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When Apple launched their MacBook Neo earlier this year, this was very disruptive because this was a good performing laptop with great build quality and an incredible price point. This was like 600 bucks, 500 bucks for students. And when it launched, the entire like Windows laptop space felt uncomfortable because this was it was very difficult to compete against. Like all the manufacturers were like, "Okay, now this thing exists, what do we do?" Now, the one and only company so far that has come out with what I think is a real competitor is this product right here. So, this is from Dell. This was announced a couple weeks ago at Computex. This is their new XPS 13.
I saw it, I reached out to Dell. I'm like, "Okay, give me your cheapest one, like the entry-level one that is also priced at a very similar price point." So, this thing is 700 or like 699 for a regular and then for students uh 599. Now, I specifically asked for the 8 GB entry-level model, the one that's that price point because I wanted to see what the experience was if you compare it directly to the MacBook Neo. Now, on paper, the XPS 13 is objectively better than the MacBook Neo in many ways. The screen on the XPS is a little bit bigger. It also has a higher refresh rate, goes up to 120 Hz, and it's also a touch-capable screen. It's running a new chip, and the base model of the XPS also
only has 8 gigs of RAM like the MacBook Neo, but you can configure it with more if you want. The XPS also has upgradeable storage, and the keyboard on the XPS has backlighting. Uh it's got higher bandwidth ports that can handle multiple external displays. It has faster Wi-Fi, and it's also listed as having more speakers than the Neo, but we'll come back to that. Now, the first thing I noticed when I picked this thing out of the box is that this is very well built. I mean, it is an XPS product, and the legacy of the brand is like you would kind of expect it to be well built, but it is one-hand openable for one, but it's like because of the price point, I just imagined in my head that
somehow they'd cut corners somehow to just make this fit that price point. It feels exactly like an XPS product should and would. Now, if you compare it to the Neo side by side or just like in hand, they're both well-built, but the Neo does seem a little bit more durable. Like the frame of it seems that if I dropped it and I also dropped an XPS, the Neo would take less damage somehow than the XPS. It's just a little bit I don't know, beefier in that sense. That being said, the XPS product here is the best $600 Windows laptop on the market. Usually at this price point you are dealing with plastic or like stamped metal, but this is machined. The screens, let's start here.
The screen on the XPS is definitely better than the one on the MacBook. Similar brightness, but the colors are measurably better on the XPS. It's got slightly bigger panel with thinner bezels. The higher refresh rate is nice, but these aren't gaming laptops, right? You do need to play like undemanding 2D titles with that get 120 frames per second in games, but for regular Windows use like just your UI and just being in Windows, all the animations are a little bit smoother when you have that nice refresh rate. It's something I value, but it's definitely not important to everyone. Uh and in terms of speakers, MacBooks in general have excellent speakers. The ones on the Neo were a little bit disappointing. These just
don't sound as good as I would expect. The XPS 13 with its more speakers, because it has four instead of two as advertised, I was expecting these to somehow be better. They are so not. These actually sound significantly worse than the ones on the Neo. I don't know if it's like early drivers or something else, but these are just not great speakers. Same thing applies to the webcam and the mic. So, I've obviously gotten a haircut before shooting this demo, but this is the camera and microphone from the XPS 13 and then this is a camera and microphone on the MacBook Neo. It is significantly better. The keyboard, however, on the XPS is excellent. This is way better
than the one on the Neo simply because of the fact that it has backlighting. So, the actual typing experience is solid. The keys feel responsive and I type fast on it, but the backlighting on this is just so important. Like, these are products geared towards students, right? And, you know, even in a dim lecture hall, like there's just often scenarios where having backlighting is just critical. And the fact that it doesn't exist on the Neo, like we know why it's not there, right? They wanted the product segregation. Apple wants to sell you that whole MacBook Air for like, you know, 500 bucks more. But, I'm just so glad that XPS 13 has it. And many people might look at the spec list and be like, "Ah, whatever.
That's fine. I don't need it." But, there'll be times, like for sure, on an airplane, somewhere, where you just can't see your keyboard very well and you want to change like the volume or the brightness or something where you just don't know where the key is and you're like, "I can't see it." You got to do the whole like tilt your screen down to light up your keyboard and then find the key and then press it. It's super annoying. Uh the trackpad on the XPS 13 is also really good. This is a mechanical trackpad just like the Neo and this feels really nice. I don't think there's anything I would complain about in terms of like size or anything.
