

Problem is, there are no Windows Hello infrared (IR) cameras in the tiny sliver of space on the top bezel. And Apple's 256GB SSD is very fast, which helps.ĭell XPS 13 9380: No more "Windows Hello" Face ID because the webcam has been moved from the bottom to the top of the display, where it belongs. It's more than fast enough for what I do, meaning it's more than adequate for 99 percent of the consumers who would buy the MacBook Air.


It performs pretty far below most of the competition like the (2018) and (the XPS covered in this review) as well as the HP Spectre 13 (Core i7-8550U) and the Surface Laptop 2 (Core i5-8250U). MacBook Air Retina: not a top performer on benchmarks. Also worth noting: the Samsung PM981 SSD (in my unit) is one of the faster solid-state drives shipping in laptops today. My XPS 9380 has the slightly faster Whiskey Lake Core i7 8565U. Notebookcheck has benchmarks that show an XPS 9380 standing up well to the competition with a Whisky Lake Core i5-8265U. Credit: Brooke Crothersĭell XPS 13 9380: t he XPS 13's performance has always been at the high end for a thin-and-light laptop, aka, ultrabook. Beats the MacBook Air's silver exterior.ĭell (2019) with woven glass fiber palm rest. MacBook Air Retina: classic Apple aluminum-clad MacBook.ĭell XPS 13 9380: the new frost white / "platinum silver" color is gorgeous. It also has a pleasing woven glass fiber palm rest. Feels a little like super-fine, super-smooth 1,200-grit sandpaper.

Macbook air retina skin#
(That said, most consumers won't notice the difference.)ĭell XPS 13 9380: the machined skin has a different texture compared to the previous XPS 9370. Though the Retina display is a huge step-up compared to the old MacBook Air's grainy, low-resolution display, it's inferior to the MacBook Pro. MacBook Air Retina:Panel brightness is about 300 nits. As a general, non-scientific statement, the display is gorgeous.
Macbook air retina pro#
The XPS 13's color gamut is good but not quite at MacBook Pro levels. Out of all the new 20 13-inch laptops I use, it ranks at the top, giving me all-day battery life if you turn down the display brightness and stay away from lots of processor-intensive tasks.ĭell XPS 13 9380: Panel brightness is rated at 400 nits. MacBook Air Retina: The MBA is one of the longer-lasting 13-inch laptops because of its Intel Y series processor and because it doesn't use a super-bright display (though it's still plenty bright, imo). Let's call it close to all-day battery life** if you're not pushing the envelope on processor-intensive tasks and keep the display brightness down. Some consumers may not like the lack of travel and muted feedback.ĭell XPS 13 9380: Dell has gotten very good at squeezing good battery life out of the quad-core/4K-display-packing XPS 9380. MacBook Air Retina: I've always liked Apple's Butterfly keyboards (that puts me in a distinct minority) and the third-generation Butterfly keyboard on the Retina MacBook Air is the best yet. One small downside is the lower-right corner where the PgUp, PgDn and raise/lower screen brightness keys are packed together: this takes some getting used to.
Macbook air retina windows 10#
Comparable to the best Windows 10 laptop keyboards out there. Credit: Brooke Crothersĭell XPS 13 9380: good tactile feedback and travel when typing. Smaller Dell (top) and MacBook Air with Retina display.
