Congratulations, You (Nearly) Made a MacBook

Dell nonetheless needs to recreate the MacBook. That grew to become clear with final 12 months’s boneheaded move, by which it modified the identify of its total PC portfolio, calling laptops “Dell Professional” or “Dell Professional Max.” Now, it’s brought back the age-old XPS branding with a smooth new emblem, however it nonetheless appears to be making an attempt to ascertain itself because the skilled’s first alternative for PCs. Have its efforts lastly paid off?

Effectively, nearly. This new XPS 14 is extra MacBook Air-like than ever earlier than, from elevated efficiency to restricted ports. As you possibly can anticipate, it’s packing Intel’s Panther Lake chips with the additional GPU cores. Which means it’s a fantastic laptop computer for some use instances—particularly for reasonable graphics duties. However its off-putting keyboard can be positive to frustrate fingers.

The newest model of the corporate’s “excessive efficiency methods” has the sort of battery life we’ve been hoping for since they began making laptops this small. Dell despatched Gizmodo two variations of its laptop computer for overview, although the cheaper $1,700 mannequin largely serves for instance of why you desire a higher-end chip. The midrange Intel Core Extremely X7 358H can’t hit the identical CPU benchmarks as Apple’s main MacBook Pro M5, however it wins out in iGPU efficiency, which makes it wonderful for mild graphics duties. Wish to recreation on this factor? It’s attainable, as long as you possibly can settle for some tradeoffs.

We’re inching in direction of Apple by way of not solely efficiency but in addition locked-down {hardware} and worth. This laptop computer nonetheless has soldered RAM, so don’t anticipate to improve anytime quickly (not that you’d with RAM prices being so high). The XPS 14 with an X7 358H will price $2,200. That’s aggressive with a number of 14-inch laptops that includes a discrete GPU, reminiscent of final 12 months’s Razer Blade 14 and Apple’s M5 MacBook Professional, which have related reminiscence specs.

The upper-end XPS 14 with 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and an OLED display is nearer to the laptop computer you truly need. However whether or not it’s truly one of the best laptop computer for you’ll rely on the scale of your pockets and your tolerance for odd keyboards.

Oh, look, a bodily operate row

Dell’s penchant for oddball XPS design lastly combines seems and performance. The corporate excised the moronic light-up operate row on the 2024 XPS 14 models, which had made the ESC, brightness, and quantity keys unattainable to seek out when the laptop computer was turned off. That earlier design was an accessibility nightmare for individuals with low imaginative and prescient. Now—fortunately—the operate row is a typical set of keys.

Dell additionally added two skinny traces alongside the previous seamless trackpad that can assist you determine the realm you possibly can contact. I by no means ran out of runway throughout day-to-day use. However, Dell has caught with the seamless keyboard on these newest XPS fashions. Which means each key sits almost flush to the one subsequent to it. There’s a refined divot within the middle of every key to supply extra of a tactile really feel, however it’s not sufficient to cease me from by chance hitting a number of keys without delay, and it’s actually been garbling my phrases at the same time as I “writye thjis trevbiew.”

With sufficient follow, I’ll finally get the texture for this keyboard. Perhaps it’s well worth the effort for the sake of such a cool-looking gadget. The identical can’t essentially be stated for the trackpad, nevertheless, which is so huge that it overlaps with the realm the place I naturally place my wrists. This has led to all types of palm-rejection points, unintended clicks, and extreme slams of CTRL+Z.

Regardless of all that, the XPS 14 does make me really feel like a easy operator. The low-profile keys really feel snappier than these of a typical small laptop computer. The haptic trackpad (which makes use of a motor to simulate the texture of a bodily click on) is glassy with simply sufficient texture that your finger doesn’t really feel like a skater on an ice rink. The truth that the keys are so shut collectively means I didn’t see almost as a lot mud buildup between them. And that’s excellent news for messy eaters like me. Much less distance between keys means there’s much less probability a crumb may slip between the cracks.

