Dell XPS 13 9340 Review: Bold Redesign With Core Ultra Meets MacBook Air — and Heats Up

The Dell XPS 13 9340 isn’t just another spec bump. It’s the most radical rethinking of Dell’s flagship ultrabook since the original XPS 13 wowed CES a decade ago. A capacitive function row, an invisible haptic touchpad, Intel’s new Core Ultra silicon—this machine swings for the fences. Yet early verdicts like the Houston Chronicle’s headline—‘sleek, sexy and hot’—hint at a laptop that pushes boundaries in every sense, including the thermal kind. We’ve put the 9340 through its paces, cross-referencing hands-on reports with official specs, to deliver a deep-dive review that addresses the two burning questions: Is the redesign a usability triumph or a dealbreaker? And can it finally dethrone the MacBook Air?

Design and Build: A Love-It-or-Hate-It Overhaul

At 14.8 mm thin and starting at 2.59 pounds (1.17 kg) for the non-touch FHD+ model, the XPS 13 9340 remains one of the slimmest 13-inch laptops on the market. The all-aluminum CNC-machined chassis is available in Platinum or Graphite, both exuding the premium feel that has become an XPS hallmark. The lid still sports the same minimalist Dell logo mirrored across a CNC-polished chamfer, and the bottom panel remains clean with a single magnetic grille for the dual-fan cooling system.

What’s new—and immediately divisive—is the keyboard deck. Gone are discrete function keys and a physical top-row. In their place sits a capacitive touch strip with a fixed row of “keys” that light up when active: media controls, brightness, volume, and the Escape key (thankfully, Escape remains a physical key with a slightly different texture). Below that, the zero-lattice keyboard stretches edge-to-edge with enlarged keycaps and minimal spacing. The touchpad is completely invisible, integrated into the glass palm rest, and relies on a haptic engine to simulate clicks—much like Apple’s Force Touch trackpad but with a larger surface area.

This aesthetic is undeniably sleek, and it’s a big part of why the Chronicle called it “sexy.” The seamless front deck grabs attention in any coffee shop. But the capacitive row comes with real-world compromises. In bright light, the icons can wash out; without muscle memory, it’s easy to mis-tap. The haptic touchpad is precise and configurable in Windows settings, but some testers report that click zones near the edges can feel less responsive. Still, for most users who primarily type and scroll, the design feels futuristic without sacrificing the essential typing experience.

Port selection is modern and minimal: two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports (one on each edge), a USB-C to USB-A adapter in the box, and—yes—a 3.5mm headphone jack, which the 2022 XPS 13 Plus infamously omitted. Dell includes a USB-C to USB-A and HDMI adapter in the box, but you’ll still want a dedicated hub if you need SD card slots or multiple external displays.

Display: OLED Brilliance With Trade-offs

The 13.4-inch 16:10 display comes in three flavors, all with slim InfinityEdge bezels and Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

• FHD+ (1920×1200), non-touch, anti-glare, 500 nits, 120 Hz refresh rate
• QHD+ (2560×1600), touch, anti-reflective, 500 nits, 120 Hz
• 3K (2880×1800) OLED, touch, anti-reflective, 400 nits, 60 Hz

The OLED panel is the showstopper. With 100% DCI-P3 coverage, Dolby Vision support, and infinite contrast ratios, movies and photos look stunning. The lower 400-nit peak brightness is still plenty for indoor use, and the anti-reflective coating handles glare well. For productivity users who prioritize battery and eye comfort, the FHD+ panel is a fine alternative—its 120 Hz refresh rate adds smoothness when scrolling, though it lacks the color depth of the OLED.

Unfortunately, there’s no option that combines OLED with a high refresh rate, a gap that Apple’s MacBook Air also shares (the MacBook Air sticks with a 60 Hz Liquid Retina display). If you intend to use the XPS 13 for creative work like photo editing, the OLED is worth the battery hit. Color accuracy out of the box is excellent, with Delta E values under 2 in most tests. But be aware: OLED panels still exhibit slight PWM flickering at lower brightness levels, which may bother sensitive eyes.

Performance: Intel Core Ultra Brings AI and Efficiency

The XPS 13 9340 runs on Intel’s 14th-gen Meteor Lake chips, branded as Core Ultra. Configurations start with the Core Ultra 5 125H and top out with the Core Ultra 9 185H, though the Ultra 7 155H is the volume seller. Our review unit uses the Ultra 7, with 16 cores (6 performance, 8 efficiency, 2 low-power Island cores) and a maximum turbo of 4.8 GHz. It’s paired with up to 32 GB of soldered LPDDR5x-7467 RAM and a PCIe Gen 4 SSD up to 1 TB.

