I just tested the new Dell XPS 13 — here’s why it’s the best budget Windows laptop right now
Tom's Guide Verdict The Dell XPS 13 (2026) is a budget laptop with few compromises, thanks to its sturdy, lightweight aluminum design, sharp, vivid touchscreen display, strong performance, and long-lasting battery life. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate. Jump To: Cheat sheet Specs The ups The downs Verdict The new Dell XPS 13 ($699) is the best budget Windows laptop right now and a true competitor to the equally priced MacBook Neo.
- ▪Tom's Guide Verdict The Dell XPS 13 (2026) is a budget laptop with few compromises, thanks to its sturdy, lightweight aluminum design, sharp, vivid touchscreen display, strong performance, and long-lasting battery life.
- ▪Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.
- ▪Jump To: Cheat sheet Specs The ups The downs Verdict The new Dell XPS 13 ($699) is the best budget Windows laptop right now and a true competitor to the equally priced MacBook Neo.
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Story provenance
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Record
| Original publisher | Tom's Guide |
| Canonical URL | https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/laptops/dell-xps-13-2026-review |
| Publication time | Sat, 25 Jul 2026 04:45:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-07-25T05:00:22.584Z |
| Last seen | 2026-07-25T05:00:22.584Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | vZKQ8toSFm4I |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
Rights status (four layers)
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Tom's Guide Verdict The Dell XPS 13 (2026) is a budget laptop with few compromises, thanks to its sturdy, lightweight aluminum design, sharp, vivid touchscreen display, strong performance, and long-lasting battery life. Starting at $699, it's easily the best budget Windows laptop right now. $17.32 at Etsy Affiliate US $238.99 at Walmart(13.3-inch 256GB) $675 at Amazon(13.3-inch 128GB) $699.99 at Dell Pros +Thin and light design +Vibrant 2.5K touchscreen panel +Strong performance +Incredible battery life Cons -Poor webcam quality Best picks for you The best Windows laptops of 2026: We've tested 50+ models to find 7 machines worth your money I test laptops year-round and these are the best laptops you can buy in 2026 I've tested the best budget laptops of 2026, and these are the only 8…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Tom's Guide.
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