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Dell launches Premium 14 and 16 laptops — up to RTX 5070, 4K OLED displays and 27 hours of battery

Dell launches Premium 14 and 16 laptops — up to RTX 5070, 4K OLED displays and 27 hours of battery

Tom's Guide26-06-2025
With Dell scrapping its XPS lineup, there's now room for more flagship laptops, and its new Premium notebooks are here to fill that void.
Dell unveiled its new line of high-end laptops for work and play: the Dell 14 and 16 Premium. Holding on to its XPS roots, the 14- and 16-inch notebooks are designed to deliver optimal performance for students, creators and even gamers in a compact design.
With what they boast under the hood, I can see how this is the case. Expect the latest Intel Core Ultra 200H processors, up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 GPU, a whopping 27 hours of battery life and glorious 4K OLED displays.
The Dell XPS 13 has topped our list of best laptops all year round, and that's because it nailed its design, performance and battery life. With the company's new offering of flagship notebooks, it's looking like we may see a shift in our top spot for the best Windows laptops.
Both Dell Premium laptops are now available, with prices starting at $1,649. You can expect more models to come down the line as the Dell 16 Premium with Intel Arc graphics, RTX 5070 and RTX 5050 are set to be on shelves soon, too.
Let's get into the details.
Dell 14 Premium
Dell 16 Premium
Price
From $1,649
From $2,699
Display
14.5-inch 3.2K (3200 x 2000) OLED touch display, 120Hz / 2K (1920 x 1200) LCD non-touch display, 120Hz
16.3-inch 4K (3840 x 2400) OLED touch display, 120Hz / 2K (1920 x 1200) LCD non-touch display, 120Hz
CPU
Up to Intel Core Ultra 7 265H
Up to Intel Core Ultra 9 285H
GPU
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070
Memory
Up to 64GB DDR5x
Up to 64GB DDR5x
Storage
Up to 4TB PCIe 4 SSD
Up to 4TB PCIe 4 SSD
Connectivity
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Size
12.6 x 8.5 x 0.71 inches
14.1 x 9.4 x 0.74 inches
Weight
3.6 pounds (2K model), 3.79 pounds (3.2K model)
4.5 pounds (2K model), 4.65 pounds (4K model)
Colors
Graphite, Platinum
Graphite, Platinum
Dell has always impressed with its top-tier laptops, and this Premium lineup looks to be no different, considering the similarities it shares with its previous XPS siblings.
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The 14 and 16 Premium both come with InfinityEdge (bezel-less) displays and come with a thin, lightweight form factor, being just 0.7 inches thin and weighing as little as 3.6 pounds (the 16 Premium is at 4.5 pounds). The 14 Premium isn't quite as thin or lightweight as the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4, but at least the 16 Premium is lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro M4.
It's the displays that are set to be a key highlight, at least on paper. With two options available on its model, you can either get a 2K (1920 x 1200) LCD non-touch display, which we praised on the Dell XPS 13, or upgrade to dazzling OLED panels. There's a 14.4-inch 3.2K (3200 x 2000) OLED touch display or a 16.3-inch 4K (3840 x 2400) OLED touch panel. Oh, and they all rock a 120Hz refresh rate.
That will come in handy with the other specs it boasts. The Intel Core Ultra 200H chips will bring speedy performance (a claimed 33% bump) to blaze through multitasking, while the option for an RTX 50-series GPU means these laptops will power through gaming, creative apps, video editing and more.
The Dell 14 Premium only comes with either Intel Arc graphics or an RTX 4050, mind you, but as a laptop for college students, it should still run circles around work. The Dell 16 Premium will feature RTX 5070, RTX 5060 or RTX 5050 GPUs, and considering the performance gains thanks to Nvidia's DLSS 4 tech, this machine will be primed for entry-level gaming, too.
Plus, these laptops aim to stay cool and quiet under pressure, with Dell's Liquid Crystal Polymer fan blades onboard to boost airflow. That, along with the 20 hours of battery life the 14 Premium is boasting, and up to 27 hours for the 16 Premium, makes for an exciting lineup of flagship laptops.
While its design is familiar, that still means there are no function row keys or a visible touchpad, though, which can take some getting used to. But at least there are now 3x Thunderbolt 4 ports, a MicroSD card reader and a 3.5mm audio jack, unlike the XPS 13, and that's always a welcome sight.
We'll have to see how these laptops run, but the Dell 14 and 16 Premium are already looking to be flagships to look out for. While we wait to get some hands-on time with them, check out what Lenovo and Google and cooking up with its new advanced Chromebook.
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Best Windows Laptop for 2025
Best Windows Laptop for 2025

