Dell XPS 14 (2026) Review: Gorgeous but Typing Trouble

Dell’s 2026 XPS 14 is one of those laptops that makes you smile the moment you pick it up. The updated design is thinner and lighter than previous models, the metal finish brings a MacBook-like feel, and the 14-inch 2.8K OLED touchscreen on higher-end configs delivers rich colors and deep blacks that pop in photos, videos and games.

Under the hood, Intel’s Panther Lake Core Ultra X7 358H—paired with Intel Arc B390 graphics in the reviewed unit—gives surprising performance for an ultraportable. In testing the machine hit high frame rates in Arc Raiders and respectable results in demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077, while benchmarks such as PCMark 10 and Geekbench 6 lined up closely with rivals using the same Ultra X7 silicon.

Yet there’s a major snag: the keyboard. Two review units exhibited troublesome behavior where quick successive key presses were missed or registered out of order. That forces fast typists to slow down or make frequent corrections, undermining the otherwise premium experience. Dell says a small batch of early units had the issue, and engineers are testing affected samples; the company plans a firmware fix later this month and claims current shipping units aren’t affected.

Other touches show Dell listened to past criticism. The invisible trackpad gains subtle border lines to make its edges easier to find, and the capacitive function row has been replaced with normal keys that work reliably even in bright sunlight. Port selection is more minimalist: three USB-C ports and a headphone jack, but no HDMI, USB-A or microSD slot.

Battery life proved middling on our PCMark 10 office test—around 10 hours—short of competitors like the MSI Prestige 14 that stretched much further on similar silicon. Pricing varies widely: high-end XPS 14s with Arc graphics and 64GB RAM start north of $2,250, while base models begin around $1,450.

In short, the XPS 14 is beautifully designed and surprisingly capable for its size, but that keyboard quirk is hard to ignore. If Dell’s firmware update truly resolves the input problems, the XPS 14 could be one of the best Windows ultraportables available; until then, it’s a stunning machine you might hesitate to type on fast.