The pairing of the XPS 13 and Intel’s Wildcat Lake enabled Dell to introduce an affordable MacBook Neo competitor, allowing the company to undercut Apple’s offering with a $699 notebook. At least, that’s what U.S. consumers have to pay. Unfortunately, the same treatment isn’t available for South Korean consumers, who have to pay more than double, and that too for the base model. This indicates that Dell’s distribution simply doesn’t allow it to maintain similar prices across various regions, unlike Apple.
Browsing through Dell’s South Korean store, the price of the base XPS 13, which ships with a measly 256GB storage and 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM, is ₩2,034,890, which roughly translates to $1,410. Even if we were to consider the exchange rates, taxes, and duties imposed on overseas laptops, it’s important to remember that this exact configuration costs $699.99 in the U.S., with a $100 discount if you can prove you’re a student.
It appears that with the DRAM crisis saga, Dell has been unable to solve the component distribution problem with its XPS 13, forcing it to introduce a massive price disparity for different regions. It’s also possible that the company deliberately reduced the XPS 13’s price in the U.S. to paint its image as a proper MacBook Neo competitor, but as you can tell, the prices are downright outrageous in South Korea.
If we look at the MacBook Neo price in South Korea, the base model with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD costs ₩1,190,000, or $825, making the XPS 13 71 percent more expensive for the same memory and storage. The same MacBook Neo configuration is only $125 cheaper in the U.S., starting at $699, whereas Dell charges more than double for the XPS 13.
If Dell’s plan was to cater to just one market, it has achieved that specific goal, but the company sure won’t be winning any races when it takes on the MacBook Neo in other countries. It’s a safe bet to assume that Apple’s portable Mac will garner the majority of shipments, even in the U.S., where it can be purchased for as low as $689.99 on Amazon .
| Price and percentage differences | Dell XPS 13 (base model) | Apple MacBook Neo (base model) |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. | $699.99 | $699 |
| South Korea | ₩2,034,890 or $1,410 | ₩1,190,000 or $825 |
| Pricing difference between U.S. and South Korea | $710.23 or 101.46 percent more expensive in South Korea | $125.69 or 17.98 percent more expensive in South Korea |
Furthermore, we’ve reported that even without opening any programs, Windows 11 has already consumed more than 70 percent of the XPS 13’s 8GB RAM, whereas the MacBook Neo can continue chugging along even with 60 apps running simultaneously .
News Source: Dell
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