Battery life is its only weakness, and even that is better than expected.
I have the answer after spending one week with Dell’s crown jewel laptop.
We have since benchmarked the latter and updated our benchmark scores to reflect that.
Clean and looking from the future the new XPS 14 filles a nice niche for Windows laptops.
Disclaimer:This review was made possible with a review unit provided by Dell.
The company did not see the contents of the review before publishing.
Intel’s H-series is its most powerful, sitting above the P-series and U-series.
Likewise, storage runs from 512GB up to 4TB.
Maxed out with 64GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD, you’re dropping $3,699.
Dell has made some bold choices with these new XPS laptops.
The XPS 14, unlike the XPS 13, includes a microSD slot and 3.5mm headphone jack.
It’s more reliable with no moving parts and a consistent clicking area.
The Gorilla Glass deck is smooth, sturdy, and smudge-free.
Touch function row:With no physical keys, Dell had more room for its thermal solution.
The Dell XPS 14’s lid is simple and elegant.
This is huge if, you know, you use the XPS 14in your lap.
Bottom grills tend to get blocked by your thighs, reducing airflow and making your laptop hotter.
There is the InfinityEdge display, which has long been a hallmark of its XPS line.
Rear exhaust vent and the controversial touch function keys on the XPS 14.
Build quality is also excellent, with no creaking or flimsy parts.
The entire machine is smooth and, due to the aluminum, has an exceptionally premium feel.
Of course, whether youlikethe design is a separate issue.
There are two Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left side of the XPS 14.
There is also a microSD card reader (increasingly rare) and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the right.
You have to give Dell credit for creating one amazing-looking Windows laptop.
Three years from now, it’ll still look ahead of its time.
A 14.5-inch 3.2K OLED touch display with HDR500 that is also anti-reflective and smudge resistant is about as good as you can get.
Display features:VESA DisplayHDR 500.
Eyesafe technology, anti-reflective, anti-smudge.
Dell, however, goes the extra mile by making the display anti-reflective (AR) and smudge-resistant.
No surprises here, as the XPS 14’s 3.2K OLED display has an excellent color gamut.
AR differs from matte in that the screen maintains the punchy colors and contrast of a glossy display.
Still, it significantly reduces glare from indoor lighting or any windows.
Blacks are super black, and colors pop when they need to.
The XPS 14 has one of the best displays on any Windows laptop at the moment.
Likewise, you could optimizeDolby Visionwith three presets, including bright, dark, and vivid.
Dell’s full HD option is better for those who value longer-lasting battery over visual acuity.
But if you’re a content creator, going 3.2K OLED is the only choice.
The XPS 14 doesn’t have a vent grill on the bottom and instead has ones on the sides.
You won’t be disappointed.
We have now benchmarked both versions, highlighting the Core Ultra 7 155H.
Our results indicate that performance-wise, there is very little difference.
Venting for heat shoots out the back at the bottom of the display so you never feel it on your legs or hands.
It also edges out the XPS 15 on Crossmark andSamsung Galaxy Book3 Pro, with last-gen processors.
Dell’s SSDs are very fast, with 7,054 MB/s for read and 5,887 MB/s for write.
Dell is also using some high-speed LPDDR5x RAM timed at 7467MT/s.
(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)
Of course, if you start hammering that CPU and RTX graphics, you’ll get considerably less.
For charging, Dell includes the smallest 100W charger I’ve ever seen.
It’s three-pronged, so you may face limits on some older airplanes that only accept two prongs.
(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)
Fast charging is OK, going from 0 to 50% in about one hour.
It’s a zero-lattice design, which means large keycaps with no spaces between the keys.
Each key has a slight divot in the center, so there’s some tactility.
(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)
Travel is 1.0mm with good bounce back.
As noted in myXPS 13 Plus review, I like this keyboard a lot.
There may be a slight adjustment curve for some, but I never had that issue.
The XPS 14 isn’t the fastest, but only if you don’t consider its compact size.(Image credit: Future)
In darker environments, backlighting comes on with a key press and times-out after inactivity."
It all works quite well.
Whether you think a dedicated Copilot key is good or bad dependson how you use Copilot.
Dell uses some very fast SSDs for the XPS 14.(Image credit: Future)
I love the addition as someone who pays$20 monthly for Copilot Pro.
Finally, the all-glass (Gorilla Glass) palm rest/touchpad area feels and looks great with no fingerprint smudges.
I’ve written extensivelyabout Sensel and haptic touchpads, including why they’resuperior to traditional mechanical ones.
While not a gaming laptop per se, it’s not terrible at gaming, either.(Image credit: Future)
It first had to put them below the screen and, in later models, in the top bezel.
However, because the bezels are so small, they could only fit in a smaller 720P camera.
You have a powerful combo when combined with Intel’sNPU (neural processing unit)forWindows Studio Effects.
The XPS 14 (9440) gets warm, but never really hot.(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)
When you look back, it returns to your previous brightness.
It can also turn your display on and off when you walk away from or return to your laptop.
The spatial separation, sharpness, and volume are above average, delivering a delightful multi-media experience.
The warmest spot to touch is in the middle between the two fans.(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio 2 is one contender.
The Laptop Studio 2 also benefits from being a traditional laptop with stage mode and studio mode.
MySurface Laptop Studio 2 reviewwas one of the more enthusiastic ones.
The hottest part is the rear vent, but the user never feels this.(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)
OurHP ZBook Firefly 14 (G10) reviewpraised its design, display, and keyboard.
However, being a business/professional workstation, its RTX offerings range from the A500 to the NVIDIA Quadro T550.
It’s not cheap, either, starting at $2,199.
Battery life on the XPS 14 can vary widely depending on screen brightness and if you’re using the RTX 4050.
For more recommendations, check out ourbest Windows laptopsfor other options.
While you may not always need that much power, it’s awesome to have it when you do.
Instead, you may prefer something safer and more traditional.
The XPS 14’s battery life is not amazing, but far from terrible.
It can game, but it shouldn’t be your first choice.
The Dell XPS 14 is my favorite laptop of 2024 so far.
The XPS 14 nails all of these, making it a joy to use.
The backlighting for the XPS 14 gets the job done.
Dell’s new ultra-compact 100 watt Type-C charger is awesome.
Love it or hate the XPS 14’s zero-lattice keyboard is unique.
The new Microsoft Copilot key makes it easy to access the latest Windows feature.
The power button is also a fingerpring reader to quickly log into Windows 11.
The invisible haptic touchpad is actually outstanding (and not hard to use).
Full HD webcam, IR sensor for Windows Hello and prescence detection are all here.
One of the four speaker arrays on the XPS 14 along with the combo power/fingerprint button.
Finally! Dell has a full HD webcam and … it’s really good.
Two of the three side slots are for air intake while the third one is for more speakers.
Dell’s My Dell app is simple and easy to use.(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)
Users have a lot of control over how the display looks.(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)
Users can turn on/off prescence detection.(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)
Control how hot or cool the XPS 14 gets and manage the battery.(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)
XPS 14’s quad speakers also get plenty of custom controls(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio 2 while bigger and heavier is an interesting alternative to the XPS 14.
Razer’s latest Blade 14 with an AMD processor is meant for gaming, but it works well for productivity, too.
There’s nothing quite like Dell’s XPS 14, making it easy to recommend.
