Dell 14 Premium laptop review: An XPS 14 in all but name

The Dell 14 Premium is a relatively minor update to last year's XPS 14. Aside from replacing the Core Ultra 7 155H with the Core Ultra 7 255H, the user experience remains largely the same as there are no external differences between the two models including even their Samsung OLED touchscreens. The controversial keyboard remains and so does the optional GeForce RTX 4050 graphics.

Under the hood, it's worth noting that the Core Ultra 7 255H is able to maintain faster Turbo Boost clock rates for longer than the Meteor Lake-H CPU in the XPS 14. Graphics performance with the Arc 140T is only slightly faster than the Arc 8 and so power users may still want to consider the RTX 4050 configuration. Otherwise, last year's XPS 14 is essentially identical for basic multimedia and multitasking scenarios while costing less.

The $2000 asking price for our test configuration deserves some scrutiny as alternatives like the Asus Zephyrus G14 or Razer Blade 14 cost exactly the same or less but with much faster graphics performance and in similar 14-inch form factors. Casual gamers or performance hunters may find more value from certain alternatives in this regard.

Dell is now shipping the Dell 14 Premium starting at $1500 for the base configuration or $1940 for the configuration as reviewed.

The Dell 14 Premium directly succeeds last year's XPS 14. The name change is part of Dell's bigger plan to to phase out proper nouns like "XPS", "Latitude", and "Precision" from its lineup for more perspicuous words like "Premium", "Plus", or "Pro". There are otherwise no significant changes to the chassis and so we recommend checking out our review on the XPS 14 to learn more about the physical features of the Dell 14 Premium.

Our test unit is a middle configuration with 32 GB RAM and a 3.2K 120 Hz OLED touchscreen for just under $2000. Lesser SKUs are available with half the RAM and storage and a 2K IPS display instead while higher-end SKUs come with a 30 W discrete GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. The Core Ultra 7 255H processor remains constant.

More Dell reviews:

• Dell Pro 13 Premium
• Dell 16 Plus 2-in-1
• Dell Latitude 7450 2-in-1
• Dell Precision 5690

Chassis features and skeleton remain identical to the XPS 14 including the triple Thunderbolt 4 ports.

While IR comes standard, there is no built-in shutter.

The system consists of 75 percent recycled aluminum for the top cover, 25 percent low emissions aluminum for the palm rests, up to 21 percent recycled glass for the display, and up to 30 percent recycled plastic overall. The packaging is fully recyclable.

We set Dell Optimizer to Performance mode prior to running the tests below.

The Core Ultra 7 255H performs well on the Dell 14 Premium — at least for a small 14-inch subnotebook. Most laptops with the same CPU tend to be larger and/or thicker than our Dell 14 Premium and so the tighter dimensions of the Dell naturally lead to tighter temperature control and more limited Turbo Boost benefits. Our CineBench R15 xT loop graph below shows steady performance for the first several loops before falling by as much as 35 percent thereafter. On the bright side, performance sustainability is at least better than on the XPS 14.