Nicely, we did not see this one coming. After all of the discuss of how Apple has fully modified the panorama of price range laptops with its MacBook Neo, Dell has come out preventing and is providing its new XPS 13 for a similar $599 value, which is roughly half that of its predecessor. Nonetheless, there’s a catch, which is that this Dell XPS 13 value is barely obtainable to college students.
Nonetheless, it isn’t that a lot of a catch; the Dell XPS’s beginning value is simply $699 for non-students, too. What’s extra, the model obtainable at this value nonetheless contains all of the options that make the Dell XPS 13 probably the greatest laptops round. This features a premium aluminium chassis, 2.5K touchscreen show, and spectacular battery life.
these specs in additional element, there actually is not quite a bit that differentiates this machine from the earlier, far costlier, XPS 13 fashions, and there are a number of gadgets that put it above the MacBook Neo. Specifically, the display you get right here is just not solely touchscreen, however 0.4 inches bigger and with a barely increased 2560 x 1600 decision (vs the two,408 × 1,506 of the Neo). The 500nit-brightness LCD additionally delivers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour house, for ultra-vivid colours, and has a 2,000:1 distinction ratio.
Dell XPS 13 2026 specs
MacBook Neo specs
CPU
Intel Core 5 320 or Intel Core Extremely 7 355
Apple A18 Professional
CPU cores
2 x P-cores and 4 x LP E-cores or 4 x P-cores and 4 x LP E-cores
2 P-cores, 4 E-cores
RAM
32GB
8GB
Built-in GPU
Intel Graphics with 2 x Xe cores (20 TOPS) or Intel Graphics with 4 x Xe cores (40 TOPS)
5-core Apple GPU
Show
13.4-inch, 2,560 x 1,600 LCD, 100% DCI-P3, 2,000:1 distinction, 500nits, touchscreen
13.0-inch, 2,408 x 1,506 LCD, 74% DCI-P3, 1,400:1 distinction, 500nits
Keyboard
Normal laptop computer structure with out numpad, backlit
Normal laptop computer structure with out numpad, not backlit
Claimed battery life
17 hours video playback
16 hours video playback
Value
$699 ($599 for college kids)
$599 ($499 for college kids)
The brand new Dell XPS 13 additionally features a backlit keyboard, which Dell Vice Chairman and COO, Jeff Clarke, describes as a characteristic that’s “a mistake to not embrace,” in a not-so-subtle dig at what’s arguably the MacBook Neo’s largest compromise.
As to that aluminium construct, the entire exterior chassis is constructed from the stuff, and, regardless of this, Dell has truly managed to make this new Dell XPS 13 markedly lighter than the MacBook Neo. It weighs simply 1kg (2.2lbs) versus the Neo’s 1.2kg (2.7lbs).
One other shock is that this laptop computer contains 32GB of RAM as normal. Contemplating the present RAM value disaster is forcing many PC players to think about shopping for simply 16GB for his or her system, together with 32GB is a large bonus. And once more, it is a huge step up from the Neo, which has simply 8GB of RAM.
As for battery life, Dell claims the XPS 13 2026 will final 17 hours when streaming 4K video through Netflix. This longevity comes from the decent-sized 65Wh battery and the effectivity of the Intel CPUs used within the new laptop computer.
On which, the usual model of the Dell XPS 13 2026 will use the Intel Core 5 320 (Wildcat Lake) CPU, which is a six-core chip operating at as much as 4.6GHz and with a fundamental two-Xe-core GPU. In the meantime, there can even be a model with the Intel Core Extremely 7 Processor 355, which is an eight-core chip operating at as much as 4.7GHz and relies on the Panther Lake structure, with its extra highly effective four-Xe-Core GPU.
Neither configuration will likely be a lot of a gaming laptop computer, however each will be capable of run some older titles, and the Panther Lake model ought to be capable of stretch to at the very least having the ability to run some extra fashionable titles, even when at low resolutions and element settings.
