Dell XPS 14z

The Dell XPS 14z is the smaller version of Dell’s XPS 15z laptop. The latter was already very much a commuter-friendly device, but the 14z is ever so slightly slimmer and lighter. Does that mean it’s the better laptop?

What we like best

The brushed metal finish, reminiscent of the Apple MacBook Pro laptops has remained the same as with the XPS 15z, which is good news.

The look is sober and stylish at the same time, and the build feels reassuringly strong and unyielding in all the important areas, like the lid and the hinges.

Dell have managed to keep the size of the bezel to a minimum, meaning that the actual display stretches almost all the way across the length of the laptop. This was done to keep the size of the Dell XPS 14z down, and it’s a neat little trick – the display is that of a 14 inch laptop, while the form factor is that of a 13 inch one.

The Dell XPS 14z’s keyboard features small, slightly rounded, isolated keys that are a pleasure to type on and placed far enough apart so as to avoid hitting the wrong key.

500Gb of memory storage is very impressive for such a small laptop and will please people with large music or film collections. There is also an optical drive included with the XPS 14z, which increases thickness but gives the user the option of launching software from a CD-ROM or watching a DVD.

Thanks to the great CPU options (Sandy Bridge Intel Core i5 or i7), there is ample scope for multimedia editing and multitasking. Connectivity is of a good standard, too: both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 are available to users.

What we like least

Despite the display being unusually large for such a small form factor, watching video content on the 14z is a bit of a letdown due to the comparatively low resolution of 1366 x 768 (the 15z has 1920 x 1080) and the glossy screen.

Where the XPS 15z plays back HD content without any noticeable loss of quality, the Dell XPS 14z definitely loses some sharpness and contrast, as well as having inferior viewing angles.

There are only two USB ports, both of which placed slightly awkwardly at the back of the laptop and only one of which supports USB 3.0 data transfer.