Best Overall / Ultraportable Laptop Dell XPS 13 - 2019 (9380)
With ever increasing demand for light, portable and powerful laptops, the ultraportable market is very competitive, but it's also packed with excellent options. Coming out on top as the laptop we recommend the most to Windows users is Dell’s ever-popular XPS 13. Dell has made further refinements in the 2019 model of the XPS 13 offering faster 8th-generation Whiskey Lake CPUs, given a boost to battery life, and moved the webcam from the bottom of the display to the traditional top central position within the narrow screen bezel.
All other features that made the Dell XPS 13 such a compelling device are still here incuding the speedy NVMe storage, one of the best keyboards you’ll find on a laptop and the slim and light (2.7 pounds) body. The InfinityEdge design keeps the thin bezels and the display is crisp and bright in both the full HD and 4K touchscreen options -- the latter offers HDR and 400 nits brightness -- you also get 100 percent sRGB color coverage and a 1500:1 contrast ratio.
Connectivity-wise, there are two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, one USB-C 3.1 port, a microSD card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. A minor negative with this hardware update is that with the new webcam placement, Windows Hello support has been removed, though Microsoft’s security system still works via the optional fingerprint reader.
The highly configurable machine excels when it comes to everyday use, business tasks, content consumption, and productivity. It starts at $899 and goes up to $1,499 (more with extra storage) for the 4K touch model.