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Should you buy a Dell XPS 13 on Black Friday 2021?

Black Friday deals are coming soon, and it remains one of the most significant shopping holidays of the year. If you’re on the hunt for a new laptop, you’ve probably come across the Dell XPS 13, which is still currently our pick for the best laptop you can buy right now.

But will it be a good purchase on Black Friday? Yes, but there’s also a reason to be looking for deals now.

  • View Dell XPS 13 Black Friday Deals

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Black Friday is the best time to buy a Dell XPS 13 — but shop early deals

Laptops in general are a popular item to shop for on Black Friday, and the Dell Black Friday deals should be first on your list. It will likely see some decent discounts on the day of, but there’s good reason to start shopping now.

The ongoing chip shortage, in addition to troubles with the supply chain, means deliveries could be significantly delayed again this holiday season. Buying one of the Black Friday laptop deals on the shopping holiday itself means your discounted new laptop might not show up quite in time.

Furthermore, you can buy a Dell XPS 13 at a discount right now, one of the best Dell laptop deals going on. The best place to buy a Dell XPS 13 right now is on Dell’s own website, where you can get the latest model (9310) for $1,170. That configuration comes with an 11th-gen Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.

Why buy a Dell XPS 13?

The Dell XPS 13 9310 open on a table.
Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

The Dell XPS 13 is one of the very best laptops you can buy, specifically if you’re looking for something sleek, thin, and powerful. You can identify the latest model number as 9310, which is the model we would recommend.

It features the latest chassis design, getting you the larger 13.4-inch 16:10 display. It has extremely narrow bezels, including along the bottom, making for the sleekest, most modern-looking laptop you can buy.

Interestingly, Dell also offers the 9305 as an alternative. It’s much cheaper, despite using the latest 11th-gen Intel processors. While it uses the older chassis, which includes a 16:9 13.3-inch screen and a larger bottom bezel. If you don’t mind the older look of the chassis, there’s no reason the 9305 wouldn’t suit you well. It should be every bit as powerful and portable as the 9310.

The Dell XPS 13 9305, which uses the older chassis with the larger bottom bezel.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Dell XPS 13 offers higher-end configurations as well, including up to 32GB of RAM, 2TB of storage, and a 4K screen. Spending this much money on an XPS 13, though, likely isn’t worth the money. Nothing you can actually do on an XPS 13 would require 32GB of RAM, and the 4K screen hurts battery life.

If you need a laptop with some extra power, the XPS 15 is a much better option. You can add discrete graphics and up to an 8-core processor, which makes it a far more capable machine for content creation.

Luke Larsen
Luke Larsen is the Senior editor of computing, managing all content covering laptops, monitors, PC hardware, Macs, and more.
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