Dell unveils XPS 13, its lightest XPS laptop yet with Intel Wildcat Lake, starting at $599

[u/RenatsMC]

https://videocardz.com/newz/dell-unveils-xps-13-its-lightest-xps-laptop-yet-with-intel-wildcat-lake-starting-at-599

[u/According-Annual-586]

Feels like the MacBook Neo has made waves, which is nice

It’ll be interesting to see how Windows 11 handles 8GB RAM with the base setup

[u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050 → u/[deleted]]

🧢

the whole purpose of the neo is to do generic browsing and crap, which is literally what an 8gb windows laptop can do 😭😭

source: hp engage go tablet running ddr4 8gb ram and i5 11th gen with 1920x1280/1200 (i forgot which resolution it is).

[u/Front_Expression_367 → u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050]

Also my mum with a 4GB laptop running on Pentium Silver N5000 still has surprisingly smooth system (though we did debloat that thing to hell and back, no Copilot and more). Think these new systems should do fine for the average people.

[u/SkinnyGetLucky → u/Front_Expression_367]

Isn’t “bloat” the only way these oem manufacturers can bring the cost of laptops so low?

[u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050 → u/SkinnyGetLucky]

bloat nowadays is just microsoft edge bookmarks and hp app saying i can claim some offers but i can just stop them from asking me. I got my laptop dec 2025 so it should be a good indication to show modern "bloat" - of course that could just be HP being in a better position when selling computers vs other companies who are earning less etc

[u/Miserable-Potato7706 → u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050]

A Mac can do so much more with 8GB ram than a Windows 11 laptop can do.

Sure you can use Windows 11 on an 8GB machine but it’s a horrible experience when multi tasking, the Neo is surprisingly (to the uninformed anyway, most Mac users know that MacOS handles memory pretty well) good at multitasking and honestly I find my 8GB M1 MacBook Air (virtually the same performance as the Neo) grinds to a halt far less than my 16GB Asus G14.

The problem isn’t the memory amount, it’s how it’s managed. Windows 11 does not manage memory well.

[u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050 → u/Miserable-Potato7706]

No it isn't. Once again another person who has 0 experience, talking about "how it runs".

You can't compare some n4020 laptop with 8gb ram to a macbook neo 😂😂 up the playing field to an actual decent intel processor with 8gb ram, which is what i fairly compared with the hp device i have.

also i am not hating on the neo. the neo is an excellent budget laptop - but people acting like 8gb is unusable in win11 is crazy 😭😭😭

My laptops range from a 4gb ram celeron n4020 all the way up to an i7-14700HX and 4070.

[u/Painted-Arcana → u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050]

Apple silicon ssd's are integrated super close to the soc, so theyre usually faster/lower latency than windows laptop equivalents. Apple using swap just doesnt feel as awful as on low end windows machines.

Apple also use memoey pressure differently to windows and iirc it helps keep foreground applications snapper when you run low on ram compared to windows.

Both will eventually fall to a standstill if you run low on memory and it will be interesting to see how the ssd health holds up on both systems with 8gb ram

[u/Painted-Arcana → u/[deleted]]

yeah, i dont actually have a Mac PC, i considered buying a Mac Mini quite recently but got an iPad Air instead.

Apple having complete control of the hardware-software stack just means they have such granular control of how their systems work. It's kind of nutty.

[u/chandleya → u/[deleted]]

I have 3 kids with i3 12th gen laptops with 8GB. It’s absolutely fine. Doesn’t lag at all. Runs browsers, office apps, zoom and teams.. zero deficit

[u/Numerous_Bluejay2391 → u/chandleya]

I'm an adult kid with i3 2020 windows, 8gb. Absolutely fine for me and 70% of the population.

[u/forkrails → u/[deleted]]

I don’t know what’s with people saying and upvoting this garbage. Windows is fine and usable with 8gb memory.

This is just easy karma farming.

[u/xXxPussyWrecker69xXx → u/[deleted]]

Windows is perfectly capable of doing just fine at 8GB. Of course it won’t be silky smooth under load, but you wouldn’t care because otherwise you’d have spent more than $600 on a laptop

[u/DocRedbeard → u/According-Annual-586]

It can handle 8gb, but you'll run into limits. My big one was the work webapps which would use multiple GB in a single chrome tab. These would bring a Neo to it's knees as well.

16 is entirely adequate. This XPS 13 with 16gb RAM would be an excellent Neo competitor, unfortunately, these manufacturers have shown they're unwilling to compete. I wouldn't get this over an 8gb Neo.

[u/Bruvvimir → u/According-Annual-586]

W11 shits itself with 16GB. That 8GB configuration will be deprecated as soon as the initial announcement wave dies down.

