When I heard there was a new Dell XPS 13 laptop, I wasn’t surprised; Dell’s been rebuilding that brand over the last year. What really grabbed my attention was that the new XPS 13 starts at just $700 ($600 with a student discount), which is huge for any laptop that carries Dell’s flagship XPS brand. That price also puts it in direct competition with Apple’s MacBook Neo, which redefined the $599 laptop earlier this year before the AI-based memory crisis pushed it to $699. So I was very excited to test the XPS 13 out for myself and see how it measured up against the latest XPS 14, the MacBook Neo and even the Chromebook we love. Here’s what I learned and what surprised me.
Dell XPS 13 Laptop
This laptop offers a great light and thin design that’s ergonomically better than the XPS 14, while it delivers a better screen than you’d expect and good performance for a budget laptop.
Surprisingly good design and keyboard for a value laptop
The XPS 13 doesn’t look or feel cheap, and that’s a minor miracle for a $700 laptop. It’s remarkably thin and more ergonomic than the pricier Dell XPS 14 because the wide front divot makes it easy to open with a single finger. I also like that the XPS 13’s whole keyboard lights up when you tap the F6 button; this beats the MacBook Neo, which is slightly harder to type on in the dark because it doesn’t come with a backlit keyboard.
