Dell XPS13 Non-touch or Asus Zenbook UX305?

akatsulis

Estimable
Jul 17, 2015
4
0
4,510
1. What is your budget?
I want to stay below $1000, but I want to have this laptop last for a while so if it's worth it to pay a little more to have the most up-to-date technology that won't get outdated quickly, then I'll pay more.
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
13" ultraportables
3. What screen resolution do you want?
Full HD is good, I don't need the quad+
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
portable
5. How much battery life do you need?
8 or more hours would be nice
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
no
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
research on the internet with lots of tabs, playing music, streaming video, word documents, downloading media
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Not really sure. That is one of the biggest holdups from just getting the xps. I don't know if 128GB will be enough, but then bumping up to 256GB is another $100 where the zenbook already has 256GB. When looking at my C:/ drive it says 176GB free of 287GB so it looks like I currently am using 111GB if I'm looking at the right place.
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-9343-laptop/pd
http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-UX305FA-ASM1-13-3-Inch-Ultra-Slim-Aluminum/dp/B00SGS7ZH4/?tag=laptop-magazine-20
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
As long as I can
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Don't need one, already have an external one
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
No real preference
13. What country do you live in?
United States
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
My biggest concerns between the two are the price, size of the SSD, performance speed, and the wi-fi card. Before tax, with 3 years of accidental damage protection the xps comes out to $999 (128GB SSD/4GB RAM), $1099 (128/8), or $1199 (256/8). The zenbook comes out to $830 (256/8). That difference can be small if I don't need the extra space and RAM, but based on what is on my computer now I think it would be better to get more so the difference in cost is pretty large. I've read a few conflicting things about the speed between the two laptops, but I think the xps is faster since it has an i5 and not the core M. Finally, the zenbook comes with 802.11n wi-fi instead of the new ac like the xps. If I want to have the laptop for a while I figure it would be better to get a laptop with ac since it's the new thing, but I'm not sure how much that really matters.

I'm sort of leaning towards the zenbook because of the difference in price for what you get in SSD and RAM, but the xps is just so tempting it's hard to fight it.
 
Solution
The Dell XPS 13 comes with a Core i3 or Core i5 depending on which model you buy. SSDs are fairly inexpensive compared to how much they used to cost so you can always replace it after you buy the laptop.

The Core M CPU is fairly slow. It is faster than a Bay Trail generation Atom CPU, but less powerful than a Core i3 CPU. If you want performance, then you want to skip the Asus UX305. There are some 256GB SSDs that you can currently buy for $100. 512GB SSDs starts at about $175. If you can hold out until Black Friday you will likely be able to find even better deals.

Personally, I know I use a lot of storage space so if I were to buy a laptop with only a 128GB SSD I would rather quickly replace it with a 512GB or 1TB SSD.
The Dell XPS 13 comes with a Core i3 or Core i5 depending on which model you buy. SSDs are fairly inexpensive compared to how much they used to cost so you can always replace it after you buy the laptop.

The Core M CPU is fairly slow. It is faster than a Bay Trail generation Atom CPU, but less powerful than a Core i3 CPU. If you want performance, then you want to skip the Asus UX305. There are some 256GB SSDs that you can currently buy for $100. 512GB SSDs starts at about $175. If you can hold out until Black Friday you will likely be able to find even better deals.

Personally, I know I use a lot of storage space so if I were to buy a laptop with only a 128GB SSD I would rather quickly replace it with a 512GB or 1TB SSD.
 
Solution