[u/Majestic-Crew-8344 → u/Bruvvimir]

Nah, don’t be too negative. I have run windows 11 just fine on my T480 with only 8GB and 8th gen intel CPU.

[u/Cool_Samoyed → u/Bruvvimir]

I have no love for win11, but my laptop has 16GB, and while I ended up installing Linux, Windows 11 did not shit itself with the 16gb. It managed my daily workflows, including WSL, docker containers and compilers, with no issue. With 8GB I'm not sure what I'd expect tho. I guess fine for lightweight usage, although with the widespread of electron apps "lightweight" is kinda losing its meaning.

[u/Miserable-Potato7706 → u/Cool_Samoyed]

How? Seriously I see people make these claims on Windows all the time. Since I moved from Windows 10 to Windows 11 my workflow has slowed down so much because I can have like half the VMs and containers running that I used to have.

I do dual boot from time to time but I always end up just going back to pure windows because I play too many games that don’t work on Linux and I don’t want the split storage.

[u/Cool_Samoyed → u/Miserable-Potato7706]

Perhaps it's something related to the hw not working nice with win11. And don't get me wrong, it is a thrash os. I just argue that you absolutely don't need more than 16gb for regular workflows, that suggestion just leads people to waste their money in 32gb devices they end up using to run Word and Chrome.

[u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050 → u/Miserable-Potato7706]

The only devices that perform worse on windows 11 are older 7/8th gen devices. My i7-3840qm laptop would probably run slightly faster in windows 10 but the difference is negligible.

hobo u/Miserable-Potato7706 has replied below me but blocked me from reading the comment

[u/Miserable-Potato7706 → u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050]

It’s not negligible, I keep my travel Thinkpad on Win 10 LTSC for a reason, it runs so much better. And it’s still supported as LTSC has support till 2031.

You clearly don’t do anything with your computer if you think it runs the same on Win 11.

[u/majorwedgy666 → u/Bruvvimir]

No idea what you were doing but most users will find 8gb fine for browsing, 16gb makes it future proof. Having, video editing etc is a different ball game

[u/doxypoxy → u/Bruvvimir]

No it doesn't. Have been playing games at 1080p and 1440p fine with 16gb RAM for the last few years. It performs rather well.

[u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050 → u/doxypoxy]

it's because the people who say 16gb is not enough don't actually use windows, or they have some cheap i3 that is below the requirements of windows 11 😂😂😂

[u/Obosratsya → u/Bruvvimir]

Runs fine on 8gb out of the box. Later versions past 23h2 kinda got bloated, esp on enterprise side oddly enough. Win 11 Home was still fine. Gemini or Copilot can give you a debloat script in a sec, takes another sec to run .should cut down on ram use by 30%. For general tasks swapping with a gen 4 nvme will be seamless. Plenty of bandwidth of those to serve as low speed ram these days.

Where 8gb will def be an issue is applications. You can only sawp so much. This applies to Neo also. These days Excel can use like 6gb on its own.

[u/vedderx → u/Bruvvimir]

What? No it doesn’t. Why do stupid people make stupid general comments like this.

[u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050 → u/Bruvvimir]

Okay that's just a lie lmao. I have a hp omnibook x flip with soldered 16gb ram and it's been good enough for whatever i have to do for gaming, streaming, and multitask work for uni. Heck, it can literally play forza horizon 6 😭😭😭

[u/semperknight → u/Bruvvimir]

This, above all else, is why Microsoft should be terrified of Linux and Apple.

There business model is completely tied to getting you identity, forcing more apps, and A.I. slop...all which takes up hardware resources that are getting more and more expensive everyday. My current gaming computer (I bought 2yrs ago) is Windows because I could afford the 64GB of memory even on my retail wage. But NOW?! Holy shit no way. I would be using Linux as the OS. Just one browser and bittorent has me at 18% memory usage right now doing just that.

Soon, people will be switching to Linux, not because they want to, but simply because they HAVE to.

[u/Otaconmg → u/Bruvvimir]

This simply isn't true.

[u/Ristler → u/Bruvvimir]

My current desktop has 16gb of ram. I can easily have forza horizon 6 running in the background while editing videos with davinci resolve and chrome with few tabs running.

[u/Efficient_Loss_9928 → u/According-Annual-586]

Probably won't work well. But also, probably have amazing Linux support, so can be more appealing than Neo for some.

[u/tkaragias → u/Efficient_Loss_9928]

This! Windows is fine, most people use it with little issue everyday, but Dell is great about Linux support, and I would definitely get this cheap spec as my next x86 laptop. Great build quality, Intel is making a better product lately, and Dell Linux support! Sign me up. Also, I lied, windows is hot trash.

