Dell XPS 13 Plus vs MacBook Air M2: Which 2022 laptop is close for you? It tin beryllium a tricky determination since some are sleek, almighty 13-inch ultraportables with large screens, bully speakers and akin terms tags.

But the similarities halt there. Now that we've published our Dell XPS 13 Plus review and MacBook Air M2 review, we tin springiness you a broad breakdown of however these 2 laptops comparison successful bid to assistance you marque the champion prime for your needs.

Of course, a batch of it comes down to whether you similar Windows 11 oregon macOS Ventura. Both are competent operating systems with their ain strengths and weaknesses, and these 2 laptops amusement them disconnected to large effect. 

But if you're unfastened to either and privation to cognize which of these flagship ultraportables is the champion laptop for you, work connected for our blow-by-blow breakdown.

Dell XPS 13 Plus vs MacBook Air M2: Specs

Dell XPS 13 Plus vs MacBook Air M2: Design

The Dell XPS 13 Plus takes immoderate extremist departures from the plan of the venerable XPS 13, which we've agelong considered 1 of the best 13-inch laptops you tin buy.

Most notably, it ditches the relation enactment for a enactment of capacitive keys that tin beryllium toggled betwixt relation keys oregon shortcuts, a la the arguable MacBook Pro Touch Bar. It's a neat feature, but successful our clip with the XPS 13 Plus we weren't a large instrumentality of the alteration due to the fact that the keys don't supply feedback erstwhile you deed them and look a small cheaper than the remainder of the laptop.

We were much excited astir the caller solid touchpad that blends successful seamlessly with the keyboard deck, which is remarkably casual to usage fixed that you can't look down and spot its edges.

When closed, the XPS 13 Plus is simply a slick ultraportable that, astatine 11.63 x 7.84 x 0.6 inches and 2.71 pounds -- oregon 2.77 pounds if you splurge for the OLED exemplary -- is really a spot lighter than the vanilla XPS 13 (based connected our examination of changes successful the Dell XPS 13 Plus vs XPS 13). 

That means that if you don't get the OLED model, the XPS 13 Plus is really somewhat lighter than the MacBook Air M2, which weighs 2.7 pounds and measures 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches. However, the Air has the borderline successful thinness here, albeit by a substance of centimeters. It's a existent engineering marvel, arsenic Apple has managed to marque the MacBook Air M2 astir 20% smaller than its predecessor portion simultaneously enlarging the surface somewhat (don't miss our MacBook Air M2 vs MacBook Air M1 breakdown for much details connected the differences).

We besides similar however Apple's ultraportable has an easy-to-grab articulator connected the beforehand which makes it casual to unfastened with 1 hand. The XPS 13 Plus has nary specified feature, and during our reappraisal we missed that small articulator connected the beforehand of the MacBook Air M2. 

The MacBook Air M2 has an old-fashioned carnal relation enactment alternatively of capacitive interaction keys, which tin beryllium a positive fixed however unsatisfying we recovered the XPS 13 Plus' capacitive keys. However, you whitethorn find the notch that Apple's added to the apical of the Air M2's show to incorporate its camera hardware a small little appealing -- but instrumentality heart, due to the fact that successful our acquisition the notch rapidly becomes casual to ignore.

Dell XPS 13 Plus vs MacBook Air M2: Display

The Dell XPS 13 Plus comes with a 13.4-inch WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200 resolution) show by default. It's apt a bully sheet based connected our investigating of earlier XPS 13 displays, but we can't accidental for definite however it compares to the Air M2's show due to the fact that our reappraisal portion arrived with the 3.5K OLED touchscreen upgrade. 

That said, the OLED upgrade could beryllium worthy it if you tin spend the astir $300 other it costs, due to the fact that it makes everything you bash connected the laptop look better. OLED panels typically person brighter brights, darker darks and amended contrasts than LED oregon LCD panels, and successful our investigating we recovered the XPS 13 Plus' 3.5K OLED touchscreen does a large occupation of accurately reproducing colors.

Specifically, it displayed 118.9% of the sRGB colour gamut (100% is astir accurate, higher tends to mean much saturated, vivid colors) and 84.2% of the much demanding DCI-P3 colour space. It besides registered a Delta-E colour accuracy store of 0.21 (0 is perfect). 

Those numbers are a spot amended than what the MacBook Air M2 was capable to present successful our tests. Even so, it's a large show that achieved 107% of the sRGB colour gamut and 75.9% of the DCI-P3 colour space, with an identical Delta-E people of 0.2.

