Dell 14 Plus review: Workmanlike and nothing more

Conservative styling, a bouncy keyboard and a drab screen reduce the appeal of a laptop that, on paper, is a convincing proposition
Alun Taylor
Written By
Updated on 9 July 2025

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1 / 12
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a small black circular coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop's keyboard and touchpad pictured from above
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small circular black coffee table
The underside of the Dell 14 Plus laptop pictured on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the left side
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear right corner on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a cork-topped coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left corner, on a cork topped coffee table
Dell 14 Plus showing the underside
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, on a cork coffee table, showing the rear right corner
Our rating
Reviewed price £1049 Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB  SSD
Pros
  • Good specification for the money
  • Crisp 2.5K display
  • Tuneful speakers
Cons
  • Bouncy keyboard deck
  • Unimpressive battery life
  • Drab display

Dell’s range-wide laptop rebranding came as a bit of a shock at the beginning of 2025. After decades of reviewing XPS, Inspiron, Precision and Latitude machines, we were suddenly faced with the Dell, Dell Plus, Dell Premium and Dell Pro ranges, and we’re still grappling with this brave new world. 

The latest model to touch down at Expert Reviews is the Dell 14 Plus, an affordable laptop aimed primarily at domestic users, along similar lines to the older Inspiron laptops.

Check price at Dell

With these new Plus models, Dell has leaned hard into its historical strengths. This is a laptop that offers usefully high levels of specification at a decent price, but it’s wrapped up in a package that’s more sensible than exotic.

Perhaps this is a reaction to what many regard as the over-designed XPS laptops that Dell launched to less than universal acclaim a couple of years ago, but there is a danger it will lead to consumers thinking about its laptops as well-specified and worthy rather than immediately desirable.

The Dell 14 Plus is certainly well priced, and you don’t have to spend a lot over entry level to get 32GB rather than 16GB of RAM, 1TB rather than 512GB of storage and a 2.5K rather than Full HD display. But I’m not sure that’s enough to lure potential buyers away from more seductive alternatives from the likes of Asus or Apple.

2 / 12
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a small black circular coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop's keyboard and touchpad pictured from above
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small circular black coffee table
The underside of the Dell 14 Plus laptop pictured on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the left side
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear right corner on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a cork-topped coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left corner, on a cork topped coffee table
Dell 14 Plus showing the underside
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, on a cork coffee table, showing the rear right corner
Configuration tested

8-core 4.8Ghz Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB  SSD, 14in 2,560 x 1,600 IPS 90Hz display. Price when reviewed: £1,049

The Dell Plus range starts at a list price of £999 but those familiar with the subject will know a day rarely goes by when Dell isn’t discounting one or more of any given range by £200 or more.

So, at the time of writing, you can pick up the base 14in model for £799 with a Core Ultra 7 256V CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. For some reason, the base 16in machine is even cheaper at £300 off (£699) for the same specification.

From there, you have the choice to upgrade the CPU to a Core Ultra 7 258V or Core Ultra 9 288V processor, the memory to 32GB of RAM and the storage to 1 TB or 2TB. There’s also a Mini LED touchscreen option but that’s limited to the 16in machine.

As for alternatives, there are a few other rivals you might want to consider:

  • My favourite Lunar Lake compact laptop is the Asus Zenbook S14. It’s a very pretty laptop, with lovely design, impressive build quality and its 2.8K 120Hz OLED touchscreen is glorious. Right now, Asus is selling the S14 for a mere £1,099
  • The M4 Apple MacBook Air is also a great buy. You can grab the base model on Amazon for £899 for the 13.6in model or £1,081 for the 15.3in version, it’s quite the value pick if you can live with a 256GB SSD
  • Samsung’s 14in Galaxy Book5 Pro is currently £300 off the usual price at £1,199, and also worth considering. Its 2.8K OLED 120Hz screen is impressive and, unusually for a 14in compact, there’s space for two SSDs inside
  • If you kneel before the god of battery life, then check out the Asus Zenbook A14, which can run for over 20 hours on a charge. Light, pretty and powerful thanks to its Qualcomm X CPU, it is also very good value at £999, although the sound system weak and the webcam sub-par

The Dell 14 Plus is too anonymous and generic to be described as a design classic, but it is a pleasingly svelte and modern piece of kit, both to the eye and to the touch. 

Made from a combination of aluminium and plastic, it feels largely solid and sturdy, but there is a lot of give in the keyboard deck, about which more below. Usefully, the lid folds entirely flat.

