OLED remains strangely rare among laptops.
Yet its arrival in the XPS 13 might be a case of too little, too late.
Why OLED?
Matthew S. Smith / Lifewire
OLED is self-emissive, which means each individual pixel creates its own light.
Yet they fail when displaying photos or dark, atmospheric movies.
The real competition isnt the MacBook Pro.
Matthew S. Smith / Lifewire
Dells XPS 13 with OLED doesnt have that problem.
Shadows have true depth, providing a sense of presence and realism not found from competing LCD laptop displays.
This advantage isnt just for 4K movies or high-res photos.
On the contrary, I appreciate it most when doing what Im doing at this very moment: writing.
The Dell XPS 13s OLED looks distinct from LCD laptops.
OLED often lacks the brightness of LCD rivals, and Dells XPS 13 doesnt handle this glitch.
Thats enough for use in a typical room with modest light control.
The display rarely feels dim.
However, Dell claims the screen has an anti-reflective coating, which, frankly, is ridiculous.
The OLEDs maximum brightness cant compete with glare from bright overhead lights or a sunlit window.
This also leads to disappointing HDR.
OLED also skews towards a white point thats cool and green, and Dell hasnt resolved this problem.
Scenes that rely on bright, white highlights, like a snowy mountaintop, can look unnatural.
This isnt the flawless victory Dell and OLED fans might hope for.
And the real competition isnt the MacBook Pro.
Its Apples iPad Pro 12.9 with the new Liquid Retina XDR display,which is based on Mini-LED technology.
Its almost as good as OLED when displaying dark scenes, but destroys it in HDR.
The new iPad Pros display has a peak brightness of up to 1,600 nits, with 600 nits sustained.
