The XPS 13 is Dell's answer to the MacBook Neo
Dell
PC manufacturers have started releasing rivals to Apple’s ultra-cheap MacBook Neo. But there could be a sting in the tail for buyers expecting Neo-like performance.
Apple took the computing industry by surprise when it announced the $599 MacBook Neo in March and we’ve been waiting to see how the PC makers would respond. The major PC makers are using this week’s Computex show in Taipei to reveal their hands, with new laptop announcements from Dell and Acer so far.
Dell’s answer to the MacBook Neo is to revive the XPS 13, which was previously something of a premium brand.
The XPS 13 will start at $599 for “eligible students”—matching Apple’s entry-level price—though everyone else will be asked to pay $100 more for the entry-level model.
The base configuration will feature a six-core Intel Core 5 320 processor, 512GB of SSD storage and only 8GB of RAM. Other, more expensive configurations will be available that include either 16GB or 32GB of RAM, faster processors and up to 1TB of storage. (Interestingly, Dell notes there will be a 256GB storage version available post launch.)
That spec is fairly similar to Acer’s Neo alternative, the Swift Air 14. Acer’s official press release for the Swift Air 14 contains lots of “up to” specs, but The Verge reports that the cheapest entry-level model will be from the same Intel Core 5 family as the Dell XPS 13, include 8GB of RAM, while storage remains unknown. The press release says “up to 512GB of SSD” storage, so it’s a reasonable assumption the entry-level model starts at 256GB.
The Acer Swift Air 14 starts with only 8GB of RAM
Acer
The red flag in those entry-level specs is the 8GB of RAM. Although the MacBook Neo only ships with 8GB of memory and has won widespread plaudits for its performance, Apple memory and RAM on Windows 11 laptops are not directly comparable.
Apple uses what it calls unified memory, where the memory is on the same system-on-a-chip as the CPU and graphics chips, making it much more efficient and with much higher bandwidth than you find on PCs, where processor, RAM and graphics are often separate components.
Apple also has the advantage of being able to optimize macOS for the specific hardware available in MacBooks, as opposed to Microsoft, which has to make Windows 11 compatible with millions of different hardware configurations.
I’ve tested many Windows 11 PCs over the past few years with only 8GB of RAM and the experience isn’t ideal. It might be fine for basic browsing and low-level word processing or spreadsheets tasks, but that level of memory will struggle with multitasking and anything more demanding, in my experience. Although, I should stress I’ve tested neither the Dell XPS 13 nor the Acer Swift Air 14 yet.
The PC makers (and indeed Apple) might have been tempted to be more generous with the memory allocation had the industry not been in the grip of a memory crisis, which has pushed up the cost of components such as RAM and SSDs significantly over the past year.
There are areas where the PC rivals look likely to surpass the MacBook Neo, though.
Dell, for example, is using a touchscreen display for the XPS 13, something you won’t find on any Apple MacBook. It’s also got a backlit keyboard, Wi-Fi 7 and faster USB-C ports than some of those on the Apple device. The XPS 13 is also a sleek-looking device that certainly doesn’t have the cheap plastic design of many budget laptops.
Acer, meanwhile, is going for a non-touch 14in Full HD display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s sticking with Wi-Fi 6E, rather than the Dell’s Wi-Fi 7, but it does promise a dedicated NPU for assisting with AI tasks. It’s another attractive-looking device, showing that Apple has forced PC makers to raise their game when it comes to the design of low-cost hardware.
The XPS 13 will be available “soon”, according to Dell, while Acer promises its MacBook Neo rival will arrive in EMEA this July and in North America in August.
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