The MacBook Air M2 besides gets a spot brighter than the XPS 13 Plus, achieving an mean brightness of 489 nits. Dell's ultraportable looks a spot dull by comparison, averaging 366 nits of brightness successful our laboratory testing. 

I don't deliberation you'll beryllium unhappy with either display, particularly if you spell for the 3.5K OLED upgrade connected the XPS 13 Plus. However, successful presumption of sheer brightness Apple's laptop has the borderline here.

Dell XPS 13 Plus vs MacBook Air M2: Ports

If you attraction astir having entree to a assortment of ports, the Dell XPS 13 Plus is thing of a disappointment. With conscionable a brace of Thunderbolt 4 ports this laptop can't grip overmuch successful the mode of accessories, particularly erstwhile 1 of those 2 ports is occupied by the charging cable. Yes, that means Dell ditched the headphone jack, thing adjacent Apple (with its penchant for axing headphone jacks successful the sanction of thinness) didn't situation to bash to the MacBook Air M2.

Dell tries to assistance you retired present by including a USB-C to USB-A and USB-C to 3.5mm adapters with the XPS 13 Plus, but it's tiny comfortableness and much dongles you person to transportation astir and interest astir losing portion you're retired and about.

Apple did somewhat amended with the MacBook Air M2, equipping it with a akin brace of Thunderbolt 4 ports arsenic good arsenic a headphone jack and a MagSafe charging port. 

Sure, that's inactive not overmuch successful the mode of a larboard array, but it's acold amended than what you get connected the XPS 13 Plus. For starters, having a abstracted headphone jack and charging larboard means you're escaped to usage some those Thunderbolt 4 ports for peripherals similar mice, monitors, USB hubs and more. And present that Apple's brought MagSafe charging back, you get a small much information successful knowing that if idiosyncratic trips implicit your Mac's powerfulness cable, the likelihood are amended that it won't yank the laptop disconnected the table.

There's nary contention here: If ports substance to you, Apple's laptop is the superior choice. The downside is that some Thunderbolt 4 ports are connected the near broadside of the Air, which gives you less options for routing cables.

Dell XPS 13 Plus vs MacBook Air M2: Performance

We enactment some laptops done our in-house show investigating regimen, and recovered that some the XPS 13 Plus with its 12th Gen Intel CPU and the MacBook Air with its M2 spot are immoderate of the fastest laptops we've ever tested. 

That said, arsenic we noted successful our examination of the MacBook Air M2 vs Dell XPS 13 Plus benchmarks, Dell's laptop beats retired the Air M2 successful presumption of earthy multicore CPU performance. As you tin spot from the illustration of our investigating results below, the XPS 13 Plus enactment up higher numbers successful Geekbench 5.4's multicore CPU test. This is existent adjacent erstwhile we had it successful the default powerfulness state, and erstwhile we switched the XPS 13 Plus into its high-performance Ultra mode it performed adjacent amended successful our tests.

When we ran some laptops done BlackMagic's disk velocity tests, which trial however rapidly an SSD tin constitute and work data, we saw immoderate absorbing results. The MacBook Air M2's SSD is slower than the 1 successful Dell's laptop, arsenic it managed mean constitute and work scores of 2,800 and 2,210 respectively. In the aforesaid test, Dell's XPS 13 Plus delivered an mean constitute people of 3638 and mean work people of 4879. These numbers are an abstract mode of quantifying and measuring however accelerated a thrust tin work and constitute data, truthful they should springiness you immoderate denotation of which laptop is quicker to store and retrieve files. 

In our video encoding test, which times however agelong it takes a notebook to transcode a 4K video down to 1080p utilizing Handbrake, the MacBook Air M2 did the enactment quicker than the XPS 13 Plus -- until we enactment the XPS 13 Plus into Ultra mode, astatine which constituent it erstwhile again sped past the MacBook. The Air M2 completed the task successful an mean of 7 minutes and 52 seconds, portion the XPS 13 Plus took 6 minutes and 49 seconds successful Ultra mode. 

If you attraction astir show successful Adobe apps, though, you whitethorn privation to spell with the MacBook Air M2. When we ran some ultraportables done PugetBench's Adobe Creative Cloud suite benchmark tests, utilizing a publication which automatically runs done tests for antithetic Adobe apps, Apple's MacBook Air M2 took an mean of 4:49 to implicit the Photoshop trial (running Photoshop 23.3.2 via Rosetta) and earned an mean people of 821, portion the XPS 13 Plus performed worse (670) and took longer (6:28) to bash it.

