First New Caledonia evacuation flight lands in Auckland
A Defence Force plane carrying 50 New Zealanders evacuated from New Caledonia has landed at Auckland Airport this evening. 
© 2024 RadioNZ 10:55pm Dell XPS 13 (2024) review: An elegant stumble
At a glanceExpert's Rating
ProsElegant designSleek and lightweightSnappy Windows Hello cameraGreat trackpadConsPerformance lags behind competitorsPricey next to faster alternativesContentious keyboardOnly two portsOur VerdictThe Dell XPS 13 has been a force to reckon with some years, but this isn’t one of them. It’s performance lags behind its cheaper competitors, and it doesn’t lead them in the battery department either. It may be thin and light, but by a narrow margin that doesn’t make up for its shortcomings.
Best Prices Today: Dell XPS 13 (2024)
Retailer
Price
$1399
View Deal
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Product
Price
Price comparison from Backmarket
Dell has refreshed its line of XPS laptops, introducing a new XPS 16 and XPS 14 and changing up the sizes we’re used to. But we still get the Dell XPS 13, which keeps the diminutive, portability-minded dimensions of its predecessors. For the sharp-eyed XPS fans, this model will look strikingly similar to the earlier XPS 13 Plus, as the entirety of this new lineup has adopted the design language introduced with the Plus models.
What this means for elegance is one thing, but for utility, it’s another thing entirely. And with performance leaving something to be desired next to cheaper competitors, the best days for the XPS 13 may be well and truly behind us.
Dell XPS 13: Specs and features
The Dell XPS 13 comes in a handful of configuration options. Ours is near the bottom, with only a memory downgrade to 8GB available for a $100 savings. However, 8GB on a machine that has a base price over $1,000 feels incredibly unwise, especially as it’s non-upgradeable LPDDR5. At the time of writing, all configurations come with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor. Storage can be upgraded to 1TB or 2TB, and memory comes at 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB.
Dell offers three display options. The most basic is a 1920×1200 panel tested here that offers a 30- to 120Hz refresh rate and 500-nit peak brightness. For an additional $300, the display can be upgraded to a 2560×1600 touchscreen with otherwise similar specs, or to a 2880×1800 OLED touchscreen with a lower, 400-nit peak brightness and 60Hz refresh rate.
The XPS 13 comes in either a light Platinum color or a dark Graphite.
CPU: Intel Core 7 Ultra 155H
Memory: 16GB LPDDR5x
Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc Graphics
Display: 13.4-inch 1200p WVA
Storage: 512GB PCIe Gen4 SSD
Webcam: 1080p
Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C with Power Delivery and DisplayPort 2.1
Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Biometrics: Windows Hello fingerprint, facial recognition
Battery capacity: 55 watt-hours
Dimensions: 11.62 x 7.84 x 0.6 inches
Weight: 2.7 pounds
MSRP: $1,399 ($1,299 base)
Looking for more laptop options? Be sure to check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops available today.
Dell XPS 13: Design and build quality
Like the rest of the lineup, the Dell XPS 13 is lavishly designed. In fact, with the compact canvas Dell had to work with, it might even be the better looking of the bunch. It’s a sandwich of aluminum and glass with a meticulous assembly that readily rivals Apple. Because the XPS 13 has an extra-small footprint, there’s no space on the sides of the keyboard for speakers — instead they’re downward-firing speakers on the edges of the base — which actually lends it a better appearance than its larger siblings whose speakers that don’t quite meld with the rest of the design.
Just like its siblings, the XPS 13 suffers from the same functional faults that come hand-in-hand with the aesthetic choices. The keyboard has its keys spread so their edges run tight next to one another. The function row is replaced by capacitive touch buttons that need constant illumination, and the trackpad is gloriously covered in a single panel for glass that stretches the width of the laptop but also completely obscures where the trackpad begins and ends.
The Dell XPS 13 is handsome and well-built.
The Dell XPS 13 is handsome and well-built.Mark Knapp / Foundry
The Dell XPS 13 is handsome and well-built.Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
The polished design of the XPS 13 almost highlights the one point where it could still use work. Dell opted for curved corners, but by sticking with a hard-cornered display, the screen looks a little off where its 90-degree angles meet the curved corners of the lid. That’s only further accentuated by the two different bezel widths. This is minor, and I’d personally never huff over it, but Dell is staking a lot on design here, and that choice is exactly the kind we see Apple and Samsung avoiding in their laptop designs.
