The Dell XPS 13 is the primary actual competitor to the MacBook Neo

Dell’s final XPS 13 was meant to be a farewell earlier than the corporate sundown all the XPS model. But it was a bitter ending, and an overpriced one as nicely. Earlier this yr, Dell resurrected the XPS title with the wonderful (and really costly) XPS 14 and 16. And now, it’s reinvented the XPS 13 as a way more inexpensive thin-and-light to tackle the MacBook Neo.

Call it one other comeback.
The 2026 XPS 13 has the nicest {hardware} you’ll discover in a brand new $700 laptop computer exterior of Apple’s Neo. The core elements — the display, keyboard, trackpad, and audio system — are all nice or wonderful. It’s an beautiful bundle in a glossy and very skinny ultra-portable.

And not like different Windows 11 laptops that struggled to get by with 8GB of RAM, the XPS 13 feels competent even with that restricted reminiscence allocation. But though it’s nice that there’s an 8GB Windows laptop computer in 2026 that’s not lifeless on arrival, you’re nonetheless going to need the 16GB model (which I’ve additionally been testing) for $1,000. And sadly, no configuration of the XPS 13 features a headphone jack.

I’ve been testing two XPS 13 configurations with the identical six-core Intel Core 5 320 “Wildcat Lake” processor and 512GB SSD. Their singular distinction is reminiscence: The base $799.99 mannequin has 8GB of RAM and the $999.99 one has 16GB. I’ve been working off this pair fairly a bit for a pair weeks, and the {hardware} is good. When I bought them, that 8GB / 512GB configuration was the bottom mannequin and price $699.99. But in early September, Dell created a brand new $699.99 base mannequin with simply 256GB of storage, and raised the value of the 512GB fashions by $100 every. Sadly these sorts of pricing shenanigans are commonplace in our ongoing RAMageddon nightmare.

The XPS 13 is the nicest-looking and -feeling Windows laptop computer you’re going to search out at this value. It’s simply as glossy as a MacBook Neo or Air, and at 2.2 kilos / 1kg and 0.5 inches / 12.7mm thick, it’s lighter than the Air and nearly as skinny. The XPS is an beautiful laptop computer to carry, and it virtually disappears right into a bag. The display has a lot thinner bezels than a Neo, and it’s equally vibrant and colourful — however with 120Hz refresh and contact help quite than the Neo’s 60Hz non-touch display. It even has an anti-glare end the Neo doesn’t provide.

The audio system sound surprisingly good for such a compact laptop computer, providing a well-rounded sound that will get lots loud. The mechanical trackpad is small, even shorter than the Neo’s, however its solely main draw back is that it doesn’t bodily click on in all 4 corners. Even the webcam impressed me, rendering superb shade and dealing with poor gentle or backlighting simply positive. And the keyboard? Somebody inform Dell’s designers to place this good tactile chiclet-style keyboard on every little thing and quit on that latticeless look on different XPS laptops.

Battery life and thermals aren’t wonderful, however they’re sufficient. The backside chassis continuously warms your lap, with its hottest level reaching as excessive as 104 levels Fahrenheit / 40 levels Celsius, however the keyboard deck stays cool. As for the battery, it usually bought me seven hours of steady combined utilization (plenty of Chrome tabs, just a few video calls, and streaming just a few albums with the display on more often than not) or as much as 10 hours throughout a a lot lighter meeting-free day. I’d normally favor a thicker laptop computer for the sake of extra battery, however I’ve been smitten sufficient by the XPS’s small and lightweight body to really feel that is satisfactory — though the Neo lasts a number of hours longer on a good lower-capacity battery.

The XPS 13 has two 10Gbps USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports, one on both aspect, and each help charging and video-out. But why, oh why, does this laptop computer not have a headphone jack? Even in the event you hardly ever use 3.5mm audio it’s good to have as a fallback choice.

