Dell's $699 XPS 13 takes aim at the MacBook Neo, but the specs tell a complicated story

Dell just fired back at Apple's MacBook Neo with a redesigned XPS 13 priced at $699, or $599 with student pricing. That puts it in direct competition with the Neo, which has been eating Dell's lunch in the budget segment since its March debut.

The timing here is not subtle. Apple's Neo caught the entire PC industry flat-footed. A capable MacBook for under $800 was something nobody expected from Cupertino, and the sales numbers (Apple hasn't disclosed exact figures, but analyst estimates suggest 2-3 million units in Q2 alone) apparently forced Dell to accelerate whatever roadmap they had planned.

The hardware story is interesting, if incomplete. Dell is including a touch screen at this price point, which the Neo lacks. That's a genuine differentiator for students and anyone who actually wants to tap their display. From my time building hardware, I can tell you touch panels add meaningful cost at this tier, so Dell is clearly eating margin here to compete.

But here's what we don't know yet: processor specs, battery life claims, and display quality metrics. Bloomberg reports this as a "redesigned" XPS 13, which suggests more than a spec bump, but Dell's announcement materials are frustratingly light on the technical details that actually matter. No word on which Intel or AMD silicon is inside. No sustained performance numbers. No battery capacity in watt-hours.

Look, I've seen enough spec sheets to know when a company is leading with price because the specs won't win the comparison. That might not be what's happening here, but Dell's silence on the details is... notable.

The student pricing angle deserves scrutiny. That $599 figure from is genuinely aggressive. It undercuts the base Neo by roughly $150, depending on current Apple Education pricing. But student discounts come with verification requirements and limited availability. The $699 MSRP is the number most buyers will actually pay, which puts the XPS and Neo within spitting distance of each other.