The HP’s larger 65-watt power brick let it run and charge faster than the Dell’s 45-watt brick. It continued to charge harder until it also reached above 90 percent, where it tapered off to preserve battery longevity. With its smaller brick, the Dell ran at a maximum of 48 watts and then dropped off once Handbrake was done. Once the battery was filled beyond 90 percent, the charge rate gradually tapered off. ![]() In the graphic belong, you can see the HP’s power output in red and the Dell’s in purple.The HP used 65 watts until HandBrake completed and then dropped down to about 45 watts as it continued to charge quickly. To show the disparity between brick sizes, we recorded power consumed at the wall using a pair of watt meters. We also looked at the charge rates of both by discharging both to zero, then tasking each with an hour-long encode before letting the laptops continue charging, with the systems idling at the desktop. Dell lets you mitigate this by changing the charge priority, but on auto we found performance dipped when the battery capacity was under about 20 percent. However, performance will occasionally suffer as the laptop prioritizes either charging the dead battery or running the CPU hard. Dell did its homework, and the laptop did not use so much power that it discharged the battery. With brightness cranked and as decent load on the GPU or the CPU, we found it often consumed right up to the limits of the brick. The only problem for the Dell is that tiny 45-watt charger. Both laptops charged off OEM USB-PD chargers from Dell, HP, and Apple, as well as a third-party Delta USB-C charger. The HP lacks the LED, but its cable features a classy cloth braid, and it puts out 65 watts, or 45 percent more power output, than the Dell. While the LED doesn’t indicate the charge condition of the laptop like Apple’s older Magsafe bricks, the LED does confirm it’s plugged in properly, so you don’t wake up to a dead laptop. The Dell’s is smaller and lighter and puts out less power at just 45 watts, but it features a nifty LED at the end of the cable. Chargersīoth laptops come with very small, USB-PD spec power bricks. It does have a cool LED indicator top to let you know it’s actually plugged in. The Dell’s (right) is smaller and puts out only 45 watts. The HP’s (left) power brick is 65 watts and features braided cabling. Overall, once both laptops are in your shoulder bag, it’s a wash. The reason? Dell runs the XPS 13 2-in-1 off of a smaller 45-watt PSU, while the Spectre comes with a larger, heavier 65-watt PSU. Adding power bricks and pens for both, the gap basically vanishes, as both the Spectre and XPS 13 end up at about 3.4 pounds, with the Spectre only an ounce lighter. In weight, our postal scale put the Spectre x360 13t in front at 2.7 pounds without AC, with the XPS 13 2-in-1 slightly heavier at 2.9 pounds without AC. While it’s a little difficult to tell from the perspective in the picture above, the Spectre x360 13t is basically about a half-inch wider, while the XPS 13 2-in-1 is about a half-inch deeper. ![]() Size and weightīoth laptops are pretty darn close in size. That’s no surprise as the Dell has a 16:10 aspect ratio, while the HP’s screen is 16:9. The Spectre x360 13t is slightly wider, while the XPS 13 2-in-1 is slightly deeper. We tested both and found the card readers performed about the same, with read speeds in the 77MB range and write speeds in the 70MB range. The HP is so fast, it gets to the desktop using Windows Hello facial recognition before the Dell even hits the login screen prompt.īoth laptops include microSD slots, which let you add cheap 1TB memory cards for additional storage. In real time, the HP boots in about 8 seconds, while the Dell boots in about 13. Note: Our video was shot at a high frame rate, so it’ll appear these laptops are cold-booting slowly. You can see this captured on slow-motion film in the video attached to this story. ![]() We suspect the Optane hybrid SSD greatly contributes to just how crazy-fast the HP is at booting. There are times when Intel’s fancy new storage is a huge advantage, and times when it doesn’t help-you can read more on that here in our Optane H10 review. We should also mention that the Intel Optane hybrid drive option is available only on the HP.
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