M1 MacBook Pro 13 Vs Dell XPS 13

Intel wants to check the reality of the Apple M1 processor.

Intel’s “Get Real Go PC” campaign was designed to show that laptops with 11th generation Intel processors work well against MacBooks M1.

As I use a Dell XPS 13 9310 with an 11th generation processor and a 13-inch (16 GB) MacBook Pro M1 interchangeably, here’s my take on how Intel compares to the M1.

Battery life: M1 MBP comes and goes

—M1 MacBook Pro: full day: With use on and off throughout the day, I can get a full day of battery life on the M1 MacBook Pro. That’s 9 to 10 hours. If I don’t do any heavy lifting, more than a day. The only other laptop I have that comes close to the strength of the M1 MBP 13 is my Google Pixelbook Go Chromebook.

—Dell XPS 13 9310 (4K + screen): half a day + or 6+ hours. I am using the 4K + model (also known as UHD +) for this analysis. I can stretch it a bit more if I stay away from things like long videoconferencing sessions (Zoom), too many active Chrome tabs and keeping the screen brightness low.

Note that the Dell XPS 13 9310 with a lower resolution FHD + screen has a longer battery life than the 4K + XPS 13. More * at the bottom.

Performance:

There are many benchmarks out there for the M1 MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 13. This video comparing the M1 MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 13 includes the Cinebench R23 multicore CPU stress test (at the 14:40 mark), favoring the M1 over to the i7 with scores of 7,704 vs 4,816, respectively.

Geekbench 5 single-core and multi-core also show a significant advantage for the MacBook M1. (See these Geekbench scores for M1 MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 13 9310.)

Benchmarks are useful to some extent. For me, performance in widely used applications (like the Chrome browser, where I spend a lot of time) is what counts most.

In real-world testing of more conventional workloads, the Dell XPS 13 9310 with Intel’s latest 11th generation Intel Core i7 “Tiger Lake” is not sloppy. I didn’t notice any significant performance gaps using the two systems day after day. I found them both fast and neither had thermal problems – although the M1 MacBook Pro remains incredibly cold.

(For me, “real world” means Microsoft Office, Google Docs, more than 20 Chrome guides, social media, videos, video conferencing, benchmarking apps and photo editing.)

Summary:

Apple revamped the M1 MacBook to offer high performance and impressive runtimes on battery power, while remaining extremely cold. Intel will have to work harder than usual to maintain parity.

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GRADES:

*Why the difference in battery life between the Dell XPS 13 9310 FHD + and UHD +? The 4K screen on the XPS 13 has 4x the number of pixels to push than the FHD + (1,920 by 1,200), so it will always consume more power, according to Dell.

For registration, here’s what the Dell product page says about battery life:

“Up to 14 hours and 11 minutes on a Full HD + model while transmitting … or up to 8 hours and 12 minutes of streaming on a 4K + model. “

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