Dell XPS 13 2018 review: solid performance, ships with Windows Hello IR camera and a fingerprint sensor, but the webcam is still awkwardly placed below display
The XPS 13 laptop isn't stale anymore, but it still forces a few compromises. — The XPS 13 laptop needed an overhaul and Dell needed to make a statement.
Context & Ripple Effects
The 2015 XPS 13 debut made its name on an almost bezel-free display at a $799 entry price, and that design choice is exactly what this 2018 refresh inherits: with no room above the screen, the webcam lives below the display. The 2018 model's real news is biometrics — a Windows Hello IR camera plus a fingerprint sensor — layered onto hardware reviewers already rated for solid performance.
The webcam compromise is the thread to watch. Within a year, Dell's own 2019 XPS 13 moved the camera above the screen while shrinking bezels further, and the XPS 13 2-in-1 followed the same fix — confirming the 2018 placement was an engineering stopgap, not a permanent trade-off.
First-order effects
- Buyers of the 2018 XPS 13 get passwordless Windows Hello sign-in via IR face recognition and fingerprint sensor, but take video calls from a camera angled up their nostrils — a daily-visible cost of the thin-bezel design.
Second-order effects
- Review consensus on the webcam forces Dell's hand: the 2019 XPS 13 and the updated 2-in-1 both relocate the camera above the display, effectively conceding the 2018 placement was untenable once rivals could match the bezels without it.
Third-order effects
- The episode shows how the bezel-shrinking race pushed laptop makers into sensor-placement workarounds, with camera module engineering catching up a generation later — a reminder that industrial-design fashions can outrun component physics by a full product cycle.
The trend: Ultrabooks are racing toward bezel-less displays faster than webcam modules can shrink, forcing camera-placement compromises that take a product generation to undo.