If you prioritize a light and compact laptop, the Dell XPS 13 Plus is sleek with a high-quality display, suitable for general use and portability. However, if your focus is on intensive tasks such as 3D rendering, machine learning, or gaming, the Gigabyte Aorus 15, equipped with a powerful graphics card and larger screen, will serve you better despite being heavier and with shorter battery life. The tradeoff with the Dell is in gaming and intensive tasks performance, and with the Gigabyte is in portability and battery life. Both are at a similar price point, so your choice should depend on your primary usage requirements. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Dell XPS 13 Plus
Very good for general use
Very good for software development
Very good overall build quality
Excellent portability
Very good battery life
Best in class speakers
Excellent keyboard
Advantages of the Gigabyte Aorus 15
Very good for gaming and AI
Key differences
Gaming and AI
6.4/10
8.0/10
3.8/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
8.3/10
3840 x 2400
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
165Hz
No
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
No
8.7/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
6.5/10
The Gigabyte Aorus 15 is very good for gaming and AI, while the Dell XPS 13 Plus is only fair.
PerfectRec’s Gaming and AI Score strongly emphasizes graphics processing capability, while also taking into account other factors that impact suitability for gaming and AI work.
Software Development
8.3/10
7.6/10
7.9/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
32.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
3840 x 2400
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
9.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.0/10
The Dell XPS 13 Plus is very good for software development, while the Gigabyte Aorus 15 is good.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
Screen Quality
8.4/10
8.0/10
13.4in
SIZE
15.6in
3840 x 2400
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
OLED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
165Hz
374.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
316.0 nits
The Dell XPS 13 Plus has a better screen than the Gigabyte Aorus 15 for general use, engineering and design, software development, and content creation, while the Gigabyte Aorus 15 has a better screen for gaming and AI.
For general use, the Dell XPS 13 Plus offers a high-resolution display with excellent brightness and color accuracy, making it an ideal choice for tasks like browsing and video streaming. When it comes to engineering and design, this laptop also excels with its color gamut coverage ensuring that professionals get precise color representation for their work. However, for gaming and 3D, the lower refresh rate on the Dell XPS might result in less fluid motion, whereas the Gigabyte Aorus 15, which is designed with gaming in mind, would typically offer a higher refresh rate essential for smooth gameplay, even though the screen quality in other respects is not optimal for that purpose.
Battery
10.0 Hours
6.0 Hours
The Dell XPS 13 Plus has 10 hours of battery life. The Gigabyte Aorus 15 has 6 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
Portability
Excellent
Fair
13.4in
SIZE
15.6in
2.7 lbs
WEIGHT
5.2 lbs
0.6in
THICKNESS
1.0in
The Dell XPS 13 Plus has excellent portability, while the Gigabyte Aorus 15 has only fair portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
8.5/10
7.4/10
The Dell XPS 13 Plus has very good build quality, while the Gigabyte Aorus 15 has good build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$1,849
$1,500
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
$3,000
The Dell XPS 13 Plus has a price of $1,849 and the Gigabyte Aorus 15 costs $1,500.
Although they have very similar scores, PerfectRec considers Dell XPS 13 Plus to be very good for general use, while the Gigabyte Aorus 15 is good.
PerfectRec’s General Use Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for general productivity, web browsing, streaming, video calls, and running a wide variety of apps and programs.
Engineering and Design
8.2/10
8.4/10
7.9/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
3.8/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
8.3/10
32.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
The Gigabyte Aorus 15 and Dell XPS 13 Plus are both very good for engineering and design.
The Dell XPS 13 Plus offers a high-quality OLED screen and high levels of RAM, which are beneficial for engineering design where detail and multitasking are key, though for heavier graphics work, the Gigabyte Aorus 15's superior GPU and larger screen might be more appropriate. While both are well-suited for engineering tasks, the Gigabyte Aorus 15, with its dedicated graphics card, caters to those needing more robust graphics processing, but sacrifices portability compared to the lighter and slimmer Dell.
Content Creation
8.3/10
8.0/10
7.9/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
3840 x 2400
RESOLUTION
2560 x 1440
32.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
OLED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
The Dell XPS 13 Plus and Gigabyte Aorus 15 are both very good for content creation.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
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How the Dell XPS 13 Plus and the Gigabyte Aorus 15 compare to other laptops
"The XPS 13 Plus is powerful, but has its drawbacks. Dell did not only update the processor generation, but also decided to offer two completely different models from now on. The XPS 13 Plus gets the faster Intel Alder Lake-P chips, and the Core i7-1260P in our review unit offers good performance figures. However, the device once again shows the problems of the current Intel CPUs, because the high performance requires a lot of power. This affects the battery runtime as well as temperatures, so the new model (even with the Optimized power profile) is louder than the older model."
"The Gigabyte Aorus 15 is a power-hungry gaming beast. The Aorus 15 is designed to run games at QHD and high to max settings. But it also cuts a good figure in other demanding applications such as video editing and rendering. This is made possible by the Core i7 12700H and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop inside the machine. A lightning-fast PCIe 4.0 SSD (1 TB) allows for short loading times."
Get a great deal on the Dell XPS 13 Plus or the Gigabyte Aorus 15
About Dell
Dell is a highly recognizable American technology company, and is one of the largest personal computer vendor by market share. Their laptops are very popular for both personal and professional use, and they also own the Alienware brand which makes mid to high end gaming laptops. Their premium XPS range of laptops offer great build quality and portability, while Latitude and Precision laptops are known for reliability, repairability and performance for business users.
About Gigabyte
Gigabyte is a Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer. While Gigabyte mainly focuses its business on desktop hardware, Gigabyte is known for its value-oriented G series laptops, thin and light Aero series, and performance-oriented Aorus series. Gigabyte laptops offer a strong value proposition to compete with mainstream alternatives.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
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