Dell Premium 14 Review: New Name, Same Great Laptop

Every now and past companies make genuinely boneheaded decisions, which is precisely what happened erstwhile Dell killed disconnected nan sanction of its astir iconic PC line and replaced it pinch thing generic. It's for illustration if Ford decided to rebrand Mustang and telephone it The Prime Sportscar instead. It doesn't make sense. But now that XPS has go Premium, it's clip to spot if Dell's latest flagship 14-inch ultraportable — nan Dell 14 Premium (you spot really dumb that sounds?) — still has nan DNA that made its predecessors 1 of nan champion notebook families for much than a decade.

Design and display: How Dell puts nan P successful Premium

Instead of doing a afloat redesign to lucifer its updated name, for 2025 Dell kept nan aforesaid chassis it utilized connected past year's XPS 14. And I'm not huffy astatine each because it's still 1 of nan astir beautiful and elegant notebooks connected nan marketplace today. Its aluminum chassis has cleanable lines, a Gorilla Glass 3 aboveground and conscionable nan correct magnitude of ports for a laptop this size: 3 USB-C slots pinch Thunderbolt 4, a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD slot. That's important, because nan 14 Premium's smaller related — nan XPS 13 (which isn’t being renamed yet because it isn't getting updated this year) — doesn't person a headphone jack aliases a built-in paper reader. That said, astatine betwixt 3.66 and 3.79 pounds depending connected which show you pick, nan 14 Premium is simply a touch heavier than immoderate of its similarly-sized rivals for illustration a 14-inch MacBook Pro (3.4 pounds). The quality is mini capable that I'm not bothered, though.

There's besides a solid wrist remainder pinch a touchpad that blends invisibly into nan deck, which mightiness make it look perchance difficult to use. However, because nan search area is perfectly monolithic (it spans nan full area beneath nan spacebar positive nan correct ALT and Copilot keys), I ne'er felt cramped aliases for illustration I needed to actively hunt for my cursor. I besides admit really Dell recovered room for speakers connected either broadside of nan keyboard.

On nan different hand, Dell's touch buttons supra nan number statement whitethorn beryllium a spot much contentious. I don't mind nan ones for adjusting measurement and show brightness, but replacing nan beingness keys for Escape and Delete pinch nan touchscreen options conscionable feels a spot weird. Especially if you ever request to usage nan classical Windows CTRL + ALT + DEL shortcut and person to property regular keys and touch controls successful a azygous motion. The touch keys besides don't move disconnected erstwhile you disable nan keyboard's backlight, but astatine slightest they're dim capable that they're not distracting.

As for its display, by default nan 14 Premium comes pinch a 14.5-inch 2K 120Hz non-touch IPS display. However, connected our reappraisal unit, I've been utilizing Dell's optional 3.2K 120Hz touch OLED sheet and I must say, it's decidedly worthy nan $200 upcharge. That's because while nan OLED surface has somewhat little max brightness (400 nits versus 500 nits for nan IPS), its wider colour gamut and improved opposition ratio much than dress up for that shortcoming.

Performance: Not nan astir up-to-date, but still very versatile

A guidelines Dell 14 Premium comes pinch an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H CPU, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of M.2 storage. However, our reappraisal portion includes other representation (32GB), a bigger SSD (1TB) and possibly astir importantly, an optional NVIDIA RTX 4050 GPU.

All told, that's a beautiful well-rounded package, arsenic Dell's default config has much than capable capacity to grip beautiful overmuch immoderate level of regular productivity. And by adding successful support for discrete graphics, abruptly you person a instrumentality that's importantly amended equipped to return attraction of much demanding tasks for illustration video editing aliases moreover gaming successful your disconnected hours. Granted, nan 14 Premium's RTX 4050 paper is an entry-level constituent that precocious became a procreation old, but it was beardown capable to deed 60 fps successful Cyberpunk 2077 astatine 1080p connected precocious settings (with DLSS group to balanced), which ain't excessively shabby considering its portability.

Battery life: Good enough

The Dell 14 Premium packs bully but not outstanding artillery life acknowledgment to its 69.5WHr powerfulness pack. On PCMark10's Modern Office rundown test, it lasted 8 hours and 30 minutes connected nan dot That’s importantly longer than ASUS' ROG Z Flow 13 (6:54) and past year's Razer Blade 14 (6:46), but still a acold outcry from existent power-sipping systems for illustration nan ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (12:43) aliases moreover Dell's ain XPS 13 (13:15).

Wrap-up

Even pinch a caller and alternatively uninspired name, it astir apt shouldn't travel arsenic a astonishment that nan Dell 14 Premium remains 1 of nan champion Windows laptops connected nan market. It has nan aforesaid sleek creation from backmost erstwhile it was still called nan XPS 14 but pinch immoderate refreshed specs and components for 2025. Its chassis strikes a superb equilibrium betwixt modern minimalism and usability, while upgrades for illustration its OLED show and discrete graphics springiness you nan expertise to build retired a versatile but still very portable device.

Now I admit that our afloat loaded reappraisal portion is simply a spot pricey pinch a unit value of $2,450, though I'd beryllium remiss to mention that Dell is presently moving a waste that knocks $200 disconnected that cost. Regardless, pinch nan guidelines exemplary starting astatine $1,650 (before discounts) aliases $1,850 erstwhile paired pinch Dell's optional OLED sheet (which everyone should astatine slightest consider), nan 14 Premium still feels for illustration a awesome deal. And erstwhile you see that nan XPS 13 isn't getting immoderate updates this twelvemonth connected apical of having less ports, nan prime becomes moreover clearer. If I were going to walk my ain money connected a accepted Windows ultraportable laptop, this is nan laptop I'd get.