Dell Repositions XPS 13 as a $599 Budget Laptop, Ending a Decade-Plus Premium Run

Dell's XPS 13, its flagship 13-inch ultraportable for over a decade, now starts at $599 for students and $699 for everyone else — targeting Apple's MacBook Neo. The 2026 base model ships with Intel's Core 5 320 and 8GB of RAM. Engadget's Geekbench 6 testing shows roughly half the graphics performance of the 2024 Snapdragon X Elite model and one-third that of the 2024 Intel Core Ultra 7 version.