Editor's Note

• Original review date: October, 2022
• Newer models have since released
• Dell XPS 13 (2024) is shaping up to be an excellent laptop

Update: August 2024

Since we reviewed this version of the XPS 13 back in 2022, Dell has released several new models, as well as relaunching its XPS 14 lineup. This means that the 2022 model is no longer easy to buy. Retailers that do stock this older model may be offering it for a steep discount, which makes it a good budget choice, though if you can afford a newer model, such as the Dell XPS 13 Plus (2023), then you'll get a much more future-proof laptop. Our Dell XPS 13 (2024) review is almost finished and - spoiler alert - it looks like it could be one of the best laptops yet.

Dell XPS 13 (2022): two minute review

The Dell XPS 13 (2022) has huge shoes to fill, but while it does what it sets out to do very well, there are going to be those who are going to be sorely disappointed by some of the changes Dell makes to the XPS 13, and some of these are going to be absolute deal breakers.

But the XPS 13 (2022) deserves to be judged on its own merits, rather than solely in comparison to the Dell XPS 13 (Late 2020), this model's immediate predecessor. This is especially the case since that model is arguably the best laptop in its class, even though it is not a couple of model generations behind the latest Dell laptops.

Still, while we'll get around to weighing the XPS 13 (2022) objectively a bit later, it is important to acknowledge that the new Dell XPS 13 comes with a pedigree and that can't be ignored. In this regard, the XPS 13 outperforms the model it's replacing in some key areas, but it falls short in others. How you're going to feel about the new XPS 13 is going to depend entirely on where your concerns fall between the two, whether or not some of these are entirely in Dell's control. 

What is in Dell's control is the design of the XPS 13, and this is where most of the controversy is going to be. The Dell XPS 13 (2022) is a gorgeous laptop, through and through, from the thinness of its form to its featherweight portability and beautiful display. These come at a cost though, namely in terms of ports, and the two, solitary USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports are going to mean you'll have to juggle some dongles. Fortunately, Dell includes some of them with the laptop itself.

The biggest change though is the absence of the carbon fiber palm rests, which still remain on the Dell XPS 15 (2022) and Dell XPS 17 (2022), in favor of a more svelte aluminum keyboard deck. There is also the new color option, Umber (a bluish-purple), in addition to Sky, which is the standard silver color for the XPS laptop line.

The carbon fiber palm rests are one of the things about the last XPS 13 that we fell in love with, so we're sorry to see them go, but on its merits, the keyboard is still spectacular to use. 

The sound still sucks, but all of the best ultrabooks have terrible audio, thanks to underpowered down-firing speakers. It's the tradeoff you have to make for the form factor, so the XPS 13 was never going to break free of that fate.

Overall, the performance of the XPS 13 (2022) was excellent for everyday use and productivity work, making it one of the best thin and light laptops for professionals who find themselves constantly on the go. Unfortunately, this is also where we run into the XPS 13 (2022)'s major failing: battery life. 

While the battery life on the new XPS 13 does last longer than most Intel Alder Lake-powered laptops, it is still a noticeable downgrade from the last XPS 13, which was Intel Evo certified. This, though, isn't in Dell's control as Alder Lake chips just guzzle the juice with wanton abandon and with no consideration for your needs or convenience. You'll be getting close to all-day battery life with the XPS 13 (2022), but it's not the all-day-plus battery life some might be expecting from an XPS 13.

Still, the XPS 13 (2022) absolutely holds its own as an ultrabook, and it does so at a price far below what came before it. Of all the ultrabooks we've tested this year, the XPS 13 (2022) is the closest competition to the new MacBook Air (M2, 2022) on the market right now, which is great for someone looking for an Air-like appeal from a Windows laptop - making it a great choice of laptop for students. 

Are some of us shaking our fists at Dell-shaped clouds over the redesign? Of course, but change is inevitable, and with a genuinely appealing design, the Dell XPS 13 (2022) shines just as bright as the rest of the XPS lineup, even if it blazes a different trail all its own.

