Dell is making just right on its tease from CES and in any case pronouncing a brand new XPS 13. The XPS 13 returns as a budget-friendly choice, launching in July at a promotional scholar value of $599 — although that introductory deal most effective runs till September for back-to-school buying groceries; it’ll get started at $699 for everybody else. The $599 promo precisely suits up with the MacBook Neo’s beginning value, however scholars can in reality get Apple’s price range computer for $100 much less. That suggests Dell has its paintings lower out proving that the XPS 13 is price the additional cash.
This shall be Dell’s thinnest and lightest XPS so far, measuring 0.5 inches / 12.7mm thick and weighing simply 2.2 kilos / 1kg. It’ll have simply two USB-C ports and no 3.5mm audio jack, identical to the final XPS 13 that price a lot more. It unfortunately received’t also have a devoted audio jack on greater finish configurations set to reach later with Intel Panther Lake chips and Thunderbolt 4 — which can move as much as 32GB of RAM.
The entry-level configuration gets you a six-core Intel Core 5 320 “Wildcat Lake” chip, 512GB of garage, and a lowly 8GB of RAM. (I’m noticing a pattern.) However the excellent news is that each config of the brand new XPS 13 may have a 13.4-inch anti-glare touchscreen with 2560 x 1600 answer, 30-120Hz variable refresh fee, 500 nits of brightness, and one hundred pc protection of the DCI-P3 colour house.
The XPS 13 will even have a backlit keyboard and a claimed “streaming” battery lifetime of as much as 17 hours. Dell reps say it must be environment friendly sufficient to final a scholar’s complete day of categories. There used to be no mincing of phrases about what Dell is concentrated on with the XPS 13, as COO Jeff Clarke known as out the MacBook Neo through title in an early media briefing. However whilst the XPS 13 is lighter than the Neo and has some extras the MacBook lacks like a backlit keyboard and higher-end configurations, the use of 8GB of RAM on Home windows 11 stays the gorilla within the room.
Dell additionally teased another factor it’ll display at Computex this week: The go back of an XPS with discrete graphics. It must game some point of Nvidia RTX GPU, an extra-bright tandem OLED display screen, a devoted HDMI port, and an SD card slot. There aren’t any additional main points to this point, however that seems like a larger and beefier XPS to compete with some MacBook Execs whilst the brand new XPS 13 weapons for the Neo.
The XPS 14 and XPS 16 fashions Dell reintroduced at CES corrected one of the most corporate’s previous errors when it killed the XPS emblem in 2025. However competing at $599 / $699 with the MacBook Neo shall be a more difficult take a look at for the revitalized emblem.
