Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 vs. Dell XPS 13 Plus: the most advanced laptops - Digital Trends

Many manufacturers are switching to 14-inch laptops, but that doesn’t mean the 13-inch laptop is going distant anytime soon. Dell has its fantabulous XPS 13 Plus and Lenovo precocious introduced the ThinkPad Z13, proving that 13-inch machines inactive person their place.

It’s a beardown contention betwixt these 2 fantabulous laptops, some of which correspond upgraded and/or diverging designs. One has to win, though, truthful work connected to find retired which is the amended diminutive laptop.

Specs and configurations

Lenovo’s pricing changes perpetually arsenic it introduces online income prices, but arsenic of close now, the slightest costly exemplary is $1,175 for an AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a Full HD+ non-touch IPS display. The astir you’ll walk is $1,780 for an AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6868Z CPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 2.8K OLED display.

Dell besides varies its pricing, with some income and changes to its database prices. As of close now, the slightest costly XPS 13 Plus runs $1,299 for a Core i5-1240P, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a Full HD+ non-touch IPS display. At the precocious end, the laptop costs $2,399 for a Core i7-1280P, 32GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD, and either a 3.5K OLED oregon a 4K+ IPS display.

At slightest arsenic acold arsenic pricing astatine this peculiar moment, the ThinkPad Z13 is the little costly laptop, but it besides can’t beryllium configured with arsenic overmuch retention arsenic the XPS 13 Plus.

Design

Both laptops correspond important departures from their lines, with the XPS 13 Plus dropping the c oregon solid fibre thenar remainder of the erstwhile procreation and the ThinkPad Z13 representing a implicit overhaul from the accustomed black-on-black ThinkPad design.

The XPS 13 Plus is present all-aluminum, with the aforesaid sleek lines with the lid closed, but a thoroughly modern plan inside. The thenar remainder is present each glass, with a hidden haptic touchpad, and the edge-to-edge keyboard has level keys edge-to-edge keys. The enactment of LED relation buttons on the apical adhd to the modern look, but they’re functionality is questionable.

The ThinkPad Z13 is besides aluminum, with an optional faux-leather covering connected the lid that’s lukewarm and inviting. From the outside, the laptop looks a batch much similar the XPS 13 Plus than immoderate accepted ThinkPad, with the aforesaid benignant of sleek lines. It differentiates itself astir with the “Communication Bar” that runs crossed the apical of the lid arsenic a reverse notch. Open up the lid, and you’ll find a achromatic thenar rest, the accustomed reddish TrackPoint nubbin, and a haptic touchpad hardly disposable connected the thenar rest. Both laptops are attractive, modern, and connection up a caller look.

You’ll find nary responsibility with the physique prime of either laptop. They’re some rigid and robust, with nary bending, flexing, oregon twisting. That’s to beryllium expected from some companies’ premium machines.

Both keyboards are comfy to use, albeit antithetic successful their carnal layout, fixed the Dell’s level keycaps. We’ll telephone it a draw. The haptic touchpads favour the Dell, which provided a much responsive and earthy consciousness during our testing. The ThinkPad Z13 has its TrackPoint for ThinkPad fans, which means portion of its touchpad is devoted to the TrackPoint’s virtual buttons. Overall, though, some laptops supply fantabulous input.

Connectivity is similar, with some sporting dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, but the ThinkPad Z13 includes a 3.5mm audio jack lacking connected the XPS 13 Plus. We deliberation that gives the ThinkPad a limb up. Wireless connectivity is up-to-date connected both, portion the ThinkPad Z13 besides offers optional 4G LTE WWAN for always-connected internet.

The ThinkPad Z13 has a higher-resolution 1080p webcam, which is overmuch amended than the XPS 13 Plus’s 720p version, portion some person infrared cameras supporting Windows 11 passwordless login via facial recognition. Both besides person responsive fingerprint readers arsenic well. Dell’s is embedded successful the powerfulness button, which is wherever we similar to spot it.

Performance

The ThinkPad Z13 we reviewed was equipped with the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850 U, a 15- to 28-watt CPU with 8 cores and 16 threads. That compares to the XPS 13 Plus with its 28-watt Intel Core i7-1280P, with 14 cores (six Performance and 8 Efficient) and 20 threads.

The ThinkPad had a flimsy vantage successful multi-core applications similar our Handbrake trial that encodes a 420MB video arsenic H.265 and Cinebench R23, and it was overmuch faster successful the PCMark 10 Complete trial that runs done a premix of productivity, media consumption, and creativity tasks. The XPS 13 Plus had to tally successful its show mode to support up.

Both are precise accelerated productivity machines, but the ThinkPad Z13 has a flimsy advantage. Neither are morganatic gaming systems fixed their integrated graphics.

Display

We tested the ThinkPad Z13 with its Full HD+ IPS panel, and it was a bully premium show with plentifulness of brightness, fantabulous opposition for IPS, mean colour width, and fantabulous colour accuracy. It couldn’t clasp a candle to the 3.5K OLED show that we tested connected the XPS 13 Plus. The Dell’s show wasn’t arsenic speedy oregon bright, but provided incredibly wide and close colors and heavy opposition with inky blacks.

The ThinkPad Z13’s show is good for productivity work, but creators and media consumers volition overmuch similar the XPS 13 Plus’s OLED display. Of course, you tin ever upgrade the ThinkPad Z13 to OLED, though it’s not rather arsenic high-resolution arsenic Dell’s offering.

Portability

The ThinkPad Z13 and XPS 13 Plus are astir identically sized, with the ThinkPad being conscionable a tiny spot thinner. Both are bladed and airy and casual to transportation around.

Battery life, though, gave a immense triumph to the ThinkPad Z13. It lasted doubly arsenic agelong arsenic the XPS 13 Plus successful our web-browsing trial and astir doubly arsenic agelong successful our video test. That’s acknowledgment to some a larger artillery and the much businesslike Ryzen CPU. If artillery beingness matters to you, past the ThinkPad Z13 is the 1 to choose.

Excellent laptops, but the ThinkPad Z13 wins retired acknowledgment to its longevity

The ThinkPad Z13 and XPS 13 Plus are some fantabulous 13-inch laptops that tin conscionable the needs of the astir demanding productivity users. They’re some attractive, well-built, and connection accelerated performance.

The ThinkPad Z13 wins retired successful its price, which close present is hundreds little than the XPS 13 Plus, and successful its fantabulous artillery life. Those are capable to marque it the amended laptop.

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