The Dell XPS 13 is the first real competitor to the MacBook Neo

Dell’s past XPS 13 was meant to beryllium a farewell earlier the institution sunset the full XPS brand. But it was a bitter ending, and an overpriced 1 arsenic well. Earlier this year, Dell resurrected the XPS sanction pinch the fantabulous (and very expensive) XPS 14 and 16. And now, it’s reinvented the XPS 13 arsenic a overmuch much affordable thin-and-light to return connected the MacBook Neo.

Call it different comeback.
The 2026 XPS 13 has the nicest hardware you’ll find successful a caller $700 laptop extracurricular of Apple’s Neo. The halfway components — the screen, keyboard, trackpad, and speakers — are each awesome aliases excellent. It’s an exquisite package successful a sleek and very bladed ultra-portable.

And dissimilar different Windows 11 laptops that struggled to get by pinch 8GB of RAM, the XPS 13 feels competent moreover pinch that constricted representation allocation. But moreover though it’s awesome that there’s an 8GB Windows laptop successful 2026 that’s not dormant connected arrival, you’re still going to want the 16GB type (which I’ve besides been testing) for $1,000. And sadly, nary configuration of the XPS 13 includes a headphone jack.

I’ve been testing 2 XPS 13 configurations pinch the aforesaid six-core Intel Core 5 320 “Wildcat Lake” processor and 512GB SSD. Their singular quality is memory: The guidelines $799.99 exemplary has 8GB of RAM and the $999.99 1 has 16GB. I’ve been moving disconnected this brace rather a spot for a mates weeks, and the hardware is brilliant. When I sewage them, that 8GB / 512GB configuration was the guidelines exemplary and costs $699.99. But successful early September, Dell created a caller $699.99 guidelines exemplary pinch conscionable 256GB of storage, and raised the value of the 512GB models by $100 each. Sadly these kinds of pricing shenanigans are commonplace successful our ongoing RAMageddon nightmare.

The XPS 13 is the nicest-looking and -feeling Windows laptop you’re going to find astatine this price. It’s conscionable arsenic sleek arsenic a MacBook Neo aliases Air, and astatine 2.2 pounds / 1kg and 0.5 inches / 12.7mm thick, it’s lighter than the Air and almost arsenic thin. The XPS is an exquisite laptop to hold, and it practically disappears into a bag. The surface has overmuch thinner bezels than a Neo, and it’s arsenic agleam and colorful — but pinch 120Hz refresh and touch support alternatively than the Neo’s 60Hz non-touch screen. It moreover has an anti-glare decorativeness the Neo doesn’t offer.

The speakers sound amazingly bully for specified a compact laptop, offering a well-rounded sound that gets plentifulness loud. The mechanical trackpad is small, moreover shorter than the Neo’s, but its only awesome downside is that it doesn’t physically click successful each 4 corners. Even the webcam impressed me, rendering very bully colour and handling mediocre ray aliases backlighting conscionable fine. And the keyboard? Somebody show Dell’s designers to put this bully tactile chiclet-style keyboard connected everything and springiness up connected that latticeless look connected different XPS laptops.

Battery life and thermals aren’t amazing, but they’re adequate. The bottommost chassis often warms your lap, pinch its hottest constituent reaching arsenic precocious arsenic 104 degrees Fahrenheit / 40 degrees Celsius, but the keyboard platform stays cool. As for the battery, it typically sewage maine 7 hours of continuous mixed usage (lots of Chrome tabs, a fewer video calls, and streaming a fewer albums pinch the surface connected astir of the time) aliases up to 10 hours during a overmuch lighter meeting-free day. I’d usually for illustration a thicker laptop for the liking of much battery, but I’ve been smitten capable by the XPS’s mini and ray framework to consciousness this is passable — moreover though the Neo lasts respective hours longer connected an moreover lower-capacity battery.

The XPS 13 has 2 10Gbps USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports, 1 connected either side, and some support charging and video-out. But why, ohio why, does this laptop not person a headphone jack? Even if you seldom usage 3.5mm audio it’s bully to person arsenic a fallback option.

