Dell and Apple have come up with the most cutting-edge laptops, you’ll see in a while. MacBook Air M2 and Dell XPS 13 Plus are two of the best 13-inch laptops you can buy now. Both have undergone significant design updates in their latest iteration. Now, they are lighter, thinner, and faster than ever. Since these two are one of the best laptops in the market right now, people are going to get really confused about which one to get.
MacBook Air M2 vs Dell XPS 13 Plus
If you can’t decide between these two devices, stick around, because we will compare them side-by-side to see why you might prefer one over the other.
Design and Display
In terms of design, both look sleek, elegant, and visually appealing to the eyes. MacBook Air M2 is available in four colors, and the Dell XPS comes in two options. The build quality on these laptops is rock solid, and you can’t go wrong with either.
Moving onto the display, both feature a 13-inch Full HD display that supports 500 nits of brightness. In addition, the panels look sharp and have excellent color accuracy with great viewing angles. One thing to note that, the Dell XPS 13’s display looks more immersive as there is no notch, and the bezel around the display is also thin. Plus, you can equip it with a 4K option.
Specs & Performance
As we all know, these two laptops come equipped with brand-new processors for 2022. For starters, you can configure the XPS laptop with the new 12th Gen Intel P series CPU, Iris Xe Graphics, 32GB of Memory, and 2TB of NVMe SSD. In comparison, the 2022 Air boasts the new Apple M2 processor. You can customize it with 8 core CPU cores, up to 10 core GPU, 24GB of Unified Memory, and 2 TB of SSD.
Now, let’s check out some of the performance benchmarks of these two devices. As you can see from here, in Geekbench 5 Single-Core test, M2 Air performs 22% better than XPS 13 Plus. Moreover, in Multi-Core, M2 achieves a 21% better result. On top of that, in Cinebench, MacBook Air M2 outperforms XPS 13 Plus by 38% in Single-Core and 2% in Multi-Core.
If we just look at the raw GPU power, we can see that the trend continues, and M2 Air performs 113% better. All these tests were done using the base variant of these two laptops. However, we found that even with the 14-core i7 12th Gen Processor, XPS still falls behind in most cases. The only exception is in the Multi-Core CPU performance.
Features
When it comes to features, traditionally, Apple always removes stuff from their computer. But this time, it’s an exception. They brought back the MagSafe charger, which included a better 1080p FaceTime camera and a Four-speaker system, to the new Air. Besides, the keyboard is now more comfortable, and the haptic touchpad is larger and more precise.
XPS 13 Plus, on the other hand, has gone the Apple way. Open up the lid, and you’ll first notice that there’s no visual indicator of where the trackpad is. They have also got rid of the function key and gone with the capacitive buttons, which look a lot like the Touch Bar from Apple’s MacBook.
Furthermore, the keyboard layout is also changed. All these new design decisions give this device a unique aesthetic and an ultra-clean look. Aside from that, XPS 13 plus features a 720 IR camera, and there are a total of four speakers on this device.
Ports
Ports selection is somewhat limited on both these laptops. They have two thunderbolt ports, but only Apple has included a headphone jack. Here’s a caveat though! Thunderbolt ports on the M2 MacBook Air only support one display and no external GPUs. So if you have a dock, the XPS 13 Plus will likely be more versatile.
Final Thoughts
Considering everything, one thing is clear the new MacBook Air M2 and Dell XPS 13 Plus are great laptops money can buy. Both look awesome and perform exceptionally well. So, which one you should pick is ultimately up to your specific needs. Both have strengths and excel at things where the other might not. But to be fair, the new M2 Air is a bit better in terms of covering all the bases.
