My wife desperately needed new laptop, which she mostly needs for writing her blog, browsing net and some photo editing. Doesn’t sound like much, but doing that on slow netbook is a pain.

We had two options. One of them was to buy her something reasonably priced but just enough for her needs. The other one was that she starts using my laptop and I buy myself something new. In either of those my sister gets my wife’s netbook, which btw was marriage present in the first place.

I think you guessed that idea of buying something new sounded very appealing to me. Well, isn’t it always very pleasant to get new toy/work device? But that’s not the whole story. You might have noticed that I’ve changed my employer if I even can say so, since it is contract based work. Now I need to carry laptop almost each day. And my dell xps 16 isn’t light at all, especially when you put charger in the backpack.

So I bought myself Dell XPS 13 FullHD. I just googled this picture:

I would give it such a description: It is thin as “Mac Air” and powerful as “Mac Pro” but costs less.

Surprisingly it is close to truth. It is very high quality made with aluminium cover and carbon-fibre back. Really thin and light. Runs cool. I’m just enjoying carrying it. It is even possible to lift it up lid open with two fingers. Specs-wise: i7, 8Gb, 256 SSD, great FullHD screen, runs on battery for good 4+ hours (Dell declares more). So again if you compare it to Mac, screen and battery are probably only things better in Mac Pro. I’m not sure though what advantages Retina brings on 13’’ screen over FullHD, and what about resolution pain with some of apps. Of course it is great if you can run laptop for longer on batteries. If it is primary reason for ultrabook than go for newest Air.

Nevertheless, I bought the laptop directly from Dell and paid 1300 Euro. Here in Austria it is 200 Euro less than  Mac Pro 13 Retina. It took approximately 2 weeks until it was delivered by DHL. Also just an advice – always check exactly all of the components you get. I didn’t do so and thus got “qwertz” German keyboard. Fine for me but might not be for everybody. It should be enough to call Dell and change keyboard or operating system if you like. Btw XPS13 comes with Win8, which can be upgraded to 8.1 for better desktop experience.

If you are interested to know what are downsides. I would say that probably I’m missing some of the ports. It is natural for thin ultrabook, but having one audio, one video, two usb (3.0btw) feels not enough and bit annoying. Also would like to have few more keys available, but again – size related and something you can get used to. In some of the reviews I read people having issues with touchpad, but I never experienced any.

For my own reference below is table with laptops I owned. All of them currently work and I’m completely happy about decisions I made about buying them.

Dell Studio 1535	Dell Studio XPS 1647 (+upgrades)	Dell XPS 13
Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5850 2.16GHz	Processor Intel® Core™ i7-620M Processor 2.66GHz (3.33GHz Turbo Mode, 4MB Cache)	Processor Intel® Core™ i7-3537U Processor up to 3.1GHz, 4MB Cache
Display LCD(1280×800)	LCD Panel Edge-to-Edge FHD Widescreen 15.6 inch WLED LCD (1920×1080) W/2.0 MP	13.3in Hi-Def (1080p) True Life WLED Display W/1.3MP
CD ROM/DVD ROM DVD Super Multi	CD ROM/DVD ROM 8X Slot Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)	–
Memory 2GB DDR2-667	Memory 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz	Memory 8GB Single Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
Hard Drive 320GB 5400	Hard Drive 256Gb SSD	Hard Drive 256GB SSD
Video Card ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3450	Video Card ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5730 – 1GB	Video Card Intel HD Graphics 4000
Sound High Definition Audio	Sound High Definition Audio 2.0 with SRS Premium Sound	Sound Wave Maxx Audio
Wireless Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card	Wireless Intel® 5300 WLAN Wireless-N (3×3) Mini Card	Wireless Killer Wireless-N, 1202 for Video & Voice w/ BT 4.0
Battery 56 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)	Battery 85 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery	Battery 6-cell 47W/HR LI-ION

After all these are just devices, but even proper stone knife without fractures made a difference in longer run. What laptops do you use to kill a mammoth? Large super-powerful or light and just powerful as one I just bought or maybe a combination of laptop/desktop?