6 / 12
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a small black circular coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop's keyboard and touchpad pictured from above
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small circular black coffee table
The underside of the Dell 14 Plus laptop pictured on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the left side
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear right corner on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a cork-topped coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left corner, on a cork topped coffee table
Dell 14 Plus showing the underside
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, on a cork coffee table, showing the rear right corner

At 1.55kg, the Dell is heavier than the featherweight 860g Asus Zenbook A14, but still easy to slip into a backpack and forget about. It measures 314 x 226 x 17mm (WDH), which makes it a little larger than the 13.6in MacBook Air, but not by enough to have any real-world implications.

On the left side of the Dell, you’ll find two USB-C ports: one Thunderbolt 4, the other USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbits/sec). Both support DisplayPort video and there’s also an HDMI 2.1 video output. On the other side is a single 5Gbits/sec USB-A port and a 3.5mm audio jack. That’s a perfectly decent selection, although given you can charge through either USB-C port, one on either side would have been a better layout.

4 / 12
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a small black circular coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop's keyboard and touchpad pictured from above
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small circular black coffee table
The underside of the Dell 14 Plus laptop pictured on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the left side
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear right corner on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a cork-topped coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left corner, on a cork topped coffee table
Dell 14 Plus showing the underside
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, on a cork coffee table, showing the rear right corner

Getting inside the 14 Plus is simple enough, and once in, you can easily remove both the battery and the wireless card and blow out the fans to clear away dust. The RAM, though, is fixed in place as part of the CPU package, and there’s no option to add more storage.

Dell has fitted the 14 Plus with Intel’s BE201 wireless card, so you get the very latest Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 protocols. The 1TB Samsung SSD in my review machine recorded class-average read and write speeds.

Check price at Dell

If you are a heavy typist, the first thing you will notice about the 14 Plus’s keyboard is how much give there is in the deck. Press down even moderately hard, and there’s a good 3mm or so of flex.

Even when you type lightly, there’s no escaping the slightly irritating bounce this lends the entire keyboard. Granted, it’s no worse than some of LG’s Gram laptops like the SuperSlim 15.6, but they have the excuse that they weigh next to nothing.

Apart from the sensation of typing on blancmange, the rest of the keyboard is rather good. The keycaps have a pleasant semi-matte finish, the two-stage backlight works well, the graphics are clear, there’s a keyboard Fn lock, and the keys themselves have a decent amount of travel and a well-damped stop.

3 / 12
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a small black circular coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop's keyboard and touchpad pictured from above
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small circular black coffee table
The underside of the Dell 14 Plus laptop pictured on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the left side
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear right corner on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a cork-topped coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left corner, on a cork topped coffee table
Dell 14 Plus showing the underside
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, on a cork coffee table, showing the rear right corner

The power button in the top right corner of the keyboard doubles as a fingerprint reader, but if you don’t want to use that, the webcam supports Windows Hello facial recognition. Typically, for a compact laptop, the arrow keys are full-size for left and right but half-height for up and down.

Below the keyboard sits a 115 x 80mm Mylar-topped touchpad. It feels pleasant to the touch, works perfectly well, and the click-action is precise and quiet enough to be used in libraries without the other patrons giving you dirty looks.

The 1080p webcam is a little on the dim and colourless side, but I’ve seen worse, and there’s a physical slide-shutter to prevent covert surveillance.

The good news on the display front is that Dell has decided to fit all models of the 14 Plus with a 2,560 x 1,600 rather than a Full HD display, which means zero visible pixellation, no matter how closely you look.

That’s where the good news ends, though, because it’s not overly bright, peaking at 342cd/m2, and not overly vibrant, either, with a maximum native colour reproduction of 97.5% sRGB (equivalent to 69.1% DCI-P3 and 67.2% AdobeRGB). It’s the best for colour accuracy, either, with an average Delta E rating of 2.98 vs the sRGB profile.

9 / 12
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a small black circular coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop's keyboard and touchpad pictured from above
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left side on a small circular black coffee table
The underside of the Dell 14 Plus laptop pictured on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the left side
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear right corner on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, pictured from the rear on a black coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, open, pictured from the front right corner on a cork-topped coffee table
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, half open, pictured from the rear left corner, on a cork topped coffee table
Dell 14 Plus showing the underside
The Dell 14 Plus laptop, closed, on a cork coffee table, showing the rear right corner

At least the display is reasonably quick thanks to a 90Hz refresh rate, and the matte finish keeps reflections in check, although the lack of brightness does mean it’s often hard to see what’s going on if you are using the 14 Plus outside.