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time2 hours ago

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Best Windows Laptop for 2025

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With decades of experience testing and reviewing laptops, our experts conduct performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET labs and perform extensive hands-on tests to assess the design, features and performance of each laptop we review. You'll find a good number of recommendations here but we also have more specific picks in different categories, starting with the best overall laptop, the best gaming laptop, best cheap gaming laptop, best laptop for college students and best two-in-one laptop. If you narrowed it to a specific brand, check out our picks for the best Asus laptop, best Dell laptop, best HP laptop and best Lenovo laptop. Beyond Windows, we have recommendations for the best MacBook and best Chromebook. Most recent additions The HP EliteBook Ultra G1i is the latest addition to the list. With its trim design, excellent build quality and high-res OLED display, it's our pick for best business laptop. The Acer Aspire 14 AI is the next-newest laptop on the list. 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I spent a week with the Dell 14 Premium. Here's why you should get a different laptop
I spent a week with the Dell 14 Premium. Here's why you should get a different laptop

CNN

time3 hours ago

  • CNN

I spent a week with the Dell 14 Premium. Here's why you should get a different laptop

The Dell 14 Premium, the new name for the most recent iteration of Dell's XPS 14, was once a consistent front-runner among the best laptops for the last decade that I've been reviewing computers and electronics. Things changed in the last few years, as the 2024 XPS 14 saw a new design that aimed for futuristic style with divisive results. Then, earlier this year, Dell discarded its naming conventions, throwing XPS away for the simpler (but longer) Premium branding. With that in mind, Windows laptop shoppers are probably curious if anything's changed under this new name and if this laptop merits its $1,500 starting price. To that end, I've spent the last week with the Dell 14 Premium, trying to adjust to its oddities and eccentricities. Here's what I think. Dell 14 Premium Laptop This sturdy and sleek laptop is pretty fast and should be customized with an OLED display and discreet graphics if you're considering purchasing it. A gorgeous (and optional) OLED display The Dell 14 Premium never looks better than when you're drinking in views from its 3.2K OLED display, which costs $200 extra and is a must-buy addition if you're sure you want this laptop. Yes, that also means you're probably going to get less battery life than you would with the 2K, non-touchscreen version, but I'd personally make that trade-off if you're going to be watching movies and TV on this laptop and you want them to look their best. To test out this OLED panel, I turned on Denis Villeneuve's exceptional film 'Dune: Part Two' and marveled at the stark, perfect contrast. Not only did amber flames and sand look perfect against the black letterbox bars at the top and bottom of the screen but the black-and-white fight scenes in the brutalist arena looked as good as I've ever seen them on any screen. Just remember to keep your microfiber cleaning cloth on you. (You have one, right? I love these if you don't.) Why? The one small issue I have with this panel is that it's so reflective that my lingering fingerprint smudges were distracting when I brought the Dell 14 Premium to the park on an overcast afternoon. Fast (but not the fastest) performance The Dell 14 Premium I tested was speedy in everyday performance, thanks to its Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor and 32GB of memory. That meant I had no trouble multitasking as I wrote this review, juggled dozens of tabs in both the Brave and Chrome web browsers, talked to friends and colleagues in Discord and Slack, and managed passwords and projects with 1Password and Todoist. I was also happy to see that this laptop features Wi-Fi 7 support, which is great for future-proofing. This basically matches what we saw in synthetic testing, as the Dell 14 Premium bested the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x by slight margins on the Geekbench single-core test, which measures performance on modestly demanding applications and tasks. For those comparing Apples and Windows, note that the latest MacBooks did far better on the single-core test. Fortunately, the Dell 14 Premium beat the Slim 7x and stood toe-to-toe with the MacBook Pro 14 on the multi-core version, which measures how well a laptop can handle more-intense applications. I appreciated how quickly the Dell 14 Premium's Windows Hello facial recognition login activates too, and that it has this feature at all. That's because the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x always takes a little longer to do this than I'd like, and Apple's still yet to put its Face ID tech in its MacBooks to