Dell Dell 13.3" Pro 13 Premium Multi-Touch Laptop Review

The Dell Pro 13 is a weird one. It's a super light, super portable laptop that's absolutely packed with high-end specs, but it feels like it's trying to be two different things at once. The one thing to know? This is a fantastic machine for someone who needs a featherweight workhorse for serious multitasking, but you're paying a premium for power in a tiny frame, and you're not getting a premium screen or build quality to match.

The 32GB of RAM is the star here. It lands in the 81st percentile, and it shows. You can have a hundred Chrome tabs, a dozen spreadsheets, and a video call running, and this thing doesn't even blink. The surprise is the CPU and GPU, which are just okay, sitting around the 58th and 59th percentiles. For a $2500 laptop, you'd expect more raw speed. It handles everyday tasks and light creative work fine, but don't buy it for rendering or gaming.

It's not worth it for most people. At $2478, you're paying for the compact form factor and the massive RAM pool. You can get more power, a better screen, and more storage from a 14-inch machine for the same money. This is a niche pick for the consultant or developer who travels constantly and needs that specific combo of light weight and high RAM.

The most direct competitor is the ASUS Zenbook Duo 14. It's also a compact, touchscreen laptop, but it gives you that killer second screen for multitasking, often for less money. If you don't need the ultra-portable form factor, the Apple MacBook Pro 14 with an M3 chip destroys this Dell in CPU performance, battery life, and screen quality for a similar price. And if you want a Windows workhorse, a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon offers better build quality and reliability.

I can only recommend the Dell Pro 13 to a very specific person: someone who is constantly on a plane, needs to run virtual machines or massive data sets (hence the 32GB RAM), and prioritizes weight above all else. For everyone else, the high price, mediocre core performance, and worrying reliability score make it a hard pass. Look at the ASUS Zenbook Duo or a MacBook Pro instead.