Dell XPS 13 (2022): Price and availability

• How much does it cost? Starting at $899 / £854 / AU$1,898
• When is it out? It is available now
• Where can you get it? You can get it in the US, UK, and Australia

The Dell XPS 13 (2022) – also called the Dell XPS 13 (9315) by some retailers – is available now in the US, UK, and Australia, starting at $899 / £854 / AU$1,898. The entry level configuration will get you an Intel Core i5-1230U with integrated Iris Xe graphics, 8GB LPDDR5 RAM, and a 500-nit, 13.4-inch, FHD+ (1920 x 1200p) display. In the US, the minimum storage option is 512GB SSD, while the UK and Australia start out with a 256GB SSD.

The best configuration will get you a Core i7-1250U with Iris Xe graphics, 32GB LPDDR5 RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD, and a 500-nit, 13.4-inch, FHD+ (1920 x 1200p) display with anti-reflective coating, and costs $1,549 / £1,754 / AU$3,441.

The configuration we tested was one step removed from entry level, with 16GB RAM rather than 8GB, and it costs $1,049 / £1,004 / AU$2,299.

This XPS 13 model is more oriented towards value rather than performance (which would be the Dell XPS 13 Plus), and so the processors aren't powerful enough really to manage the kind of heavy duty workloads that would necessitate more than 16GB RAM or 512GB storage, and most people will do just fine with the starting configuration so few people will ever need to spend more than $1,000 / £1,000 / AU$2,000 to get one of the best Dell laptops on the market.

This is in stark contrast with the last XPS 13 model from late 2020, which had a starting price of $1,499 / £1,399 / AU$2,399. This is a substantial price cut for a laptop that will give you more or less the same level of performance.

Compared to the rest of the market, the XPS 13 (2022) is positioned squarely in the sweet spot in terms of price and performance. The other obvious comparison to make is with the MacBook Air. Compared to the MacBook Air with M1 from 2020, the Dell XPS 13 is very competitive, matching the MacBook Air on price, though it won't get you nearly as much battery life. The new MacBook Air with M2, however, is more expensive, and while its performance is outstanding, it still doesn't blow the XPS 13 out of the water beyond having better battery life.

All told, the Dell XPS 13 (2022) is one of the best, if not the best, value on the market among the best Windows laptops, and other than a few of the best Chromebooks out there, there is little that can really compete with the XPS 13 (2022) on this front. If you're looking to save on the laptop, you can check out our list of the best Dell coupon codes to see this month's best discounts.

• Value: 5 / 5

Dell XPS 13 (2022): Design

• Redesigned for 2022, like it or not
• Beautiful display
• Serious lack of ports

The Dell XPS 13 (2022) is going to split the entire tech reviewer community in two over its design, with defenders and haters making valid points on each side. But consumers don't buy a new laptop every 18 months, so for everyone else, this is still an absolutely gorgeous laptop, though there are some functional issues that will be a problem for many.

First, the XPS 13 is very lightweight, and its slim dimensions make it an easy laptop to toss in a bag as you head out the door. The exterior is little changed from its predecessor and features the XPS line's brushed aluminum chassis, with the biggest change being the option to get it in a purplish-blue color option, Umber. 

Opening it up, however, and the redesigned interior removes the carbon fiber keyboard palm rest and replaces it with a sleek aluminum that let the hands glide over its surface with ease. The keys and trackpad are also well positioned and spaced to allow for fluid and comfortable typing, even for many hours at a time.

The display is a full HD+, meaning its a 1920 x 1200p resolution at the 16:10 aspect ratio, and it can get as bright as 500 nits. It's not an OLED display, so it's not going to have the kind of vibrant colors that you get with the Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED, but it is more than clear enough to see everything you need to see at this size.

The down-firing speakers are audible, but they will hardly fill a room, even if you have it sitting on a hardwood desk. The 16:10 display is beautiful and very easy to work with, though a 13-inch laptop is not nearly big enough to be using multiple windows at once.

The webcam is the basic 720p@30fps that you see on nearly every other ultrabook on the market, so don't expect much from its image quality. One thing that is lacking is a privacy shutter for the webcam, something many of the best HP laptops and best Lenovo laptops have featured for a long time now. Dell really does need to get with the program on this, in our opinion.