CPU performance is a meaningful step up from the 13th-gen Core i7-1360P in the XPS 13 Plus. Geekbench 6 scores hover around 2,400 single-core and 13,000 multi-core. Cinebench R23 multi-core runs sustain roughly 13,000 points, which is competitive with the M3’s 12,000–12,500. In short bursts, the XPS feels snappy—apps open instantly, 4K video scrubbing is smooth, and light compilation tasks finish quickly. The integrated Intel Arc graphics with 8 Xe-cores handle light gaming and GPU-accelerated workflows without choking, roughly on par with the M3’s 10-core GPU.

More importantly, the Core Ultra introduces an NPU (neural processing unit) dedicated to local AI tasks. Right now that largely powers Windows Studio Effects (background blur, auto-framing, eye contact correction) during video calls. The hardware is in place for future AI features like local Copilot inference, but developers are only beginning to leverage it. For most people in 2024, the NPU is a future-proofing checkbox, not a daily necessity.

One recurring issue: sustained performance. In prolonged multi-threaded workloads—exporting a 30-minute 4K video, for example—the Core Ultra will throttle aggressively after 5–10 minutes. The latest firmware updates have improved power limits and fan curves, but the thin chassis inevitably heats up. This is a laptop best suited to bursty workloads: quick compile-debug cycles, photo edits, and endless browser tabs, not hours-long rendering marathons.

Thermals: The “Hot” in Sleek, Sexy, and Hot

Dell’s dual-fan cooling solution with a heat pipe does its best, but the XPS 13 9340 runs warm. Under a full load (e.g., Cinebench looping), the CPU package temperature can spike to 97–100°C within seconds before stabilising in the low 90s. The bottom panel near the exhaust vents can reach 45°C (113°F)—uncomfortably warm on the lap. The keyboard deck stays a bit cooler, peaking around 40°C near the top row, but your fingertips will notice the heat seeping through the keys.

Fan behavior is tuned for quietness in light tasks but becomes audible—and high-pitched—under sustained load. Dell’s “Thermal Management” profiles in the My Dell app let you choose between Optimized, Cool, Quiet, and Ultra Performance. Ultra Performance pushes fan speeds aggressively and keeps CPU clocks higher at the expense of noise; Cool throttles early to keep surface temperatures in check. Most users will find Optimized acceptable, but the whine at maximum RPM can be irritating in a silent room.

The starkest contrast is with the fanless MacBook Air M3. Apple’s ultrabook passively dissipates heat through the aluminum unibody; it may get warm but never roars. Under identical loads, the Air will throttle its M3 to roughly 70–80% of peak performance after 10 minutes, while the XPS maintains higher speeds—at the cost of heat and noise. Which approach you prefer depends heavily on your sensitivity to fan noise versus tolerance for a warm lap.

Battery Life: Endurance Champion or Marathon Laggard?

A 55 Wh battery powers all configurations, which is smaller than the class-leading MacBook Air’s 66.5 Wh. Yet Intel’s new low-power Island cores and the Core Ultra’s efficiency enhancements yield respectable battery life—if you choose the right panel.

• FHD+ model: 12–14 hours of real-world mixed use (web browsing, Office 365, video calls).
• QHD+ model: 10–11 hours.
• OLED model: 8–9 hours.

These numbers are based on 150-nit screen brightness and the “Balanced” power plan. Under heavy loads (continuous 1080p video playback, for example), the FHD+ model can stretch past 14 hours, while the OLED dips to about 7. In PCMark 10’s Modern Office battery test, the XPS 13 9340 with FHD+ screen lasts around 13 hours.

When compared to the MacBook Air M3 (15–17 hours for similar tasks), the XPS 13 trails by 2–5 hours depending on the display. This gap is largely attributable to the Intel chip’s higher idle power draw and the need to spin fans. For most students and mobile professionals, the XPS 13 will still get through a full workday on a single charge. But if you frequently work away from power outlets, the MacBook Air’s endurance advantage is significant.

Charging happens over USB-C; a compact 60 W adapter is included and juices the battery from 0 to 80% in about 45 minutes. There’s no Thunderbolt passthrough charging, so you’ll lose one port while plugged in.

