Dell’s new XPS 14 is better in almost every way

The 2026 XPS 14 is the best premium laptop we’ve seen from Dell in a while, with incredible build quality in a thin machine and good performance thanks to Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” chips. A bonus: Dell killed its lame “Premium Plus” naming scheme . XPS is so back! I can’t believe how much of a turnaround this new model is from the XPS 13 I reviewed last year, which at the time was set to be the line’s depressing swan song. The new XPS has improved in just about every way, with an actual physical F-row, better speakers, and remarkable battery life. Too bad it’s wildly expensive. $2000 The Good Exceptional battery life thanks in part to variable refresh rate screens Excellent build quality Mercifully, it has a physical function row The Bad Expensive — especially post-price increase Keyboard is nicely tactile, but latticeless design is not for everyone Trackpad haptics and palm rejection are just okay Dell sent us two XPS 14 laptops to test: A $1,999.99 entry-level model with an 8-core Intel Core Ultra 5 325 chip, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 1920 x 1200 IPS display, and a $2,899.99 touchscreen OLED version with a 16-core Core Ultra X7 358H, much beefier graphics power, and double the RAM and storage. Each has three Thunderbolt 4 ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. Screen (OLED): A Screen (IPS): B Webcam: B Keyboard: C Trackpad: C Port selection: C Speakers: B Number of ugly stickers to remove: 1 The build quality is impressive. …