Dell 14S (2026) Review

Design and Keyboard

• More stylish and sturdy than last year’s model
• Solid port selection
• Reasonably snappy keyboard and tactile trackpad

Compared to last year’s Dell 14 Plus model, this new 14S (2026) has seen a bit of a glow-up in terms of fit and finish. The outer shell is entirely aluminium, giving things a sturdy and stylish finish – not least in a sky-blue type colour that my sample came in.

At 1.45kg, though, this is on the heftier side for a more compact laptop, and rivals can shave upwards of half a kilo off this Dell laptop’s mass to make it much more portable. That said, the 14-inch form factor and slender thickness do help with ease of slipping this laptop into a bag.

The port selection on offer here is mostly fine, with the left side home to a pair of Thunderbolt 4-capable USB-C ports alongside a USB-A port and a full-size HDMI. On the right, you get another USB-A and a headphone jack. That has become standard-issue for a lot of ultrabooks these days, but it’s fine for most folks.

Open up the lid, and you’ll find the 14S (2026) comes with a smaller form factor keyboard, complete with function row and arrow keys. For the most part, it’s decent to use, with a deep travel and some level of tactility, although it isn’t as snappy as the divisive lattice-style keyboard Dell equips on some of its higher-end laptops. The white backlighting is mostly fine, although it isn’t as bright as other laptops I’ve tested.

The trackpad is of a decent size, and has good real estate for navigation, while it has a more mechanical press to its buttons, which is pleasant.

Display and Sound

• Deep blacks and fantastic contrast
• Resolution and refresh rate are a little low
• Middling speakers

The 14S (2026) sample I have comes with a more basic OLED screen option, with a 14-inch 1920×1200 60Hz OLED panel that provides solid detail over a more compact screen.  I bemoan the lack of a higher 120Hz refresh rate for added zippiness, although it isn’t just Dell that’s guilty of this.

Nonetheless, this is a solid OLED panel, with deep blacks and excellent contrast. My colorimeter measured 0.03 for black level and 10430:1 for contrast. The 6500K colour temperature is perfect, too.

The 287.8 nits of peak SDR brightness is disappointing, though, as it fails to meet our 300-nit target.

As for colour accuracy, the 14S (2026) afforded virtually perfect results, with 100% sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage alongside 89% Adobe RGB. This means this screen is well-suited for productivity and more colour-sensitive workloads, although it is a little low-res for the latter against rivals.

As for the speakers, this Dell laptop comes with a pair of 2W units that are just fine for casual listening, with some okay volume and body, although they lack the bass and substance you’ll find on other ultrabooks I’ve tested.

Performance

• New Panther Lake chip inside
• Meagre graphical performance
• More basic RAM and storage configuration

Depending on the region, the 14S (2026) can be kitted out with up to the Intel Core X7 358H chip, which is one of the brand’s new Panther Lake chips that comes kitted out with the Arc B390 iGPU and beefy performance.

However, the sample I have is one of the mid-range models in the UK and USA that features the eight-core Core Ultra 7 355. It is technically a current-gen Intel chip, but doesn’t look to move the needle too much from last year’s Core Ultra 7 255. 

As with other non-X-prefixed Panther Lake chips I’ve tried in other laptops, performance has only moved a handful of percentage points in the Geekbench 6 and Cinebench R23 tests, although it remains decently strong in single- and multi-threaded workloads.

General performance here is fine, although for a similar price, the Snapdragon X2 Elite chips inside the Asus Zenbook A14 (2026) and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 have much brisker single-core performance, which can lead to them feeling brisker and more responsive for everyday productivity tasks. Multi-threaded workloads are also likely to be stronger, too.

The 3D performance here is fine for more casual use, and if you can opt for a Panther Lake X chip, then it’ll yield even beefier integrated graphics that make this a more suitable laptop for more graphically intensive workloads.

My sample of the 14S (2026) comes with a standard-issue 16GB of RAM, which is more a sign of the times than anything else, plus a slightly more meagre 512GB SSD. In the US, this is bumped up to 1TB. It’s nonetheless a brisk PCIe Gen 4 drive, with measured reads of 6686.98 MB/s, although the writes were weirdly much slower at 3429.89 MB/s.

Software

• Especially clean Windows 11 install
• Not much in the way of Dell-specific software
• Copilot+ PC functionality is present

The 14S (2026) comes running Windows 11, and comes with very little additional software, be it from Dell itself or from a third party.

The most useful pieces of Dell-specific software are Dell Optimiser, which is an app for checking on your system’s vitals and allowing you to change power modes and similar settings to get your machine running how you wish. There is also Dell SupportAssist, which is where you can conveniently update software, perform a full system scan, and have one-click access to utilities for boosting performance or optimising network performance.

Otherwise, most of the other system apps come in the form of Microsoft’s AI features, as the 14S (2026) has enough AI horsepower (or TOPS) to be considered a Copilot+ PC. This gives you access to features such as the clever Windows Studio webcam effects for auto-framing and background blur, as well as generative AI capabilities in Photos and Microsoft Paint.

Battery Life

• Lasted for 24 hours 25 minutes in the battery test
• Capable of lasting for three working days

Dell has put a large 70Whr cell into the 14S (2026), which, combined with its efficient Panther Lake internals, meant I had high hopes for its endurance. These smaller Dell machines have traditionally done very well in our battery tests, so it would make sense to expect a lot out of this new one.

In running the PCMark 10 Modern Office battery test at the requisite 150 nits of brightness, this Dell laptop lasted for 24 hours and 25 minutes before conking out, meaning you’ll get roughly three working days out of it away from the mains. It also puts it right at the top of our charts when it comes to endurance, meaning Dell keeps the crown it carries over from the Dell Pro 14 Premium.

The 14S (2026) also comes with a more standard 65W charger in a surprisingly hefty brick, although it isn’t especially fast at putting go-juice back into the laptop. It took 50 minutes to get it back to 50%, while a full charge took two hours.

A point worth noting – by default, this laptop has ‘smart charging’ enabled, which only charges the cell to 80% or thereabouts. To get the 14S (2026) to 100%, you’ll need to go into the BIOS and enable ‘Standard’ charging behaviour.

Should you buy it?