The 2022 Dell Unfortunately, the new look was overshadowed by the fact that it ran too hot and had too short a battery life. Now Dell has given the entire XPS range that same futuristic design, from the Intel or Qualcomm-powered XPS 13 models to new 14- and 16-inch sizes that seem aimed squarely at the MacBook Pro. The XPS 14 ($2,500 as reviewed) doesn’t have the same issues as the 13 Plus or even the XPS 15, but it’s still disappointing nonetheless.
The XPS 14 can be configured with a discrete graphics card like the The Meteor Lake Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is 21 percent faster than the Core i7-1280P in the XPS 13 Plus, and if this had been around two years ago it would have solved other issues we had with the 13 and 15 besides heat and battery life, such as performance. Even with an OLED screen, the XPS 14’s battery lasts twice as long – 12 hours compared to the 13 Plus’ six – with a battery that’s only 23 percent larger. That’s fantastic.
The all-new Dell XPS 14 has up to 12 hours of battery life, a 400-nit OLED touchscreen, and features the same design as the 2022 Dell
The list of improvements continues: the 14-inch model has three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports instead of just two, plus a combo audio jack and microSD slot, and is configurable up to 64 GB of memory and 4 TB of storage. The XPS 14 is also 1.1 pounds heavier than the 13, though only a tenth of an inch thicker, and its screen is lower resolution but physically larger. It’s a more reasonable price – $1,500 for the base model and $2,500 for the specific configuration reviewed here – but still expensive compared to comparable laptops.
Still, I’m not impressed by all these objectively good improvements, because I don’t like typing on the XPS 14. The key travel is fine, even if shallow, but the switches feel too springy, like the warped part of a metal Slinky that pops out every time you try to push it back down. The plastic key covers also feel too flimsy for an elegant and sturdy laptop, and I’m not a fan of how close together they are for their size.
The lack of a traditional function row messes with my muscle memory. I keep confusing the tilde key with the escape key and caps lock with the tab key, and I can’t get used to pressing the esc button (or any button on the touch bar) because there is no tangible feedback. It’s integrated into the chassis like the trackpad, but the trackpad has haptics, so why not the function row? Yes, I can look at the screen to see if I’m pressing the right button, but it’s more satisfying to see and feel the result of a button press.
I don’t mind the undefined space on the trackpad since it takes up such a large area under the keyboard. If I tap or press far enough to the left or right, it’s like using a regular trackpad. I don’t always get it right, so sometimes I use the OLED touchscreen to navigate just for the sake of efficiency, but not often.
But I looked for the power button longer than necessary. Finally I found it to the right of the backspace key. There is no icon indicating that it is a power button. It’s just a dark gray key that quietly blends into the keyboard, but I still felt stupid at first for missing it.
While the optional RTX 4050 GPU is great for injecting more speed into graphics or video work, the Dell XPS 14 isn’t a gaming-first laptop. It is possible to play a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 on the XPS 14 with the right settings, but there are gaming laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 that come with more powerful hardware for less money and include gaming-specific features like adaptive sync and software for fine-tuning things like fan speed and GPU clock speed.
From price to performance, the XPS 14 isn’t as good an alternative to the MacBook Pro as the XPS 15 once was. The base M3 chip does well in almost all of our benchmarks, and while Apple removed the divisive touchbar, Dell put in a less useful one. The invisible haptic trackpad looks better than the MacBook Pro’s traditional trackpad, but is a little harder to use – and the MacBook’s keyboard is much nicer (and that was also the case on the XPS 15).
The stay and save $400. But with the impending release of the $1,300 Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered XPS 13, it’s a good idea to hold off on buying each Dell XPS until the reviews are in.
In her review of the XPS 13 Plus, Monica Chin says: The edge‘s former laptop reviewer said the new design felt like it was making the same mistakes Apple made with its 2016 MacBook Pro redesign, with too many sacrifices in the name of thinness. With the feels. It looks nice, but is not very nice to use.
Photography by Joanna Nelius / The Verge