Dell XPS 14 9440 Review: Solid Premium Laptop That May Be a Bit Too Minimalistic

The Dell XPS 14 9440 is proof that a laptop can be over designed and also well built. Dell has taken the radical design that it debuted with the XPS 13 Plus two years ago and applied it to the larger 14- and 16-inch models in its premium XPS series. The XPS 14 and XPS 16 effectively replace the long-standing XPS 15 and 17 lines.

Based on a 14.5-inch display powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and optional RTX 4050 graphics, the XPS 14 9440 features the unique design elements we first saw on the XPS 13 Plus: a borderless touchpad, a flat keyboard with little to no spacing between the keys and a Function row made up of touch-sensitive icons. In addition to the striking design, the XPS 14’s machined-aluminum body feels rock solid. It’s unquestionably well put together.

As much as I like the look and feel of the XPS 14, a few aspects of its design trip me up. For one, I would happily give up the row of icons above the keyboard for physical Function keys, even if it meant the overall design looked a little less streamlined. Similarly, the lack of a cut-out or lip on the front edge of the laptop may aid the XPS 14’s minimalistic look, but it also makes it difficult to lift the lid with one hand. The minimalist aesthetic also results in a minimal selection of ports. With two great display options and an option for RTX 4050 graphics in addition to its head-turning looks, however, the XPS 14 holds appeal for creatives with an eye for design.

The Dell XPS 14 9440 starts at $1,699 for a configuration with a Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 16GB of RAM, Intel Arc graphics, a 512GB SSD and a 14.5-inch IPS display with a 1,920×1,200-pixel resolution. Our test system featured the lone graphics upgrade; for $400, you can trade the integrated GPU for discrete RTX 4050 graphics. At $2,099, you are forced to pay a princely sum for a bump to an entry-level RTX 4050, and even more so when you factor in that the GPU is set at only 40 watts, which is a mere fraction of the maximum 140-watt TGP at which an RTX 4050 can operate. The XPS 14 9400’s compact enclosure and thermal concerns mean you don’t get a full-bore RTX 4050.

Matt Elliott/CNET

Dell offers two color options and two display options for the XPS 14 9440, and we received a unit of each. You can choose either Platinum (a muted silver) or Graphite (a matte black) for the case, and you can upgrade from the base IPS display to a 3.2K OLED panel for an additional $300. This review will focus on the IPS display, but we ran our display and battery tests to be able to compare the quality of the displays and the effects they have on the laptop’s runtime.

The XPS 14 9440 starts at £2,049 in the UK and AU$2,999 in Australia.

Light or dark minimalist design

The first thing about the XPS 14 9440 that grabs your attention is the perceived lack of a touchpad. The wrist rest below the keyboard runs uninterrupted from one side to the other. There is, indeed, a touchpad in the usual spot centered below the keyboard — it’s just borderless. I didn’t have any trouble keeping track of the seamless glass haptic touchpad’s location. It’s large, and I never found myself attempting a swipe, tap or another mouse gesture beyond its invisible borders. A few times, I accidentally bumped the cursor with my left palm when getting ready to type, but I quickly was able to correct this occurrence.

A touchpad you can feel but can’t see it. Matt Elliott/CNET

I also didn’t have any trouble with its haptics. I experienced none of the haptics blanking out on me or any drag-and-drop difficulties that I did with last year’s XPS 13 Plus. Dell has changed suppliers for the haptics behind the touchpad for the XPS 14 9440. Dell uses multiple suppliers, but I have confirmed that our test system features haptics from Sensel, which also supplied the responsive and accurate haptics for the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2.

The XPS 14’s touchpad is excellent, with a lively click response. And should you find the feel of clicking too strong or weak, you can adjust the intensity of the haptic response in its settings. The touchpad not only helps give the XPS 14 a super streamlined look, but it also is an excellent input device in its own right.

The look of the keyboard is also a departure from the norm. The latticeless design leaves no space between the keys. I thought this arrangement would lead me to accidentally hitting the edges of surrounding keys, but that turned out not to be the case. My typing was speedy and accurate, and I liked the springy yet shallow key response.

The XPS 14’s keyboard might look flat but it’s not. Matt Elliott/CNET

I’m less enamored with the Function row of touch-sensitive icons. I prefer physical Function keys and, in particular, like the secure feeling of having physical Esc and Delete keys for times when Windows flakes out and I need to escape out of something or employ the trusted Ctrl-Alt-Del command. Should an issue with Windows disable the Function row, then my hands would be tied without either recovery option available. I also don’t like the lack of haptics on the Function keys. Having physical feedback would make common adjustments like raising or lowering the volume or screen brightness easier. Lastly, I wish the always-on LEDs for the illuminated icons could be turned off. They dim in low light but can’t be completely turned off when you are, say, watching a movie in a dark room.