The 2 x 2.5W speaker system, on the other hand, is much more impressive, punching out a loud, warm and detailed soundscape with plenty of bass. Playing a pink noise source through the speakers and measuring from one metre away, I recorded 76.7dBA.

Check price at Dell

The Intel Core Ultra 7 256V inside the Dell Plus 14 is an octa-core Lunar Lake chip with four performance cores, four efficiency cores and a maximum turbo clock speed of 4.8GHz. 

The CPU is backed up by 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, which as with all Lunar Lake CPUs is integrated into the CPU package. There’s also a 1.95GHz Intel Arc 140V GPU built in and a 47 TOPS NPU for running local AI jobs such as Recall, Studio Effects, Live Captions and Paint Cocreator.

In our 4K multimedia benchmark, the Dell 14 Plus scored 249 points, which puts it neck and neck with the M4-powered MacBook Air but a little behind the on-paper less powerful Samsung Galaxy Book5. 

This is explained by the Dell being more prone than the Samsung to throttling the CPU under heavy stress, though in the Dell’s defence, it’s the quieter of the two when the fans are spinning fast.

The performance of Intel’s latest Arc integrated GPUs continues to impress, shunting pixels around at a pace beyond even the wildest imaginings of their Iris Xe forebears; the SPECviewperf 3dsmax benchmark ran at an impressive 27.3fps. The M4 MacBook Air still has the edge here, but not to a deal-breaking degree.

Synthetic test scores aside, the performance of all the laptops in this particular bracket is so close as to be essentially indistinguishable in real-world use. Each will perform everyday computing tasks and some light gaming with gusto and a lack of drama.

When faced with our standard battery life test, however, the Dell 14 Plus rather fumbled the ball. – the Dell 14 Plus rather fumbled the ball, lasting for 14hrs 14mins which, though a good result by 2023 standards, puts the Dell flat last in 2025.

Given the presence of a 64Wh battery, I had expected better. I marked the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro down for its battery life, but it managed over an hour more than the Dell, despite having a higher-resolution OLED display and a battery with slightly less capacity.

Battery life testing

We test every laptop we review for battery life in exactly the same way and we keep this test simple so we can compare battery life across different device types. This allows you to compare not only laptops with rival Windows and MacOS machines but also with productivity tablets running Android and iOS.

The test is simple: we loop a low res video in the VLC media player with display brightness set to 170cd/m2, enable flight mode and best efficiency performance mode, then disable any adaptive brightness and contrast toggles in the display settings to ensure as repeatable and fair a test as possible.

I can’t shake the feeling that the Dell 14 Plus is less than the sum of its parts. On paper, a laptop costing £1,049 with a 1TB SSD, 32GB of RAM, a 2.5K display and a full raft of biometrics should be an easy four-star bit of kit. But the bouncy keyboard, unimpressive battery life and drab screen knock some of the shine off.

If I were in the market for a good compact laptop I would take a long hard look at the Dell 14 Plus, carefully note that I was getting 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for the same price as some other machines only give you 16GB and 512GB and then I’d buy a Asus Zenbook or a MacBook Air.

Processor Intel Core Ultra 7 258V
RAM 32GB
Additional memory slots No
Max. memory 32GB
Graphics adapter Intel Arc Graphics 140V
Graphics memory Shared
Storage 1TB
Screen size (in) 14
Screen resolution 2,560 x 1,600
Pixel density (PPI) 216
Screen type IPS 90Hz
Touchscreen No
Pointing devices Touchpad
Optical drive No
Memory card slot No
3.5mm audio jack Yes
Graphics outputs USB-C DP AltMode x 2 HDMI 2.1 x 1
Other ports Thunderbolt 4 x 1, USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 x 1, USB-A 3.2 Gen 1
Web Cam 1080p
Speakers Stereo
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi 7
Bluetooth Bluetooth 5.4
NFC No
Dimensions, mm (WDH) 314 x 226 x 17mm
Weight (kg) – with keyboard where applicable 1.55
Battery size (Wh) 64
Operating system Windows 11 Home

Written By

Alun Taylor

Over the past two decades Alun has written on a freelance basis for many publications on subjects ranging from mobile phones, PCs and digital audio equipment to electric cars and industrial heritage. Prior to becoming a technology writer, he worked at Sony Music for 15 years frequently interfacing with the computer hardware and audio equipment sides of Sony Corporation and occasionally appearing on BBC Radio 4. A native of Scotland but an adopted Mancunian, Alun divides his time between writing, listening to live music and generally keeping the Expert Reviews flag flying north of Watford.

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