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The MacBook Neo was a total disruption to the consumer PC landscape, bringing premium-tier features to a competitive $599 price point. But its reign as king of the hill is being challenged. PC makers are responding with laptops that overtly compete with the Neo by one-upping its weak points.

Case in point: the new Dell XPS 13 -- starting at $599 for students and $699 for general consumers -- is the thinnest and lightest XPS yet, lighter than the Neo, with a bigger display, and better connectivity (and a backlit keyboard, to boot).

How does it achieve this? A combination of lightweight hardware (8GB up to 32GB of RAM) and Intel's new "Wildcat Lake" Core Series 3 chips, battery-efficient processors designed for budget PCs that trade in raw power for a more accessible price point.