GoKawiilis a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021.
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.
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.
Component report card Screen (OLED): A
Screen (IPS): B
Webcam: B
Keyboard: C
Trackpad: C
Port selection: C
... continue reading