At least Dell’s build is solid. Quality materials add up, and while I wouldn’t say this is a machine that’ll tolerate real abuse, it feels like it will hold up quite well to the battering laptops take every day.
Dell XPS 13 (2024): Keyboard, trackpad
I’ve had issues with Dell’s XPS keyboards since the shift introduced with the Plus models. They may be mechanically sound, but they present some issues for comfort and consistency. And where I made do on the larger models, the XPS 13 presents some unique challenges of its own.
Typing, I was able to reach a brisk 117 words-per-minute at 99 percent accuracy in one run through Monkeytype’s test, but this felt like an exception, as more often I was stuck closer to 100 words per minute with below 95 percent accuracy. Monkeytype’s default test also doesn’t entail punctuation or modifiers. Most of the discomfort with the keyboard comes from shifting back and forth between hand positions and resetting to the home row. Since the narrow gaps and flatter keys don’t provide as much tactility for finding home by touch, every shift away results in a slightly slower reset. My confidence on repeated presses of the same key was also low. And reaching away to the backspace or, even worse, the capacitive delete key, could introduce more trouble. The arrow keys also require me to shift my hand off of the laptop entirely, which further makes navigating a hassle.
The closeness of the keys and their flatter quality take some getting used to.
The closeness of the keys and their flatter quality take some getting used to.Mark Knapp / Foundry
The closeness of the keys and their flatter quality take some getting used to.Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
I know Dell can make a great keyboard — the Inspiron 14 Plus’s keyboard stands as one of the best I’ve used — but this design ethos stands in the way of what might be excellent mechanics underneath.
At least touch navigation is solid. The trackpad on the XPS 13 isn’t nearly as big as it is on the XPS 14 or 16, extending from the left edge of the space bar to the right edge of the right Alt key roughly. It takes up most of the vertical space available to it. Since it’s almost impossible to avoid resting my palms on it, it’s good to see impeccable palm rejection from the trackpad. And where the XPS 14 tended to ignore any swipes if I started them from outside of the trackpad’s elusive boundaries, the XPS 13 will start to register them just as soon as my finger crosses the threshold of the trackpad. The trackpad also has a satisfying haptic feedback to clicks across most of its surface.
Dell XPS 13: Display, audio
You’ll find options from plain to presumably gorgeous for the XPS 13. Here we’ve tested the base display configuration, which is a 1920×1200 IPS panel. At its small 13.4-inch screen size, it’s reasonably sharp. The 30- to 120Hz refresh rate also provides smooth visual feedback while operating the system. While the upgraded, sharper options include touchscreens, this configuration doesn’t. It does include a strong anti-glare finish that combines with a high peak brightness (measured at 547 nits) for easy visibility in many scenarios, though. The clarity and visibility are the main pros of this display, and it offers a reasonably colorful and accurate panel that covers 99 percent of the sRGB color space, though it leaves plenty of room for improvement in the DCI-P3 color space. While nearly all colors were accurate with less than a dE of 2.0 (less than dE 1.0 for most), one shade of blue was off by a dE of 5.5 and could cause some issues for color-centric work.
Like the rest of the XPS line so far this year, the XPS 13 has impressive little speakers. They’re made all the more impressive with how small the laptop itself is. Listening to speech, the audio comes through loud and clear even at lower volume levels. Bumping the volume high can see the speaker rattle and distort a little, reverberating in the system, but there’s no denying these are potent speakers. Keeping the volume within tame levels, they have a nice balance to them and supply surprising bass.
Dell XPS 13 (2024): Webcam, microphone, biometrics
Dell’s 1080p webcam is a good one here. In addition to the satisfyingly sharp detail, it manages to offer natural color and even holds up in less-than-ideal lighting conditions, such as dimmer rooms. It can suffer from washed out images if too much light is in front of the lens. The webcam also serves up Windows Hello facial recognition for quick logins. A fingerprint scanner at the corner of the keyboard adds a second biometric option.
The mic system captures my voice well for calls, and eliminates some light background noise, but it’s not as successful at neutralizing other voices, such as a podcast I had playing from my phone at the side of the laptop.
There’s no denying that the Dell XPS 13’s speakers are potent, with a nice balance to them and supply surprising bass.
The webcam on the Dell XPS 13 supports Windows Hello for quick logins via facial recognition.