make them more secure. Relatedly, the Dell 14 Premium's Full HD webcam provided decent-enough video quality on conference calls with my manager, but his MacBook Pro had him looking a bit clearer than I appeared. One potentially important warning: don't buy the Dell 14 Premium with integrated Intel Arc graphics for any gaming or graphics work. It only managed to run the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (set to 1080p resolution and the highest graphics) at 30 frames per second (fps), which is the lowest score we'd classify as playable for that 2018 action-adventure game. Look for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics when customizing your specs if you want to prepare yourself for modest, modern gaming on the go. Frankly disappointing battery life The Dell 14 Premium recorded terribly short battery life on our in-house test. When our battery test drained its full charge after eight hours and 20 minutes of looping 4K video at 50% brightness, I started to wonder what there was to truly love about this laptop beyond its screen. This isn't a shocking time, but it falls down under comparison to the field. The 14-inch MacBook Pro M4, for example, ran for more than four hours longer on the same test, and the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x lasted over twice as long on a similar version of the same test. Why did the Dell 14 Premium go kaput so much sooner? Well, we expect less battery life on laptops running on x86-based processors, such as the Intel Core Ultra 7 255H in this notebook, than we do on ones with the Arm-based processor that powers MacBooks and the Yoga Slim 7x. But that's not the full story, as the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (admittedly a 2024 model) lasted two more hours than the Dell 14 Premium, and it runs on an x86 chip. Refueling the Dell 14 Premium with the included charger worked fast enough, with more than half of its battery refilled after an hour of charging. This futuristic design disposes of functionality The Dell 14 Premium's design isn't all bad, as it inherits a sleek and durable chassis from its days as the Dell XPS 14, which is sold in two colors: Platinum (think white or silver) and Graphite (dark gray). Plus, its InfinityEdge display bezels are fantastically slim. Speaking of size, its slender design and modest weight makes it pretty portable, though it's not the smallest or lightest I've ever seen. The positives about this design stop there. My first big gripe is how Dell decided not to prioritize making this laptop easy to open. My 'can I open it with a single finger' test — at which Apple and Lenovo thrive — fails on the Dell 14 Premium, unless I shimmy my thumbnail into the space between the lid and keyboard deck. A small divot that adds space to easily lift the screen would do wonders here. Taking the Dell 14 Premium out at the office, and tapping the mute button above its keyboard to avoid blasting music at colleagues, I muttered to myself, 'I hate this so much' the second my finger silenced the laptop. Why? Tapping this laptop's function row means pressing your finger against its glowing 'touch function row' screen, which is made of Gorilla Glass 3. Unlike any other laptop sold today, the Dell 14 Premium features a row of capacitive (i.e., touch-based) sensors where its regular Function keys should be. This isn't exactly new, as Dell killed off its physical function keys when it launched the XPS 2024. So now you tap glass instead of clicking buttons, and while I got used to this on a phone, it still breaks my muscle memory on a laptop. These aren't unimportant functions either, as the touch function row is used to adjust the volume and brightness, and houses the home, end, escape, insert and delete keys. Where did the function keys (F1 through F12) go? Well, you have to hold the function (Fn) key to reveal them, and you can lock those 'keys' in by tapping Esc while holding Fn. If that sounds terrible to you, then we agree on this user experience. Dell's not alone in sacrificing user experience for the sake of something that sounds or looks cool. Apple tried this with the (failed) Touch Bar, and automobile manufacturers such as Hyundai and Volkswagen have already realized that customers don't want to trade physical buttons for a touchscreen. One more flaw: Dell doesn't even let you customize the touch function row, just allows you to switch between the numbered 'F' keys and the controls you're already used to. So, not only does it not feel futuristic at all to hurt your fingers as you try to click glass but you're also potentially still stuck with fake keys you don't need. Personally, I would love to do away with the insert, microphone mute, and play/pause buttons, and replace them with commands to open frequently used applications such as the Brave web browser and Todoist. Then again, I still wouldn't use those because I dislike the feeling of tapping on glass. The actual keyboard keys, though, feel good to type on, with a comfortable click. I just wish there were more space between the keys, as they're set