Dell Rivals Apple's MacBook Neo With $699 Touchscreen XPS 13 Laptop (bloomberg.com)
- Reference: 0183511884
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/06/01/0319209/dell-rivals-apples-macbook-neo-with-699-touchscreen-xps-13-laptop
- Source link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-31/dell-challenges-apple-s-macbook-neo-with-699-touch-screen-xps-13-laptop
> Dell's product allows for more configuration, with up to 32GB of memory compared with the Neo's nonupgradeable 8GB of unified memory. Its display can also produce a wider spectrum of colors and supports refresh rates up to 120 hertz, while Apple reserves its best screens for the pricier MacBook Pro line.
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> The inclusion of a backlit keyboard should allow for easier typing in dark conditions. Dell has also tossed in other nice-to-have upgrades over the Neo like more robust Wi-Fi 7 wireless networking. As for battery life, Dell is touting "up to 17 hours of streaming" versus a comparable 16 hours on the Neo.
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> Still, the XPS comes with compromises of its own: Unlike the Neo, there's no built-in headphone jack, which means owners will need to rely on its quad-speaker audio system, use Bluetooth earbuds or plug a headphone adapter into one of the two USB-C ports.
You can learn more via [3]Dell.com .
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-31/dell-challenges-apple-s-macbook-neo-with-699-touch-screen-xps-13-laptop
[2] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/03/04/1624211/apple-announces-low-cost-macbook-neo-with-a18-pro-chip
[3] https://www.dell.com/en-us/blog/the-new-xps-13-a-commitment-delivered/
Leaving out the RAM size = Slashvert (Score:3)
"offering a premium aluminum design, touch display, backlit keyboard, Wi-Fi 7, 512GB of base storage, and various other configuration options."
Omitting the RAM size in this sentence tells use that this is a Slashvert and not a proper story.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Base model 8GB if you're curious.
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Oh, Windows will love that.
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[sarcasm]But it will have Windows 11, the most beloved version of Windows right now.[/sarcasm]
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I'm sure that the $699 model will come with terrible hardware specs like 8 or 12 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD.
Expecting more than that during the 2026 AI Rampocolypse is foolish, because RAM and storage cost at least twice as much as they should right now.
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8GB, yes. But at least a 512 SSD. Personally, for an entry system, I'd take the smaller 256SSD to get a bit more RAM... but RAM prices are insane now.
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Dell says the processor will be an Intel Core Series 3 for the budget $699 model and has up to 17 hours of streaming battery life. We will have to see if it lives up to battery life and performance tests. Noticeably absent from the advertisement was how well this laptop would do in benchmarks.
Dang They dont get it do they (Score:2)
Wifi 7 is more robust?? Consumers dont give a shit. No headphone port?? LOL And its £100 more expensive? This thing is DOA If i was apple id be doubled over laughing at the attempt here. No one will but this instead of a neo. Does it even do graphics? Or is it still a shitty integrated?
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WiFi 7 is more robust. The problem is if your network isn’t WiFi 7, then the benefits are negligible over WiFi6. But consumers can buy any new WiFi router right now so that shouldn’t be a problem . . .oh wait. Yeah . . .
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> No headphone port??
Headphone ports are complete wastes of space. 3.5mm headphones are almost universally garbage, and even if you have really nice high-end 3.5mm headphones their quality doesn't matter if the device's DAC sucks - like the Neo's or any other budget device with a 3.5mm port. Anyone still buying or using 3.5mm headphones is cringe.
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Yeah, I really don't understand people that want the cheapest DAC in the universe hooked up to a 3.5mm port when USB-C is right there and allows you to plug in your own DAC that may very well be superior in every way, powered off the USB-C.
It's really not that hard.
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I would say most people who are buying a $699 laptop do not know what a DAC is nor care about buying one. What they will see is this budget laptop requires an adapter to use wired headphones. Will it completely stop someone from buying this laptop over another model? Probably not, but it is a negative.