The webcam on the Dell XPS 13 supports Windows Hello for quick logins via facial recognition.Mark Knapp / Foundry
The webcam on the Dell XPS 13 supports Windows Hello for quick logins via facial recognition.Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Dell XPS 13: Connectivity
Dell offers strong wireless connectivity with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. My connections to earbuds and headphones have been stable, and the system is always quick to reconnect to Wi-Fi when it wakes up from sleep.
Wired connectivity is more of an issue, as Dell has fully embraced the modern ultrabook sensibilities. That is to say, it has just two USB-C ports. They are fully featured Thunderbolt 4 ports, at least, so they offer some serious expandability through docks. Dell even includes a handy dongle with a USB-A and HDMI port on it. But for simultaneous charging and connections to several peripherals, a proper dock will be necessary.
Dell XPS 13: Performance
The Dell XPS 13 is a solid performer, but when it comes to thin-and-light laptops, size does matter. The extra size of some of its competitors — 14-inch models that really aren’t a monstrous leap — highlight that the tight confines of the Dell XPS 13 may be strangling its potential in much the same way they did for the Dell XPS 16 compared to its larger competitors.
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
We see the Dell XPS 13 still offering strong results in overall capabilities as marked by its PCMark 10 Overall score, which is an indicator of good utility at over 6,000 points. But the XPS 13 is trailing the pack here, lagging behind three other laptops fitted with the same CPU, and also trailing the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED with an Ryzen 7 8840HS processor. While memory and SSD speeds play into the PCMark results, we’ll see more clearly that the CPU in the XPS 13 ends up being what holds it back.
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Cinebench R20 puts stress particularly on the CPU, and here there’s similar daylight between the XPS 13 and its competition. The gaps between it and the other laptops almost perfectly mirror what we saw in PCMark. And since the XPS 13 packs the same CPU as most of these other laptops, it’s clearly just not squeezing out as much from the chip. Extended testing shows the score drop considerably lower, with a 10-minute run dropping it to 8,513, highlighting the inability to sustain high loads without thermals throttling the CPU.
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Handbrake shows this same shortcoming. This extended test really taxes the CPU to encode a large video file. If the XPS 13 were able to keep thermals down and the CPU maxed out, it would likely have performed more in line with its competitors here. But as it stands, it lags well behind, taking a half hour to complete the task. Only the Lenovo Slim 7 14 Gen 9 fell behind.
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Since the integrated Intel Arc Graphics are built right into the same chip as the CPU, they end up suffering from some of the same issues, though the disparities are reduced. Intel’s Arc Graphics prove modestly capable, but the Dell XPS 13 sees results that let competitors run ahead.
It’s all the more shameful for the XPS 13 that it’s more expensive than all four models it competes with here.
Dell XPS 13: Battery life
By all accounts, the XPS 13 is a wonder when it comes to battery life. It pulled off a staggering average over 14 hours in our test, which consists of a nonstop video playback with the display set to about 250 nits. However, this result is slightly soured by its competition. The same laptops that were able to push harder in performance prove just as capable or more of dialing back their performance to conserve battery life. While the Acer Swift Go 14 lags behind by just a few minutes, the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED and Dell Inspiron 14 Plus pull off an extra hour of runtime. Dell at least lands a solid win against the Lenovo Slim 7 14 Gen 9 here, which only mustered 11 hours (still respectable).
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
Mark Knapp / Foundry
In fairness to the Dell XPS 13, it has the smallest battery of the pack at just 54Wh, but that doesn’t lessen the fact that it will lag behind in real-world use. And the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED that so handily beat the XPS 13 here manages to do so with a 75Wh battery packed into a larger frame that only weighs 0.12 pounds more.
Should you buy the Dell XPS 13?
The Dell XPS 13 is a disappointment. It might be a beauty to behold, but it all crumbles underneath the utility. Dell’s new design makes for a keyboard that feels great on the individual key level but can be harder to navigate. And the premium design comes at a cost without also coming with boosted performance to justify it. In our tests, the XPS 13 generally lags behind its competitors by a notable margin, and they’re all significantly cheaper. And that’s with the base configuration in mind, which offers a simple IPS panel and compares poorly to the OLEDs a couple of its competitors are offering. It’s just too hard to justify springing for the XPS 13 when it’s beat on so many counts.
Laptops
© 2024 PC World 10:45pm  
|
|
|
|
|
Do you really need a VPN as part of your antivirus software?
