Dell Inspiron 14 Plus review: business as usual in the Snapdragon era

The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus sees the venerable PC-maker embrace the Snapdragon platform, and do it well.

Dell Inspiron 14 Plus
(Image: © Future/Ian Evenden)

Our Verdict

Dell makes business PCs, and this is one. It brings all the strengths of the Snapdragon platform - long battery life, cool and quiet running - and melds them with a thin and light design. Creatives may bemoan the lack of GPU power, but as something to take with you when you’re working away from your desk, this makes a good choice.

For

  • Cool and quiet
  • Huge battery life
  • Bright, sharp touchscreen

Against

  • Keyboard could be better
  • Slim port selection
  • No webcam shutter

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Think of a Dell laptop and you’ll probably picture a grey machine that’s been built for stability and reliability. It’s not going to be an exciting PC, but this is a brand that makes much of its business credentials, and when you’re likely to be supplying the portable PC fleets of large businesses, what you need is solid, dependable performance on a large scale.

This version of the old reliable Inspiron sees Dell embrace the nascent Qualcomm platform in the form of the Snapdragon X Plus processor, rather than the Elite model found in something like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (you can find the Elite in Dell’s Inspiron and Latitude ranges, but we’re reviewing an X Plus here). Snapdragon has many benefits for a portable machine that’s likely to be used in business situations, such as extended (like, really extended) battery life and mostly silent operation, and Dell has capitalised on them. But is enough to make this one of the best laptops for office workers and writers?

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Key specs
CPUQualcomm Snapdragon X Plus (10 cores)
GPUAdreno integrated
RAM16GB LPDDR5X
Screen14in HDR IPS touchscreen
Resolution3200 x 1800 (16:10)
Refresh rate60Hz
Colour coverage (stated)100% sRGB
Storage1TB SSD, MicroSD
ConnectivityWi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, 2x USB4, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1X 3.5mm audio
Dimensions15 x 224 x 314mm
Weight1.4kg
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Cinebench 2024Row 0 - Cell 1
Single core108
Multicore640
GPUN/A
Geekbench 6Row 4 - Cell 1
Single core2413
Multicore13290
GPU (OpenCL)20555
AI (ONNX single precision)1888
PC Mark 10Row 9 - Cell 1
Applications benchmark13357
Battery life15h 38m
Handbrake video encoding05:17, 60.8fps
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7

A 16-incher with a Snapdragon Elite and Microsoft’s smarts all built in.

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra

Expensive, but brings a Core Ultra 9, GeForce 4070, and a lovely 120Hz AMOLED screen into MacBook-like design.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 9

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 9

Small, light, and packing a Snapdragon Elite, this 2-in-1 is a great advert for what the new platform can do.

The Verdict
7.5

out of 10

Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (7441)

Dell makes business PCs, and this is one. It brings all the strengths of the Snapdragon platform - long battery life, cool and quiet running - and melds them with a thin and light design. Creatives may bemoan the lack of GPU power, but as something to take with you when you’re working away from your desk, this makes a good choice.

Ian Evenden

Ian Evenden has been a journalist for over 20 years, starting in the days of QuarkXpress 4 and Photoshop 5. He now mainly works in Creative Cloud and Google Docs, but can always find a use for a powerful laptop or two. When not sweating over page layout or photo editing, you can find him peering at the stars or growing vegetables.

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