Dell XPS 14 (2024) review: Style and substance come at too high a price
At a glance
Expert's Rating
Pros
Respectable performance
Long battery life
Elegant design
Brilliant OLED touchscreen
Cons
Hefty for a thin-and-light
Design has usability issues
Pricey for the performance
Our Verdict
The Dell XPS 14 is a looker, but even though it can offer respectable performance, it comes at such a high cost above competent — and often faster — competitors that there’s little reason to consider it.
Dell introduced a revamped XPS line in 2022, adding a “Plus” to the name to indicate a new design scheme. In the 2024 XPS lineup, that “Plus” is gone because the design of all of Dell’s XPS laptops has changed to the new look — a shift that may make sense since Dell has also changed its size options to accommodate 13-inch, 14-inch, and 16-inch displays.
The Dell XPS 14 inherits the stylish looks of its recent predecessors and packs in some powerful hardware to make doing serious work look good. But style alone isn’t enough to merit the lofty price tag the XPS 14 wears, and with so many cheaper alternatives running equally capable hardware in attractive packages of their own, the XPS 14 has its work cut out for it.
Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops.
Dell XPS 14 (2024): Specs and features
The new Dell XPS 14 9440 has a range of configuration options that can start it from a modest $1699 MSRP or range it up to $3479. All configurations run on the Intel Core 7 Ultra 155H, but Dell provides options for graphics, memory, storage, display, Windows version, color, and whether or not Intel vPro is included.
CPU: Intel Core 7 Ultra 155H
Memory: 32GB LPDDR5
Graphics/GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 (30W TGP)
Display: 14.5-inch 3.2K OLED
Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
Webcam: 1080p
Connectivity: 3x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C with Power Delivery and DisplayPort, 1x microSDXC card reader, 1x 3.5mm combo audio
Networking: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Biometrics: Windows Hello fingerprint, facial recognition
Battery capacity: 68 watt-hours
Dimensions: 12.6 x 8.5 x 0.71 inches
Weight: 3.95 pounds
MSRP: $2,699 ($1,699 base)
Memory options range from 16GB to 64GB while storage ranges from 512GB up to 4TB. Intel Arc graphics are the base, but there’s an option to bump up to an NVIDIA RTX 4050 for $300 extra, which also comes with an automatic bump to transfer rate on the memory from 6,000MT/s to 7,467MT/s. The laptop can come with either a 1920×1200 anti-glare LCD display with 30-120Hz variable refresh rate or the 3200×2000 anti-reflective OLED with 48-120HZ refresh rate tested here, with the former covering the sRGB color space and the latter covering the DCI-P3 color space.