The 2026 XPS 14 is a sq. laptop computer with a skinny base, solely .58 inches thick. It’s additionally mild, with the OLED mannequin weighing in at simply 3 kilos and the LCD at 3.05. A MacBook Air weighs 2.7 kilos and is .44 inches thick. That is smart, because the XPS makes use of a comparatively quiet fan setup in comparison with the Air’s passive cooling.

Sadly, as is the case with the Air, the XPS’ slim body comes at the price of inputs and outputs. This gadget sports activities three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, and that’s it. To make my most well-liked multiscreen setup work, I needed to drag a dock round throughout testing. If you happen to’ve ever used a MacBook Air as a day by day driver, you’ll know that restricted port choice additionally will get annoying if you wish to cost your laptop computer and use different docks or dongles on the similar time. There’s additionally the limitation of Thunderbolt 4 as a substitute of Thunderbolt 5 and its greater switch speeds, which is a casualty of the Intel Core Extremely Collection 3’s design.

Audio system: higher than anticipated

The XPS tandem OLED display could appear squat if you sit in entrance of it, although it’s nonetheless one of many prettier variations of this design we’ve seen on laptops. The bezels to both facet of the show are comparatively minuscule, as is the 1080p webcam cutout on high.

Tandem OLED gadgets stack a number of layers of diodes, growing brightness and effectivity. This one clocks in at 2,880 x 1,800 pixels. It’s a contact panel with a 20-120Hz refresh fee and a acknowledged brightness of 400 nits. In normal use, that’s luminous sufficient for shade or direct daylight.

The OLED model affords crisp visuals, and deep blacks allow nice distinction. If you happen to go for the cheaper mannequin with IPS LCD, you’re caught with a 1200p monitor with a barely greater brightness setting and never a lot else to put in writing dwelling about.

This gadget can work as your major platform for a cushty streaming session, as long as you don’t thoughts cuddling shut together with your companion round a 14-inch display. Regardless of its down-firing audio system, this laptop computer delivers a formidable soundstage. It’s utilizing a 10W quad-speaker design with two 3W audio system and two tweeters. The gadget virtually reverberates with bass ranges you usually can’t get from a laptop computer of this dimension.

I even have to provide props to the webcam. My image high quality in a video name was far clearer than that of any of my colleagues at Gizmodo throughout our weekly assembly. Is {that a} purpose to be smug? If someone bragged to me with a smug face that they’d a clearer image in a Zoom assembly, I’d have to withstand the urge to slap them. Nonetheless, it’s value noting.

Midrange Panther Lake is a combined bag

I had simply completed reviewing the $2,400 Asus Zenbook Duo with its top-end Intel X9 388H, the chipmaker’s flagship 16-core CPU, delivering sturdy graphics efficiency in a comparatively compact design. Dell informed Gizmodo it will supply a variant of the XPS 14 and XPS 16 with an X9 chip sooner or later, however couldn’t present a precise timeline.

As an alternative, you’ve two variants of Dell’s newest 14-inch mannequin to start out. As I discussed earlier than, the Intel Core Extremely 7 and X7 variants may have completely completely different efficiency traits, that means one can be higher suited to demanding work duties whereas the cheaper model can suffice for searching, phrase processing, and different basic work use instances.

The Intel Core Extremely X9 stacks up properly towards the M5 in virtually all our productiveness, graphics, and gaming benchmarks. The X7, alternatively, is extra of a combined bag. By way of CPU efficiency on single-core duties, the XPS 14 scored simply 100 factors shy of the X9 on Geekbench 6’s benchmark. It’s about 1,000 factors shy of that chip on multicore duties as properly. It nonetheless manages to beat the Intel Core Extremely 7 288V, one of many main last-gen Intel chips powering the Acer Predator Triton 14 AI.

