Dell enters the PC laptop/tablet hybrid game with the XPS 12. As Walt Mossberg tells us, it is a very clever take on the concept, but its cost, battery life, and bulkiness reaffirms how tricky the blending of two devices can be. (Photo: Dell)

Welcome to another in our series of reviews on efforts by Windows PC makers to make laptops that are also tablets, with very little success. This time, the attempt comes from Dell and is especially creative, and even kind of cool. But as with many other convertible laptops, it still results in a computer that's a perfectly fine laptop, but a thick, heavy tablet.


Dell has been in the news lately mainly due to a proposed corporate restructuring, but that topic won't be addressed here. The company still makes PCs for consumers. So I have been testing its flagship convertible, the XPS 12, a Windows 8 ultrabook that starts at a pricey $1,200, and has a vivid, bright 12.5-inch touch screen.


Then, close the lid so the screen is facing up. Dell



I found this method easy and reliable, and commendably innovative from a company that hasn't historically been hailed for industrial design. I found it a bit quicker and less of a hassle than some of the other mode-shifting techniques I've tested.

However, as with all of its competitors I've tested that don't completely separate the screen and the keyboard, the XPS 12 doesn't make for a very usable tablet, both for hardware and software reasons. The hardware weighs 3.35 pounds, more than double the weight of the heaviest iPad. At its thickest point, it's twice as thick as an iPad. It's also much larger.


And then there's the software. Although it's now six months old, Microsoft's Windows 8, in my view, hasn't made much progress in improving its tabletlike aspect, the Start Screen. Its core Start Screen apps, like email and calendar, while improved, are still crude. The latest insult: You can no longer directly sync Google calendar data to the new Windows 8 calendar app. And its store still lacks key apps common on Apple and Android tablets, such as an official version of Facebook, or the popular news app, Flipboard.





Battery life is a big downside on this Dell. In my tough laptop test, where I turn off power-savings software, crank up the screen to 100%, leave the Wi-Fi on to collect email, and play a continuous loop of music, the XPS 12 lasted just 3 hours and 31 minutes. That's awful compared with the 6 hours and 13 minutes I got on the 13-inch MacBook Air in the same test.

In more normal use, with power-saving on, I suspect you could get 4 to 5 hours on the XPS 12, but that's still nothing to write home about.

And there's one more issue with this Dell: available storage. Of the 128 gigabytes on the solid state drive, only 102 were available to me out of the box. Dell explains this is because of things like the space claimed by Windows 8, and an Intel system that guarantees fast starting and resuming.

One consideration for consumers buying any Dell product is the company's proclaimed strategy to cater mainly to business customers. But Dell executives insisted they remain committed to the consumer market.

Dell deserves credit for a clever flip screen design in the XPS 12. But it's very hard to make a computer that's both a great laptop and a great tablet, even if the operating system contains elements of both.

—Find all of Walt Mossberg's columns at the All Things Digital website, Email