HP Envy X360 Vs. Dell XPS 13: Which Laptop Is Best?

Thetechnobug
8 min readJul 15, 2020

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Can a value pick bring down a flagship superstar?

I never expected to try to to a face-off between the HP Envy x360 13 vs. Dell XPS 13. Sure, they both have 13-inch displays and fancy aluminum chassis, but we usually do comparisons between two similarly-priced devices.

So why am I putting an $800 laptop up against a $1,749 model? Blame AMD. The new Ryzen 4000 CPUs within the Envy 13 outperforms equivalent 10th Gen Intel chips and may be found in affordable midrange laptops, not only premium machines.

AMD doesn’t deserve all the credit; within the Envy x360, HP crafted a wonderful machine capable of going toe-to-toe with much pricier notebooks. And here we are. My experience with the Envy x360 13 was so positive that I’m reaching straight for the highest of our greatest laptops ranking where the XPS 13 is perched.

Hide their respective prices and you would possibly think the XPS 13 and Envy x360 are competing within the same league. They both have portable aluminum chassis, great 13-inch displays and fast performance. Furthermore, if battery life may be a major concern, the Envy x360 and XPS 13 will stay powered throughout a full workday.

So as you’ll see, the Envy x360 and XPS 13 share many of an equivalent qualities, and yet, the XPS costs an honest deal more.

So why is that the Dell laptop such a lot more expensive? Read on for an in depth comparison between these two laptops, and advice on which one you tought to buy.

What makes this such a singular face-off is that we’re comparing a mainstream laptop (Envy x360) to a premium device (XPS 13

The reason? We named the Envy x360 13 the simplest sub- Rs.75,225 laptop on the market, and an alternate to much pricier notebooks.

Today’s best hp envy x360 13 deals

So, how affordable is it? The Envy x360 13 starts at Rs.48,821 and comes with an AMD Ryzen 3 4300U CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Our $799 review unit features a Ryzen 5 4500U CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

On the high end, you’ll spend $1,049 for a unit with a Ryzen 7 4700U CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.

The new XPS 13 may be a premium laptop through and thru . It starts at $999 but the bottom model only has an Intel Core i3–1005G1 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. We recommend spending another $50 for a Core i5 version.

Winner: Envy x360. It’s no contest. The Envy x360 13 features a cheaper starting price and costs but the XPS 13 when configured with similar specs.

If I handed you the Envy x360 13 and asked what proportion you thought it costs, you’d probably overbid. No other sub-$1,000 laptop on the market feels as premium because the Envy. That’s in large part thanks to its all-aluminum design, which provides the Envy a sturdy, substantial feel.

It’s also plenty stylish. Thin bezels surrounding the screen and attractive accents and angles give the Envy a decidedly modern appearance. The stealthy Nightfall Black color on our review unit may be a shade more interesting than black and slightly prettier than brown.

Design may be a subjective subject, but one clear advantage the Envy x360 13 has over the XPS 13 is its ability to rework into a tablet. As a 2-in-1, you’ll flip the screen back to line the Envy into tent or tablet mode.

We’ve always held the XPS 13’s design in high regard and therefore the newest 2020 version takes things to subsequent level. By getting obviate rock bottom chin, Dell has finally crafted a laptop with a very edge-to-edge display. The effect is gorgeous, drawing your eyes in toward the 13.4-inch display.

Those trimmed-down bezels mean the XPS 13 has a good smaller footprint than before. At 11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches and a couple of .8 pounds, the XPS may be a tad lighter and smaller than the Envy x360 13 (12.1 x 7.7 x 0.7 inches, 2.9 pounds).

The silver-and-black version of the XPS 13 won’t draw much attention, but the gorgeous Frost and Arctic White edition is stunning. It even adds a touch more pizazz compared with the Envy x360 because of the textured glass-fiber weave on the deck.

Winner: XPS 13. They’re both beautiful and feel expensive but the XPS 13 features a more compact footprint and a very edge-to-edge screen. If you would like a 2-in-1 laptop, accompany the Envy x360.

The lack of a Thunderbolt 3 port is an unfortunate shortcoming of the AMD-powered Envy x360 13, which has an otherwise decent selection of ports.

On the right side of the Envy x360 13 is a USB 3.1 Type-A port and a microSD card slot. On the opposite side are a second USB-A port, an USB Type-C input and a headphone/mic jack.

The XPS 13 has a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports (one on each side) and not much else. There is a microSD card on the left side and a headphone jack on the opposite end.

Winner: Envy x360 13. Missing out on Thunderbolt 3 is a bummer but the two USB-A ports on the Envy are practical for a lot of people.