In a contest of CPU efficiency between Mac and Dell, the M-series has the higher hand. On Geekbench, the midrange Intel CPU continues to be near 800 factors behind the M4 MacBook Air in single-core and 1,600 factors behind in multicore. Although the X7 358H can beat an M4 on Cinebench 2024—measuring the CPUs’ rendering capabilities—in multicore settings, it’s nonetheless 300 factors shy of Apple’s newest M5, which launched late final 12 months. It took greater than six minutes to transcode a 4K video to 1080p in Handbrake; the MacBook Air took simply over two minutes.

Nice for reasonable graphics duties and light-weight gaming

Fortunately, the competition measures pure CPU efficiency. The “X7” and “X9” variants of Intel’s chips have a trick up their sleeve, due to the 12 additional Xe3 GPU cores. By way of extra intensive productiveness duties, the XPS 14 will render a scene of a BMW in Blender just some seconds slower than the Zenbook Duo when working on the Arc B390 GPU. The iGPU (built-in graphics processing unit) on this gadget makes this laptop computer a shock hit for rendering duties.

In 3DMark benchmarks, such because the Metal Nomad take a look at, which measures a system’s potential efficiency for full 3D graphics rendering, it might obtain scores simply shy of the Zenbook Duo’s. In something involving ray tracing or extra superior lighting, the Dell PC carried out worse than the Intel X9, however it nonetheless wins out over the M5. This machine has a robust edge towards Apple for graphics efficiency.

And I do know what all you sickos are questioning: is that this factor able to gaming? If you happen to’re prepared to drop your decision to 1080p or 1200p, then it’ll do surprisingly properly. In my assessments with Cyberpunk 2077, the Intel Core X7 358H hit almost the identical benchmarks because the 14-inch MacBook Professional with M5. At 1200p, the laptop computer can attain 31 fps, with out having to depend on XeSS, with graphics settings set to excessive. XeSS—Intel’s model of AI upscaling—permits a suitable 50 fps.

In assessments with different graphically intensive titles, 1080p or 1200p gave the impression to be this laptop computer’s restrict. I might obtain 27 fps in benchmarks with Horizon Zero Daybreak: Remastered on excessive graphics settings utilizing XeSS upscaling. It’s the identical story with Black Fantasy: Wukong and Complete Warfare: Warhammer III. All these benchmarks might spell good tidings for the eventual Intel Core Extremely X7 handheld, however with regards to this laptop computer, they’re extra of a actuality examine in regards to the limits.

A full day of awkward typing

Dell’s XPS 14 with the OLED show may have worse battery life than the one with LCD. That is smart, since it is a higher-resolution show and OLED is usually worse for general battery efficiency. Regardless of the case could also be, you don’t have to fret an excessive amount of about Dell’s newest pocket book making it by way of the workday.

Throughout an energetic workday, once I was utilizing the laptop computer for searching and writing with out closing the lid or taking breaks, the laptop computer lasted a full six hours earlier than begging me to plug it in. I used the Dell Optimizer app’s “optimized” thermal administration profile when on battery energy. The gadget by no means heated as much as the purpose the place I might really feel it beneath my palms, both.

I can’t assist myself from craving for a model of this laptop computer—or extra possible the 16-inch mannequin—with an Intel Core Extremely X9 388H hidden inside. The additional CPU efficiency pushed Intel’s novel iGPU to new heights at a comparatively low TDP (thermal design energy, normally measuring how a lot juice is required to gas the cellular machine). The X7 does sufficient to moist my whistle, however at $2,200, I can’t assist however really feel like I ought to anticipate extra.

As a result of now I’ve to start out evaluating costs. I already talked about that the Zenbook Duo prices $200 greater than this gadget and has twice as many screens. A MacBook Air with M4 prices $1,400 for a model with 1TB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and the 10-core GPU. There are a lot of 14-inch laptops with discrete GPUs from 2025 that strategy the XPS 14’s worth level. For a lot of PC patrons, the mathematics gained’t add up.