As for uncooked efficiency, each variations of the XPS 13 fall nicely behind the MacBook Neo’s A18 Pro in artificial benchmark checks like Geekbench, although the 16GB mannequin is considerably nearer in our Premiere 4K export take a look at. And the XPS’s six-core Wildcat Lake chip is night-and-day higher than the five-core model discovered within the Chuwi UniBook, which took over an hour to export. The further efficiency core and additional GPU core within the XPS 13 make a notable distinction, and so does its speedy storage. The XPS 13’s SSD learn velocity is almost thrice as quick because the Chuwi, and almost 4 occasions as quick because the Neo.

In day-to-day use of the XPS 13, 8GB of RAM really feels satisfactory, not like with the Chuwi and up to date Surface Laptop 13-inch. I’ve used it with none main failings or crashes, and it’s principally gotten by okay when all I ask of it’s easy web-based stuff. But having solely 8GB of reminiscence does often sluggish you down whereas multitasking. For instance, with a dozen or extra Chrome tabs open on it I often needed to anticipate my tabs to reload once I switched forwards and backwards between them. That’s a traditional Chrome characteristic to save lots of reminiscence, however it occurs rather a lot on the 8GB XPS 13. And once I was bouncing between a pair dozen Chrome tabs and messaging colleagues on Slack — not an uncommon workload — even tabs I had used simply minutes earlier than bought dumped from reminiscence and wanted to reload.

I used to be working late one evening, writing up some latest information, and slowly getting pissed off as these split-second delays added up. Switching tabs, swiping between digital desktops, swiping up into Windows’ Task View — all of it labored, however now and again the swipes and fast modifications felt a little bit slower. I then made the error of opening Adobe Photoshop to do just a few easy picture crops, and I out of the blue regretted life itself. It was the sort of edit that usually takes me a pair minutes, however each little drop-down menu or drag-and-drop in Photoshop felt excruciatingly sluggish.

These are the methods you continue to really feel the friction of 8GB of RAM on Windows, even in an in any other case good laptop computer. The 16GB XPS 13 doesn’t have those self same ache factors — not at this workload, no less than. Going as much as 16GB of RAM offers you sufficient headroom so Windows isn’t consistently making an attempt to reallocate reminiscence, and you may really do the occasional demanding job like opening and resizing an unexpectedly massive picture file. The XPS’s speedy SSD appears to assist in comparison with different 8GB laptops I’ve used not too long ago, however what helps much more? More RAM. It’s only a disgrace you’re paying an additional $300 to get it within the 16GB / 512GB XPS 13 config, which now prices $999.99 — it was a $200 upcharge mere weeks in the past.

While the MacBook Neo continues to be the clear winner in efficiency, the XPS 13 is its finest competitors but. Dell has positioned this as an inexpensive pupil laptop computer, identical to the Neo, and the corporate has principally nailed it — no less than within the US, the place the XPS 13 appears to be less expensive than in different areas (sorry, worldwide buddies). The fashions with 8GB RAM are even the identical value because the Neo, at $699.99 for 265GB of storage and $799.99 for 512GB.

At the time of this evaluation, Dell nonetheless presents a $100 low cost for highschool and school college students, matching Apple’s schooling low cost on the Neo. But the promo is momentary, whereas Apple’s personal $100 pupil low cost has no set expiration. You might nonetheless save rather more with a laptop computer just like the HP OmniBook 3 that I simply reviewed, getting you extra RAM, extra ports, higher battery life, barely extra efficiency (besides in graphics), and a a lot larger display for under $500-ish — however it’s a bulkier laptop computer that doesn’t really feel or look remotely as good because the XPS 13.

The MacBook Neo has jump-started new competitors on this $700-ish laptop computer area, all whereas RAMageddon rages on and makes every little thing costlier (together with the Neo itself). We’re about to see much more laptop computer makers launch their solutions to the Neo, and hopefully which means extra nice, inexpensive selections — for college students or simply about anybody in want. The XPS 13 is the frontrunner of MacBook Neo opponents for now, and it reveals that an 8GB Windows laptop computer can really work okay. But you must nonetheless get the 16GB mannequin in the event you can swing it.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge