Surface Laptop vs XPS 13? Which would you choose?

[cactuspete23]

Waiting for the next version of the XPS13 to be released. hopefully to move the camera to top !

 

[Lobbie1978]

Although I love the Dell hardware, I would go for the Surface Laptop in a heartbeat. The fact Microsoft tailored the hardware to it's OS themselves is a big plus for me. Also the design, the screen and the fabric used looks jawdropping to me. I would love to have one for music making on the road. If only I had about €1500 lying around...

 

[Rainar Angelo]

The XPS13 is so light and powerful.

So is the surface

 

[Rainar Angelo]

Although I love the Dell hardware, I would go for the Surface Laptop in a heartbeat. The fact Microsoft tailored the hardware to it's OS themselves is a big plus for me. Also the design, the screen and the fabric used looks jawdropping to me. I would love to have one for music making on the road. If only I had about €1500 lying around...

Problem for most of us is that price

 

[Rainar Angelo]

If I were to pick between the two (I'm not planning to buy either of them, though), I'd go with Surface Laptop for a few reasons:
1. Battery life - the battery life claims of the XPS 13 (especially the touchscreen version) are grossly exaggerated. I tried one out and got 5-6 hours at most, after employees at the Microsoft Store told me it'd get 12-15...
2. Lighter, a little more compact, and
3. Looks. Looks shouldn't matter, but let's face it, people love something that looks good.
4. Webcam placement - not entirely a big deal, but that bottom up-the-nose placement on the XPS 13...

With that said, I probably won't get the Surface Laptop, anyway, mainly because of its lack of ports. I can do without USB-C or Thunderbolt, but they left out a MicroSD slot?!

Probably the price they had to pay to make it look like that :/ It's sad really.

 

[Rainar Angelo]

I have used and bought for my company only IBM and then Lenovo ThinkPad's for many years but 18 months ago I bought a SurfaceBook Pro and I love it. It is fast, extremely versatile, and I love the screen aspect ratio. That is what we will be buying for now.
As far as for real heavy work and when I do real gaming my choice is still a good ol desktop workstation. Nothing like a pair of SSDs in RAID 0 and a pair or GTX 1080Tis in SLI

That must be some insane company I envy your workspace!

 

[chenryhen]

Since USB-C supporting Thunderbolt 3.0 is a big factor for me, I would pick Dell XPS 13.

That's a good point. If it's still an issue by the time I actually get around to buying a new machine, that'll probably be significant for me as well.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I'd like to know, if people had a choice, which one would they go for? Give a reason as to why you'd prefer a particular model - looks/price/features and what not.

It's interesting to see how people pick their laptops because not everyone is the same.

It doesn't necessarily have to be better from a neutral PoV but it could be what seems right for you, So shoot!

If I have to buy a notebook NOW, it would be the Dell XPS. But if I could wait 6 months, then I'd get a Surface Laptop. Why the different choice based on time? My firsthand experience with Surface devices is to NEVER buy them within the first 6 months after release. There are way too many issues for me to trust the device as a daily driver.

But once Microsoft irons out the wrinkles (takes about 6 months or so), then it is "safe".

But that is the conclusion based on my experiences, others will have different experiences.

 

[reveh2109]

I'm wondering why I never read in any review anything about the surface of the screen. Compare a 13.3 inch screen with 16:9 ratio and the 13.5 inch surface laptop with screen ratio 3:2. When we look to those 13.3 or 13.5 inch screens you would expect only 1.5% more screen in the Surface Laptop compared with many other 13.3 inch laptops with 16:9 screen ratio. However, when we then measure the real screen surface (length x height),*it appears that the Surface Laptop has more than 10% more screen than the 13.3 inch screens. That means: it looks much bigger than many other screens, and has about the same surface than the 13.9 inch Yoga 920 screen. That's why I'm thinking of taking one loaded Surface Laptop instead of my current 15 inch 16:9 laptop because it just looks big enough for everyday work. At the same time I don't need a laptop for travelling anymore. Saves money and has a pretty big screen. Get it?

 

[vizagdude]

I went with the Surface Laptop. The look and design is AWESOME for me. It has been a while sine I was giddy about gadget in the recent years. Of course the battery life on the SL is amazing. I easily get 2 days with my usage. I mainly use it for browsing, watching streaming content like Netflix and YouTube and some times, I log into work.

 

[pseudoware]

Santa gave one to me today. Cobalt blue, i7, 16 gb, 512 gb. I like.

 

[Bryan Lucas]

I went with the Surface Laptop. I find it interesting that only two people mentioned the display ratio. I hey very annoyed with 16:9 type displays because after task bars, menus, page headers and footers, and other things you're left with only half the screen height available for actual content. I work with databases, spreadsheets, and other work applications and find that for a monitor under 19" the wide screen is just a pain. I suppose that if all I did was watch videos and eliminating black bars was my biggest concern, it wouldn't be a problem. But for doing work and daily activities, the Surfaces'3:2 screen ratio is a winning spec.

 

[zfarooq]

Had the same choice and decided to proceed with the the Surface Laptop...the quality and better support is what won over. I bought the surface protection plan, plus now the 256GB has SSD that appears to be faster, I believe from Intel.

 

[chezm]

Went with Surface Laptop as i got a great deal, and plus here in Canada the XPS is much more expensive (same options was more) but i considered it based on all the good reviews it gets. In the end i love the surface line in terms of quality so im happy with decision.