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Thunderbolt 3 Packs a Lot in the Highly Portable Dell XPS 13

The Dell XPS 13 9350 is the smaller 13" sibling of the Dell XPS 15 9550, both of whom make up the first series of Dell notebooks supporting Thunderbolt 3 over the USB Type-C connector.  

I purchased the Dell XPS 13 9350 from the Dell online store which shipped promptly.  The box for the XPS 13 was barely big enough to hold the notebook itself.  

Inside the box, the Dell XPS 13 doesn't come with any accessories which is unusual compared to the other newly released USB Type-C products which usually come with USB Type-C cables and power adapters.

Interestingly enough, like the XPS 15, the large AC power adapter is separately packed outside of the box.

The XPS 13 and XPS 15 basically have the same wired interfaces including SD card, USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gbs/s) over USB Type-A on one side.

On the other side of the XPS 13, you'll see another USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gbs/s) over USB Type-A port, AC power adapter, and 3.5 mm audio jack port.  Most interesting is the new USB Type-C interface that hasn't been seen on previous Dell XPS generations.  

Many of the first notebook products like the Apple MacBook (Early 2015) and the Google Chromebook Pixel (2015) which have USB Type-C only support USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s), video over DisplayPort 1.2, and power charging over USB Power Delivery 2.0.  Mobile phones like the LG Google Nexus 5X and Huawei Google Nexus 6P with USB Type-C only support USB 2.0 (480 Mb/s) speeds.  

With the XPS 13's USB Type-C port, you amazingly get USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gb/s) and Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gb/s) for blazing fast data transfers.  There is even enough bandwidth on the USB Type-C port to support two daisy chained 4K@60Hz displays or one 4K@120Hz over DisplayPort 1.2.  If you need even more graphics processing power than the Intel integrated GPU in the Dell XPS 13, Thunderbolt 3 lets you to connect an external GPU.  You can even network Thunderbolt 3 PC's over USB Type-C through built-in 10 Gb/s Ethernet networking.

Last but not least, if you don't to carry around a bulky AC adapter, you can use a USB Type-C charger, dock, display, or PC to charge your XPS 13.

The Dell XPS 13 9350 Laptop looks sharp at any angle and makes any desk that it's on look good.  If you don't like attracting attention, this laptop is not for you.

The XPS 13 is also extremely comfortable to use with its keyboard and track pad having a real quality feel.

There is a lot to like with the Dell XPS 13 9350 Laptop and it's packed with a lot of great features for its compact size.  If you want all this great connectivity but in a larger size, check out the Dell XPS 15 9550.