl Z or ctrl C and then V only to realize your action wasn’t undone.

PORT SELECTION

Dell XPS 13:

2 USB see Thunderbolt 3 ports which is fantastic for plugging in an external monitor like my LG 32 inch it scaled up the image beautifully inside note why, I love this display specifically is it doesn’t just look great but because of Thunderbolt 3 and the fact that this laptop doesn’t need too much power it transfers all the video all the audio and power through one Thunderbolt 3 port.

Thinkpad X1 Carbon:

Thunderbolt 3 USB seaports and HDMI socket to USB HX and an Ethernet extension that’s much more than you’ll find on the likes of the huawei make book 14 and surface laptop 2 which doesn’t even offer us peace see power charging or your text wasn’t copied because you pressed function.

DISPLAY

Dell XPS 13:

I love this display specifically is it doesn’t just look great but because of Thunderbolt 3 and the fact that this laptop doesn’t need too much power it transfers all the video all the audio and power through one Thunderbolt 3 port so like, I mentioned before in telco engineer this laptop would sell to completely redesign this to annoying so number 2 let’s talk about this form factor there’s less bezels more control with touch pin and voice as well as great.

Thinkpad X1 Carbon:

The display but in my testing the system failed to recognize me about 30% of the time it tended to struggle in situations that were backlit but sometimes it had trouble finding me even if, I was sitting an arm’s length away as opposed to say being too close to the camera I don’t have as much of an issue with Windows hello on a surface laptop – which might be due to its much better camera windows hello isn’t ideal either if your privacy conscious and keep your webcam though.

BATTERY

Dell XPS 13:

The battery life ok, so I’m doing a current battery challenge I’m taking this throughout the day from 10 a.m. to 11:30 we got from a hundred percent to eighty four I want you to use new videos.

Thinkpad X1 Carbon:

I got a low battery warning on our battery tests the lower res Full HD x1 carbon lasted 14 hours which twice as long as the seven hours clocked by my UHD version on the same test the higher res model also has a brighter screen which might have caused more drain.

PERFORMANCE

Dell XPS 13:

It performspretty well, Dell premium active pin alongside this laptop and it snaps to the side of it magnetically finally yes but you can use most of these apps with the normal stylus or just your fingers in OneNote specifically you just click draw with the mouse or touch there’s also a setting where you can turn hand-drawn notes into text over the years thank goodness we’ve seen apps actually catch up to the capabilities of this too and one form factor so it’s actually a super effective tablet for your productivity needs since we’re talking form factor.

Thinkpad X1 Carbon:

I pushed brightness through the 500 maximum and the lack of a more nuanced middle ground between the last two options felt limiting you can get a more specific level of brightness by using the on-screen slider in settings other than that gripe. I generally enjoyed using the x1 carbon to watch Netflix or YouTube videos details were always crisp and colors vibrant if a little on the pink side audio was a little disappointing though despite packing a new quad speaker Dolby Atmos system the x1 carbon sound was slightly hollow which has been a persistent problem for the excellent series.

CONCLUSION

Dell XPS 13:

I would love to actually do a 13 inch comparison maybe with this the HP Spectre maybe through a think pad in there let me know what you want to see I haven’t done a proper laptop comparison in a while so comment down below shout out so the work Intel, has been doing with laptop manufacturers behind the scenes to enhance the overall experience of how we actually use these laptops day to day battery, power unique form factors among many other things if you want to learn more about the laptops that are in intel’s project Athena innovation program please check out the links in the description below it’s very exciting that we’re already seeing the tensage n processors roll out and of course you can always identify that with the Intel badge.

Thinkpad X1 Carbon:

So to conclude that I love the build keyboard and performance and battery life is great if you don’t mind a less sharp and less bright screen for its $1200 starting price though the exo carbon has serious competition specifically from the likes of the surface laptops you and huawei mate but 14 which are is similarly powerful albeit arguably more attractive the laptop 2 also lasts longer but Lenovo’s appealing keyboard alone.