Dell XPS 13 2024 Honest Reddit Verdict: Beauty vs. Usability

Touch Bar = instant absolute no 👎

What an unforced error from Dell. The people who were buying XPS laptops will go elsewhere for a real laptop and the people who weren't buying XPS laptops will... continue to not do that.

Dell saw Apple drop that idea like a hot potato and thought 'yes this will be exactly what our customers need'

Personally, not a big fan of the line-up. The port selection is pathetic, especially given the 14 and 16 are not ultra portable, and you have to deal with the function row. The Lenovo Yoga Slim/Pro seems to be better for much cheaper.

Until they drop that atrocious keyboard design, the XPS 13 is irrelevant.

I just picked this XPS 13 /w 256v up today from Best Buy. I've only been setting things up and using it like a productivity machine so far (no gaming yet) and thoughts are is that it runs quite cool, the fan barely turns on even in Max Performance mode and when it does kick on it's not very loud at all, most of the time it's inaudible.

As an XPS 15 9530 owner, this is a horrible update. Fake Touch bar?! Soldered on RAM?! Copilot key replaces right Control?!

I hope it's doing really bad so Dell will have to ditch all the stupid design choices.

Apple rarely backtracks on stuff and this is one of the things they did backtrack on and yet somehow dell didn't get the memo.

I think the keyboard itself is fine, it's the function row is the issue. Capacitive keys are just wrong to have. I understand that it was a tradeoff on space for the cooling in the 13 plus, but it's not an excuse to keep using it in other models.

20hrs of battery life is underwhelming?

Controversial features of 2024 XPS lineup: 1. Lattice keyboard. 2. Glass deck touchpad. 3. Capacitive function row. 4. Limited TDP on XPS 14/16. 5. High prices. 6. No upgradeable memory slots. 7. No second SSD slot. 8. Limited port selection.

Everything is an issue on the XPS at the moment.

Only 2 usb ports and no headphone jack, yikes!

The F-Keys being touch now is an instant no-buy from me (and many others as I've read). I need these keys in my workflow a lot, not having them as physical buttons makes this machine worthless to me. Luckily I bought one of the last generation which still has those keys.

The lack of a proper keyboard just kills it for 80% of professional users who ironically were a big chunk of potential clientele. Instead of investing in listening to actual customers and solving issues with previous hardware they probably hired useless marketing people who decided fancy is better than usable.

Not a fan of the lattice keyboard. Even worse is the trackpad. Haptics are spotty, don't always work. You have no idea where the sides of the trackpad are, etc. Laptop 'looks cool' but functionally terrible for me.

Yeah I normally wouldn't go for 64GB in a laptop, but given it's not upgradable, I would definitely consider it for these machines.

This lineup is more of 'live with what we give you or go f*ck yourself', much like apple.

Back when I got my 9570, I was tempted to buy a macbook but didn't because of the touchbar and the keyboard. Apple knew it screwed up and reverted, and I see Dell going the same path. Gotta admit that the laptop does look sexier, but at what cost? All keys of a laptop are vital and essential to the experience, especially if you're a pro that makes use of those function keys.

I remember reading the 13" did really well and the changes make more sense for that form factor. Seems like Dell assumed because it worked on the 13" it would work on a 16". I think there's a big difference in buyers of a 13" vs 16", completely different expectations for the machine when you get into more power and dGPU over portability.

I do own one. I can't speak to Linux but I can tell you the battery life has been incredible (easily 12+ hours in Best Power Efficiency mode) and I'm only hearing fans when I'm in Best Performance mode (which usually means I'm plugged in and gaming). I had originally purchased the snapdragon XPS, but after realizing none of my audio production software was going to work, exchanged for the intel version. ARM still has a ways to go here.

I own a 9350 2025 I bought it new. I run it with Ubuntu. Everything works great, except the webcam. Battery life has been really good. Fan noise? Never heard the fan once. Doesn't seem to heat up badly at all.

If the trackpad matters, go with the 14. I had the 14 and then saw the 13 and fell in love with the size and switched. Was unaware that the 13 had a different trackpad (not Sensel). It clicks with VERY little pressure. I barely rest my finger on it and it will trigger. Killing me.

