Dell XPS 12 (2016) review: A classic laptop, ruined

The original XPS 12 stood apart in a crowd of carbon-copy Ultrabooks. Back in 2012, it fused cutting-edge hardware with a novel design: the screen “flipped” 180 degrees within the frame of the lid. Fast-forward to 2016, and Dell has given the XPS 12 a radical, ground-up redesign. Taking inspiration from Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4, it’s now tablet first, laptop second.

Dell XPS 12: Design

In fact, with the two generations side by side, new and old, few would guess they were made by the same manufacturer, let alone share the same name. The XPS 12 of 2016 is a pleasingly dinky, matte-black tablet paired with a matching keyboard dock, both covered in a stylish soft-touch metal.

The XPS 12 is remarkably slim and compact for a 12.5in tablet. The bezels beneath the protective layer of Gorilla Glass are obvious, but Dell has somehow made it a touch smaller than the Surface Pro 4 and pipped it for weight – at 716g, it’s 70 grams lighter. Clip on the rather weighty “Premier Keyboard”, however, and the pairing tip the scales at a more portly 1.26kg.

If that sounds too much, then note Dell offers a slimline alternative, but there’s much to like about the Premier Keyboard. For starters, it’s far more solid and sturdy-feeling than the Surface Pro 4’s Type Cover. There’s a little flex if you go hunting for it, but I can’t quibble with the build quality, and the keyboard and touchpad are superb as I’ll discuss a little later. It’s only a shame there isn’t a battery in there to help justify the 525g weight.

The final part of the package is the folio cover. This clips magnetically to the rear of the tablet and base of the keyboard. Its fabric-like outer is designed to help fend off knocks and scrapes, as well as preventing the XPS 12 from sliding around on your lap. There’s also a loop of fabric on the edge where you can stow the Active Pen – which, sadly, is a £57 optional extra. The downside is that the folio cover adds another 250g to the all-in weight. Pop the whole kaboodle in a bag, and you’ll be carrying around 1.51kg of hardware. That’s not even including the USB Type-C charger.

Dell XPS 12: Display & tablet

The cheapest XPS 12 makes do with a Full HD display, but the pricier two models push the pixel count sky-high with a glorious 4K display using IGZO technology. Crammed into a 12.5in diagonal, the pixel density soars to 352ppi – dramatically higher than its Microsoft rival. The sharpness is astonishing, but with a maximum brightness of 418cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 1,283:1, the quality is pretty good too.

The only downside is that colour reproduction tends towards exaggeration. As the panel is capable of producing colours that lie beyond the sRGB gamut, reds, greens and purples take on an unnatural intensity, and whites often look slightly yellow. Dell would be wise to follow Microsoft’s lead and calibrate the XPS 12’s panel more stringently before leaving the factory.

As a tablet, though, the XPS 12 is quite lovely. The weight is balanced just right, so it doesn’t feel unwieldy when you hold it one-handed, and the pinpoint-accurate touchscreen makes it feel exactly like a high-end tablet should. Dell didn’t send me the Active Pen for this review, but the Wacom digitiser promises 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, so going by all the other Wacom-powered devices I’ve tested, it should be pretty darn good.

Dell XPS 12: Keyboard, touchpad and design issues

In laptop mode, the tablet clips into the keyboard base with an audible click and leans backwards against a slight lip at the rear. This presents the first major issue with the XPS 12’s design: you can’t adjust the angle of the screen at all. And if you’re thinking you can just wedge something behind the tablet, think again: moving it even slightly forward breaks the connection to the keyboard, rendering it useless.

The second glaring fault is that if someone knocks the tablet from behind, the magnets give way, the tablet undocks completely, and then flops loosely onto the keyboard with a discomforting thwack. Unlike the Surface Pro 4, which holds its Type Cover firmly in place with two rows of magnets, you need to physically unlatch and carefully place the XPS 12’s tablet face down on the keyboard. Knock it loose in laptop mode and you risk it diving floorwards. Elegance isn’t the first word that springs to mind.