Modern antivirus programs aren’t just antivirus tools. They’re often big security suites, bundling additional security features along with malware protection. Many of the best antivirus suites we recommend include a built-in virtual private network (VPN) service.
You don’t need a built-in VPN in your security suite of choice — especially if you already have a VPN you prefer — but it can be very convenient.
Do you need a VPN at all?
Clearly, you can use the internet without a VPN. It’s not a mandatory online tool.
That said, VPNs have a lot of advantages. They can provide extra protection when you use public Wi-Fi hotspots — public Wi-Fi isn’t as dangerous as it used to be, but there are still some risks. They create a secure tunnel that shields your online activity from your internet service provider — although you’re trusting your VPN provider of choice with that data instead. They let you access geographically restricted websites, which can make them extra useful for streaming services. People who use BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer file sharing tools often depend on VPNs to shield their file-sharing activity.
And let’s be honest: VPNs are also becoming more common now that an increasing number of U.S. states are cracking down on adult websites, too.
What’s the advantage of a VPN built into antivirus software?
The advantage of a VPN built into antivirus software is convenience. You’re getting a convenient tool built into the security suite you already use. You don’t have to install an extra program and juggle an extra system tray icon on your PC.
You don’t have to pay for an extra subscription, either. Rather than subscribing to a VPN for an extra yearly fee, you’ll get a VPN bundled with the security suite you subscribe to. You won’t have to deal with multiple yearly subscriptions. (A built-in VPN is a feature often found in premium antivirus programs, not free antivirus tools.)
A security suite’s built-in VPN tool may include features that block known malicious websites and other dangerous online junk while you’re connected to the VPN. However, most dedicated VPN services offer similar dangerous-site-blocking options.
the best antivirus includes vpn and more
Norton 360 Deluxe
Read our review
If you have already hunted down the best VPN for your needs and you have strong feelings about it, a VPN built into your antivirus program probably isn’t the right option for you. You can use whatever VPN you like with whatever antivirus tool you like.
On the other hand, a bundled VPN tool in an antivirus program is perfect if you don’t have strong feelings about a VPN and you just want something convenient. For example, Norton 360 Deluxe has a built-in VPN that’s configured to automatically start whenever you connect to public Wi-Fi. It’s the perfect set-it-and-forget-it extra security feature for people who don’t want to juggle a lot of programs. Of course, you can also open Norton and connect to the VPN whenever you want — you still have that control.
What’s the downside of a VPN built into antivirus software?
VPN tools built into antivirus programs are often less feature packed. Dedicated VPNs may offer more knobs and switches. They may provide a larger number of VPN servers you can connect to in a wider variety of geographical location. Those servers may be faster, and they may deliver a better streaming experience. A dedicated VPN service may not care if you use BitTorrent or other peer-to-peer file-sharing tools to download and upload files, but the VPN built into an antivirus may not approve of that.
Chris Hoffman/IDG
Chris Hoffman/IDG
Chris Hoffman/IDG
A dedicated VPN may also offer extra anonymity when it comes to payments, too — for example, Mullvad offers an anonymized payment system where you can actually mail the company cold hard cash rather than having your name and credit card number associated with your account.
Additionally, dedicated VPNs may be more up-front about a no-logging policy and may bring in third-party auditors to provide extra assurances of privacy, while built-in VPNs in antivirus suites may not.
But, for the average person who just wants some extra protection while connecting to public Wi-Fi networks without an extra subscription, program, and account to juggle, an antivirus suite’s built-in VPN may be perfect.
A convenient feature, but not an essential
You don’t need a VPN as part of your antivirus software. But it can be nice to have.
If you already have a VPN you love and have strong feelings about, you can keep using it with whatever antivirus program you like.
On the other hand, if you want convenient access to a VPN without any extra subscriptions, applications, and accounts to juggle, a VPN built into an antivirus tool might be perfect.
It’s all about convenience. You don’t have to pay for any of this if you don’t want to — you can assemble your own online security suite out of free tools. You can combine a capable free antivirus and a capable free VPN — but bear in mind that you need to ensure you choose a trustworthy free VPN, as there are a lot of questionable free VPNs out there. And bear in mind that a free VPN usually won’t offer the fastest speeds — and it may have limits, like only letting you transfer a certain amount of data each month before you need to pay up.
Be sure to check out PCWorld’s guides to the best antivirus software and the best VPN services to find the right options for you.
Antivirus, VPN
© 2024 PC World 10:45pm 
|
|
|
