


The XPS 13 is more flamboyant, with a silver aluminum lid and chassis bottom contrasted with the black or white keyboard deck.

That doesn’t mean it’s boring - you can choose from three colors, space gray, gold, and silver. It retains the wedge shape that MacBook Airs have always sported, and it exudes quiet elegance. Both laptops enjoy hinges that allow the display to be opened with one hand, while the XPS 13 incorporates a dual hinge that’s remarkably fluid.Īesthetically, the MacBook Air M1 presents a simpler appearance, being a single color throughout other than the black keycaps. The latter makes the XPS 13 a bit warmer and more inviting thanks to the very comfortable palm rest, while the MacBook Air M1 is all cold metal. Still, it retains the same hybrid design of aluminum in the lid and bottom chassis and a choice of black carbon fiber or white glass fiber in the keyboard deck. The XPS 13 has received some minor refinements over the last several generations. It feels like a fusion of glass and metal in hand, with no twisting, bending, or flexing. It’s the same unibody construction from CNC machined aluminum with as solid a build quality as you’ll find on a laptop today. The MacBook Air M1 is essentially unchanged in its design from its Intel-based predecessor.