Finally, the biggest issue with the XPS 13 (2022) is the derth of ports. There are just two Thunderbolt 4 ports, that's it. While both are capable of charging the laptop, having it plugged in means that you're now down to a single USB-C port, so any peripherals you have with you either have to be triaged for the most important one, or you're going to need a dock for more than two items. 

And since they're USB-C ports, any USB-A or other types of input will need a converting dongle to work. Dell includes a couple in the box with the XPS 13, a USB-A to USB-C and a 3.5mm audio jack to USB-C, but you'll likely need more, which can really cut into the laptop's portability. 

• Design: 4 / 5

Dell XPS 13 (2022): Performance

• Solid productivity and general use performance
• Not so hot on the gaming side of things

The Dell XPS 13 (2022) is designed to be an affordable, ultraportable laptop that can do what most people need it to do: some web browsing, video streaming, and maybe messing around with a couple of spreadsheets for work or writing reports on an airplane.

It does all of these very well, and it has decent enough processor benchmark scores for a laptop priced as it is. The biggest problem you'll find is if you try to run any resource-heavy apps on the XPS 13, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Blender, and Photoshop.

On these points, it will be able to complete most tasks, but expect it to take a lot longer than it would on a more professional workstation like the MacBook Pro 13-inch (M2, 2022), if it finishes them at all and doesn't simple stall or crash. This is a laptop for light to medium work at most, and the more you can use cloud apps like Google Docs and Google Sheets, the better.

We could also have run a number of games on it to see how they fared, but after the first test with Civilization VI, run on the lowest possible settings, scored a paltry 18 fps, we called it a day and spared the XPS 13 any more gaming embarrassment. A candidate for the best gaming laptop of the year, this is not.

Considering that you can get one of the best Chromebooks on the market and it will perform about as well on cloud-based apps, the performance of the Dell XPS 13 on its own might not be enough to justify the relative premium you're pay for it. If all you're going to be doing is running Google Chrome and listening to Spotify or watching Netflix, definitely consider saving yourself some serious money and give Chromebooks a look before you make the jump on a nearly $1,000 Windows laptop.

• Performance: 3 / 5

Dell XPS 13 (2022): Battery life

• Not great, but decent enough for an Alder Lake laptop
• Charges from 0% to full in about two hours

The battery life on the Dell XPS 13 (2022) is not great, if we compare it to its predecessor. On our PCMark 10 battery test, it lasted on average about seven hours and 31 minutes. It did better on our looped video test, managing an average nine hours and eight minutes.

The XPS 13 (late 2020) managed a battery life of nearly 12 hours, so the XPS 13 (2022) has definitely regressed in this regard, but that has been the case with Alder Lake laptops across the board. They just consume too much power and we've seen many ultrabooks last between six to seven hours on average, so the XPS 13 (2022) is at least ahead of its competition on that front.

• Battery Life: 3.5 / 5

Dell XPS 13 (2022): Report card

Should you buy a Dell XPS 13 (2022)?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

• First reviewed October 2022

How We Test

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

Read more about how we test

Editor's Note

• Original review date: August 2022
• Launch price: Starts at $799 / £799 (around AU$1,120)
• Target price now (updated model): Starts at $999 / £899 (around AU$1,490)

Update – August 2024: The HP Pavilion Plus 14 might have missed out on a spot amidst our ranking of the best laptops when we originally reviewed this model, but two years on, I've got good news and bad news.

The good news is that an updated model featuring the new Intel Core Ultra 5 chip is now available, which (while I haven't personally tested it) should provide better battery life than previous iterations thanks to that chip's improved power efficiency. The short battery life was the main failing of the Pavilion Plus 14 when we reviewed it, and some quick online research shows that reviewers concur that battery performance is a lot stronger in the new model.

The bad news is that this new model is unfortunately a bit more expensive - although you can still find older models with Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen chips for under $800 in the US. Sadly for our friends down under, it appears that the Core Ultra model is not available at all in Australia at the time of writing - so Aussies may be better off looking for something different.

Original review follows.