As for earthy performance, some versions of the XPS 13 autumn good down the MacBook Neo’s A18 Pro successful synthetic benchmark tests for illustration Geekbench, though the 16GB exemplary is importantly person successful our Premiere 4K export test. And the XPS’s six-core Wildcat Lake spot is night-and-day amended than the five-core type recovered successful the Chuwi UniBook, which took complete an hr to export. The other capacity halfway and other GPU halfway successful the XPS 13 make a notable difference, and truthful does its speedy storage. The XPS 13’s SSD publication velocity is astir 3 times arsenic accelerated arsenic the Chuwi, and astir 4 times arsenic accelerated arsenic the Neo.

In day-to-day usage of the XPS 13, 8GB of RAM really feels passable, dissimilar pinch the Chuwi and caller Surface Laptop 13-inch. I person utilized it without immoderate awesome failings aliases crashes, and it’s mostly gotten by okay erstwhile each I inquire of it is elemental web-based stuff. But having only 8GB of representation does occasionally slow you down while multitasking. For example, pinch a twelve aliases much Chrome tabs unfastened connected it I occasionally had to hold for my tabs to reload erstwhile I switched backmost and distant betwixt them. That’s a normal Chrome characteristic to prevention memory, but it happens a batch connected the 8GB XPS 13. And erstwhile I was bouncing betwixt a mates twelve Chrome tabs and messaging colleagues connected Slack — not an different workload — moreover tabs I had utilized conscionable minutes earlier sewage dumped from representation and needed to reload.

I was moving precocious 1 night, penning up immoderate recent news, and slow getting disappointment arsenic those split-second delays added up. Switching tabs, swiping betwixt virtual desktops, swiping up into Windows’ Task View — it each worked, but each truthful often the swipes and speedy changes felt a small slower. I past made the correction of opening Adobe Photoshop to do a fewer elemental image crops, and I abruptly regretted life itself. It was the benignant of edit that usually takes maine a mates minutes, but each small drop-down paper aliases drag-and-drop successful Photoshop felt excruciatingly slow.

These are the ways you still consciousness the clash of 8GB of RAM connected Windows, moreover successful an different superb laptop. The 16GB XPS 13 doesn’t person those aforesaid symptom points — not astatine this workload, astatine least. Going up to 16GB of RAM gives you capable headroom truthful Windows isn’t perpetually trying to reallocate memory, and you tin really do the occasional demanding task for illustration opening and resizing an unexpectedly ample image file. The XPS’s speedy SSD seems to thief compared to different 8GB laptops I’ve utilized recently, but you cognize what helps moreover more? More RAM. It’s conscionable a shame you’re paying an other $300 to get it successful the 16GB / 512GB XPS 13 config, which now costs $999.99 — it was a $200 upcharge specified weeks ago.

While the MacBook Neo is still the clear victor successful performance, the XPS 13 is its champion title yet. Dell has positioned this arsenic an affordable student laptop, conscionable for illustration the Neo, and the institution has mostly nailed it — astatine slightest successful the US, wherever the XPS 13 seems to beryllium overmuch cheaper than successful different regions (sorry, world friends). The models pinch 8GB RAM are moreover the aforesaid value arsenic the Neo, astatine $699.99 for 265GB of retention and $799.99 for 512GB.

At the clip of this review, Dell still offers a $100 discount for precocious schoolhouse and assemblage students, matching Apple’s acquisition discount connected the Neo. But the promo is temporary, whereas Apple’s ain $100 student discount has nary group expiration. You could still prevention overmuch much pinch a laptop for illustration the HP OmniBook 3 that I conscionable reviewed, getting you much RAM, much ports, amended artillery life, somewhat much capacity (except successful graphics), and a overmuch bigger surface for only $500-ish — but it’s a bulkier laptop that doesn’t consciousness aliases look remotely arsenic bully arsenic the XPS 13.

The MacBook Neo has jump-started caller title successful this $700-ish laptop space, each while RAMageddon rages connected and makes everything much costly (including the Neo itself). We’re astir to spot moreover much laptop makers motorboat their answers to the Neo, and hopefully that intends much great, affordable choices — for students aliases conscionable astir anyone successful need. The XPS 13 is the frontrunner of MacBook Neo competitors for now, and it shows that an 8GB Windows laptop tin really activity okay. But you should still get the 16GB exemplary if you tin plaything it.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge