December 8, 2024

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Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 7390 review: A 2-in-1 with the greatness of Dell’s XPS 13 laptop

Editors’ note: A firmware update for the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1’s built-in fingerprint reader fixes the inconsistent reader performance we experienced while testing. The firmware can be updated using the laptop’s preinstalled Dell Update application. 

I like the Lenovo Yoga C930. A lot. It’s one of the best premium ultraportable two-in-ones you can buy, which is saying something because the category is filled with excellent options. And if you don’t care about convertibles, it’s still a great choice for use as just a laptop, though you’ll miss out on much of its versatility.

I can’t heap the same praise on the last-gen XPS 13 2-in-1 we reviewed in 2017. It was underpowered and overpriced, and despite being small, slim and light, it felt clunky in comparison to its competition. The 2019 version, however, is hands down one of the best two-in-ones you can get right now and is worthy of being in the same lineup as its terrific clamshell counterpart. It’s still not inexpensive, with prices starting at $1,000 (£1,409 in the UK and AU$2,499 in Australia) and you’ll probably want to spend more for increased storage and memory. But at least now the XPS 13 2-in-1 feels like you’re actually getting performance and design worth the extra money. 

(Insert Distracted Boyfriend meme with me turning away from the C930 to ogle the new Dell.)

So what’s changed? Just about everything. Dell moved to a new 13.4-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio that’s available in a UHD Plus 3,840×2,400-pixel resolution with 500-nit brightness and is HDR400 certified, or with a FHD Plus 1,920×1,200-pixel resolution. I tested the latter, which gets just as bright as the UHD Plus display and has strong color and contrast performance. It’s also less expensive and doesn’t shorten battery life like the UHD Plus display; the FHD Plus display helped it run for more than 10 hours in CNET’s video streaming test. 

This is the first Dell to use Intel’s 10th-gen 10-nanometer processors, up to the quad-core Core i7-1065G7 in my review system. Combined with the integrated Iris Plus graphics, it outperformed similarly configured laptops we’ve tested with Intel’s eighth- and ninth-gen processors. 

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 7390

Price as reviewed $1,575
Display size/resolution 13.4-inch 1,920×1,200-pixel touch display
CPU 1.3GHz Intel Core i7-1065G7
PC memory 16GB LPDDR4x SDRAM 3,733MHz
Graphics Intel Iris Plus Graphics
Storage 512GB PCIe NVMe x4 SSD
Networking 802.11ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5.0
Operating system Windows 10 Home (64-bit)

Dell credits the laptop’s dual-fan cooling system and new internal vapor chambers for helping it get the best performance in such a thin body. The included power-management software lets you quickly choose if you want the system to stay quiet or cool or run at full speed. The XPS 13 2-in-1 did get warm under full load, but its fans generally kept things comfortable and weren’t distractingly loud. I also didn’t hear any coil whine at any point, which was an issue reported with past XPS 13 models. 

While the Iris Plus graphics aren’t quite up to entry-level discrete graphics, they were enough for simple video and photo editing tasks and even some light gaming. And yes, you can play Fortnite on it at high settings, though you’ll probably want to stick to medium if you want it to be enjoyable. 

Dell does offer Core i3 and Core i5 10th-gen processors on this model, but they use less powerful Intel UHD integrated graphics. If you do opt for a lower-priced configuration, make sure you get all the storage and memory you think you’ll ever need. Everything is soldered on with this two-in-one, which means you can’t add a larger SSD or more RAM in the future — what you get is what you get. 

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