HP Pavilion Plus 14: Two-minute review

The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is an upgrade from the original Pavilion 14 and is meant to be a decently priced low-ranged laptop for those who need a dedicated work machine.

It comes with a pretty solid screen size, which is complemented by the thinner bezels that give you more screen real estate. Its OLED touchscreen display is responsive and features an impressive picture quality that makes anything displayed through it crystal clear and sharp, which alone is worth the slightly higher price tag. 

This feature shines when paired with the webcam, which is crisp and clean when sitting through Zoom meetings, but it’s a shame the webcam doesn’t come with a mechanical privacy shutter though, since nowadays its pretty much a necessity.

The keyboard and touchpad are quite good as well, one of the few work laptops that have wide keys suited for those with thicker fingers or shaky hands. We found it extremely rare to have typos thanks to the wide spacing between keys, and the touchpad provides you with more than enough space to comfortably move around, making it very accessible for those who might have more limited mobility or coordination in their hands.

Thanks to the 12th-gen Intel Core i7 CPU, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 has some impressively high performance compared to many other budget-to-midrange laptops, consistently outscoring them by sometimes wide margins. 

It’s an incredibly fast laptop that balances multiple CPU-intensive tasks like a champ. It even ran Sid Meyer’s Civilization VI benchmark well, netting over 60 FPS on the highest settings. Of course, it won’t be able to play titles like Hitman 3 smoothly but you’re not buying this laptop for that purpose anyway; as a general performance machine, this might have easily qualified as one of the best HP laptops going – or even one of the best Ultrabooks overall.

However, the worst aspect of this laptop by far is the battery life, and it absolutely drags this laptop down. At most, while running our HD movie test, it lasted just under 5 hours, and lasted a little while longer in our productivity test. For a gaming laptop this would be ok, but for a low-end machine whose job it is to last a full day of work or school? This is atrocious, especially considering that for the price, we're expecting something far more substantial.

HP Pavilion Plus 14: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? MSRP is $799 (about £640 / AU$1,120)
• When is it out? It is available now
• Where can you get it? You can get it in the US, UK, and Australia, though not all configurations are available in all regions.

The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is available now in the US, UK, and Australia and starts at $799 / £829 in the US and UK, and at AU$2,699 in Australia.

The entry-level configuration for the US will get you an Intel Core i5-1240P processor with integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8GB RAM, 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD storage, and a 14-inch 2240 x 1400p IPS display, with a max brightness of 300 nits. The UK starting configuration is essentially identical, though it gives you a 512GB PCIe SSD.

The starting configuration in Australia, which is also the only configuration, is identical to the one we reviewed, specs listed at right. It will set you back $1,219 in the US and AU$2,699 in Australia.

The highest-spec configuration costs $1,329 in the US will get you an Intel Core i7-1255U, an Nvidia RTX 2050 GPU with 4GB dedicated video memory, 16GB RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD and a 2.8K OLED display with 400 nits brightness and Wi-Fi 6E instead of Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6.

In the UK, the highest spec is slightly different, in that it reduces the SSD to 512GB and, strangely, comes with Windows 11 Home in S Mode.

For the hardware on offer, this is pretty decent, especially at the low end, though the more expensive OLED display, as pretty as it is, is a big driver of the increase in price here. HP's main rival, Dell, has a new Inspiron 14 Plus that comes in at $1,299 (about £1,040 / AU$1,820), and it has more or less the same specs as the HP Pavilion Plus 14 model we reviewed. 

There are some key differences, though, in that it comes with a 2240 x 1400p IPS display instead of an OLED panel and only has 512GB SSD storage. What it does have over the Pavilion Plus 14, though, is a 64WHr battery, which means that it will likely get a much longer battery life than the Pavilion Plus 14 — especially if it doesn't have an OLED panel to power — though we haven't reviewed the Inspiron 14 Plus so we cannot say for certain.

That said, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 would seem to win out on specs here, making it a pretty decent value, but as we'll get to later, the battery life is really this laptop's Achilles' heel and keeps it from competing with the best laptops on the market. While you're weighing up costs, consider how HP promo codes can help you save.

