Laptop pricing has become a minefield.
MacBooks just raised prices. They did it months after dropping the cheap MacBook Neo. The landscape is brutal right now. Introducing a new machine in this economy is risky, especially if you call yourself “budget-friendly.”
Then came the Dell 14S.
It sits below the XPS 14, trying to walk the tightrope between high-end flair and accessible cost. It almost works. But let’s be real, the 14S isn’t cheap. It’s 2026 and the numbers don’t add up to a bargain.
Aluminum with a plastic core
This replaces the Dell 14 Plus which inherited the Inspiron legacy. Historically, that name meant midrange. This? This feels expensive. Aluminum chassis, thin at 0.61-inch thick, an option for OLED glass.
The price tells the real story though. Starting at $1,270.
It feels like a premium device, sharing a silhouette with the 14-inch Pro. But look closer.
Shiny plastic edges. That’s not aluminum. The speakers are weak, 2 watts max, and they sound flat. The webcam? Noise-filled garbage, even in bright rooms. Compared to the XPS 14’s 4K cam, this is a step back. The keyboard is okay but tiring. The keys feel heavy. I spent minutes wondering if it was travel depth or force, but it just felt like work to type.
Ports are decent though.
- Two USB-A 3.2 ports (one each side)
- HDMI 2.1
- Two Thunderbolt 4
- Headphone jack
Practical. Good for adapters haters. I just wished there was an SD slot. And I wish Thunderbolt charged from the right side. Instead, it’s all left-biased.
The math doesn’t check out
High-end configs of the 14S are awkward.
At $1,469 you get a Core Ultra 7 358, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD. That is $170 more than a 13-inch M4 MacBook Air. And $30 less than the huge 15-inch Air. Why?
You can shell out more for the X7 or X9 chips, but who needs them unless you edit 4K video all day? The modest U7 chip is enough for most. My benchmarks showed it landing between the Apple M4 and the hypothetical M5 in multicore tasks.
Fast enough. Sure. But so was the older 258V chip in the previous model.
Here is the kicker: Dell still sells that old Dell 14 Plus for $860.
The 14S I reviewed was 14% faster in graphics. Not a massive jump. Hard to justify the price gap.
The battery life is the savior, though.
Intel’s new Ultra Series 3 is efficient. Really efficient. In video playback, 50% drain took 20 hours. Standby isn’t great compared to Snapdragon chips, losing half the battery over a few days of hibernation. But usage? Strong.
There is one annoyance, however. Smart Charging comes on by default, capping you at 80%. Good for longevity, terrible for usability out of the box. You can’t toggle it in Windows. Not in Dell Optimizer. You have to download the MyDell app. Or dig into BIOS.
That’s bad design. Users shouldn’t need BIOS knowledge for basic battery settings.
The screen gamble
If you opt for OLED, you get beautiful color. High contrast. Flawless coverage.
But you need to calibrate. Out of the box? Not accurate. So skip this if you are a photographer doing precise work.
I prefer glossy screens usually. But this one needs an anti-reflective coat badly. 300 nits is not enough for office lighting. I was cranking the brightness just to see text clearly.
The base IPS model is matte, but the OLED is only $50 more. I’d take the glare over the washout, provided you accept the reflection issues.
Then there is resolution.
1920 x 1,200. For a 14-inch screen. You can see the pixels.
The previous generation, the 14 Plus, offered 2,560 x 1,600 for cheaper. Yes, it wasn’t OLED, but the sharpness won every time. Dell has a 16S model with crisp QHD+, but for this size, they should have prioritized density. A sharper panel is reportedly in the pipeline, but not on sale.
Where does that leave us?
The 14S is solid. But it’s trapped.
Above it, the XPS 4. Below it, the older 14 Plus.
Competing with the HP OmniBook 5 hurts. The HP costs $630, half the price of Dell’s starting unit, offers similar specs, and even has an OLED panel. It’s thinner too.
What does Dell have that HP lacks?
A trackpad that actually works. Most budget laptops have terrible input devices. The 14S pad is responsive, large, and premium. It elevates the machine. It’s the main reason to keep it in contention.
Is it worth the cash? Probably not at MSRP.
The XPS 4 costs $400 more, creating a weird vacuum in the middle. We are living in an era where old chips hold up better than new ones because the prices don’t scale. It feels unfair, comparing new metal against last year’s plastic.
But that’s 2026 for you.
Maybe discounts come later in the year. Maybe. With material costs where they are, hope is a cheap currency.
