The XPS 13 was Dell’s most well-known flagship laptop for more than a decade. However, after briefly killing off the XPS brand last year, the company is now bringing back its iconic ultraportable as a very affordable but still premium Windows-based alternative to the MacBook Neo.

At just 12.7mm thick and weighing 2.2 pounds, Dell says the new model is not only the thinnest and lightest version of the XPS 13 it’s ever made, it’s also smaller and less hefty than Apple’s rival machine. And just like its predecessors, this iteration still has a bunch of premium features including a CNC aluminum chassis, a 2.5K IPS display, quad speakers and support for Wi-Fi 7. But the best part is that pricing for the new XPS 13 starts at just $599 for students or $699 for regular folk.

Dell

For students (which includes highschoolers over 16 and anyone attending a degree-granting college), the base model comes with an Intel Core Series 3 CPU, 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. However, for those with more flexible budgets, the system can be equipped with Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chips and up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Buyers will also be able to choose between two color options: storm or sky.

Meanwhile, despite the XPS 13’s very budget-friendly pricing, Dell says the company didn’t want to skimp on the laptop’s components. So unlike the MacBook Neo, the XPS 13 features a touch display with a 120Hz refresh rate (instead of just 60Hz for the Mac), a wider gamut that covers 100 percent of DCI-P3 and a fully backlit keyboard. Aside from that, the laptop also comes with two USB-C ports (3.2 Gen 2) and a built-in webcam with support for Windows Hello. The one advantage the Macbook Neo might have is that it features a fanless design while the XPS 13 relies on a dual-fan configuration. That said, if you like to work outside where your laptop might sit in direct sunlight, the inclusion of proper active cooling might be yet another bonus.

Dell

All told, the XPS 13 is looking like the low-cost but still upscale laptop that Windows users have been hoping to get for quite some time, especially now that the price of electronics seemingly goes up every day. My one small gripe is that there isn’t an onboard 3.5mm jack for audio, and currently it’s unclear if you’ll get an adapter in the box or if you’ll need to buy one yourself.

The last nice thing about the XPS 13 is that it seems like Dell is feeling very confident about its redesign, so there won’t be a long wait before it goes on sale. The base model of the XPS 13 (including the $599 config for students) is slated to arrive in June with more well-specced models expected to become available sometime later this summer.