The new normal has displaced almost everything we do into the safety of our homes, including work and school. And with the new school season just around the corner, it’s important that we prepare the best possible education station for our kids, starting with quality laptops. Luckily, back-to-school sales are already in full swing so you don’t have to spend a fortune on computers. Right now, the Dell Inspiron 14 3000, Dell XPS 13, and Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 laptops are all on sale at Dell’s official website starting from just $320.
Dell Inspiron 14 3000 – $320, was $330
Need an affordable entry-level laptop that you’ll use primarily for web browsing and everyday computing tasks? The Dell Inspiron 14 3000 is a decent option. This 14-inch laptop offers 9 hours of battery life and adequately fast performance. The downsides are a dim display and far-from-premium build quality, but for just $320 instead of $330 at Dell’s official website, it’s hard to complain.
The Inspiron 14 3000 all-plastic chassis feels quite sturdy in-hand even though it’s a tad cheap-looking. It is relatively svelte and light, measuring 13.6 x 9.6 x 0.8 inches and weighing 3.5 pounds, making it suitable for students and professionals who are always on the go. Its 14-inch HD, 1,366 x 768 Truelife LED-backlit panel isn’t the sharpest screen out there, nor is it the brightest at just 135 nits max. Best avoid using this device outdoors. Its keyboard is nicely spill-resistant, and its 4.1 x 2.5-inch touchpad is quite large and is very responsive. Underneath the hood, this machine is powered by an Intel Gold 5405U processor, 2GB of RAM, and an Intel HD Graphics 400 GPU. This system is pretty standard for the price point and provides serviceably speedy performance, although we did notice that it takes a few extra seconds to load some programs.
For a solid budget laptop that won’t break the bank, opt for the Dell Inspiron 14 3000 for just $320.
Dell XPS 13 – $700, was $909
The Dell XPS 13 is probably Dell’s most popular laptop offering and our choice for the best laptop of 2020. This is one attractive Ultrabook with its anodized aluminum chassis that has a faint pearlescent sheen to it. Besides its pristine looks, it’s also super portable at a mere 2.7 pounds, making it the perfect partner of mobile professionals.
This laptop’s 13.3-inch Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 touch display (the 4K version will set you back another $300, and is a power hog) is extremely responsive and bursts with sumptuous colors, deep contrasts, and an incredible amount of detail. It also gets astonishingly bright, averaging 375 nits. Another fine feature of the XPS 13 is its keyboard. Taking inspiration from the XPS 13 2-in-1 in its appearance, the keycaps are larger, with less space between each. They now stretch up to the sides of the keyboard deck. The keyboard is very comfortable to type on with a firm and tactile bottoming action. Armed with a 10th-gen Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM, this laptop provides incredibly smooth and lightning-fast performance without any hint of lag. And with its 256 GB PCIe SSD, transferring files is far from sluggish. In terms of battery life, as we’ve mentioned, we recommend you skip the 4K touchscreen model if you want the most endurance. In our continuous web surfing test, this unit was able to last over 12 hours.
The Dell XPS 13 is thin, fast, and long-lasting, making it our favorite ultraportable thus far. Get it for $700 – a huge $209 less than its normal retail price – on Dell’s official website.
Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 – $900, was $1,059
Need a device that lets you easily switch between a tablet and a good old regular laptop? The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 would be perfect for you. This convertible machine has a lot going for it besides providing a nice media view with the keyboard flipped around. It boasts a more refined design, increased screen space, and remarkable performance.
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 has now been stretched to a 16:10 aspect ratio just like the latest MacBooks, and we think it’s near perfect. With more vertical space than your average 16:9 laptops, you get a fuller view of your work, provided you don’t mind the slight bit of letter-boxing when watching videos. The FHD+ (1,920 x 1,200) touchscreen is not only super sharp but also insanely bright, maxing out at over 500 nits. Paired with highly accurate color reproduction, this 2-in-1 is something creatives like photographers and video editors should seriously consider. Furthermore, its state-of-the-art MagLev keyboard offers an edge-to-edge typing experience and is 24% thinner than a standard keyboard. Finally, this laptop continues the XPS tradition of being one of the fastest machines in the market thanks to a 10th-generation Intel Core i3 processor. It proved remarkable in handling heavy loads like video encoding and editing, and its Intel UHD chipset provides a significant improvement in graphics.
Stylish and powerful, the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 takes everything great about the original XPS 13 and bumps it up a notch. Get it today for $900 instead of $1,059 at Dell’s official website.
For more options visit our Deals hub for more Dell XPS deals and laptop deals.
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