Torn between a Macbook Air and Pro? I'd recommend something totally different

Digital Trends

2 days ago

Earlier this year, Dell went for a rebrand that axed some of its most recognizable product families, such as XPS and Latitude. Instead, the company went with a simplified naming scheme, which is still a tad confusing. The makeover ran deeper than the surface, though.
The sharp XPS charm rode into the sunset, and so did a bunch of other aesthetic elements that helped Dell machines stand out. Instead, the company is now riding with a more generalist industrial look that focuses more on productivity instead of setting new heft and thickness records.
Recommended Videos
One of the first products to come out of the 'new' identity was the Dell Plus 16, which earned praise for its solid performance, clean design, and fantastic keyboard. I recently got my hands on the Dell Pro 14, which starts lower than its Plus sibling, but can eclipse it as you take the internal upgrade route.
After giving it a run as my primary workhorse for a couple of weeks, it emerged as a solid workhorse that serves plenty of firepower and practical perks. But most importantly, it sits at the sweet middle-ground spot where it surpasses the MacBook Air without the high premium of a MacBook Pro.
A practical workhorse
The Dell Pro 14 Pro configuration I tested comes armed with 32GB of RAM, 512GB storage, and AMD's Ryzen AI 7 Pro (350) processor. That kind of memory upgrade would set you back by $1,480 on the MacBook Air, while the baseline MacBook Pro with the entry-level M4 processor will have you spending $2,000 at the very least.
For comparison, the Dell machine I tested will cost you around $1,400 while doubling the internal storage to 1 TB. Now, saving a few hundred dollars is a relief in itself. In addition to the cost savings, you also get a handful of other benefits, and the most notable among them all is a diverse port selection.
None of Apple's laptops go beyond a typical USB-C input and an HDMI port, which is exclusive to the MacBook Pro. On the Dell Pro, you get a pair of USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4.0 ports with power delivery and display-out capabilities.
Additionally, the Dell machine also offers an equal number of USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports with PowerShare. Finally, you also get a dedicated HDMI 2.1 port and a gigabit-class Ethernet port, too. The USB-C ports are special as they ditch the soldered format and adopt a screwed aproach.
The result is a modular design that offers four times higher twist resistance and nearly 33 times better impact resistance compared to the erstwhile Latitude series business laptops. The modular engineering also opens the doors for better repairability, too.
I also love the privacy and security kit on this one. In addition to a fingerprint sensor, you also get an IR camera array at the top for Windows Hello facial recognition. In my time with the laptop, both the authentication measures worked just fine.
I prefer face unlock to be the more seamless approach for identity verification on laptops, especially when you are dealing with features such as Windows Recall or other workflows where you often run into the authentication firewall.
For a business laptop that is running enterprise software, such conveniences matter a lot. There's also a physical privacy shutter at the top to cover the FHD webcam for extra security.
Plenty of silicon firepower
Dell has made a rather curious choice with the processor inside its 14-inch business laptop. The variant I had for testing comes armed with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 Pro 350 processor. Now, this family of processors was introduced earlier this year, but they don't offer the best or latest from AMD's inventory.
That distinction goes to the AMD Ryzen AI Max family of processors in the Strix Point series, while the AMD Ryzen AI and its Pro variations fall within the older Krackan Point family. That doesn't mean the Krackan Point silicon is a laggard, even though it sticks with a slightly less powerful integrated graphics chip.
On the Ryzen AI 7 Pro 350, you get four Zen 5 cores and an equal number of Zen 5c efficiency cores. The peak clock speed goes up to 5GHz, while graphics performance is handled by the Radeon 860M iGPU. The NPU can deliver over 50 TOPS, higher than the baseline Microsoft has set for offering next-gen AI features on Copilot+ PCs.
The performance chops are worth a note. On Cinebench (R24), it fared better than Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V Lunar Lake processor by a margin of around 12%, though it can't quite match the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite or Apple's M4 silicon.
On Geekbench, it again performed better than its Intel rival access the single-core and multi-core metrics, and even surpassed Qualcomm's silicon. However, the Zen 5 series is still over 20% slower compared to Apple's M4 silicon. At multi-core output, the gap is much smaller and falls within the 7% performance gap.
Running a mixed workload at the Blender BMW27 rendering test, the AMD silicon fared much better than Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V, while the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite lags further behind due to the weak onboard Adreno GPU. On 3DMark, however, Intel's Arc graphics took the lead over AMD's Radeon 860M unit.
As far as practical workflows go, the AMD Ryzen AI 7 Pro 350 is a fairly capable processor. For business consumers, it offers more firepower than they would need for handling Office and Workspace chores. It should also handle coding workflows fairly well and short-form video edits.
My work was separated across Chrome (three windows, 12-15 tabs each), Slack, Trello, Teams, Photoshop, and Spotify. The Dell Pro 14 barely ever stuttered. Moreover, I never had to shift gears and raise the fan speed for an extra dash of cooling or contend with throttling issues.
With the same workflow, the upper portion of my M4 MacBook Air's keyboard regularly runs hot and stutters are felt, especially with Chrome hogging the system resources.
A few hits and misses
The most perplexing element of the Dell Pro 14 is its chassis. The keyboard is fantastic, with lovely spacing, good travel, and a fantastic springy feedback. It's a joy to type a few thousand words without feeling any fatigue. The clicky trackpad gets the job done, but I wish it were the haptic type.
The full-HD display is also acceptable, but not as sharp as its Apple competition. What I love about it is the anti-glare coating on top, though the machine is also available in touch-sensitive display variants. I wish it were brighter, but in a closed space, I was able to comfortably work on it at roughly 40% brightness levels.
The Dell Pro 14 comes with up to a 55-Whr battery, which delivers good mileage paired with a 14-inch FHD display and a fairly power-efficient processor. Dell says the laptop should last up to 15 hours on a single charge, while fast charging ensures that you get up to 80% juice with an hour of plugged-in time.
During my tests, it went up to 11.5 hours of sustained work, which is not bad, though still a fair bit behind Windows on Arm machines like the Asus ZenBook A14 or the MacBook Air. The power draw is worryingly high, however, when the fan profile has been set to its peak value under load and brightness levels are set above the 70% mark.
Then there's the build quality. The Dell Pro 14 weighs slightly above the MacBook Air, but it's much lighter than the MacBook Pro. It's a joy to carry around, but keep in mind it's thicker than its Apple or Windows competition in the segment.
The industrial looks are married to a polycarbonate shell. But there is a worrying amount of flex. Though it doesn't hurt the typing experience, you can easily press the deck. The same goes for the top lid, and you can even feel the hinge area pressing down.
The Dell Pro 14 doesn't feel cheap. Far from it, actually. But I wish Dell went with a slightly stiffer material, or even a metallic shell to give it a more premium material befitting the sticker price.
Overall, if your primary concern is a productivity workhorse that handles performance and practicality, but can't quite absorb the Apple tax, the Dell 14 Pro is a great choice. And for its target business audience, it's almost a no-brainer.