And erstwhile we ran these laptops done a akin trial for Premiere Pro, the MacBook Air M2 earned an mean people of 452, intelligibly outperforming the XPS 13 Plus with its mean people of 279. If you program to bash a batch of enactment successful Adobe's suite of apps, the caller MacBook Air has a wide vantage implicit the XPS 13 Plus.

Dell XPS 13 Plus vs MacBook Air M2: Gaming

Finally, what if you privation to unbend and bask immoderate games connected your caller laptop? The Dell XPS 13 Plus and MacBook Air M2 are some decent gaming machines, though neither volition tally the latest and top games the mode they were meant to beryllium played. To springiness you an thought of however good these machines tally games we ran some done the graphical benchmark successful Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, an oldie but a goodie that we usage successful investigating due to the fact that it runs connected a wide assortment of some MacBooks and Windows PCs. 

Unfortunately, it's hard to get MacBooks to tally Civ VI successful a comparable solution to astir Windows laptops. The highest solution we could get the M2 Air to tally Civ VI astatine was 1,470 x 956, which is importantly little than the Air's 2,560 x 1,664 autochthonal resolution. At that resolution, the Air M2 achieved an mean of 40.3 frames per 2nd (fps) successful the graphical benchmark.

That's much frames per 2nd than the Dell XPS 13 Plus could negociate to crank out, but that's astatine slightest partially explained by the information that the XPS 13 Plus was besides moving the crippled astatine a higher resolution. At 1080p (1,920 x 1,080) solution the XPS 13 Plus achieved an mean of 22.9 fps successful the Civ VI benchmark, though astatine its autochthonal 3.5K (3,456 x 2,160) solution the XPS could lone negociate 14.6 fps. 

So is the MacBook Air M2 a amended laptop for gaming than the XPS 13 Plus? It's tricky to say. The Air tin intelligibly grip immoderate games rather well, but gaming connected macOS is importantly antithetic from gaming connected Windows. For starters, galore of the best PC games don't tally natively connected macOS, and adjacent if you get them up and moving show often lags down comparable Windows PCs. However, the Air M2 has entree to each the games connected Apple's App Store, which the XPS 13 Plus lacks. So if you're already invested successful Apple's games ecosystem, the Air M2 volition fto you proceed playing those games connected a bigger screen.

So is the MacBook Air M2 a amended laptop for gaming than the XPS 13 Plus? Well, it's complicated. In presumption of earthy graphical performance, possibly -- but gaming connected macOS is simply a antithetic beast than gaming connected Windows. For starters, galore of the best PC games don't tally natively connected macOS, and adjacent if you get them up and moving show often lags down comparable Windows PCs.

However, the Air M2 has entree to each the games connected Apple's App Store, which the XPS 13 Plus does not. And with MacBooks perchance astir to go legit gaming laptops acknowledgment to macOS Ventura, our ain Tony Polanco yet has hope for the aboriginal of Mac gaming.

Dell XPS 13 Plus vs MacBook Air M2: Webcam

The Dell XPS 13 Plus inactive sports a 720p webcam, which is disappointing present that galore radical are moving remotely much often and spending much of their time successful video calls. 

Still, successful our hands-on investigating we recovered the XPS 13 Plus' webcam to beryllium much than serviceable, and if you adhd successful an inexpensive ringing airy you tin bash a batch to marque yourself look presentable. We besides similar however the laptop's webcam supports Dell's Express Sign-in, which aims to fto you rapidly log into the laptop by lasting successful beforehand of it utilizing the facial designation tech of Windows Hello.

It would beryllium bully if Apple's MacBooks offered a akin feature, fixed the institution already has effectual facial designation log-in tech for its mobile devices successful the signifier of FaceID. The MacBook Air M2 offers nary specified feature, but it does person a higher-res 1080p webcam built into the notch which delivers decent representation quality. 

You mightiness deliberation that the Air's 1080p webcam intelligibly beats retired the lower-res 720p camera connected the XPS 13 Plus, but successful our investigating it's not rather that simple. We liked the XPS 13 Plus' camera much than we expected, though sharpness was lacking. Conversely we liked the Air's 1080p webcam a spot little than expected, appreciating the crisp details but disliking the colour reproduction. 

So which is better? I deliberation I similar the 1080p camera connected the MacBook Air M2, based connected the trial images captured above, but you tin look for yourself to spot which you prefer. Certainly neither tin comparison to the representation prime delivered by the best webcams, and Tom's Guide Global Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer (who appears successful some trial shots) recovered some laptop cameras inferior to his Logitech C920 webcam.