It is uh kind of keyboard focused in terms of sizing and it's just a small trackpad, but I like it. I think this feels and tracks really nicely. Looking at performance, this is running Intel's new Core i5 320 chip. This has pretty good CPU and GPU benchmarks and it is aimed at the entry-level market. When I'm using the XPS for normal or light computing tasks, like browsing the web or catching up on news, typing an email, typing a document, this feels super responsive. There's no issue with it whatsoever. It just feels like a very smooth experience even if you have a lot of tabs open. And I would say that the experience between the XPS 13 and the Neo is largely the same when it comes to
just like normal/light computing tasks. However, if you have a more RAM-intensive application open in the background, like let's say, I do this a lot, I'll have Adobe Premiere open and I'll be alt-tabbed in a browser doing stuff, both of them can hiccup, for sure. Here and there, it happens. I feel like the XPS 13 does it a little more frequently than the Neo. It's not often at all, but experience-wise, it has a little bit of a hiccup more noticeable in this one. Now, if you run the very unrealistic scenario where, let's say I have like four videos playing while also running a video editing program while also playing like a game in the background while having a bunch of Chrome tabs open and I run both of these systems. I find that the
MacBook is just way better at handling that workflow. Now, is that a realistic workflow? Not at all. Like, no one works like that. I don't think that it's meant to simulate a realistic workflow, but I think what it does indicate is that the RAM swapping in macOS is just better. It's fluid and makes it a usable experience if even if you throw stupid unrealistic workflows at it. But, the XPS 13 with Windows 11 can make that RAM limitation feel a little bit more potent. Now, neither of these devices are great for video editing. They're both entry-level systems, right? But, if I had to pick between the two, like the better one, I'd say the MacBook Neo. The GPU capabilities are just a little bit better, at least in Premiere. It's just
a little smoother on the edits. There is another thing, though. So, on the XPS device, there is no audio jack. So, if you have an external drive for your like your media connected up to this, and let's say you have, you know, a power cable connected to the other one, there's no audio jack, so you would have to use a Bluetooth connected audio. But, now you have latency for like lag, right? So, if you need like millisecond precise audio, you would have to have a USB-C audio thing, and then now you're down to one port. Uh it's not something that's important to most people, but if you do need precise audio for timing, no audio jack. Okay, the battery life on straight video playback is better on the
XPS 13 by a little bit, but they're pretty similar when it comes to just light workloads. The XPS 13 does have a pair of fans on the inside. It doesn't come on very often, but when it does, it is audible. Like if you're installing a big piece of software or if you're playing a game something, it will kick in. And it's quiet, but it is noticeable. The Neo is fanless. So, the overall experience for the XPS 13 is quite good. And for the $700 that the entry-level product gets you, it's surprisingly good. There is a bit of a caveat though. So, for one, this is a time-limited price. I don't know exactly for how long it'll last. I think, you know, they're trying to get students into this thing, so I guess into the
fall, but this pricing will eventually change. And as to how much it changes to, I don't know. I don't even know if Dell at this point has that exact number. But, this is a variable price depending on like the RAM situation and the storage pricing situation. So, as it stands, this is a phenomenal price. Like if you look at the market right now, Dell is the only company that's offering something like this in the Windows space at this price point. Literally, no one else is doing it to my understanding. And I think they can't maintain this price for all that long, right? Cuz who knows how this stuff is going to play out in terms of the pricing of stuff. So, right now, if you get this or if you
get it before the price changes, I think you're getting a great value. I understand that as this thing as you throw more RAM into this system, obviously the price jacks up. And you could argue that, you know, at 16 gigs or 32 gigs, this is an awesome system. But at that point, the price is like so high up there that you're now comparing it to other systems and like MacBook Air, MacBook Pro pricing that it's it's a separate conversation. I'm only looking at this thing from the perspective of the cheapest versions, like the base entry level. And so, for that extra $100 that the XPS 13 costs, you get a lot. You really do. Uh the overall user experience, I think, is just markedly better. However, it's only at that price. I think the
moment the price fluctuates or you start throwing configurations and stuff, everything goes out the window and I no longer have a comment on it. It's just the entry-level price. I'm like, this is it's good. Uh okay. There you have it. The XPS 13.
