Dell XPS 13 bets on lightness, premium design and affordable price

The American manufacturer Dell is officially returning to the world market the line of its legendary Dell XPS 13 ultrabooks. The brand plans to compete seriously and aggressively with Apple’s MacBook Neo device. Making an important bet on the perfect balance of record lightness, premium aesthetics of the metal body and pleasant pricing, Dell expects to rewrite the standards of mobile computers running Windows.

The new incarnation of the XPS 13 is truly the most comfortable and incredibly light representative of this legendary brand line. The device is created in an all-metal aluminum case of increased strength, demonstrating minimalistic and elegant features without compromising on comfortable autonomous operation or technological potential.

Technical specifications

The computer offers a very large hardware content for its compact size:

• Display: 2.5K IPS touch-enabled screen with 100% professional DCI-P3 color space coverage;
• Screen refresh rate: adaptive 120 Hz for smooth display of interface animations;
• Case thickness and weight: record slim dimensions of 12.7 mm with a total net weight of the device less than 1 kg;
• Communications and audio: modern high-performance wireless communication technology of the Wi-Fi 7 standard and clear, deep spatial sound based on an integrated four-speaker audio system;
• Interfaces and peripherals: 2 universal built-in high-speed connectors of the USB-C standard, bright adjustable LED illumination of physical keys, webcam with sensors for reliable unlocking through the Windows Hello system.

Configurations and prices

The price positioning is the main trump card of the series of revived ultrabooks. Prices for configurations will be distributed as follows:

• Available option for students: the minimum basic configuration will cost users only $599. This hardware version has a basic Intel Core Series 3 chip under the hood, a sufficient supply of 8 GB of RAM and a fast 256 GB SSD system disk.
• The initial retail bar for other retail customers: is set at $699.
• High-performance variations: will receive an advanced set of technological system processors of the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 family, the amount of working fast RAM with scaling up to 32 GB, as well as built-in internal disk file storage in SSD format up to 1 TB inclusive.

Key differences between Dell XPS 13 and MacBook Neo

Despite the desire to make the product very democratic in terms of cost, the brand equipped the Dell XPS 13 with advantages over the products of its rival Apple.

• The Dell XPS 13 screen boasts a high and extremely comfortable refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, while the rival MacBook Neo can only provide the user with 60 Hz.
• The panel in the Dell solution is fully touch-sensitive, unlike the Apple laptop display.
• The image display parameter pleases with perfect factory accuracy of 100% coverage of the palette of the wide professional DCI-P3 range.

Engineering compromises

The developers’ attempts to set such a low starting price tag of $599 without significant damage to the system power contributed to the need for compromise technical solutions:

• Designers had to integrate a standard ventilation active form of air blowing due to 2 installed compact fans. At maximum productive loads, such active cooling can cause noise.
• The classic physical mini-jack analog stereo output (3.5 millimeters), which users loved, has finally disappeared from the faces of the ultrabook. Headphones will have to be used either through USB Type-C port connectors or through Bluetooth.