The benefit of the funky Function row and borderless touchpad is an overall appearance that is quite striking. It’s really beautiful and different. Both color options look spectacular, but I’d give the nod to the matte-black Graphite color.

Matt Elliott/CNET

In addition to its good looks, the XPS 14 boasts exceptional build quality. The machined aluminum chassis is very rigid with no hint of flex that plagues aluminum laptops of lesser quality. This solid feeling, however, comes at the expense of added travel weight. The XPS 14 9440 weighs a hefty 3.8 pounds. (The OLED model is a tad heavier at 3.9 pounds.) The XPS 14 is appreciably heavier than two similar 14-inch Windows laptops we’ve tested recently: the HP Spectre x360 14 weighs 3.2 pounds, and the Acer Swift X 14 weighs 3.4 pounds. The 14-inch MacBook Pro is also lighter than the XPS 14 at 3.3 pounds.

The way I see it, a laptop manufacturer has two options for creating an easy, one-finger way to raise the lid to open the laptop. You can add a cut-out area on the front edge of the keyboard deck, like you find on a MacBook, that provides room for your finger to grab the edge of the lid to lift it. Or you can add a little tab to the lid itself that protrudes past the edge of the keyboard deck, providing a lip to lift the lid as you get with the Lenovo Slim 7i. Dell provides neither and instead offers a slightly sloped angle to the XPS 14’s front edge. The angle isn’t great enough to allow for a one-finger opening. I had to grip each side of the lid and lift with both hands.

The XPS 14 isn’t the easiest to open. Matt Elliott/CNET

Once you manage to raise the lid, you’ll encounter a great display. Dell offers two screen options, and we tested each. The base display is an IPS panel with a 1,920×1,200-pixel resolution. The OLED upgrade bumps you up to a 3,200×2,000-pixel resolution and adds touch support.

The standard IPS display is brighter but offers inferior color range and contrast. In testing, it covered 98% sRGB and 73% AdobeRGB and P3, and hit a peak brightness of 500 nits. The OLED panel covered 100% sRGB, 87% AdobeRGB and 99% P3, which is significantly better than the IPS panel’s color gamut, but many of the OLEDs we’ve tested cover 94% Adobe RGB and 100% P3. The OLED panel reached a peak brightness of merely 347 nits, but its higher contrast means it doesn’t need to get as bright to be viewed clearly in direct light as an IPS.

The two color options for the latest XPS models. Matt Elliott/CNET

The OLED panel looked better with more vivid colors and deeper black levels, but the IPS display will suffice if you don’t engage in color-critical graphics work. Text looked crisp on the 1,920×1,200 display, and the abundantly bright panel allows the screen to look good under a variety of lighting conditions. Both display options offer a dynamic refresh rate between 60Hz and 120Hz, which provides smooth motion at 120Hz and the ability to save power and extend battery life when a higher rate isn’t required.

If you go with the IPS panel, you’ll get better battery life. OLED displays generally have an adverse effect on a laptop’s battery life, and the XPS 14 9440 is no exception. Our test system with the IPS display lasted nearly 15 hours on our online streaming battery drain test, and the OLED-equipped model lasted a little more than 9 hours.

In terms of overall performance, the XPS 14 9440 fell in line with other laptops we tested with the same Core Ultra 7 155H processor. That is to say, it offers strong application performance, but nothing significantly better than what we’ve seen from laptops that feature previous 13th-gen Intel Core H-series processors. The graphics performance, too, fell in the anticipated range for an RTX 4050, and the XPS 14 9440 delivered acceptable 1080p framerates on our gaming tests. It’s still not a great pick for gamers looking for a compact system because the GPU is set to run at only 40 watts because Dell squeezes it inside the XPS 14’s compact chassis, which also has minimal venting.

No HDMI, but there is a microSD card slot. Matt Elliott/CNET

The XPS 14 9440 also has minimal ports, offering only a trio of Thunderbolt 4 ports, a microSD card slot and a headphone jack. Dell includes an adapter for USB-A and HDMI connectivity, but it’s always a pain to keep track of a dongle.

Dell did find room for quad speakers whose audio output sounds fuller with more oomph than that of a standard set of stereo laptop speakers. And the 1080p webcam produces a much crisper, better-balanced image than that of the 720p cam found on last year’s XPS 13 Plus and the departed XPS 15 and 17. The camera also has an IR sensor for Windows Hello facial recognition, and the power button integrates a fingerprint reader for a second option for secure biometric logins.

The XPS 14 9440’s minimalistic look and solid build will certainly appeal to design-centric creative types, who will also make good use of the strong overall performance of the Core Ultra processor and RTX 4050 graphics. If the unusual design is too great a departure and you can make do with integrated Intel Arc graphics, the HP Spectre x360 14 is another premium laptop (and a two-in-one to boot) that has a gorgeous design but with a more traditional look as well as two-in-one functionality.

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