Dell XPS 13 9345 (2024) review: Exceptionally sleek with a blockbuster battery life

Dell’s line of high-end XPS laptops has undergone a significant makeover in the last few years, starting with the Dell XPS 13 Plus and now extending to the entire portfolio. Although Dell has now moved on, there’s still plenty of appeal in the Dell XPS 13 9345 (2024), the last machine before we begin to see the streamlined “Dell, Dell Pro and Dell Pro Max” machines.

Our review configuration included high-end Qualcomm hardware fitted into an exquisitely engineered chassis, with an expansive keyboard and edgeless touchpad. As with all XPS machines, the bezels encasing the display are razor-thin, although we’ll be rigorously testing the standard IPS FHD+ display to establish whether this base configuration is worth the investment — or if it might be worth upgrading to the OLED edition.

Dell XPS 13 9345 (2024) review

Dell XPS 13 9345 (2024): Design

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The XPS 13 9345 (2024) retains the minimalist design of its predecessor, the XPS 13 Plus, with a high build quality thanks to the machined aluminum its chassis is constructed from. It’s an exceptional and artful-looking machine, but has proven divisive due to a few features that set it apart from the crowd.

These include the lack of a defined touchpad and buttons (these are hidden beneath an exquisite glass-coated palm rest) as well as a completely gapless keyboard with a light bar row for the function keys. Both the function keys and edgeless touchpad use haptic feedback, rather than mechanical buttons, to register inputs — which fits in with the overall minimalist design. As ever, the display looks fantastic thanks to the typical narrow bezels you would expect in an XPS machine.

Although the graphite color is perhaps more in line with previous editions, we absolutely adored the clean and crisp Platinum look our review configuration was draped in. The overall look and feel neatly complement its portability and weight. At 2.72 pounds (1.24 kilograms), the FHD+ edition of the XPS 13 is fantastically light, but it’s also worth mentioning that the OLED version is a shade lighter.

Similarly, its dimensions are extremely compact and make it incredibly easy to fit into your bag so you can take it on the move. However, it’s worth noting its thickness is split evenly between the keyboard and screen segments, which means its 0.63-inch (15.95 millimeters) thickness isn’t much greater than you might otherwise find — it just means there’s only a tiny bit of space beside the keyboard for USB-C ports.

Dell XPS 9345 (2024): Display

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The 13.4-inch IPS display fitted into our review configuration of the XPS 13 is its weakest feature by some distance. The 1,920 x 1,200-pixel resolution is on the lower side — rendering a pixel-per-inch ratio of just 169 — and we were unable to access the advertised refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, instead settling for an option to toggle a “variable refresh rate” on or off. While we were unable to test the OLED version of this laptop, both users and reviews by other publications have praised the quality of that display. This base configuration, however, is underwhelming in every respect.

Testing with a display calibrator showed the laptop’s peak brightness is 366 nits — about in line with many options out there, but still some way off the advertised 500 nits Dell claimed this configuration could hit. Its colors, too, seemed far too oversaturated in the green space, with blues and reds underrepresented. Variation is normal and it’s usually quite subtle, although it was noticeable even without the use of a calibrator. This weakness extends to coverage of the various color gamuts we keep an eye out for. Coverage of the sRGB gamut was 87.4%, a terrible result by today’s standards, with many laptop displays comfortably hitting 98% or higher without much of a problem. It was a similar story for the Adobe and DCI P3 gamuts, which measure suitability for photo and video editing respectively. While you never tend to get high results in either category, these were the lowest we’ve seen from any machine we tested in the last 12 months.

Where we saw more impressive scores were in a very high 1,622:1 contrast level and suitably low 0.23-nits black level. Although a Delta-E color distortion reading of 0.28 on average and 1.02 maximum is excellent, it’s almost negated by the poor color gamut coverage results. As such, the FHD+ version of the Dell XPS 13 is not really suitable for any image-based work.

Dell XPS 9345 (2024): Keyboard and touchpad

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The flush, edge-to-edge keyboard in the XPS 13 looks incredible — but using it is a different story. The expansive key sizing and lack of any spacing between them makes logical sense (giving you more space to land your keystrokes) and it makes for a striking and stylish design choice. But it can be awkward typing with the thing, especially given the incredibly short travel distance each key has. There’s also plenty of snap but not much haptic feedback — leaving touch-typing feeling a bit empty. Speaking of which, there is zero haptic feedback when you use any of the buttons on the light bar.

