Earlier this year, our in-depth review of the XPS 13-9343 left us thoroughly impressed with very little to criticize. Upon its release, it was proclaimed to be the smallest 13-inch laptop on the planet, thanks to its near-eradication of the screen bezel (which measures just 5.2 mm on top and both sides). Plus, with a weight of just 1.276 g (for the non-touch version), it was as light as it was compact.

We did have a few complaints: most notably, a limited port selection, throttling under maximum load, and an occasionally noisy fan. Some readers also were quick to point out the absence of control over the automatic brightness adjustment—something which didn’t bother us much during our time with the unit, but which should still be at the discretion of the user. Overall, though, this machine was a stunning feat of engineering, and one which we claimed “might just be the most complete ultraportable package” we’d seen to date. And we weren’t the only ones; several months later, the community at large seems to share our sentiments.

So, then, it is hardly surprising that Dell has defaulted to its conservative design principles and taken a purely evolutionary approach to its late-2015 XPS 13 revision. The XPS 13-9350 features an identical design, with the only visible difference being an upgraded port selection to include Thunderbolt 3 (with USB 3.1 Gen 2 support) in lieu of the mini-DisplayPort. But what’s inside is what’s changed the most: a brand-new Intel Skylake chipset, featuring an Intel Core i5-6200U CPU paired with the promising HD Graphics 520 and 8 GB of DDR3L RAM. The newer chipset promises improved power efficiency and substantially better graphical performance. On top of that, our review unit also features a 256 GB NVMe PCIe SSD, which should perform considerably faster than the previous model. Pricing hasn’t changed much: our unit retails for $1,149 when purchased from Dell’s website.

Is this enough to keep the XPS perched above the fray of myriad ultraportable competitors? We’ll put the device through our unmatched and ever-evolving array of scientific tests to come away with the answer.