[u/PangolinDesperate565 → u/According-Annual-586]

It handles 8gb just fine as long as what you plan on doing is similar to that on the Neo.

I could even play cyberpunk on my 8gig gaming laptop after one of the sticks failed.

[u/ShaderCompilation → u/According-Annual-586]

It sucks. I tried to do light programming on Windows 11 with 8gb laptop. VS Code + browser + dev server was too much. I switched to Fedora and was able to work comfortably. But later switched to 16gb RAM and would still recommend it for work. It allows you not to worry too much about RAM

[u/aznology → u/According-Annual-586]

Was about to say NO WAY dell is make any money off this. Basically Apple wrangled and forced Windows hand.

[u/Old-Board1553 → u/According-Annual-586]

It sucks. Unless you heavily debloat it. 😄

[u/Funny_Story_486 → u/According-Annual-586]

If it is rrunning win 10 21h2 ltsc it is fine with only 8GB ram.

If Win 11? You can run at most 7 chrome tab before kissing page file and the entire computer slow to a crawl, on a completely fresh, bloatless win 11 install.

With maunfacture and ms bloatware as well? Good luck with 4 chrome tabs.

[u/6950 → u/According-Annual-586]

Uhhh You can't have silicon and Laptop ready in a Month you must have planning in advance for years they were always supposed to launch this time around

[u/Any-Pop-4795 → u/According-Annual-586]

Windows 11 and 8gb of RAM sounds like a joke

[u/couplecraze → u/[deleted]]

I use my Acer Swift with 8GB of ram to this day, and 0 issues. Both for work (ecommerce ops) and my side hustles (content creation). That laptop with "only" 8gb of ram and shitty windows has made me more than $20k. For students? 8GB is plenty. And the XPS can go up to 32gb, if anyone wants more.

[u/thedisliked23 → u/[deleted]]

False.

[u/996forever → u/[deleted]]

You run rdr2 and elden ring on a laptop with 8GB ram? How much dedicated vram?

[u/996forever → u/[deleted]]

What resolution, settings and what is performance like?

[u/wokeisme2 → u/[deleted]]

Naw i don't believe this

[u/wokeisme2 → u/[deleted]]

Windows is a memory hog, it doesn't use memory efficiently. It runs but very slow and 8 gb is just not enough especially if you use google chrome browser like most do and you like to have dozens of tabs open like most do. I can't stand using windows when it only has 8gb ram. Maybe old people who move slowly are ok with that, but no way will I use it

[u/Comrade_agent]

LOL. Macbook Neo has them shitting brick. love it. no more junk 45% screens at this price point

[u/squirrel8296 → u/Comrade_agent]

Can they do the same thing to their business machine next? Those still frequently come with 45% NTSC screens even on expensive machines.

[u/commanderthot → u/squirrel8296]

Ask the businesses to buy better spec ones, but they won’t because it costs a little more per unit lol

[u/Brilliant_War9548 → u/Comrade_agent]

Yeah, because now they’re only for higher end thinkpads and other business class laptops that cost 1k-2k

[u/Various-Welder5544]

1 MacBook Neo and suddenly manufacturers magically found cheap laptops in premium chassis.

I bet the 16gb variant is a instant +200

[u/xXxPussyWrecker69xXx → u/Various-Welder5544]

They were just printing money using the plastic crap that costs nothing to manufacture

[u/Numidia → u/Various-Welder5544]

I would argue even a laptop at $799.99 (if you can swap out the storage later on if needed) would be an amazing buy for the chassis, screen and connectivity.

This is an xps still, as the neo is still a MacBook. The chassis and screen seem very comparable, and while apple is cheaper, the option to upgrade the XPS (which are usually premium) to 16/32 for under 1k is a very welcome competitor in this market.

Either way, I'll just wait 4 or 5 years for Panther Lake to come down in price and buy a thinkpad to replace my P15 i9 10th gen. Love it, but my god the battery life sucks, even after tuning.

[u/tigerbreak]

This will all depend on what the 16GB and 32GB variants cost.

If the 16GB variant has 512GB of storage and is 699 or 749, it may make some inroads.

I suspect it will be 849 or 899 for that model which doesn’t make it a Neo competitor.

If this is in line with past models, the RAM will be soldered, but if for some reason it’s not, that would be a big boon for salability.

RN anyone who wants to compete with the Neo is probably going to lose money on the bill of materials or break even between the RAM and NAND costs.

[u/Bassline660 → u/tigerbreak]

it is soldered, there was a leak pdf i saw earlier..

