Dell XPS 13 9360 QHD+ i7-7500U Notebook Review

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Keyboard and Touchpad

Our previous comments on the keyboard (26.5 x 10.2 cm) and touchpad (10.5 x 6 cm) of the XPS 13 9350 still apply here. The backlit keys have 1.3 mm of travel similar to the Spectre x360 13 with satisfactory feedback and soft clatter. The smaller keys tend to have comparatively weaker feedback including the Arrow and Function keys. There are no dedicated auxiliary keys and the keyboard size is actually smaller than on the Spectre x360 13 for a more cramped experience.

The slightly rubberized clickpad works flawlessly for simple cursor control with no jitters. Its integrated mouse clicks are very shallow in travel and the feedback could have benefited from a more solid feel. Beyond this, the touchpad is still comfortable to use should an external mouse be unavailable. Using the touchscreen here is also more practical than on other touchscreen-enabled notebooks since the display teeters less significantly in response.

Color coverage is approximately 89 percent and 58 percent of the AdobeRGB and sRGB standards, respectively, to be more or less similar to most of its recent flagship competitors. Cheaper TN panels that aren't capable of deeper colors have a much narrower gamut at about 60 percent of sRGB, but such high color accuracy is largely insignificant for browsing and word processing.

Grayscale and colors are both generally accurate out of the box. A quick calibration improves grayscale, but RGB balance could have been better and may require more manual calibration to refine. Color accuracy will never be perfect at higher saturation levels since the panel does not cover the complete sRGB spectrum.

Outdoor visibility is limited due to the glossy screen. The backlight is just barely sufficient for comfortable use when under shade, but anything brighter like overcast or direct sunlight will wash out onscreen content. The 140-degree hinges and wide IPS viewing angles come in handy to reduce glare when outdoors, but apparent brightness still drops if viewing too far off from the center.

The i7-7500U offers marginally faster CPU performance than the Skylake i7-6500U at just a few percentage points according to CineBench benchmarks. The same Kaby Lake CPU in our MSI CX72 reference is faster still due to its superior Turbo Boost performance when under high loads compared to the XPS 13 9360. Nonetheless, users can expect a 10 to 15 percent performance boost from the XPS 13 i7-7500U SKU over the i5-7200U SKU.

See our dedicated CPU page on the Core i7-7500U for more benchmark comparisons and our review on the new Kaby Lake series for more technical details.

PCMark benchmarks rank our configuration lower than many competing systems with older processors including the Spectre 13 and the Zenbook UX360UA. it does, however, outscore the XPS 13 i5-7200U SKU by three percentage points.

Subjectively, system performance is very fast as expected from a SSD-based system. We experienced no software or hardware issues during our time with i7-7500U SKU aside from the inconvenient dynamic brightness control.

3DMark benchmarks show the XPS 13 i7-7500U SKU to be just a couple percentage points faster than the i7-7200U SKU and about 20 percent faster than the outgoing HD Graphics 520. It's worth noting that our similarly configured reference MSI CX72 performs slightly faster than our Dell system when gaming, so users may not be getting the full power of this particular Kaby Lake CPU from the XPS 13. Nonetheless, entry-level Nvidia Maxwell GPUs or previous generation Iris Pro Graphics can still handily outperform the HD Graphics 620.

See our dedicated GPU page on the HD Graphics 620 for more technical information and benchmark comparisons.

We stress the notebook with processor-intensive benchmarks to test for potential throttling or stability issues. Running Prime95 will cause the CPU to run at its maximum multi-core Turbo Boost speed of 3.5 GHz until core temperature reaches an alarming 99 C in a matter of seconds. Afterwards, the CPU throttles down to a steady 3.0 GHz (or 300 MHz above its base clock rate) to maintain a core temperature of 88 C. Running both Prime95 and FurMark simultaneously will throttle the CPU dramatically to just 1.5 GHz in order to maintain a safer core temperature of 80 C.

Unigine Valley is a more accurate representation of gaming loads than Prime95 and FurMark. The GPU runs steady at its maximum rated clock rate of 1050 MHz while the CPU will run anywhere between 600 MHz and its 3.5 GHz maximum depending on the current load. Core temperatures are slightly lower at 76 C, but still warmer than the Spectre x360 13 with the same i7-7500U CPU configuration.

Running on battery power will not limit CPU or GPU performance. A 3DMark 11 run on batteries returns Physics and Graphics scores of 4512 and 1622 points, respectively, compared to 4511 and 1610 points when on mains.

The XPS 13 is very compact with relatively high core temperatures and low fan noise, so surface temperatures are generally warmer than much of the competition even when idling on desktop. The left half of the keyboard and palm rests will be warmer than the right with another hot spot near the exhaust grilles. Fortunately, the system never becomes uncomfortable to use during day-to-day loads and is only slightly warmer than the less powerful Core i5-7200U SKU.

The stereo 1 W speakers are unimpressive and relatively unbalanced with poor reproduction of higher tones as shown by our microphone measurements below. This is expected from a subnotebook this size, so earphones or external speakers are recommended for longer sessions. Nonetheless, maximum volume produces no static or distracting reverberations of the chassis.