Dell Pro 13.3" Plus Multi-Touch 2-in-1 Review

So, Dell's back with a 13-inch 2-in-1, and this one's packing some serious heat under the hood. We're talking about a laptop that's barely bigger than a tablet, but it's got a CPU that sits in the 99th percentile. That's wild for something this small. It's clearly built for someone who needs a ton of power in a super portable package, maybe a developer or an engineer who's always on the move and doesn't want to lug around a heavy workstation.

Who is this for, really? The scores tell a story. It's 'best for' compact use, scoring a 75.8, and it's decent for students and developers. But gaming? Forget about it, with a 32.7 score. This isn't a gaming machine. It's a productivity powerhouse in a tiny, convertible form factor. You get a touchscreen, a backlit keyboard, and Windows 11 Pro out of the box, which is nice for business users.

What makes it interesting is the sheer mismatch between its size and its specs. A 50-core AMD CPU and 32GB of DDR5 RAM in a 1.46kg chassis is almost comical. It's like they took the internals of a desktop replacement and crammed them into a ultraportable. The discrete AMD Radeon 860 GPU is there, but it's more for light creative work or driving extra displays than for playing the latest games. This laptop is all about defying expectations.

Let's talk about that CPU. A 99th percentile ranking means it's faster than basically every other laptop CPU out there. The AMD 350 50-core chip at 2.0GHz is a monster for multi-threaded workloads. Think compiling code, rendering videos, or running complex simulations. In real-world terms, this thing will chew through heavy tasks without breaking a sweat. The 32GB of DDR5 RAM backs it up perfectly, so you can have a hundred browser tabs open alongside your development environment and not see a hiccup.

Now, the GPU is a different story. The AMD Radeon 860 lands in the 55th percentile. That's fine for everyday graphics, photo editing, and maybe some light video work, but it's not a gaming card. The 3DMark score would be just okay. The storage is a bit of a letdown, too. A 512GB SSD is on the small side these days, especially for a machine with this much power, and its 34th percentile ranking confirms it's a weak point. You'll probably want to upgrade that or rely on external drives. The 55Wh battery is also a question mark. With a CPU this powerful, you might not get all-day battery life if you're pushing it hard.

At $1804, this is a premium price for a 13-inch laptop. You're paying almost entirely for that insane CPU and the portable form factor. The value proposition is super niche. If your workflow is 100% CPU-bound and you need the absolute smallest machine possible, then the price might be justified. But for that money, you're making compromises on storage, screen quality, and potentially reliability.

Compared to other vendors, you could get a much larger laptop with similar or better CPU performance, a bigger and better screen, and more storage for the same price or less. Dell is charging a premium for the engineering feat of miniaturization. Whether that's worth it depends on how much you value shaving off every gram and millimeter.

The most direct competitor is probably the ASUS Zenbook Duo. It's also a compact, dual-screen productivity machine, but it might offer more screen real estate for multitasking. If you need macOS, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 chip is in the same ballpark price-wise. It'll likely have better battery life, a much better screen, and similar CPU performance, but you lose the touchscreen and 2-in-1 flexibility.

Then you have the gaming laptops like the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i or MSI Vector. For the same $1800, these will give you a far more powerful GPU, a high-refresh-rate screen, and probably more storage. But they'll be heavier, thicker, and have worse battery life. They're built for a completely different purpose. The Dell Pro 13 Plus is in a weird spot. It's more powerful than most ultraportables but less capable for gaming and creative work than dedicated machines. Your choice boils down to whether ultimate portability with max CPU power is your top priority.

If you're a developer, data scientist, or engineer who needs the fastest possible CPU in the smallest possible bag, this Dell is a compelling, if expensive, option. Just be ready to deal with the small SSD and plan for external storage. The 2-in-1 touchscreen is a nice bonus for drawing or presentations.

For almost everyone else, it's a harder sell. Students might find it overpowered and overpriced. Gamers should look elsewhere immediately. And if you value screen quality, all-day battery, or a larger display for productivity, there are better-balanced laptops out there for the money. This is a specialist's tool, not a general-purpose laptop.