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Dell's $700 XPS 13 now ships with 256GB after a September repricing
The Verge tested 8GB and 16GB XPS 13 units, both with 512GB SSDs, and recommended the $999.99 one. Dell has since moved the $699.99 entry price onto a 256GB machine and added $100 to both tested builds.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- Both of those 512GB builds cost $100 less when testing began, and in early September Dell moved the $699.99 entry price onto a new configuration with 256GB of storage.
- The review found the 8GB machine competent under Windows 11 while listing 8GB as risky for long-term performance, and its verdict tells readers to buy the 16GB version.
- Battery life came in at about seven hours of continuous mixed use, or up to 10 hours on a meeting-free day, with the MacBook Neo lasting several hours longer on a smaller battery.
Compiled by The Product DeskSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- cost A 100-seat order lands $20,000 apart on a memory choice the review answers one way. The finance line that approved the cheaper build is the one that pays for the swap in year three.
- decision Anyone quoting from the current $699.99 listing is $300 a seat below the recommended configuration, and $100 of that gap is storage, so the memory decision and the storage decision now arrive together.
- constraint Two USB-C ports and no 3.5mm jack anywhere in the line push wired headsets and desk monitors into a dock standard that has to be funded before deployment, not after the first ticket.
- precedent Mid-cycle storage repricing gives a quote a shelf life, so the SKU a purchase order names may not be the SKU a reviewer measured weeks earlier.
A buyer who reads the review and then opens Dell's configurator finds the $699.99 line no longer points at the machine that was tested. The 8GB unit The Verge worked on for two weeks has a 512GB SSD, and that build now costs $799.99 [3][4]. The $699.99 price sits on a 256GB configuration Dell created in early September, when it also added $100 to each 512GB model [5]. The review calls that sort of change "commonplace in our ongoing RAMageddon nightmare" [19].
The memory finding is narrower than the entry price suggests. The Verge says the XPS 13 feels competent even with 8GB, unlike other Windows 11 laptops that struggled with that allocation [7]. The same review lists "8GB of RAM still feels risky for long-term Windows performance" among the drawbacks [8], and its verdict is that "you're still going to want the 16GB version" [6]. Both things can be true. A laptop can be fine in week two and short of memory in year three, and a two-week test measures week two.
At matched storage the memory step is $200 a seat: $999.99 minus $799.99 [1]. On a hundred-unit order that is $20,000 [3]. Spread across a three-year refresh it is about $67 per seat per year [4]. Measured against the current entry price, the gap to the recommended configuration is $300 [2], and $100 of that buys the storage step from 256GB to 512GB [5].
The rollout costs sit outside the price list. There are two 10Gbps USB-C ports, one on each side, both doing charging and video-out [10], and no headphone jack in any configuration [9]; The Verge graded port selection D while giving the screen and webcam an A [11][12]. Wired headsets and dual-monitor desks turn into a dock standard and a headset standard someone funds before the first machine ships. On power, the reviewer got about seven hours of continuous mixed use and up to 10 hours on a meeting-free day [13], with the MacBook Neo lasting several hours longer on a lower-capacity battery [14]. The hottest point on the bottom chassis reached 104 degrees Fahrenheit, though the keyboard deck stayed cool [17].
The refresh horizon has to be answered before the price. Two years, handed to a rotating pool or a kiosk role, and the 8GB/512GB build at $799.99 is defensible on what the review actually measured [3][7]. Three or four years on a knowledge worker's desk, running the browser and the video call the reviewer used, and the warning in the same review is the sentence that applies [8]. That case puts the budget at $999.99. Both units in the test ran the same six-core Intel Core 5 320 processor, so the choice is memory and storage [2]. The $699.99 machine shares that chassis and chip and differs in storage; the published testing covers the $799.99 and $999.99 builds.
What to watch
- Whether Dell holds the $699.99 256GB SKU or moves the entry price again as memory contracts reprice.
- Whether anyone publishes testing for the 8GB/256GB build that now carries the $699.99 price.
- Whether the 16GB/512GB model stays at $999.99 through the next quarter's fleet quotes.