Dell XPS Ultrabook 13″

A friend of mine bought this Dell XPS 13″ Ultrabook and asked me to help him set it up. OK. I thought to myself. What have we here? Did I not just see an Asus laptop fairly recently, looking exactly like an Apple MacBook Air? And now Dell is jumping on the copy bandwagon? What gives?

Don’t get me wrong. I like Dell. I have been using Dell computers for years. I had a Dell Vostro that lasted me four-and-a-half years before it conked out fairly recently. My current Dell laptop is an Inspiron 15. It chugs along well but sometimes, I wish that I had my Vostro. When I saw this, I kind of liked and disliked it almost immediately. One, it is very thin. I have always been an advocate of tough laptops and that is why till today, if money were no object,  would plonk down a king’s ransom for the Panasonic Toughbook. This Ultrabook just looks…fragile. Two, the price. For that price, I would get the afore-mentioned Panasonic toughbook because at least I know that it would be able to take a beating and come back for more. It is not to say that I am a complete klutz with laptops but I always believe in prevention being much better than cure. Specifications-wise, this is what this Dell Ultrabook has to offer:

• 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i5-2467M processor (1.60 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.30 GHz,TPM)
• Genuine Windows® 7 Professional SP1 64bit (English)
• 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 1333MHz Memory
• Intel® HD 3000 graphics
• High Definition Audio + Waves MaxxAudio® 4 (Soundcard and speakers)
• Up to 256GB Solid State hard drive
• 1.3MP webcam with dual array digital microphones
• Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 802.11 a/g/n with Intel® Smart Connect Technology + Bluetooth 3.0

All this is squeezed in a notebook that is pretty small in size. I think my wife would be better off with this notebook, given its small size. For me? Yep…you know what I would prefer!