Dell dropped the XPS name in 2025 and replaced it with “Dell 14 Premium”. Buyers did not like it, and neither did many of the changes that came with it. The 2026 XPS 14 brings the name back and fixes most of the complaints: the touch function row is gone, the touchpad edges are marked, the laptop is smaller and lighter, and Intel’s Panther Lake chip gives it far better battery life.
Design and build
The XPS 14 now fits a 14-inch screen into a body closer to 13-inch laptops: 309.5 x 209.7 mm and 14.6 mm thick. Dell lists the weight at 1.36 kg; Notebookcheck’s OLED unit weighed 1.44 kg. The aluminium chassis feels solid, and it ships in a dark graphite colour.
The keyboard has real function keys again, which is the most welcome change for anyone who used the old touch strip. Key travel is still only 0.8 mm, though. Engadget called typing the one thing this laptop does not do well, and Notebookcheck also found the keys shallow and the arrow keys cramped. Below it, the haptic glass touchpad now has etched lines that show where it begins and ends. Notebookcheck would have liked a firmer click.
The webcam jumps to 8MP with IR for Windows Hello face sign-in, but there is no privacy shutter.
Performance
This review covers the top Core Ultra X7 358H model, which has 16 cores and the Arc B390 graphics. In Cinebench 2024 it scored 974 multi-core and 125.5 single-core, and in Geekbench 6 it reached 17,121 multi-core and 2,927 single-core. Multi-core results are on par with the MacBook Air 13 (M5), while Apple’s chip stays well ahead in single-core work.
Under long, heavy loads the XPS 14 does not hold its peak. In Notebookcheck’s Cinebench loop, performance fell by up to about 25%, more than an Asus ExpertBook Ultra with the same chip. For office work, browsing and editing you will not notice; for long renders, a thicker laptop does better.
The fans stay quiet. Notebookcheck measured 23.3 dB(A) at idle, 43.5 dB(A) while gaming and 45.7 dB(A) at most. The top of the case peaked at only 34 °C under full load.
Cheaper XPS 14 models use the Core Ultra 5 325 or Core Ultra 7 355. Notebookcheck’s separate review of the Core Ultra 7 version found it “still great, but not nearly as special”, with performance close to last year’s chips and much weaker graphics.
Graphics and gaming
This is where the X7 model stands out. The Arc B390 is the strongest integrated graphics chip in a Windows laptop so far, and Notebookcheck found it close to an entry-level GeForce RTX 4050 in some games. At 1080p, Cyberpunk 2077 ran at 40.9 fps on Ultra, Baldur’s Gate 3 at 48.7 fps on Ultra and Strange Brigade at 95.1 fps. 3DMark Time Spy reached 7,546 points.
That makes the XPS 14 one of very few thin laptops you can play current games on at modest settings. It is still not a gaming laptop, and on battery the graphics score dropped about 8%.
Display
The OLED model uses a 14-inch tandem OLED panel at 2880 x 1800 and 120 Hz, a technology that stacks two light-emitting layers to last longer and resist burn-in. Notebookcheck measured full sRGB and 99.7% DCI-P3 coverage, accurate colours out of the box (DeltaE 1.27), true blacks and a response time of about 1 ms. HDR content peaks at 1,104 nits.
In standard use the screen reaches about 389 nits, which is fine indoors but dimmer than the MacBook Air in bright rooms. The panel flickers at 240 Hz, a low frequency that may cause eye strain for sensitive people. Base models use a 2560 x 1600 IPS LCD instead.
Battery life
The 70 Wh battery and the efficient Panther Lake chip give the XPS 14 some of the best battery life of any Windows laptop. Notebookcheck measured 16 hours 45 minutes of Wi-Fi browsing at 150 nits, about 55% longer than last year’s Dell 14 Premium. Video playback lasted around 10.5 hours. Tom’s Guide’s own browsing test gave 12 hours 23 minutes.
Under full load it lasts about 1.3 hours. The included 100W USB-C charger fills the battery in 1.5 to 2 hours.
Ports and upgrades
All three ports are Thunderbolt 4 USB-C with charging and DisplayPort 2.1: two on the left, one on the right, so you can charge from either side. There is also a headset jack. There is no USB-A, no HDMI and no card reader, which Tom’s Guide listed as its main complaint. The MacBook Pro 14, for comparison, has HDMI and a full SD slot.
Memory is soldered LPDDR5x, available with 16, 32 or 64 GB. There is a single M.2 SSD and no second slot. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 are built in, and Notebookcheck measured around 1,440 to 1,740 Mbit/s over Wi-Fi.
Price and value
The XPS 14 launched at $2,049 in January 2026, and cheaper models arrived in February. The entry configuration with a Core Ultra 5 325, 16 GB and a 512 GB SSD now sells for $1,349.99 at Dell. The Core Ultra X7 OLED model, which these scores describe, costs around $2,200.
At that price it competes with the MacBook Pro 14, which several reviewers found offers more raw performance and more ports for less money. The XPS 14 wins on weight, gaming and having Windows. Our value score uses the $2,199 price of the X7 OLED model; the scoring method explains how price affects it.
Who should buy it
Buy the Dell XPS 14 (2026) with the Core Ultra X7 if you want a premium Windows laptop that lasts all day, has an excellent OLED screen and can also handle games and creative work. Buy a Core Ultra 7 model if you just want the design and battery life for office work.
Skip it if you type for hours and want deep key travel, need USB-A or an SD card slot every day, or would be just as happy on macOS.