Devindra Hardawar/AOL

And of course, there's a gorgeous 13.3-inch screen available in 1080p or 4K at the high end. You can choose between standard and touchscreen options, and there's HDR support, finally. That'll let you see video that's both brighter and darker than before. The "InfinityEdge" bezels are 23 percent thinner than before, according to Dell, though it's not something I noticed at first. (Probably because they were already pretty slim to begin with.)

Another minor change: Dell moved the 720p webcam to the center instead of being off to the side. It's still stuck at the bottom of the screen -- which is a casualty of that InfinityEdge display -- but at least it's easier to align your face properly. There are also four far-field microphones in the XPS 13, which will make it easier for you to shout commands at Cortana, or clearly chat with friends over Skype.

Performance and battery life

Some content has been removed for formatting reasons, please view the original article for the best reading experience.

There aren't really any surprises with the XPS 13: It's simply a solid and refined ultraportable. It's plenty fast, thanks to Intel's eighth-generation processors. It didn't have any trouble keeping up with my daily workflow, which involves juggling dozens of browser tabs, Slack, Spotify, Evernote and a variety of other apps. Still, I was testing a model with an i7 CPU capable of reaching 4GHz with 8GB of RAM -- the entry-level XPS 13s only have 4GB of memory and slower i5 chips.

I didn't have a chance to hook up an external GPU to the XPS 13, but honestly, I never had much of a need to. I've never expected ultraportables like this to be capable gaming rigs. So far, Dell has only included integrated graphics in its 13-inch premium laptops. And while that's gotten more capable over the years, it's still never going to let you play high-end games. The larger XPS 15 offers dedicated graphics, but you'll have to give up a bit of portability if you go that route. Of course, lugging around an external GPU box kinda cuts into the portability of the machine as well. But it still offers you a way to game seriously when you're at home or at a LAN party.