• Value: 3.5 / 5

HP Pavilion Plus 14: Design

• Fantastic OLED screen
• Excellent, wide keyboard
• Great port selection

The chassis is lightweight but feels surprisingly sturdy for a lower-end work laptop, and reasonably has some heft to it despite the lower weight. It’s still thin and light enough to be comfortably portable in most bags. The silver color is common among even the best laptops these days but is still appealing and sleek.

Opening it up, the OLED screen really shines, giving anything displayed through it a gorgeous high-quality picture. This makes sense, since it complements the 2.8k display and even sports some nice and thin bezels that grant some roomy screen real estate. 

Its port selection is quite good, with two USB Type-C and two Type-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, an SD card slot, and one headset jack. The HDMI 2.1 is a pleasant surprise in particular, as normally it’s a 1.4 on work machines. The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is clearly a well-balanced machine that can handle most tasks and connect to a wide range of devices.

It even enhances what would be an otherwise average webcam image, pairing well with the program that augments your image based on lighting. The latter is a handy little feature that lets you adjust how you look through the webcam in real-time, a feature that we didn’t know we needed until now.

The keyboard is one of our favorites so far in a work laptop, with a well-sized trackpad and wide and well-spaced out keys that make typing a breeze with barely any typos. There’s also a toggle for backlighting, another great feature for those late-night work sessions. It was a joy using it and having to switch back to normal-sized keys felt like a huge downgrade.

• Design: 4 / 5

HP Pavilion Plus 14: Performance

• Great for work and casual-to-light gaming
• Sound quality is fine

The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is in a very weird niche, as it functions incredibly well as a work machine. It has an excellent screen that’s perfect for video calls, a great roomy keyboard and trackpad, all complemented by the powerful i7 CPU and 16 GB of RAM that supports it. 

But these same features also make it well-balanced for some casual gaming, at least with lighter games. When running various benchmarks, we found that this laptop scores higher (sometimes significantly higher) than other similar laptops in its class running comparable hardware. For a dedicated work machine, the Pavilion 14 Plus clearly has the chops to game in a more-than-normal capacity for this sort of computer.

When we ran the Sid Meier's Civilization VI benchmark test, we found the game ran at an impressive 67 FPS on max settings. Playing it, the title ran incredibly smooth with no noticeable hiccups or hangs. Other casual-to-light-duty games ran just as well, making it a work laptop well-suited for play at the end of the day.

The CPU can also adjust itself to the task that needs the most attention. While we didn’t always explicitly notice the switch in performance between every single task, it did feel like every task was optimized.

The sound quality for the HP Pavilion Plus 14 is good but not great, despite the fact that it comes with dual speakers. Still, it’s quite good for the kind of laptop it is, though it doesn’t have the most complex sound. But when it comes to voice and video chat, the sound quality is more than high enough. Ventilation is a bit below average; it tends to warm up quickly but the heat doesn’t progress into an uncomfortable range.

• Performance: 4.5 / 5

HP Pavilion Plus 14: Battery life

• Absolutely terrible
• Rival laptops in its class last much longer

This battery is the worst battery we’ve tested for a work laptop in a long time. As we said before, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 has unusually high benchmark scores compared to its competitors and even performs well with some modern games.

But it seems that this tricked the Pavilion Plus into thinking it’s a gaming laptop or something and so it spiked its own battery life in response. This battery cannot last past the four-and-a-half-hour mark in our HD movie test, and PCMark 10’s battery test showed a five hour and 10 minute result, which makes it extremely difficult to perform as a work laptop unless you keep it charged up at an outlet regularly. 

This is owing to the two-fold problem of high-end hardware, like an OLED display and Intel Alder Lake Core i7, and its rather meek 51WHr battery, which is almost guaranteed to run dry in no time flat. 

Sacrifices have to be made for price, size, and weight, sure. But a work laptop is supposed to last, and this one does not. Having such a poor battery life for a machine that’s meant to carry you through a work day is rather inexcusable.

• Battery Life: 1 / 5

Should you buy an HP Pavilion Plus 14?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

HP Pavilion Plus 14: Report card

• First reviewed August 2022

How We Test

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

Read more about how we test