Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (2024) review: This is what a well-rounded machine looks like

IDG / Mark Knapp

IDG / Mark Knapp

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    </div></figure><p class="imageCredit">IDG / Mark Knapp</p></div>

The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is a smoother office machine. Aside from the plastic underside, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is built with a largely aluminum chassis that feels like a polished stone, offering just the slightest bit of friction and featuring smoothed corners and edges. While there are elements of the design that look a little more slapped together than the polished designs of Apple’s MacBooks or Dell’s own XPS line — like it’s thicker, plastic bezels or basic and wiggly display hinges — the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus still exhibits a sleekness that Inspiron’s in the past have lacked.

This improvement to design is likely where the Plus in the name is coming from, though the internals certainly have a role to play as well.

For a compact work machine, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus makes a show of having lots of cooling. While I’m used to seeing a decent side vent on machines like this, I was surprised to find even more vents on the rear. There even appear to be vents tucked away behind the display hinges. Confoundingly, further inspection reveals much of these vents are just hunky punk plastic grilles made to look like vents. So, while at first glance the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus looks like it might offer better cooling than the Dell XPS 16 did, which runs the same CPU, the opposite appears to be true.

The frame has a little sponginess to it around the keyboard and at the center of the display lid, but it feels rigid enough to handle a little abuse. That keyboard deck flex is also hardly noticeable while typing. 

Dell didn’t manage to make the Inspiron 14 Plus a super svelte machine. It’s modestly thick for a standard laptop and weighs 3.49 pounds. It’s still reasonably portable with these measurements though.

Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (2024): Keyboard, trackpad

IDG / Mark Knapp

            <div class="lightbox-image-container foundry-lightbox"><div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large enlarged-image"><img decoding="async" data-wp-bind--src="selectors.core.image.enlargedImgSrc" data-wp-style--object-fit="selectors.core.image.lightboxObjectFit" src="" alt="Dell Inspiron 14 Plus keyboard" class="wp-image-2277484" width="1200" height="675" loading="lazy" /></figure><p class="imageCredit">IDG / Mark Knapp</p></div>

    </div></figure><p class="imageCredit">IDG / Mark Knapp</p></div>

The keyboard you get is a bit on the basic side. The keycaps are just a bland gray with little to no contour. They have a little pop to them and are thankfully stiffer than some cheaper laptop keyboards, so they don’t suffer from as much corner mushiness. The result is a surprisingly quick keyboard. In a matter of minutes I was able to get comfortable enough with the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus keyboard to manage a 129-word-per-minute typing speed at 100 percent accuracy in Monkeytype — a personal best. 

A good deal of that typing performance stems not just from the keyboard, which just feels fine, but from the comfort of the laptop’s surface. Since I don’t have to stretch too far over a large surface or let a sharp edge dig into my wrists, I can comfortably anchor my palms for accurate typing. This helps make up for the keys’ lack of contouring. Too bad there’s not much to make up for the tiny arrow keys on the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus. 

The keyboard includes basic white backlighting, available at two brightness levels, that’s enough to get the job done.

The trackpad has modest proportions. It’s made with mylar, which glides smoothly and feels like a good match for the texture of the frame. It has a somewhat firm click that doesn’t feel overly prone to misclicks nor mushy in any way. 

Between the keyboard and trackpad, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus delivers an altogether good interface that leaves little to be desired. 

Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (2024): Display, audio

IDG / Mark Knapp