THANK YOU!!! I've been fighting with tons of issues on Ubuntu 22.04, but using 24.04 like you said everything besides the webcam works great! I really appreciate you following up with these details, you've saved me countless headaches!

I don't understand the hate for it. It's an amazing looking laptop, something that actually rivals a macbook. Finally 90-120hz. Amazing keyboard, and the all glass deck looks amazing. Also finally haptic trackpad. Old XPS trackpads had lots of issues. Also 1080p webcam looks great.

I had the 14 and switched to the 13. Both 2024s. The 14 is great and I really wanted to keep it, but I prioritize mobility and the 14 is a full pound heavier and very noticeable. I didn't check the weight when choosing and could not believe how much heavier it was.

Everything works now on my 9340 with Ubuntu 24.04: sleep/suspend, fingerprint reader, webcam, battery life, etc.

Got one (155H, 64Gb, Intel graphics) running Archlinux. Almost everything works great. Network worked out of the box. Remaining issues are webcam and audio. I use USB devices for both as these, but the internal ones are not properly supported.

This new design they have is just the dumbest thing ever. At minimum they should have function keys and a headphone jack. That last part is especially terrible, like, FFS, why remove the headphone jack? Why does everyone have to try and copy Apple on their quest to eliminate all usability and convenience for the end-users?

I like my XPS 13 9345. My one annoyance is the function keys row being a touchbar.

When the XPS series first came out, they raised the bar. They've been making mostly evolutionary changes since, nothing like the initial jump. The competition has narrowed the gap considerably since. No doubt Dell has been feeling that pressure increasing.

My company is exclusively Dell XPS 15 machines and mine just bit the dirt (display partial failure). I worked with my IT guy tonight to order a replacement. Thank god the older design is still available. I was briefly thinking 'oooh, new model!' when I stumbled on this on their website. I took a closer look and realized what a shit design this is. Flat keys with no spacing? Touch function keys? No 15"?? Dell, WTAF? You just threw away everything that was great about the XPS.

For the love of god, give us a pro laptop with Ubuntu out of the box, and don't copy Apple's worst choices. Had 3 XPS-machines over the years, looks like the 2022 one was the last.

I went with the LCD specifically for battery life, that was more important to me. As much as I love OLED, just like anyone else, battery meant more. Plus I still get the dynamic 120 refresh rate so that's great too.

Wifi adapter stopped working on day 37 from invoice. Day 30 of possession. Camera stopped working. OLED version with 258v. Dell won't refund and wants me to keep troubleshooting to infinity. Disputing through Amex.

I bought one, sending it back as I type this. Performance is good, screen is incredible but the keyboard and touchpad and weight are just too much.

I got an XPS 16 as a replacement for my broken XPS 15. The screen is amazing and the trackpad feels very natural. The only thing that irks me is the function row, which I don't like. I've also tried playing games on it and it does way better than my old 15. I can get enjoyable fps in all AAA games. Even cyberpunk. And the fans are barely audible, and what sound there is is very low pitched.

I have an XPS 9570 from 2018. The ports, the RAM upgradeability, the price, the battery were just superb back then. I replaced the battery and keyboard in 2023, and it was still going strong in 2024. The battery backup and port selection still beat most of the similarly priced models in 2024.

The fan is relatively quiet, but it will kick in the moment you start doing heavier tasks like gaming. I set the power mode in Windows to 'best efficiency', which keeps the fans off, and it's still plenty fast for normal work. I have the OLED screen which uses double the power of the non-OLED display, but I still get 10+ hours in my normal usage indoors at like 30-50% brightness.

Dell no longer puts an advertised battery life (in hours) on their XPS 13 or 14 product pages. I think that tells you all you need to know. Lack of IO and worse battery life than most of the competition, they have ruined their laptop lineup in this segment.

I'm glad they've updated the hardware such as trackpad, screen and Wi-Fi. But the regressions with the keyboard (fn keys), single M.2 slot and SDXC slot are quite disappointing. If it turns out to still be using a proprietary 130W charging protocol then it's even more disappointing.

Why in the hell did they remove the hardware function row and replace with touch buttons? Apple learned the hard way that it's a terrible idea, and Dell is following that lead years late. I was ready to buy the new XPS 15 (or XPS 16 I guess) immediately, but that's a deal breaker. Guess I'm looking elsewhere.