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Outside of the rare device, there hasn't been an issue with DACs in any devices since the early 2000s.
Stop letting people sell you snakeoil.
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People who are using headphones jacks are people who probably do not care the DAC sucks or have high end headphones to use on a $699 laptop. For example for a video conference meeting, a headphone jack is fine for that fidelity.
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Why would you need a headphone port when you have Bluetooth?
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Because Bluetooth isn't even CD quality audio, is why.
Re: Dang They dont get it do they (Score:2)
To plug wired headphones in.
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Because my head phones have a 3.5 plug.
Stupid comment.
Lol to the person that downvoted you (Score:2)
Guess they like Windows 11.
Windows 11 is a hog (Score:1)
Dell can't match Apple because Win 11 wants 16 GB RAM to boot to desktop and 32 to be useable.
MicroSlop designed the os before the AI boom. They can't fix that without giving up their spyware and they're not gonna do that.
Mind you Apple really need 16 GB but that's still half Windows
YES! 8GB on windows 11? (Score:2)
That is really going to perform badly, especially if you ever update your computer. Will MS actually improve for a change due to the RAM crisis going on??? Maybe Edge will improve on RAM use over google trying to replace the OS with Chrome?
I have an M1 with only 8GB of RAM and it works surprisingly well within that limitation. I don't do serious work with it but my casual use is beyond a typical office worker; plus I have two accounts that are often active each with a browser open. I might wear out the SS
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> Dell can't match Apple because Win 11 wants 16 GB RAM to boot to desktop and 32 to be useable.
Windows 11 absolutely does not require 16GB to boot to desktop. And on my work machine, even with a large number of windows running, it rarely uses as much as 16GB, let alone 32GB. It's OK if you're not a fan of Microsoft, but don't post blatant exaggerations as though they are facts.
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Yeah, why lie like that? I can boot into Windows 11 with 6 GB of RAM with literally no problem on my virtual machines, and they work just fine.
Brought to you by the letter K (Score:2)
While it's easy to see Dell has chasing Apple here, I think there's a larger sense in which both companies are chasing our emerging K-shaped economy. Apple has a 17e iPhone line that is really quite surprisingly good for the price point, while at the same time introducing a foldable phone that'll likely come in at about 2K. Their laptops likewise are now split into high and low end. It's an effective way to draw a broad swath of folks at the growing lower SES tier to cover their bread-and-butter basic subsc
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Their laptops have always been divided into high-end / low-end since the return of Jobs. Remember the eMate? the iBook? The MacBook (non-air, non-pro)?
This is nothing new. Product segmentation is how you capture more market.
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Apple has always banded their products. They just decided that iPads had reached all the people they were going to reach and that they could make an iPhone level of performance laptop and it would not eat into their other products.
Dell is just as likely to discontinue their entire laptops tomorrow to sell more "AI servers" since that was about 90% of revenue last quarter.
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The NEO _IS_ built out of iPhone parts, so it by definition has iPhone-level performance. That being said, why don't manufacturers start replacing laptops with phones that plug into an external keyboard and display? Put two or three Thunderbolt connectors on a phone, and it's functionally equivalent to a low-end laptop.
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Edit: Doesn't actually need 3 ports, the external keyboard and monitor could be wireless if you don't mind charging 3 different batteries.
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The NEO _IS_ built out of iPhone parts,
Unlikely. From where would they get the parts?
Everything from Apple is build on ARM SoC's.
The NEO most certainly has an Intel or similar processor.
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The Neo is the Apple laptop here.
Dells offering is branded XPS. It sounds like you conflated the two.
So the Neo definitely has access to Apple parts - and its been confirmed to use the same SoC that was previously just used by the iPhone line of products.
Doesn't seem newsworthy... (Score:4, Informative)
I mean I just bought a Lenovo laptop with 16G of ram for $700 with touchscreen, a pen, and OLED screen...
