Dell XPS 14 Laptop Graphite 2026

A stunning screen and marathon battery wrapped around a GPU that belongs in a $600 Chromebook. Paying $2100 for integrated graphics in 2025 is a choice, not a smart one.

The Core Ultra 7 355 surprised us in day-to-day use. Eight cores at 4.7GHz chews through browser tabs, spreadsheets, and photo edits without breaking a sweat, and that 7467MT/s LPDDR5X RAM keeps app switching snappy. But the integrated Intel graphics are the elephant in the room. Our gaming score landed at a sad 17.7 out of 100, which puts it near the bottom of the barrel. Don't even think about firing up anything more demanding than Minesweeper. The 512GB SSD is fine for boot times and file transfers, but it's middle of the pack, and you'll fill it faster than you think.

The MacBook Pro M4 Max absolutely demolishes this thing in performance, especially graphics, and it's in the same price bracket. If you need real GPU power, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 gives you a dedicated RTX card in a similarly compact chassis for less money. The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro is the closest Windows competitor, with a comparable OLED display and better port selection. The XPS 14 wins on battery life and build aesthetics, but it loses on raw value and versatility against every serious competitor in this price range.

At $2100, this is a tough sell. You're paying flagship money for a laptop with integrated graphics, 512GB of storage, and a port selection that ranks in the bottom quarter of all laptops we've tested. The screen and battery are great, but you can get similar specs for hundreds less. Unless you're deeply in love with the XPS design language, this feels like paying a $500 premium for a pretty face.

The Dell XPS 14 is a gorgeous laptop with a serious identity crisis. You're getting a stunning 14-inch 2K display, a beefy 100Wh battery, and Intel's new Core Ultra 7 chip, but you're also paying MacBook Pro money for integrated graphics and a port selection that feels like a bad joke. The one thing to know? This is a premium productivity machine for people who care more about how their laptop looks on a coffee shop table than how many frames it pushes in a game.

If you're looking for any kind of gaming performance, this isn't it. Go get an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 with a dedicated RTX card instead. If you want more ports without dongle life, the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro or a MacBook Pro will treat you better. And if you're a student on a budget, this is way too much money for what you get, grab something in the $800-1200 range and spend the rest on ramen.

Buy this if you want a beautiful Windows ultrabook with all-day battery and you never plan to game or run GPU-heavy workloads. The display is genuinely lovely, the keyboard is comfortable, and the Core Ultra 7 handles productivity tasks with ease. But for $2100, you deserve more than integrated graphics and 512GB of storage. If you need any kind of graphical horsepower, get the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 or a MacBook Pro instead. This is a niche machine for a niche buyer.