"MacBook Neo is a good product, we made it better": here is the new Dell XPS 13

Apple has launched the MacBook Neo at $599, and it's a good product," explained Jeff Clarke, Vice President and CEO of Dell. "We simply made a better device." Thus began the presentation of the new XPS 13, a laptop aimed at students and professionals looking for a reliable device at a reasonable price.

The new XPS 13 is exactly that: practical, incredibly compact, reliable, and significantly cheaper compared to high-end products in the range. We are talking about the lightest and thinnest laptop ever made within the XPS range, while maintaining a chassis made entirely from CNC machined aluminum: just 12.75 mm when closed and less than 1 kg in total weight (almost 30% lighter than MacBook Neo).

But let’s start with the display, the true flagship of the proposal. XPS 13 features an InfinityEdge touchscreen display with a resolution of 2.5K, maximizing the available workspace. Regarding color fidelity, the panel covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color space, a standard used in photography and cinematography. Additionally, it supports a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, which automatically varies starting from 30 Hz to maximize battery life. The result? A remarkable 17 hours of video playback.

Under the hood, there are the new Intel Core Series 3 and Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors – the latter will arrive at a later date – paired with up to 32 GB of memory and up to 1 TB of SSD storage.

A true gem of the XPS 13, and a significant omission from the MacBook Neo, is the backlit keyboard. This is a standard for the XPS range, and Dell deemed it indispensable even for the more accessible models. For this reason, it is also found in all configurations of XPS 13, along with a truly generous trackpad.

Now, let’s talk about pricing. The new Dell XPS 13 will be offered at the same price as the MacBook Neo, with the difference that the base configuration provides double the storage space, i.e., 512 GB. Conversely, the RAM allocation remains the same, with the base model stopping at 8 GB, just like the Apple counterpart. In summary, the price will be $599 for students, which becomes €699 for consumer users.

Most likely, these prices will translate into €599 and €699 respectively, even though we currently do not know if Dell will participate in the student promotion in Italy. However, the Dell Advantage program already offers discounts for students and businesses, so it is almost certain that the same purchasing options will be replicated in the Bel Paese.