The current memory crisis may signal the end of entry-level, mass-market laptops, as the cost of producing any consumer electronics device has shot up due to the rising cost of key components. The shortage of memory chips, dubbed “RAMageddon,” is also forcing companies like Dell back to the drawing board to design notebooks that, while not necessarily high-end, are practical for everyday use and cost only slightly more than the typical budget laptop on the market.
“I think this is one of the first time when the innovation was focused on how to deliver a great premium device at less than half the entry price we typically have,” Chris Cowger, Senior Vice President, Global Consumer and eCommerce at Dell Technologies, told indianexpress.com in an interview on the sidelines of the company’s launch of its new consumer notebook portfolio in Delhi on Tuesday. Its new XPS 13 looks and feels like a flagship laptop and is just as nice to use as the premium models that came before it, yet it costs Rs 79,990, a price point that makes the XPS brand more accessible to a broader range of consumers.
“We did focus on cost out while also still trying to maintain premium and not ultimately delivering a device that you would consider cheap was probably the biggest focus with the XPS 13,” he added.
Despite the shortage of RAM caused by growing demand from data centers, fuelled by the AI boom, the industry is facing a memory crunch that has sent laptop and smartphone prices soaring, especially in a tough economy. Yet, as Cowger pointed out, products like the XPS 13 feel like a mainstream notebook while remaining interesting to be considered experimental in nature in the midst of an ongoing memory crisis.
The XPS 13 base model will run Intel’s Wildcat Lake platform, which is a relatively new entry-level series. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
At just 12.7mm thick and weighing around 1 kilogram, Dell’s XPS 13 is not only the thinnest and lightest version of the XPS 13 the company has ever made, but it also comes with a premium feature set, including a CNC-machined aluminium chassis, a 2.5K IPS display, quad speakers, Wi-Fi 7 support, and an Intel Core Series 3 “Wildcat lake” processor paired with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. That puts the XPS 13 in the same category as the MacBook Neo, Apple’s lower tier Mac notebook. Both the XPS 13 and the MacBook Neo are aimed at people who may have been using tablets as their primary computers but are now looking for a regular laptop with reasonable specifications, with no intention of settling for a bargain notebook.
“We can work with partners globally to deliver a system that hits many of those entry-level price points. But I think every time we explore a product in that space, we end up with something that still doesn’t quite meet Dell’s standards,” Cowger responded when asked whether it was even possible to create a sub-Rs 50,000 notebook that ticks all the boxes in the current market environment.
Historically, the XPS line (which Dell resurrected at CES 2026 and used to reframe its laptop marketing around build quality, battery life, and display performance) has targeted a different set of consumers, including corporate professionals, high-flying executives, and other premium buyers. With the new XPS 13, however, the company is targeting students. As Cowger pointed out, Dell’s goal was never to build a cheap XPS computer. After all, the company is not willing to sacrifice what it considers quality in exchange for a lower price. There are trade-offs, of course. The base version ships with 8GB RAM, though Dell is also selling a model with 16GB RAM for Rs 94,990.
‘Moving from the AI PC hype’
In the last two years, the entire industry has hyped “AI PCs,” a term OEMs have used to market notebooks and computers by capitalising on the generative AI boom to drive sales. Consumers, however, have either failed to understand the messaging or have not found much value in the manufacturer-driven AI PC hype. That’s becoming more and more prevalent in how new PCs are being marketed by PC companies.
“I think the broader industry ecosystem overall has been slow to deliver those killer usage models that one would directly attribute to having a PC for,” Cowger said. “The consumer-facing AI ecosystem hasn’t yet come up with use cases that make people realise why they should be interested in AI and what they can do with it. But the question is: why do I need a PC specifically to do that? Why can’t I just do this in the cloud or on a smartphone?” he added.
Cowger continues: “I think the message that at least our data shows consumers still want to hear is that, even if it’s not clear to them exactly how they want to use a PC with artificial intelligence, they do feel compelled to future-proof their devices. From a future-ready messaging perspective, I think it still really resonates.”
Chris Cowger, Senior Vice President, Global Consumer and eCommerce at Dell Technologies. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
The idea of AI PCs isn’t as flawed as it is often made out to be. Cowger points to the laptop’s longer battery life, which has improved as a result of how AI is being integrated into silicon today. “It wasn’t really the AI usage models themselves that were driving adoption, but some of the other well-known features that are absolutely critical to consumers got significantly better with AI PCs.” Cowger admits that consumers, especially those buying portable notebooks, value factors such as the device’s weight and size, build quality and design, display size and resolution, and battery life.
It’s not the end of the road for AI PCs, though. PC brands are still pushing AI PCs in 2026, but as the RAM shortage is expected to last for another year or possibly even longer than predicted, companies are building PCs around relevant features – exactly what consumers are looking for in a computer. This strategy marks a departure from the time when PC vendors pushed more powerful computers, even when consumers did not necessarily need them or local AI processing capabilities. Similarly, smartphone companies have also struggled to sell AI to consumers, though some companies are finding ways to shrink AI models so they can run on smartphones, making AI more private instead of relying on the cloud to process requests.
‘Challenging market but India surprised me’
India’s PC market saw strong growth in Q1 2026, with shipments reaching 4.4 million units, up 31.1 per cent year over year. Notably, the premium notebook segment (priced at $1,000 and above) grew 70.1 per cent year over year. However, IDC predicts that the global PC market will slow in the second half of 2026, forecasting that global PC shipments will decline by 11.3 per cent for the full year, with conditions expected to worsen through Q4, when shipments are projected to fall 20 per cent year over year.
More and more laptop and smartphone manufacturers have started raising prices and pulling cheaper models from the market, as these devices are harder to produce and offer smaller margins.
“It’s a tough business to be in, and there are certainly markets that I think are more challenged than others. In India, I have been very pleasantly surprised by how resilient the market has been in light of the changes we have already seen year to date,” he said.
Dell estimates around 17 hours of battery life for the XPS 13. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
‘Innovation in financing’
Cowger admits that the memory shortage and rising laptop prices may drive innovation in device financing, making computers more accessible and affordable. “For the longest time, in India, we saw financial schemes work long before you saw them anywhere else in the world. Now you are seeing buy now, pay later and things like that. You are seeing options that look much more like low-cost, multi-installment EMI plans in a lot of other countries around the world. The innovation that has been coming forward to keep feeding the desire for technology is the financial innovation around affordability,” he said.
With a razor-thin 12.7mm profile and weighing roughly 1kg, the XPS 13 is the slimmest and lightest laptop in Dell’s XPS line-up. The device competes neck-to-neck with Apple's entry-level Macbook Neo. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express) 
The XPS 13 base model will run Intel’s Wildcat Lake platform, which is a relatively new entry-level series. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
Chris Cowger, Senior Vice President, Global Consumer and eCommerce at Dell Technologies. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
Dell estimates around 17 hours of battery life for the XPS 13. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
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