Dell’s new, smaller, lighter, and nearly portless 2026 XPS 13 isn’t just hoping to compete with Apple’s cheapest MacBook on sleek looks. It also seeks to carve out a niche as the first to enter the PC market with a new Intel chip and a price tag sure to make both college students and Apple fans turn their heads.
Here’s the first thing you’ll want to pay attention to: the new version of the XPS 13 starts at $700. Students can nab it for $600. For that price, Dell promises you’ll get an all-CNC aluminum shell that won’t feel nearly as cheap as the traditional PC you’ll find at this price. From the jump, Dell is openly hoping to compete with the $600 MacBook Neo and its high-quality construction. And you know what? It’s been a hot minute since most manufacturers appeared serious about making affordable PCs that don’t feel as flimsy as a frisbee.
Dell promises even more amenities. The XPS 13 sports a touchscreen with a respectable 2,560 x 1,600 resolution. The backlit keyboard features a multi-touch trackpad that we can all hope isn’t terrible. The whole laptop weighs in at about 2.2 pounds, slightly less than the MacBook Neo’s 2.7 pounds. Plus, it’s a thin body at 12.7mm.
Dell’s laptop will feature Intel’s Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” chip. We’ve already seen the Intel Core 7 350 beat Apple’s A18 Pro, though only in multicore performance on a China-only Honor X14 model. We’re curious how well this lightweight notebook can run Windows, especially because the base model comes with just 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. You can upgrade to 16GB or 32GB of RAM or push the SSD to 1TB, though don’t expect those configurations to be nearly as cheap. If you want even more performance, you can opt for the Intel Core Ultra 7 355 Panther Lake chip.
The one thing you’ll miss from this shell is any extra I/O: it’s two USB-C ports, and that’s it. Acer recently showcased a low-end laptop featuring Qualcomm’s mysterious new Snapdragon C chip, which includes an HDMI port. The XPS 13 is mainly built for basic tasks, like browsing and streaming content, so don’t expect too much from the shell. If you want Thunderbolt 4 for higher data transfer speeds, you’ll need a Panther Lake SKU.
Apple’s MacBook Neo is still more affordable than Dell’s new product on the whole, especially if you’re lucky enough to find one for $500 with a student discount. Dell Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke told journalists in a briefing call that the PC maker wasn’t trying to “win the pricing war.” Instead, Clarke tried to push the idea that Dell’s new laptop was a better deal overall, with features like a 120Hz refresh rate that can also drop to 30Hz to save on battery life. The Liquid Retina display on the Neo maxes out at 60Hz.
The XPS 13’s price is a far cry from those of the company’s 14- and 16-inch XPS models. With recent price hikes, both laptops will cost you closer to $3,000 if you want an OLED display and a higher-end Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chip. If the new XPS can maintain that solid shell, it may be one of the very few PCs, in such a RAM-ravaged year, that look and feel good but don’t break the bank.
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