Inspiron 13 (7000) or XPS 13

Hi All,

My daughter is graduating in May and I want to give her a nice laptop as a present for her hard work (3.9 UW GPA) .

Which one is best bang for a buck? Where can I get a coupon better than "50OFF699" ?

TIA..
Inspiron 13 7000 Series Was $778.99 Total with Coupon $678.99
Inspiron 13 7000 Series PCs $678.99 "Additional $50 on $699.99 and above = 50OFF699"
7th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-7200U Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz)
Windows 10 Home 64-bit English , Memory= 8GB Single Channel DDR4 2400MHz (8GBx1)
Hard Drive=256GB Solid State Drive
Video Card IntelR HD graphics 620 with shared graphics memory
LCD= 13.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Truelife LED-Backlit Touch Display with Wide Viewing Angle (IPS)
Silver Wireless
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165 + Bluetooth 4.2
Primary Battery42WHr, 3-Cell Battery (Integrated)
Keyboard Backlit Keyboard
Power Supply 45 Watt AC Adaptor
Inspiron 73781705 5104/US/CA/BTO
1 Year Accidental Damage Service
McAfee LiveSafe 12 Month Subscription

 

Get the Dell XPS 13. Hands down, no question.

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Both the Dell Inspiron 13 and Dell XPS 13 use identical internal components; so performance will be identical. That makes the Dell Inspiron 13 cheaper for the same performance. The Dell XPS 13 is (slightly) more expensive; but you're paying for superior portability, materials, and design.

The Dell Inspiron 13 has the size & foot print of a typical 13.3" laptop. The Dell XPS 13 has the size & footprint of a typical 12.1" laptop (but still rocks a 13.3" screen), because of its thin display bezels. The Dell XPS 13 is also a full pound lighter (3.7lb vs 2.7lb).

Dell Inspiron 13 uses brushed aluminum as paneling, and plastic. Dell XPS 13 uses brushed aluminum as paneling and structure, and carbon fiber in the areas where the Inspiron 13 uses plastic.

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Your daughter will be stuck using whatever laptop you buy for the next 2-4 years. And the Dell Inspiron 13 forces you to make sacrifices in a few areas (mostly portability and battery life) that you don't really want your daughter to be stuck with during that time. If you just want a solid laptop that does a good job at being a general purpose laptop (highly portable, long battery life, good-enough performance), then you won't find any better than the Dell XPS 13.

 

By the way, if you get the Dell XPS 13, get the configuration that is $999 (8GB RAM). RAM is not upgradeable on the Dell XPS 13, so you cannot buy the cheaper 4GB model and upgrade in the future.

I would also recommend at least a 256GB SSD. You can choose the $999 configuration as the base model, and upgrade from 128GB --> 256GB for about $100. You can technically do it yourself by buying a 256GB SSD aftermarket, re-installing Windows, and selling the 128GB SSD on eBay. But you're not going to actually be saving any money (if at all). Just buy the 256GB configuration from the factory, so you don't have to deal with any of that.

 

XPS 13 no question.

 

xps 13 2 in 1 with as much upgrading as you can afford.