Dell XPS 13 Plus vs MacBook Air M2: Heat

We've ne'er known the Dell XPS 13 enactment to beryllium lap-scorchers, but the XPS 13 Plus whitethorn alteration that. When we enactment it done our vigor test, which involves tasking the laptop with playing an HD video for 15 minutes and past scanning it with a vigor gun, we recovered Dell's latest laptop got arsenic blistery arsenic 102.6 degrees connected the bottom. 

That's bearable, but it's hotter than we'd like. However, the metallic lining whitethorn beryllium that adjacent nether dense load the XPS 13 Plus' instrumentality cooling strategy doesn't make a batch of noise. You'll perceive it, but you shouldn't beryllium excessively enactment retired by it.

Apple's MacBook Air M2 is quieter by comparison, since it relies connected passive cooling (that is, nary fans oregon moving parts) and show throttling to support the laptop chill nether pressure. In practice, it works well; successful our vigor trial we measured a highest temp 83.5 degrees astatine Air M2's hottest point, connected the underside of the laptop adjacent the hinge. 

That's rather a spot much comfy than the XPS 13 Plus' 100+ grade underside, which means the MacBook Air M2 should consciousness rather a spot much comfy successful your thigh during extended enactment sessions.

Dell XPS 13 Plus vs MacBook Air M2: Battery life

Dell's XPS laptops person had a hard clip lasting overmuch longer than 8 hours successful our in-house artillery test, and the XPS 13 Plus is nary objection -- if you splurge for the OLED show upgrade. 

When we enactment the OLED-equipped XPS 13 Plus done our artillery test, which tasks the laptop with endlessly surfing the web via Wi-Fi with its surface brightness acceptable to 150 nits, Dell's latest laptop lasted 7 hours and 34 minutes. That's not adjacent capable to get done a afloat time astatine the bureau without plugging successful to charge, though Dell claims that the non-OLED XPS 13 Plus tin past a spot longer, up to 13 hours connected a azygous charge.

The MacBook Air M2 lasts longer than that by a coagulated margin, though that's not a immense surprise; MacBooks person delivered stellar artillery beingness ever since Apple started equipping them with its ain bespoke silicon. Apple's M1 and M2 chips are some remarkably almighty and power-efficient, which is wherefore the  MacBook Pro M2 is the longest-lasting laptop we've ever tested, lasting implicit 18 hours successful our artillery test.

The MacBook Air M2 can't rather lucifer that, but it inactive lasted an awesome 14 hours and 6 minutes successful our testing. That's damn adjacent treble the artillery beingness of the XPS 13 Plus OLED, truthful if artillery beingness matters to you Apple's laptop is the intelligibly superior choice.

Dell XPS 13 Plus vs MacBook Air M2: Bottom line

Choosing betwixt the Dell XPS 13 Plus vs Apple's MacBook Air M2 is tricky because, arsenic you tin see, they're astir identical 13-inch ultraportables with fantabulous show and akin prices. But if you cognize what you request your laptop for, the prime becomes a batch easier. 

The Dell XPS 13 Plus OLED we tested outperformed the MacBook Air M2 successful presumption of axenic CPU and SSD speed, positive it has a beauteous OLED surface with amended colour reproduction than the Air. If you privation a Windows ultraportable for work. amusement and immoderate airy gaming, the XPS 13 Plus is simply a large prime that looks arsenic slick arsenic an old-school MacBook Air, close down to the ultra-thin wedge plan and atrocious larboard selection.

However, Apple appears to person learned from the plan issues of MacBooks past and equipped the 2022 Air M2 with immoderate fantabulous improvements, including a 1080p webcam, an ultra-thin rectangular plan with rounded edges (plus a useful articulator for casual opening) and MagSafe charging. Plus, it stays chill nether unit and lasts acold longer connected a charge, making the Air M2 2022 an fantabulous prime if you request a laptop to transportation each time and usage comfortably connected your thigh for hours astatine a time.

The Air besides outperforms the XPS 13 Plus erstwhile it comes to video transcoding and Adobe apps, making it the superior prime for creatives who bash that benignant of enactment connected the regular. 

Alex Wawro is simply a lifelong tech and games enthusiast with much than a decennary of acquisition covering some for outlets similar Game Developer, Black Hat, and PC World magazine. He presently serves arsenic a elder exertion astatine Tom's Guide covering each things computing, from laptops and desktops to keyboards and mice.