The borderless touchpad, integrated beneath the glass coating of the palm rest, also takes some getting used to. You might need to guesstimate where the area actually is at first (it’s usually where you would expect it to be) but after that, gliding your finger across its surface to move the cursor is exceptionally smooth. Using the left and right-click functions, primarily based on haptic feedback, does leave a little to be desired. You do feel the clicking sensation, but we’d prefer much more force. And, positioning-wise, we often found ourselves having to reach further to the left than is comfortable to left-click.

Dell XPS 9345 (2024): Performance and battery

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The XPS 13 is packed with high-end Qualcomm hardware including the Snapdragon X Elite (12-core) CPU, which is bundled with a Qualcomm Adreno graphics card and Hexagon NPU. This premium core was complemented in our review model with just 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. Overall, it performs as speedily as you would expect from a machine with this hardware — although it’s slightly underwhelming on multitask performance when you rack it up against machines with the exact same specs.

Although we hit a single-threaded score of 2,467 using Geekbench 6 — the highest we have seen so far in a machine fitted with Qualcomm hardware — it scored 13,133 in the multi-threaded performance test. This falls within the typical range, but is among the slowest in the bracket. Ramping up the amount of RAM might help, but it’s worth noting the likes of the HP EliteBook Ultra 14 G1q, which also used 16 GB RAM, scored 14,035 in this test.

Its graphics performance was, however, on the higher end, scoring 20,467 — a near identical result with the HP machine we just cited. It’s as good as you’ll get with this Snapdragon hardware, with average scores normally just under 20,000. For anything more intense than basic image or video editing, however, we’d recommend a machine with a dedicated GPU. These tend to score beyond 30,000 in this test.

The Dell XPS 13’s battery life, however, was phenomenal, lasting 27 hours and 39 minutes in our battery test. It’s the longest-lasting of all the laptops we tested in 2024 and so far in 2025 — and an absolutely fantastic result for anybody hoping to work on the move.

Dell XPS 9345 (2024): Ports and features

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Connectivity options are near-barren in the XPS 13, with just two USB-C ports available — although you do at least get one on either side of the machine. There isn’t even room for a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is a staple in most other machines. It’s just as well, then, that the quad-speaker array is broadly impressive across mids and higher tones. The bass isn’t quite thumping, but does punch above its weight when you consider how crammed the speakers are in a chassis as sleek as this. We’d recommend carrying a dock if you plan on frequently working with images directly from a camera.

The laptop otherwise features a 1080p camera fitted into the bezel above the screen, which is compatible with Windows Hello, as well as a fingerprint reader fitted into its power button. The inclusion of Wi-Fi 7 compatibility and Bluetooth 5.4 are also nice ticks to have, meaning you know the device is future-proofed to take advantage of the more advanced features in these wireless protocols.

Dell XPS 9345 (2024): Should I buy it?

We wanted to love the XPS 13 given how elegant and sleek it looks. The device is exquisitely engineered in terms of its physical appearance — but that doesn’t mean it’s a practical machine.

The invisible touchpad causes a couple of issues, while typing can be hit or miss, given the short travel distance in its keys. While its performance is great and battery life is phenomenal, the FHD+ panel in our review configuration performed too poorly for us to recommend it, especially if you’re going to do anything visual. While it’s just about bright enough, it lacks sharpness and the colors are askew.

We’d go so far as to recommend avoiding this model altogether unless you’re opting for the higher-resolution options — which users report as being far more enjoyable to use.

If the Dell XPS 9345 (2024) isn’t for you

There are plenty of high-end Snapdragon alternatives you can opt for if you’re looking for a premium and punchy laptop. The HP EliteBook Ultra 14 G1q suffers from low brightness but has much better color accuracy and performs slightly better while retaining a 26-hour-plus battery life.

If you don’t mind taking a slight hit on battery life — albeit 17-hours-plus is still more than reasonable — we also loved the Microsoft Surface Laptop (7th Edition). You’ll enjoy the brighter, crisper and more vibrant display alongside its top performance levels and excellent keyboard.