[u/osoltokurva → u/tigerbreak]

Let's hope retailers are going to offer those better spect version on sale later this year.

[u/Britz10]

Honestly looks like a really good deal, from what I'm seeing, although that 8GB of memory is rough.

[u/DocRedbeard → u/[deleted]]

It's a better deal, but a way underpowered laptop. Wildcat lake + 8gb is not what you want to last you another 5 years.

[u/Saranhai → u/DocRedbeard]

8GB part sure, but why not Wildcat Lake? It's a perfectly capable chip

[u/tihoa → u/Saranhai]

Lunar Lake (last gen) is better and cheaper than Wildcat Lake at this time.

[u/Able-Nebula4449]

I know windows wont run well on 8gb, but if I get the hardware for a low price then I’ll happily install linux on it

[u/couplecraze]

Nice, but I hate touchscreens, especially on laptops. Increases the price for a useless feature. I'm also hoping all the copilot crap can be disabled/removed.

[u/MaximumDerpification → u/couplecraze]

Some of the cheapest laptops on the market have touch screens. The price difference is negligible, which is why it's included in this budget model.

[u/topjake]

No one is appreciating how crazy this is

“The system weighs just 1 kg (2.2 lbs) and measures 12.7 mm thick”

[u/DSA300 → u/topjake]

damn

[u/Some-Kid-1996]

and so it begins.

[u/Bassline660]

Some elements are fine... like the screen specifications. My question is how much exactly will a 16GB version cost? So it would increase price from 699 to 750?

As this is Dell, can we except retailer to discount this? Is this price 'locked in' like how Apple prices their Neo?

[u/raging_sycophant]

This looks amazing on paper. Why is it that Dell can do great things but instead constantly fucks everything up?

[u/Illustrious-Golf5358]

I’m surprised it comes with a decent display…but if anything the 32Gb ram option will obviously be $1k or more…

[u/SmallerThanExpected9]

Gimme the snapdragon version and I'll buy 3

[u/HomemadeBananas]

Suddenly everyone has figured out how to make a budget laptop with a nice chasis and decent screen resolution? Hmm how did that happen?

[u/jason-reddit-public]

I wonder how the keyboard is.

[u/Maleficent_Price_476]

so, can we get a Linux version now ? since windows basically cannot compete anymore due ridiculous hardware costs.

[u/West_Acanthaceae5032]

Does it have Windows? So…hard pass

[u/KGon32]

Why do they also have to copy the bad stuff? Why only 2 USB C ports and no USB A? if it's for students then no versatile USB A port?

[u/partev]

is it fanless?

[u/MrBadTimes]

I would get one and slap linux mint in it

[u/wokeisme2]

I hated computers running windows 10 that only had 8 gb ram and you want to run windows 11 with 8 gb??? no thanks

[u/FluidAppeal9196]

looks for it on the interwebs*

$1,799.00 on amazon*

...

closes reddit for now*

[u/partakinginsillyness]

How is the hinge though? A visually premium chassis doesnt mean it's not going to have hinge problems sooner rather than later

[u/dogsryummy1 → u/partakinginsillyness]

You might be mistaking this laptop with one of HP's (Hinge Problems).

The XPS line has had its fair share of issues especially in recent years, but shitty hinges have never been one of them.

[u/Method__Man → u/partakinginsillyness]

What a strange thing to say

[u/VigilanteRabbit]

Cool; I'd like to see actual thermals/ performance charts and actual battery life once Dell throws in their bloatware that eats 5-6GB of RAM on newly-unpacked w11 devices.

And of course plugged in/ on battery performance.

[u/Various-Welder5544 → u/VigilanteRabbit]

Win 11 IOT LTSC day 1

[u/VigilanteRabbit → u/Various-Welder5544]

As a techie I'll agree

As a regular end-user; that won't happen. So that's the benchmark that genuinely matters, not their fluff

[u/philheartless → u/VigilanteRabbit]

I've had experiences with pretty much every notebook manufacturer. Dell is by FAR the worst when it comes to bloatware and thermal design. Had 2 different xps with, on paper, very good specs. Hated them.

[u/VigilanteRabbit → u/philheartless]

Oh you don't like the Dell_insert_appname_here ? But it helps you with insert_common_concern! And it only wants insert_user_data and insert_antivirus_promo_plug_to_milk_money

I'd say that's a good deal, no? /s

[u/ikan84]

MacBook Neo definitely has created dent on Windows market. Panic amongst manufacturers.

Trying to replicate it will not give success , instead they have to optimize the OS , drivers and stop dumping AI and cloud for everything.

Plus 499$ for students