The $699 Dell XPS 13 (2026) is the best budget Windows laptop ever and a serious rival to the similarly priced MacBook Neo. Dell’s machine packs in many premium features and proves that the best budget laptops don’t have to feel cheap or have poor performance and battery life.
I’ve tested the entry-level model featuring an Intel Core 5 “Wildcat Lake” CPU, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. Like other configurations of this laptop, my test unit has a sturdy aluminum chassis and a vivid 2.5K display. It’s also the lightest XPS laptop ever, even lighter than the MacBook Air M5! As I said in my Dell XPS 13 (2026) review, it proves you don’t have to sacrifice quality for an affordable notebook.