in an edge-to-edge style with barely any gaps, which led to more typos. The all-glass, no lines touchpad is still a bad idea Sometimes, on rare occasions, it's great to break from tradition. Just because something is normal doesn't mean it's good. The Dell 14 Premium's all-glass touchpad, though, is not that kind of revolution. Here, just as with the function row, Dell eschews the traditional touchpad design, erasing any indicators that visually identify the space you're supposed to tap. In its promotional materials, Dell referred to this design as 'friendlier,' and I must disagree. The lack of any indication as to where the touchpad is makes you feel like you shouldn't touch anywhere. Additionally, there's barely any feedback when you click on the surface, so I did not feel all that confident using it at first. After repeated attempts to define the touchpad, I learned it stretches from the left Alt key to the new CoPilot button (Microsoft's generative AI app taking up a key is, unfortunately, normal on Windows laptops these days). This space could be great for some, because that's a large canvas to occupy. Personally, I found that the mix of no visual indicators and a large touchpad made it too easy for me to activate the touchpad surface accidentally. At $1,700 — the cheapest price you can get the Dell 14 Premium with an OLED display — this laptop costs slightly more than it should. That price is $101 more than Apple's 14-inch MacBook Pro M4, and both laptops pack 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and a great screen. The MacBook Pro, however, boasts better battery life and a much better design with regular function row keys and a traditional touchpad. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x also packs a high-res OLED screen, and the same amount of memory and storage, and it's $400 less (you can currently get one for $1,300 at Best Buy.) That laptop does carry the quirks of an Arm-based processor, which include lackluster support for legacy devices, as well as only running beta versions of some Adobe applications. It's the best Windows laptop, but it's still not without caveats. Why is the Dell 14 Premium's conclusion so much about other laptops? Because I can't recommend it, which is sad. The Dell XPS laptops used to be the PC laptops worth your time, but the last few years haven't just erased the XPS brand. What ports does the Dell 14 Premium laptop come with? What ports does the Dell 14 Premium laptop come with? The Dell 14 Premium includes three USB-C ports that support the Thunderbolt 4 spec, a microSD memory reader and a headphone jack. Dell no longer includes a USB-C hub to add the USB-A port. What sizes does the Dell 14 Premium laptop come in? What sizes does the Dell 14 Premium laptop come in? While the Dell 14 Premium is 14 inches, the company does sell this laptop in one other size. The Dell 16 Premium is, as you'd guess, 16 inches. How long does the battery last on the Dell 14 Premium laptop? How long does the battery last on the Dell 14 Premium laptop? The Dell 14 Premium died after eight hours and 20 minutes on our looping 4K video test. CNN Underscored thoroughly tests the products we review and provides full transparency about our testing methodology. We're made up of skilled writers and editors who have many years of experience testing, researching and recommending products, and they ensure each article is carefully edited and products are properly vetted. Electronics writer Henry T. Casey has written tech product reviews for more than decade, during which he's seen more laptops than most folks who haven't worked at a Best Buy. Casey truly misses the XPS 14 that had physical function buttons and a traditional touchpad.

Dell (DELL) Stock: Price Target Raised, But Headwinds Still Loom
Dell (DELL) Stock: Price Target Raised, But Headwinds Still Loom

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time8 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Dell (DELL) Stock: Price Target Raised, But Headwinds Still Loom

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) is one of the On August 13, Susquehanna analyst Mehdi Hosseini raised the firm's price target on the stock to $120 from $105 and kept a Neutral rating on the shares. The rating affirmation comes ahead of its July quarter results. Susquehanna anticipates Dell to report in-line July quarter results with October quarter guidance that misses consensus estimates. In an investor note, the analysts noted how the company is facing several headwinds. These headwinds include notebook shipment trends tracking below seasonal norms and pressure on artificial intelligence server revenue. A team of IT experts discussing the latest network security trends over a laptop screen. Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) provides IT solutions, including servers, storage, networking, and personal computing devices, to businesses and consumers worldwide. While we acknowledge the potential of DELL as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

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