Dell really thought it could get away with killing the XPS brand. For those who don’t follow the laptop world closely, imagine if Apple suddenly stopped calling their laptops MacBooks and instead went with “iPhone Company Laptop Plus” or something equally forgettable. That’s basically what Dell tried to pull off.
The company replaced its beloved XPS line with a confusing mess of Plus, Premium, and Pro models. Nobody asked for this. Nobody wanted this. And apparently, even Dell realized it was a terrible idea because just one year later, the XPS brand is back from the dead.
The Premium Line Was a Disaster
Let’s talk about what went wrong with the Dell 14 Premium, which was supposed to be the XPS replacement. This thing weighed 3.8 pounds. For a 14-inch laptop, that’s absolutely ridiculous. I’ve held gaming laptops that felt lighter.
The weight wasn’t even the worst part. Dell decided to replace the Function row with touch-sensitive icons that provided zero feedback. You know that satisfying click you get when you press a physical key? Gone. Instead, you got to play a guessing game of whether you actually hit the right spot to adjust your volume. It was the kind of design decision that makes you wonder if anyone at Dell actually used the laptop before shipping it.
The whole thing felt like Dell was trying too hard to be different when the Technology they already had was perfectly fine.
Weight Loss That Actually Matters
The new XPS 14 drops down to just over 3 pounds, which is where a 14-inch laptop should be. That’s a weight reduction you’ll actually feel in your bag every single day. Dell managed this without turning the laptop into a flimsy piece of plastic either. The CNC-machined aluminum chassis feels solid and premium, exactly what you’d expect from a machine starting at $1,600.
Here’s the interesting bit: Dell made the XPS 14 thinner and lighter while actually making it look more substantial than the chunky Premium model. They ditched the tapered design for a more MacBook Pro-like slab aesthetic. And yes, it really does look like Dell is chasing Apple’s design language here, but honestly, if you’re going to copy homework, might as well copy from the best.
Physical Keys Are Back, Thank God
Those touch-sensitive Function row icons are gone, replaced by actual physical keys that you can feel and press like a normal human being. This should have never been a problem that needed solving. Function keys worked fine for decades.
The touchpad is still the excellent haptic version from the Premium, but now it has subtle etched lines on the sides so you can actually see where it ends. It’s a small detail that makes the laptop more usable without ruining the minimalist aesthetic.
Dell also tweaked the keyboard to feel a bit snappier, which is always welcome. The port selection remains minimal with three Thunderbolt 4 ports and an audio jack, though they did drop the microSD card slot from the Premium model. That’s going to annoy photographers and videographers who relied on it.
Two Models, Same Story
Dell is launching the XPS 14 with Intel’s new Panther Lake processors. The base model at $1,600 comes with a Core Ultra 5-325, 16GB of RAM, 512GB storage, and an IPS LCD display. There’s also a higher-end version with a touchscreen OLED panel and beefier graphics that’ll get tested for gaming performance.
The display shrunk slightly from 14.5 inches to 14 inches, and it’s noticeably smaller than the MacBook Pro’s 14.2-inch screen when you put them side by side. But the bezels are so thin that the overall laptop footprint is more compact. It’s a reasonable tradeoff for better portability.
A Corporate Apology In Product Form
What’s fascinating about this whole situation is that it’s essentially Dell admitting they screwed up. Companies don’t usually resurrect product lines they killed off just a year ago unless the replacement was a complete failure in the business sense.
The XPS brand had recognition and loyalty built up over years. Throwing that away for a confusing naming scheme that nobody could keep straight was a self-inflicted wound. The Premium line was supposed to signal quality, but instead it signaled that Dell didn’t understand what made their laptops good in the first place.
Now with the XPS 14 and XPS 16 back on shelves (and an XPS 13 coming later this year), maybe Dell has learned that sometimes the old way of doing things was actually the right way. The real question is whether a year of brand confusion and mediocre Premium models damaged customer trust enough that people moved on to other options. Because in the tech world, a year might as well be a decade.