You can’t fault the displays on either of these laptops but the 13.4-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel touchscreen on the XPS 13 has a slight edge in the color and brightness departments. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression because the Envy x360 13’s 13.3-inch, 1080p panel is also excellent, and punches way above its class.

According to our colorimeter, the XPS 13’s screen covers 115% of the sRGB color gamut, making it a tad more vivid than the panel on the Envy x360 13 (108%). Both top the mainstream average of 96%.

The XPS 13 also gets brighter, hitting a maximum of 417 nits compared to the Envy x360’s 364 nits. Again, both top the 318-nit average so you won’t have problems viewing them in bright conditions.

It’s also worth noting that the XPS 13 has a 16:10 aspect ratio, so it’s a bit taller and more narrow than the Envy x360’s traditional 16:9 screen.

Winner: Dell XPS 13. It’s brighter and more colorful than the Envy x360 13’s screen, although the HP also impresses.

These two laptops defy the notion that the thinner the laptop, the more severe the keyboard. Both use every inch of their decks to spread the keys from one edge to subsequent . As a conclusion, even people with large pointers will find typing on the Envy x360 13 and XPS 13 to be happy.

They even have large, easy-to-tap keys that are properly spaced and backlit so you’ll type in dark environments. Key travel is restricted given their size so an external mechanical keyboard could be worth buying if you type long reports for a living.

The touchpads on the Envy x360 13 & XPS 13 are most same in size. They both use Accuracy drivers so swipes also indications are accurate and responsive.

Winner: Draw. The XPS 13 also Envy x360’s keyboards are suitable, all things considered. The typewriting experiences are similar and their touchpads are identical in size.

When it involves performance, AMD has overtaken Intel because the leading mobile chipmaker. HP elected to use the new Ryzen 4000 chips within the Envy x360 13, and therefore the laptop benefits from it during a huge way.

Our Envy x360 13 review unit, provided with an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U CPU and 8GB of RAM, toppled or equaled the XPS 13 with an Intel Core i7–1065G7 and 16GB of RAM, in a number of our benchmarking tests.

In the Geekbench 4.3 overall performance test, the Envy x360 13 hit a 19,064, edging out the XPS 13 (19,053) by a couple of points. The XPS 13 came at the HP within the more demanding Geekbench 5 test, scoring a 4,648 compared to the HP’s 4,617.

Laptops with the simplest CPU Performance
The Envy flexed its AMD body in our Handbrake experiment, converting a 4K video to 1080p resolution in 13 minutes and 44 seconds. The XPS 13 needed quarter-hour and 40 seconds to finish an equivalent task.

The HP did an honest job of hiding its low price until we clocked its 256GB m.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, which duplicated 4.97GB of multimedia data in 16 seconds for a rate of 318.1 MBps. The 512GB m.2 PCIe NVMe SSD within the XPS 13 is twice as fast, reaching a rate of 642.5 MBps within the same test.

Intel still has some catching up to try to to when it involves graphics performance. which may happen when Tiger lake CPUs arrive later this year with Xe graphics. Until then, the AMD Radeon Graphics within the Envy x360 13 are more capable than the Intel UHD Graphics within the XPS 13.

Intel Tiger Lake CPUs: Rumors, release date, specs, benchmarks and more
On our Dirt 3 benchmark, the Envy x360 played the racing game at a smooth 78 frames per second, accelerating past the 59-fps achieved by the XPS 13.

Winner: Draw. The Envy x360 and XPS 13 traded wins in our performance benchmarks with the HP winning on graphics and therefore the Dell delivering faster SSD speeds.

If these laptops were cars, you’ll continue a road trip without having to prevent at a gasoline station . The XPS 13 edges out the Envy x360 when it involves endurance, but this marathon led to a photograph finish.

The Dell lasted for 12 hours and 39 minutes on our battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits. The Envy x360 put up its own impressive results of 11 hours and 52 minutes, but the screen went dark just before the XPS.

Winner: XPS 13. it is a close contest but the XPS lasts a touch longer on a charge.

The XPS 13 wins by the slimmest of margins but this is often ultimately a serious victory for the Envy x360, which
proved that it’s the simplest laptop for under $1,000. But even once we think about the Envy’s affordable price, the XPS 13 pulled ahead because of its more modern design, better display and longer battery life.

When you look closely, you will see that the XPS 13 only narrowly edged out the Envy x360 in each of those areas. this is often a testament to the incredible value of the Envy x360, which offers a premium aluminum chassis, long battery life, outstanding performance and an honest selection of ports, for just $800.

Our advice is straightforward . If you would like the simplest 13-inch laptop around and you do not need a 2-in-1, get the XPS 13. If budget may be a concern in the least , accompany the Envy x360 13, which may be a premium notebook in every way but the worth .

Originally published at https://thetechnobug.info on July 15, 2020.

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