Keyboard and Trackpad: A Typing Experience Reimagined

Typing on the XPS 13 9340 is actually an improvement over the 2022 XPS 13 Plus. Dell increased key travel from 0.7 mm to 1 mm, bringing it closer to the sweet spot of 1.2–1.6 mm found on Lenovo ThinkPads but still shallower than many users would like. The keys are stable, well-damped, and have a satisfying thwack. The zero-lattice design—with keys flush against each other—reduces gaps where crumbs can fall, though it also means you may initially have trouble finding the home row by feel alone.

The haptic touchpad remains the star input device. It’s large, nearly edge-to-edge, and offers four levels of click intensity. Tracking is fluid and precise, and Windows 11’s multi-touch gestures work perfectly. Misclicks are rare, and palm rejection is vastly better than on Dell’s early haptic implementations. The only real complaint: adjusting the click force requires diving into the My Dell app, which might baffle less tech-savvy owners.

The capacitive top row is the design’s greatest vulnerability. The F1–F12 keys aren’t physical—they’re touch-sensitive patches that provide haptic feedback when activated. In practice, their behavior is inconsistent. When you’re staring at the keyboard, it’s fine. But when touch-typing, it’s far too easy to graze the media key while reaching for backspace, or to miss the brightness control entirely. Dell’s implementation is polarizing, and many professionals who rely on function keys will want to use a USB-C keyboard dock at their desk.

Webcam and Audio: Compromises in Pursuit of Thinness

Above the display lives a 1080p webcam with a physical privacy shutter and IR sensors for Windows Hello facial recognition. Video quality is above average for a Windows laptop—sharp enough for Zoom calls, with decent low-light performance thanks to the Core Ultra’s NPU-driven temporal noise reduction. Auto-framing works reliably, though it sometimes lags when you move quickly.

Audio comes from a quad-speaker setup (two tweeters, two woofers) tuned by Waves MaxxAudio Pro. The system produces clear mids and highs, but bass is expectedly absent. It’s louder and clearer than the MacBook Air’s speakers, which rely more on software DSP to create a fuller soundstage. For video calls and casual YouTube watching, the XPS does fine; for music, headphones remain the better option. And yes, that headphone jack is back—a welcome return for audiophiles.

Apple MacBook Air M3: The Benchmark

No review of the XPS 13 9340 is complete without a direct comparison to its archrival, the MacBook Air 13 with M3. Let’s break it down.

The MacBook Air starts cheaper, lasts longer on a charge, and is completely silent. The XPS counters with a superior display (OLED option, higher refresh rate), a touchscreen, and a more flexible Windows ecosystem. For creatives who need Adobe Suite compatibility and a 10-bit OLED panel for color grading, the XPS makes a strong case. For students and writers who value absolute portability and battery longevity, the Air remains the safer bet.

Pricing and Configurations: Worth the Premium?

Dell’s pricing ladder is steep. The base $1,299 model ships with a Core Ultra 5 125H, 8 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB SSD—a configuration we’d frankly avoid. 8 GB is barely adequate in 2024, and the Ultra 5 shows a noticeable dip in multi-core performance. A realistic entry point is the $1,599 mid-tier: Core Ultra 7, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, and the QHD+ touch panel. Upgrade to the OLED and 1 TB storage, and you’re looking at $1,849–$1,999 before any sales.

Apple offers better value at comparable memory points. The $1,299 MacBook Air M3 gives you 16 GB RAM and a 512 GB SSD, matching the XPS’s mid-tier for $300 less—and with longer battery life. Dell’s premium design and better connectivity (Wi-Fi 7, thunderbolt hubs included) claw back some of that gap, but value-conscious shoppers will notice the delta.

Verdict: Who Should Buy the XPS 13 9340?

The Dell XPS 13 9340 is a triumph of industrial design that pushes the Windows ultrabook forward. Its OLED display is gorgeous, its Core Ultra performance handles everyday work with aplomb, and its haptic trackpad is a joy to use. It’s sleek, it’s sexy, and—yes—it runs hot under pressure. Those thermal compromises, along with a divisive capacitive function row, give potential buyers real pause.

If you’re a Windows loyalist who values a statement piece and can tolerate a little fan noise, this XPS is the most exciting 13-inch laptop in years. If your priorities are raw battery endurance and silent operation, the MacBook Air M3 still holds the crown. And if you absolutely need physical function keys, look at the XPS 14 or a Lenovo Yoga. Ultimately, the 9340 earns its place as a forward-looking machine that dares to reimagine what a laptop should feel like—even if the future isn’t quite perfectly realized yet.

For more details, see Dell’s official product page and the Houston Chronicle review that sparked the discussion.