The 2022 Dell XPS 13 Plus has been revealed with a bold new design: a trackpad that fits seamlessly into the chassis, a perfectly aligned chiclet keyboard with “zero grid” and a “capacitive array of touch functions.” Unfortunately, the new look was overshadowed by the fact that it got too hot and had too short a battery life. Now Dell has given the same futuristic design to the entire XPS range, from the XPS 13 models with an Intel or Qualcomm processor to the new 14- and 16-inch sizes that seem aimed squarely at the MacBook Pro. The XPS 14 ($2,500 as reviewed) doesn’t suffer from the same issues as the 13 Plus or even the XPS 15 — but it’s still stunning.
The XPS 14 can be configured with a discrete graphics card like the XPS 15, but even with the smaller chassis and more powerful GPU, it remains much cooler than the last XPS 15 we reviewed — or even the 13 Plus. The Meteor Lake Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is 21 percent faster than the Core i7-1280P in the XPS 13 Plus, and if it was around two years ago, it would have solved the other issues we had with the 13 and 15 besides heat and battery life , as well as performance. Even with the OLED display, the XPS 14’s battery lasts twice as long – 12 hours compared to the 13 Plus’s six – with a battery that’s only 23 percent larger. It’s fantastic.
The all-new Dell XPS 14 has up to 12 hours of battery life, a 400-nit OLED touchscreen, and shares the same design as the 2022 Dell XPS 13 with an “invisible” trackpad and a range of touch features.
The list of improvements goes on: 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 for up to 64GB of memory and 4TB of storage. The XPS 14 is also 1.1 pounds heavier than the 13, though only 10 inches thicker, and the display is lower-resolution but physically larger. It’s more reasonably priced—$1,500 for the base model and $2,500 for the specific configuration we’re reviewing here—but still more expensive compared to similar notebooks.
Still, I’m impressed with all these objectively good improvements because I don’t like how it feels to type on the XPS 14. The key travel is fine, if shallow, but the switches are too springy, like the wavy part of the metal Slinky that pops up every time. when you try to push them back down. The plastic keycaps are also too thin for a sleek and rugged laptop, and I’m not a fan of how close together they are for their size.
The absence of a traditional function line 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 key – or any key on the touchpad – because there’s no tactile feedback. It’s built into the chassis just like the trackpad, but the trackpad has haptics, so why doesn’t it sort the functions? Yes, I can look at the screen to see if I pressed the right button, but it’s more satisfying to see and feel the result of pressing the button.
I don’t mind the undefined space of the trackpad since it takes up such a wide area below the keyboard. If I tap or press far enough left or right, it’s like using a regular trackpad. I don’t always get it right, so I occasionally use the OLED touchscreen to navigate just for efficiency, but not often.
But I was looking for the power button longer than I should have. I finally found it to the right of the Backspace key. There is no icon to indicate that this is the power button. It’s just a dark gray key that quietly blends in with the keyboard, yet at first I felt silly for overlooking it.
While the optional RTX 4050 GPU is great for putting more speed into your graphics or video work, the Dell XPS 14 is not a gaming laptop. It is possible to run the game as Baldur’s Gate 3 on an 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 game-specific features like adaptive sync and software to fine-tune things like fan and GPU speeds. clock speed.
From price to performance, the XPS 14 isn’t as good a MacBook Pro alternative as the XPS 15 once was. The base M3 chip kicks ass in almost all of our benchmarks, and while Apple removed its divisive touch bar, Dell put in a less useful one. The invisible haptic trackpad looks better than the traditional MacBook Pro, but it’s a bit harder to use. — and the MacBook’s keyboard is much nicer (as well as the one on the XPS 15).
The XPS 14 is more competitive with some Windows laptops like the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED, but it’s still too expensive, and unless you need a new laptop for 3D modeling or video work, it makes more sense to stick with integrated graphics. and save $400. However, with the upcoming release of the $1,300 Qualcomm Snapdragon XPS 13, it’s a good idea to hold off on the purchase. none Dell XPS until reviews are published.
Monica Chin in her review of the XPS 13 Plus The VergeA former laptop reviewer said the new design feels like it’s making the same mistakes Apple made with the MacBook Pro redesign in 2016, making too many sacrifices in the name of thinness. For the XPS 14, Dell addressed the performance and battery life of the 13 Plus, but the shallow, flexible keyboard, ambiguously labeled power button, and array of touch features inherited from the 13 Plus keep the XPS 14 underwhelming. It looks nice, but it’s not that pleasant to use.
Photo: Joanna Nelius/The Verge