Dell Takes Aim at the MacBook Neo, Releases $599 XPS 13 Laptop

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It looks like it'll be a hit for students.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor

Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.

Expertise Laptops | Desktops | All-in-one PCs | Streaming devices | Streaming platforms

3 min read

Apple reset the budget laptop market earlier this year when it debuted the MacBook Neo, a machine with a design superior to anything near its price of $599 and enough performance for most students. It was only a matter of time before Windows laptop-makers responded, and Dell has answered with the XPS 13. The XPS is Dell's premium brand, but it's built an entry-level XPS 13 model for students that gets it close to what they'd pay for a Neo.

The XPS 13 follows on the heels of Dell relaunching its XPS line with the XPS 14 and XPS 16. The XPS 13 is available now, starting at $699, and students can buy it for $599. That's $100 more than the baseline Neo that costs $499 with Apple's education discount, but the XPS 13 has a few advantages over the Neo.

Watch this: I Checked Out the $699 Dell XPS 13, and It's the MacBook Neo's Biggest Threat

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Campus fight: Dell XPS 13 vs. MacBook Neo

You can't take on a MacBook without delivering a sleek, all-metal design, and it appears Dell did just that with the XPS 13. The aluminum chassis is thin at just 0.5 inches thick and weighs only 2.2 pounds. That's a half a pound lighter than the Neo.

Based on a 13.4-inch LCD display with a 2.5K resolution, variable refresh rate up to 120Hz and touch support, the XPS 13 provides a slightly larger display than the Neo. The Neo's display also isn't a touchscreen and hums along at a standard 60Hz.

The $599 XPS 13 has a six-core Intel Core 5 320 processor and integrated Intel Graphics with two Xe GPU cores, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. The Neo also starts you out with a six-core CPU in the A18 Pro along with 8GB of RAM but only a 256GB SSD.

The step-up XPS 13 model with 16GB of RAM costs $899. Dell will expand the XPS 13 line upward "later this summer" with an eight-core Core Ultra 7 355 processor with four Xe GPU cores, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. Dell has yet to share pricing info for these higher-end options.

There are four other features that favor the XPS 13: speakers, biometrics, wireless networking and keyboard backlighting. The XPS 13 has quad speakers to the Neo's pair of stereo speakers, so audio output is likely better with the XPS 13. It also has a Windows Hello webcam so you can use facial recognition for easy, secure logins. Without an IR webcam or fingerprint scanner, the Neo has a distinct lack of biometrics. The XPS 13 offers Wi-Fi 7 networking, and the Neo does previous-gen Wi-Fi 6E. Lastly, the XPS 13 has keyboard backlighting for late-night term papers and study sessions, and the Neo does not.

Dell offers a vague battery life claim that it's "targeting up to 17 hours of streaming" with the XPS 13. That would give students a longer leash on a single charge than with the Neo, which lasted 13.5 hours on our video streaming battery drain test. We'll need to test the XPS 13 to confirm Dell's 17-hour figure, but we've seen good results so far with laptops based on Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 processors, so 17 hours isn't out of the question.

One item in the Neo's favor: color. Apple offers the MacBook Neo in three cheerful hues, plus basic silver. The XPS 13 comes in two colors -- sky and storm -- and from the photos, they each look like a different shade of gray or silver.

XPS 13 student discount details

Dell's $100 discount for the XPS 13 is available to college students and high school students 16 years old and up. So, basically high school sophomores and older. (Sorry, freshmen.) The $599 student pricing for the XPS 13 is available now through Nov. 2.

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MATT ELLIOTT

Senior Editor

Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch. See full bio