For a long time, if you wanted a genuinely premium ultraportable laptop without spending $1,000 or more, your realistic options were pretty limited. Apple had its corner of the market, and everyone else was either too bulky, too cheap-feeling, or too compromised to seriously compete. That started to change when Apple launched the MacBook Neo earlier this year – a colorful, affordable 13-inch Mac that made a lot of noise precisely because it proved Apple was willing to actually compete on price. Now, just a few months later, Dell has fired back with something that might be even more interesting: the new XPS 13, starting at $699 (or $599 for students). And if you look past the marketing, this machine makes a genuinely compelling case.

This isn’t a budget Dell. It’s not an Inspiron with an XPS badge slapped on it. Dell has been very deliberate about that distinction, and the context matters. The company briefly stepped back from the XPS brand entirely last year before announcing at CES 2026 that it was recommitting – with a promise to compete at every price point under the XPS name. That’s a big swing, and the new XPS 13 is where that promise either holds up or falls flat.

What Apple actually started

To understand why this launch matters, you need to understand what the MacBook Neo did to the market. Apple introduced the Neo as its entry-level MacBook – the first Mac ever built around an A-series chip (the A18 Pro, the same family used in iPhones) rather than the M-series found in every other Mac. It launched in March 2026 at $599, and the tech world lost its collective mind a little. Here was Apple, a company historically allergic to the sub-$1,000 laptop market, releasing something with all-day battery life, a clean aluminum design, and that famous macOS polish at a price that students and young professionals could actually consider.

But the Neo wasn’t perfect. It shipped with 8GB of unified memory, a 13-inch 60Hz display, no touch support, no backlit keyboard, and Wi-Fi 6E instead of the newer Wi-Fi 7 standard. For $599, those were acceptable trade-offs – but they were trade-offs. And Dell clearly took notes.

Dell’s answer is surprisingly complete

The new XPS 13 starts at $699 for everyone, or $599 for eligible students during the back-to-school season – putting it in a direct head-to-head with the MacBook Neo on price. But what Dell is packaging at that price is genuinely eyebrow-raising.

Every XPS 13 ships standard with a 2.5K IPS touchscreen running at up to 120Hz with variable refresh rate, a backlit keyboard, Intel Wi-Fi 7, quad speakers, Windows Hello biometric authentication, and faster USB-C ports running at 3.2 Gen 2. Not one of those features comes standard on the MacBook Neo. Apple’s machine runs at a constant 60Hz, lacks a touchscreen, and tops out at Wi-Fi 6E. If you’re building a feature checklist, Dell wins it cleanly.

The display deserves a moment of its own. Dell engineered it to cover 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut – the professional color standard used in cinema and photography workflows. That’s not a spec you typically see called out on a $699 laptop. The variable refresh rate technology automatically adjusts between 30Hz and 120Hz depending on what’s on screen, which does double duty: you get smooth scrolling and video when you need it, and the system pulls back to conserve battery when you don’t. Dell claims up to 17 hours of streaming battery life off a single charge.

Thinner and lighter than a MacBook

The physical story is just as interesting. At 12.7mm thin and exactly 1kg (2.2 pounds), Dell says the new XPS 13 is the thinnest and lightest XPS ever built. More pointedly, Dell’s own analysis shows it’s smaller and about half a pound lighter than the MacBook Neo, with a slightly larger 13.4-inch display compared to the Neo’s 13-inch screen. That’s a meaningful difference when you’re a student hauling a laptop across campus every single day, or a young professional already carrying a full bag through a commute.

The chassis is CNC aluminum – the same standard Dell uses across the entire XPS line – and comes in two finishes called Sky and Storm. Storm, along with the Core Ultra Series 3 configuration, is arriving later this summer, while the base Core Series 3 model is launching first. The design is intentionally minimal – a traditional touchpad, clean lines, and a build that’s meant to feel at home whether you’re in a coffee shop, a lecture hall, or a client meeting.

Under the hood

The base XPS 13 runs on Intel’s Core Series 3 processor (internally codenamed “Wild Lake”), with configurations starting at 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. For most people doing everyday computing – web browsing, streaming, document work, video calls – that’s perfectly adequate. The more capable Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” variant coming later this summer bumps things up significantly, supporting up to 32GB of LPDDR5X memory and up to 1TB of storage.

Connectivity is another area where Dell thought carefully. The Intel Core base model includes two USB-C ports running at USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds, while the Core Ultra version steps up to Thunderbolt 4. Both models include Wi-Fi 7 as standard – a spec that matters more than ever as Wi-Fi 7 routers become mainstream and the bandwidth gap between 6E and 7 starts showing up in real-world use.

One honest caveat worth mentioning: the XPS 13 uses a dual-fan thermal setup rather than Apple’s completely fanless design. In practice, that means you might occasionally hear the fans spin up under load, while the MacBook Neo stays silent in virtually every scenario. For most casual users, it’s a non-issue, but if you’re the type who works in very quiet environments and wants absolute silence, the Neo has an edge there.

The bigger picture

What makes this launch feel significant isn’t just the specs-per-dollar math. It’s what it signals about where the Windows laptop market is headed. For years, the honest advice was: if you want a sub-$1,000 laptop that’s genuinely worth living with, buy a MacBook. Dell just challenged that directly. And it’s doing so while also dealing with broader industry headwinds – memory shortages have pushed component costs higher across the board in 2026, yet Dell moved its most accessible XPS to a lower price point anyway. That’s a statement of intent.

Apple’s MacBook Neo proved there’s real appetite for quality at accessible prices. Dell’s response is essentially: “Agreed – and here’s what we think quality actually looks like at this price point.” Touch display, backlit keyboard, variable refresh rate, Wi-Fi 7, quad speakers, all-day battery life, lighter than a MacBook, and an aluminum build – for $699, or $599 if you’re a student.

Whether the XPS 13’s Intel Core chip can trade blows with Apple’s A18 Pro in real-world performance will be one of the more interesting benchmarks to watch once reviewers get their hands on the base model. Apple’s silicon efficiency has been remarkable, and the M-series track record makes even the A18 Pro a formidable chip for lightweight tasks. But Dell has clearly decided that raw performance is only one dimension of this fight – and on every other dimension, it’s shown up with a very strong argument.