To be fair, the design isn’t completely unhinged. For instance, you can pick the XPS 12 up by the display and carry it from one room to another without worrying about the keyboard falling off – I spent all day doing just that and didn’t drop it once. Having said that, I probably wouldn’t be quite so brave outside the office.

What’s more, the keyboard and touchpad are fantastic. There’s oodles of travel to every keystroke, and the extra weight to the base gives it a firm, solid feel. The touchpad is superb, too, with the glass lending a silky feel to every prod and brush of the pad.

Dell XPS 12: Connectivity

Dell has fully embraced Thunderbolt across its XPS family, and the XPS 12 is no exception. The pair of USB Type-C ports on the tablet’s left-hand edge both work up to USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds. It’s worth mentioning that only one of the ports actually allows you to charge the tablet – the supplied mains charger connects to the lower of the two. You’ll also need to shell out extra for the optional USB-A and Ethernet adapters.

Scan around the rest of the XPS 12’s edges and you’ll find a 3.5mm headset jack and full-sized SD card reader hidden behind a flap. There’s also a reasonably crisp 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a decent 5-megapixel front-facing selfie camera, too. Add in a clear, loud set of front-facing speakers, and it’s fair to say that the Dell acquits itself well for AV.

One small niggle I encountered is that, should you leave the Dell PSU at home, not all USB Type-C mains chargers will charge the XPS 12. A MacBook USB Type-C charger flatly refused to provide any power at all and, as owners of the XPS 13 have noted, you’ll need to make sure that the charger in question is capable of delivering a high enough voltage and wattage for it to be recognised. Of the current crop, only the Chromebook Pixel’s PSU is up to the task.

Dell XPS 12: Performance and battery life

The XPS 12 is powered by an assortment of Intel’s Skylake generation Core M processors. The Core m3 and Core m5 models both come equipped with 4GB of RAM, with 128GB and 256GB of SATA-connected SSD storage respectively. The Core m7 version ups the ante with 8GB of RAM and a faster PCI Express 512GB SSD.

Dell sent the Core m5 model for review and, by and large, it doesn’t lack for performance. There is the odd pause here and there once you start piling on the Chrome tabs, which is likely due to the 4GB of RAM. Subjectively, it doesn’t feel markedly quicker than the Core m3 in HP’s Spectre x2, and the tendency for the back of the tablet to get warm suggests that cooling is the key limitation here.

This became painfully clear during the benchmarking process. While the Dell was only 1% slower than the HP Spectre x2 in the image-editing portion of Alphr’s benchmarks, and 6% off the pace in our video-encoding tests, it took the XPS 12 twice as long to complete the multitasking tests. Where rivals tackle the cooling conundrum with artfully placed ventilation holes around the chassis, Dell seems to rely on dissipating the heat through the XPS 12’s metal body.

None of this would deliver a crushing blow, but the battery life does – it’s deeply unimpressive. With a video looping constantly, Wi-Fi turned off, and screen brightness calibrated to 170cd/m2, the XPS 13 lasted 3hrs 13mins. By comparison, the HP Spectre x2 lasted 6hrs 7mins. Anecdotally, I was never able to extract more than five hours of normal use out of it, and most of the time, little more than four. Whichever way you cut it, the Dell is way off the pace.

Dell XPS 12: Verdict

As it happens, I still use the original XPS 12 on a daily basis as my go-to home laptop. It’s bigger than the new model, and naturally nowhere near as good a tablet, but the combination of full-fat Core i7 performance, all-day battery life, and a great display mean that it’s still a pleasure to use.

By comparison, the new XPS 12 is a shadow of its former self. There are glimmers of potential here – the 4K display, keyboard and build quality are all very good indeed – but the flawed design and mediocre battery life are unforgivable for a device in 2016. It all comes as a huge disappointment after the class-leading likes of the XPS 13 and XPS 15.

The killer blow for the XPS 12 is the sheer quality of the competition. If you have anywhere between £899 and £1,299 to spend, then there are many other devices more worthy of your cash. Given that you can pick up the Core m3-powered Surface Pro 4 with the Type Cover for £860, I fear the XPS 12 is dead in the water. Sorry, Dell, but this time it’s back to the drawing board.

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