Dell's best AI PC with all-day battery life scores exclusive discounts and extras for students headed back to school

Dell was one of the laptop makers to introduce hardware in the first wave of Copilot+ PCs. Revealed May 20, 2024, the XPS 13 (9345) is readily available to buy, and it's already enjoying a rather steep discount with some extra benefits baked in for students.

Why is the XPS 13 so good for students? It's one of few Windows laptops that runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite SoC, offering outstanding performance and efficiency with true all-day battery life. 

The three things most students prioritize in a laptop are enough power to handle multitasking and hit deadlines, enough runtime to not worry about plugging in during lectures, and ample mobility for easy carrying between classes. The XPS 13 (9345) checks all the boxes.

Dell is usually a great place to shop this time of year thanks to Back to School sales, and indeed the flat $200 off the XPS 13 with Snapdragon X Elite chip, 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM, 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD), and 13.4-inch FHD+ display with 120Hz dynamic refresh rate and 500 nits brightness brings the PC down to $1,100.

Students who verify with Dell that they are indeed headed back to school get an extra coupon with 10% off the laptop's price. In this case, that's another $110 off the total, bringing the XPS 13 down to about $990. During the checkout process, you'll also be greeted by an offer for 16% off the price of a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family plan, dropping the former as low as about $59.

Dell XPS 13 (9345) Copilot+ PC | $1,300now $1,100 + extra 10% off for students

Dell XPS 13 (9345) Copilot+ PC | was $1,300 now $1,100 + extra 10% off for students

The portable, powerful, and efficient XPS 13 (9345) with Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-10) SoC, 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM, 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, and 13.4-inch FHD+ display is down to $1,100 at Dell. Students get an extra 10% off, as well as an offer for 16% off Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans.

✅Perfect for: Average college and high school students who need a portable laptop with tons of power and long battery life.

❌Avoid if: You need a display larger than 13.4 inches, you need a discrete GPU for more power, or you need an x86 system to avoid emulation or incompatibilities with specialized software.

💰Alternate deal: XPS 13 (9345) with OLED $300 off at Best Buy

Why Dell?: Deep customization options, Dell Rewards, and extra savings for students make Dell a premier place to shop for laptops.

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The XPS 13 (9345) is ideal for students headed back to school

The XPS 13 Plus (pictured here) has a futuristic design that's now used in the XPS 13 (9345) Copilot+ PC. (Image credit: Windows Central)

Microsoft and Qualcomm came together in May to announce Copilot+ PCs powered by the latter's new Snapdragon X Systems-on-Chip. The combination of ARM64 computing, advanced AI features, and Windows on ARM has sparked what Windows Central Editor-in-Chief Daniel Rubino calls "a great reset" in the PC industry.

Copilot+ is the umbrella term for AI features baked into Windows 11 as well as the laptops with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) powerful enough to run them locally. While AMD's Ryzen AI 300 chips now hit the NPU benchmark for Copilot+ and Intel's "Lunar Lake" chips will also meet the requirement, Qualcomm has Copilot+ exclusivity until the end of 2024.

While Copilot+ AI features are still a bit of a novelty, the real benefits of a Windows on ARM laptop are performance and efficiency. As one of our favorite Copilot+ PCs, the Dell XPS 13 (9345) delivers both in a futuristic and premium design.

The aluminum chassis and features we first saw in the XPS 13 Plus — including a lattice-free keyboard, seamless glass haptic touchpad, and capacitive touch function buttons — are now the norm across the modern XPS laptop lineup. The impressive AI PC is as modern as can be on the outside and the inside.

The discounted XPS 13 (9345) I'm highlighting here has a Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-80) SoC, 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM, 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, and a 13.4-inch FHD+ IPS display with a 120Hz variable refresh rate, up to 500 nits brightness, and HDR support with Dolby Vision.

The laptop will tear through productivity tasks and homework without breaking a sweat, and the ARM64 efficiency provides actual all-day battery life that students need. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity are cutting-edge, and the dual USB4 ports can be easily expanded with the right laptop accessories.

Students can save an extra 10% and get 16% off Office 365

The XPS 13 (9345) Copilot+ PC is discounted by $200 for any buyer, but students who verify their education status with Dell can expect an extra 10% off the total. That brings the laptop down to less than $1,000, which is well within a reasonable amount for a premium Windows laptop that will remain relevant for years to come.

An extra benefit of shopping an XPS 13 straight from Dell is an offer for 16% off of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans. You can usually expect to pay about $70 or $100, respectively, so that's not a small saving if you need Microsoft's suite of Office tools to help with schoolwork.

Cale Hunt
Contributor

Cale Hunt brings to Windows Central more than eight years of experience writing about laptops, PCs, accessories, games, and beyond. If it runs Windows or in some way complements the hardware, there’s a good chance he knows about it, has written about it, or is already busy testing it.