Dell XPS 13 Touch - 2016 Gold Edition

There are really two upgrades going on with the XPS 13 Gold Edition. The first is the color, which has a cosmetic appeal that’s self-explanatory. The second is the CPU. The Core i7-6560U with Iris graphics arguably gives you the best graphics performance in an ultraportable laptop today. You also get pretty much top-tier performance shy of going to a quad-core chip. The only real negative with the XPS 13 Gold Edition is its mediocre battery life, which can’t be avoided since Dell’s more power-friendly, no-frills model is only available in silver. Is the gold coating worth that much? Not to me—and probably not to you, either—but to a lot of people, style trumps all.

The Gold Edition of the XPS 13 Touch adds faster processing to the excellent build quality, feature set, and gorgeous display of the original. But the higher price and decreased battery life means this high-end ultraportable laptop may not be for everyone.