Dell XPS 12 review: a tablet and laptop in one?

Dell XPS 12 review: a tablet and laptop in one?

A Dell video promoting the XPS 12.

The Dell XPS 12 convertible ultrabook is the PC manufacturer's latest attempt to marry laptop and tablet technology into a sleek, sophisticated all-round business machine.

With prices starting at £999, it'll have to be good to convince business owners and executives to ditch their existing iPads and laptops.

We spent a few days with the top of the range model, which clocks in at just under £1,300. Here's how it fared.

Dell XPS 12: good first impressions

This Dell Ultrabook is a sleek, solid machine. It comes elegantly packaged in a classy box (well, it's as classy as a cardboard box can be), and the laptop itself is clearly well made.

The external finish feels good and the screen's hinge is substantial. There are none of the tacky lights, badges or finishes you often see on laptops. Quite simply, it looks and feels like a premium laptop.

Weighing in a 1.54kg, it's light enough to pop in your bag and carry around all day. It also feels more than up to withstanding the odd knock, which is inevitable for any mobile computer.

It's all about the screen

The XPS 12 has a superb 12.5" touch screen. It's bright, clear and has a full high definition resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. This means text and images are very sharp - it must be one of the best screens at this size on the market. (Learn about screen resolution.)

The only downside of such a high resolution is that text appears quite small in standard mode. You can fix this by cranking up the text size in Windows, but non-technical owners may be unaware this is possible. (Instructions are here.)

The screen has another trick up its sleeve too. It rotates through 180 degrees to transform from a laptop form factor to a tablet.

Basically, you rotate the screen then close the laptop, leaving the screen facing upwards and covering the keyboard. You can see it in action in the Dell promotional video at the top of this review.

The touch screen features are more useful than we'd expected when using the XPS 12 in 'laptop' mode. It's certainly true that the Windows 8 interface makes more sense when you experience it on a machine that has touch capabilities.

In tablet mode, you use the touch screen exclusively. It works pretty well, except when you have to venture into the Windows 8 desktop, which is best navigated via the mouse.

Capable and powerful

As you'd expect from the technical specifications, this is a very capable machine. The Intel i7 processor flies through tasks, and we were particularly impressed at the speed with which the XPS 12 starts up.

That's down to the 256GB solid state drive, which means Windows and other programs load impressively quickly. You can comfortably use this as your only machine - whether in the office or out and about.

In fact, when you're out and about you'll appreciate the responsive keyboard and track pad, although we did find it easy to nudge the volume switch on the side of the case when you're typing at speed.

Battery life is reasonable too, if not stunning (expect to get around five hours of work from it). Die-hard mobile workers may be disappointed that the battery is built-in, so you can't swap it when it runs flat.

Is the design worth the price?

There's no doubt at all that as a thin, light laptop, the XPS 12 ranks highly. The fast load times and impressive screen stand out. We'd happily use it as our main computer.

But we're sceptical about the tablet features. Although the touch screen is useful, it's hardly essential. And while the rotating display is cleverly designed and solidly engineered, in tablet form the XPS 12 is just a bit too heavy.

It's twice the weight of an iPad and significantly chunkier, which means it's not practical to hold the XPS 12 for long periods (like when you're reading during your commute or taking signups at an exhibition).

If you want a top-end laptop for occasional use as a tablet, you won't do much better. But if you want a laptop and a tablet, we'd say buy a laptop and a tablet instead.

You can learn more about the Dell XPS 12 and buy online from the Dell website.

• Now is when the tablet comes of age for business
• Dell XPS 10 tablet review
• Windows 8 to spark tablet war?