By: iPadfanzz staff on March 13, 2013
The good: The XPS 12 is cleverly design touch-screen convertible that flips into multiple screen positions. You can use the device as a tablet or desktop as per your convenience. Support from Windows 8 makes it even a more desirable device.
The bad: Its battery life is on the low side.
The bottom line: The rotating Duo laptop concept is novel, but the XPS 12 makes a better laptop than tablet.
Dell, feeling a bit left out in the era of smartphones and tablets, hopes to turn things around with its unique looking XPS 12, the notebook-tablet hybrid that has a swiveling screen. The XPS 12 offers best of both worlds: a well-built ultrabook and a full-on Windows 8 tablet.
The hybrid desktop-tablet has a the UI of Windows 8 that allows you to swipe and touch with a quick tap. The XPS 12 Convertible Touch Ultrabook has a hinged design that lets you flip it from laptop to slate. It comes with a 12.5-inch full HD display, and for its $1,199.99 base configuration, you get an Intel Core i5-3317U Ivy Bridge processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB solid state drive. Similarly, you get $1,399.99 version with Core i7-3517U CPU and 8GB of RAM, a $1,499.99 model that doubles the RAM and SSD capacity (while keeping the base i5 processor), and the $1,699 full enchillada with Core i7, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD.
The XPS 12 ultrabook has a big advantage since it converts into tablet with just a flip.
Hardware
Build and design
With this much money, you can expect some quality materials. The screen of the XPS 12 feels solid and the metal frame in rigid. The body is made from a mix of carbon fibre and aluminium, while the screen is faced with Corning Gorilla Glass. It is an extremely high-resolution screen, too, especially for a 12″ screen and delivers colors that don’t wash out at any angle. The display of the hybrid works better for Windows 8.
Keyboard
On the inside there is only keyboard and touch pad. The hybrid equally offers a good keyboard which gives great feedback while typing. A power button, in the uncommon form of a slider switch, is located along the left edge, and most other functions, from the Wi-Fi antenna switch to volume control, are mapped to the row of Function keys. It is backlit with white LEDs and automatically varies the level of brightness.
One good feature of XPS 12 is its rotating screen. Unlike other convertible laptops, the XPS 12 rotates along the horizontal axis, flipping end over end. Dell says the mechanism has been tested to 20,000 cycles, and it certainly feels sturdy enough. In order to flip the screen, give it a gentle push and the screen pops out of the frame and rotates freely, locking in again at 180 degrees. This makes the screen pointing out from the back of the lid, making it easier to show to the other person sitting in front of you.
Also when folded, you can access the onscreen keyboard built into Windows 8. The onscreen keyboard provided here is much better than those provided in earlier Microsoft operating systems, with responsive, well-spaced keys. The Cypress touchpad is a clickpad; press down anywhere to produce a click. It's quite usable.
In tablet mode, you can hold the XPS 12 in any mode. Since its cooling fan is hidden inside the chassis, it can't be blocked. It's also comfortable to hold. The overall tablet experience is seamless.
Input and Output Ports
The XPS 12 lacks in port variety. The hybrid has just two USB 3.0 ports and a mini-DisplayPort connector. It lacks Ethernet, VGA, HDMI, ExpressCard, and a media card reader.
Screen
The screen has a slick surface which means it’s easy to slide your fingers across. The tablet offers full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels) which means huge space that gives you the ability to work in two windows side by side. Since it is an IPS (In-Plane Switching) display, the picture looks the same no matter which angle you're viewing from (unlimited viewing angles).
The display offers excellent contrast along with saturation - images look like they have the appropriate amount of color without going overboard. The XPS 12 has two speakers which face out the sides of the chassis.
Performance
The notebook is offered with a slightly faster Core i7 processor, up to 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Overall, it delivers good performance in Windows 8 and offers no slowness or hesitation in both tablet and notebook mode. The low voltage i5 processor is fast enough for nearly everything and 4GB of RAM is more than adequate for normal usage.
Battery Life
A test on Powermark on its web browsing, word processing, gaming and video playback workloads, delivered considerably lower results. The Dell XPS 12 ran for 3 hours and 29 minutes on its built-in 6-cell battery (47WHr).
Other handy features include a volume rocker and screen orientation lock on the left side of the body where they can be accessed when using the XPS in tablet mode.
Pros:
Beautiful touch screen display
Good build quality
Seamless tablet experience
Good keyboard and touchpad
Cons:
Lack of ports (no media card reader)
Screen-heavy design
Some software issues
Conclusion:
The Dell XPS 12 brings the complete Windows 8 experience. The tablet’s flipping mechanism is good ad it is easy to convert the desktop in to a tablet. The display size of the tablet is good and the touch screen works really well. If you don't want to use the tablet mode, the XPS 12's backlit keyboard and clickpad are fantastic. The tablet is quite portable at under 0.8" thin and 3.4 pounds. The system performs well thanks to the Core i5 processor and 128GB Samsung SSD, but the battery life is poor.
At $1,200 starting the XPS 12 is not too expensive.
