Dell XPS 13 (late 2015) review: improved battery life and trackpad, along with a great display and build quality make it the best Windows laptop out there
Tom Warren / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
This review lands nearly a year after Dell's January 2015 refresh of the XPS 13 added the edge-to-edge display and touchscreen option, when CNET's early verdict praised the value at $799 but flagged merely decent seven-hour battery life. The late-2015 model closes those gaps: The Verge credits improved battery life and trackpad as what finally push the machine past 'good value' into best-Windows-laptop territory.
The timing also follows October's XPS 15 review, which already showed Dell shipping MacBook-class trackpads on its larger flagship — albeit with a battery-killing optional 4K panel. The 13-inch model getting the same verdict without that trade-off makes the line a two-size challenge to Apple rather than a single halo product.
First-order effects
- Dell enters the holiday buying season with a critic-endorsed answer to the MacBook across both its 13- and 15-inch lines, strengthening its hand against Windows rivals still judged by keyboard-and-trackpad comparisons to Apple.
Second-order effects
- Other Windows OEMs face pressure to match the thin-bezel-plus-battery-life combination rather than compete on spec sheets alone, since reviewers are now scoring laptops on exactly the traits the XPS 13 leads with.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the XPS 13 becomes an annually re-judged benchmark for the whole Windows category — a trajectory the later reviews confirm, from the 2019 model's top-of-screen webcam fix through the well-reviewed but webcam-compromised 2020 version.
The trend: Windows laptop makers are converging on yearly, reviewer-driven refinement cycles aimed at matching MacBook build quality, with Dell's XPS line setting the pace.