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Yoga Slim 7x?
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> I mean I just bought a Lenovo laptop with 16G of ram for $700 with touchscreen, a pen, and OLED screen...
Lenovo sells chromebooks for more than that, what is that, a refurbished android tablet?
Dell needs to match the Huawei MateBook Fold (Score:2)
[1]https://www.youtube.com/shorts... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zVJBP-6Ewbg
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Cool, but offtopic, and I personally believe any crease in a screen is an inevitable point of failure. But then, so are the flex circuits running through every laptop and flipphone hinge.
Real original, Dell! (Score:3)
On a side note, I started running a Bluetooth BLE sniffer at home, and was confused why 2 Apple devices kept showing up when I have zero Apple devices in my home (can't afford the Apple Tax). Turns out the Dell KM7321W wireless keyboard & mouse advertise with the Apple manufacturer id, presumably to fool Apple devices into thinking they are Apple compatible. No, I don't think Apple manufactures mice and keyboards for Dell...
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I think it's more likely your Bluetooth sniffer has an error in its MAC address database.
RAM and CPU speed is going to be a problem (Score:2)
So macOS runs pretty happily on 8GB of RAM still, but Windows kind of doesn't anymore, and that's before you take into consideration that Apple's ARM CPUs are just really ridiculously fast for the price (and on the high end kind of just ridiculously fast period), so I'm not sure this is going to make a big dent. The Neo is kind of a genius move by Apple, as has been shown by them repeatedly selling out.
The big question is build quality and feel (Score:4, Interesting)
Can Dell produce somethinbg that doesn’t *feel* cheap, though? Low cost laptops aren’t new news. But low cost laptops that don’t feel like flimsy crappy plasticky things are, hence why the Neo drew attention. Will be interesting to see if Dell tackled this or not.
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The Neo, inexpensive as it is, still feels professional. You can tell it is a budget model when comparing it with a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, but it definitely has a solid fit and finish, arguably on par with most PC laptops.
What I'd consider doing is maybe looking at budget models as loss leaders, and getting some upsell models. For example, I'd say a next step up would be an i5, 16 gigs of RAM, a TB SSD, with a fingerprint scanner. This way, as mentioned by another, there is some profit to be made fr
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FYI: Apple discontinued their Time Capsule in 2018 without replacement.
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Very true. I still have one, and still using it for a WAP which works perfectly for older devices that don't like newer APs.
I just wish Apple made them again because they do what they do extremely well.
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Look around. I think i've seen stuff that does Time Machine out there. I don't know how much longer apple supports network Time Machine servers... they are dropping Intel emulation soon so all your old apps die. Unless you have a windows version of the app and an emulator. No, you don't need to upgrade old software, not everything needs internet or exchanges complex data files with the outside world.
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The Neo doesn't have Thunderbolt. The MacBook Air I bought my daughter for Christmas has Thunderbolt, and on sale at Best Buy cost only $25 more than the Neo I bought her mom for her birthday in April.
who cares how it feels? (Score:2)
Who care if it "feels" cheap? It's a laptop, not a status symbol. What matters is how it performs. A 100% glass laptop would not feel cheap but would be total crap.
Nothing wrong with plastic laptop. I never replaced a laptop because the plastic didn't last. Not once have I told myself, if I bought a metal laptop it would have lasted twice as long as this one I'm now forced to replace.
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I work in IT at a hospital. Dell Latitude 3420 and 3430 laptops have to be held carefully to avoid having the plastic crack simply because of the weight of the laptop. We have had to replace multiple top and bottom panels because of this. If you pick it up while its open, with two hands towards the front of the laptop, and then so much as move it a little in the air, the plastic shell noticeably flexes. We have been trying to train users to close the laptop before moving it, and to always hold it more towar
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Have you ever handled a Dell XPS laptop? They don't "feel cheap." They're the state-of-the-art in what we used to call "Ultrabooks."