UMVA has learned that Dell has responded to the MacBook Neo with its own premium laptop, the XPS 13, priced at $599 for students and $699 for regular customers.
The XPS 13 boasts an aluminum case and features that Dell claims set it apart from the MacBook Neo, including a backlit keyboard and an OLED display with a variable refresh rate.
Dell's announcement is notable for its candid admission that Apple's MacBook Neo has pushed the company to up its game in terms of budget laptops. In its press release, Dell praises the MacBook Neo as a "capable machine" that has shown there's a strong appetite for premium quality at accessible prices.
It seems that Dell's perception of what "premium" means at this price point has shifted thanks to Apple's entry into the market. The company is now willing to deliver a high-end product at an affordable price, a move that suggests it didn't previously think customers were willing to pay for premium features.
The XPS 13 is powered by the new Intel Core Series 3 Wildcat Lake processor, which benchmarks suggest offers a 22 percent multi-core advantage over the A18 Pro chip in the MacBook Neo.
However, this advantage may only be noticeable when using apps that take advantage of multi-core processing, such as video or audio editors. For everyday tasks like browsing, emailing, and word processing, the difference may be negligible.
Memory is another story, with the XPS 13 starting at 8GB of RAM, the same as the MacBook Neo. While macOS is optimized for small amounts of RAM, Windows requires more memory to run smoothly, which may impact the XPS 13's performance over time.
The student pricing for the XPS 13 is only available until November 20, after which the price jumps to $699. In contrast, Apple's student pricing for the MacBook Neo remains unchanged, with no expiration date.
Ultimately, the choice for students comes down to whether to spend $599 on a MacBook Neo with an optimized operating system or an XPS 13 with a more powerful processor but potentially limited by its 8GB of RAM and Windows operating system.
