Everyone Has Their Targets Set on the MacBook Neo

Yet it's lone $699 (or $599 for students). The XPS 13 makes akin trade-offs arsenic the MacBook Neo. First, it starts with lone 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. It besides starts with a slower Intel Core 5 processor (note: not Intel Core Ultra). I'll beryllium funny to find however the show and artillery beingness stack up against the MacBook Neo, but Dell is intelligibly taking notes from Apple, which utilized a slower iPhone spot successful the Neo alternatively of an M-series laptop-grade processor.

What's bully astir the Dell XPS 13, though, is that you tin standard it up appropriately. The MacBook Neo is capped successful some retention and memory, but the XPS 13 tin beryllium configured up to 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage.

I've been investigating a batch of $500 to $600 laptops precocious from companies similar Acer, Lenovo, and HP, galore of which instrumentality a much accepted Windows attack to rivaling the MacBook Neo by offering amended specs astatine little prices. They each person 16 GB of RAM and usage much almighty chips, too. But nary situation the MacBook Neo successful show prime and chassis materials. That doesn't mean determination isn't a spot for thing similar the HP OmniBook 3, but it doesn't play for the aforesaid assemblage arsenic the Dell XPS 13 and MacBook Neo.

The Wrong Direction

Inevitably determination would beryllium a institution that thinks it tin thrust connected the occurrence of the MacBook Neo without knowing what makes it tick. Last week, Microsoft announced 2 versions of its Surface Laptop for Business PCs: a higher-end 13.8-inch exemplary and a cheaper 13-inch device. The 13.8-inch exemplary is simply a much modular refresh, implementing Intel’s caller Core Ultra X7 368H Panther Lake chip—and astir notably, it inactive starts with 16 GB of RAM.

The smaller 13-inch exemplary is wherever things get problematic. Despite its starting terms of $1,200, that configuration lone comes with 8 GB of RAM. Don’t get excessively caught up successful the price, since concern PCs ever travel with an up charge. The starting RAM is the eyebrow-raising spec. Unlike the caller Dell XPS 13, Microsoft isn't tricking this retired with a thinner chassis and an upgraded screen—it's conscionable giving you little computing powerfulness and calling it good.

And to beryllium fair, this “optional” 8 GB exemplary is coming aboriginal this year, abstracted from the 16 GB and 24 GB versions. But it's hard to ideate Microsoft being consenting to merchantability an 8 GB laptop successful 2026 if Apple hadn't paved the way. While there’s nary 2025 Surface Laptop 13 for Business for nonstop comparison, the user mentation of the Surface Laptop 13 started with 16 GB of RAM. This feels similar a consecutive generational downgrade.