Introduction

The Dell Pro 14 Premium marks the first laptop I’ve tested with the brand’s new confusing naming scheme that was announced at CES 2025.

Gone are the XPS and Latitude monikers of old, as Dell has gone full Apple – as such, this new Pro 14 Premium model represents what the older Latitude models would have previously. That is, a reliable and functional laptop with ample power for business users, in the same way as a Lenovo ThinkPad does.

This specific variant comes with an eight-core Intel Core Ultra 7 268V processor inside, as well as 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD – essentially the top spec of this option with a 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS screen.

With this in mind, it’s £2383.98/$2679.27, making it pricier than a comparably specced Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 and even dual-screen OLED options such as the Asus Zenbook Duo (2025).

I’ve been testing the Pro 14 Premium for the last few weeks to see if it makes for a capable business laptop against the key competition, and to see how well it performs as my main work machine.

Design and Keyboard

• MacBook Pro-inspired looks
• Competent port selection
• Tactile keyboard, but a smaller trackpad

The Pro 14 Premium certainly echoes modern MacBook Pros by way of its looks, with a boxy frame with raised, curved corners, and its deep grey colourway. Nonetheless, its magnesium alloy frame feels coarser and cheaper than an aluminium unibody MacBook.

Dell’s contender is especially light at just 1.14kg, making this one of the more portable laptops available in its class. It is easy to take around, being a more compact machine.

Compared to the previous Latitude model, the Pro 14 Premium comes with an upgraded and more varied port selection – it has two Thunderbolt 4-capable USB-C ports, a full-size HDMI, one USB-A, and a headphone jack. For a modern laptop, that’s quite good, although it is lacking a second USB-A port compared to the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6.

The keyboard here is one of Dell’s new ‘Zero Lattice’ keyboards, as found on previous premium Dell options such as the XPS 13 (2024) and slightly older Latitude laptops.

It’s an especially tactile keyboard, although it takes some getting used to. As a more compact laptop, its layout foregoes a number pad and some navigation keys, but is sensible. It also has a Mini LED backlit to allow for a potent white light to shine through when working after dark.

The Pro 14 Premium’s trackpad is on the smaller side against more modern ultrabooks, although it is still roomy enough for navigation with accurate tracking and solid tactility under finger. 

Display and Sound

• Solid resolution and dynamic range
• Colour accuracy is fine for general use
• Speakers are okay, if a little lacking in bass

The Pro 14 Premium opts against an OLED screen and sticks with a tried-and-tested 14-inch IPS panel, complete with a standard 60Hz refresh rate and 1920×1200 resolution screen for solid detail.

It’s a panel that can get decently bright, with a measured peak SDR brightness of 429.9 nits, giving displayed images a fair bit of punch, while its 1830:1 contrast ratio offers decent dynamic range for an LCD. The 0.14 black level offers solid depth, although is bettered by other IPS screens I’ve tested.

Colour accuracy is okay, with 100% sRGB coverage making the Pro 14 Premium’s screen well-suited for productivity and day-to-day tasks. However, the 76% coverage of both DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB gamuts means it isn’t as capable for more colour-sensitive workloads as other displays I’ve used, especially on similarly priced ultrabooks with OLED screens.

The speakers are upwards-firing from grilles adjacent to the keyboard tray, and offer decent volume with reasonable detail. They are lacking in some low-end extension, but should be okay for casual listening.

Performance

• Decent performance from its Lunar Lake chip
• Beefier integrated graphics
• Lots of RAM headroom and a speedy SSD

The Pro 14 Premium, in this top configuration I have here, opts to go for one of Intel’s Core Ultra 200V chips – namely the Core Ultra 7 268V. This is an eight-core/eight-thread chip that offers solid performance in my testing to help this Dell laptop feel quite zippy.

As with similarly-specced Lunar Lake laptops I’ve used in the past, the single-core performance afforded by the Core Ultra 7 268V here is strong, against its contemporaries from both AMD and Qualcomm, even if the likes of the Apple MacBook Pro M4 still has this laptop beaten in the Geekbench 6 and Cinebench R23 benchmark tests.

With this in mind, as Intel removed hyperthreading with these chips, that’s why the multi-threaded scores in those two tests against laptops with one of AMD’s newer Strix Point and Krackan Point chips are lower with the Pro 14 Premium. That’s not to say this is a bad chip for more intensive tasks by any means, as the scores are still good overall.

The Arc 140V integrated graphics in the Core Ultra 7 268V are increasingly potent against rivals, with a fantastic score in the 3DMark Time Spy test that demonstrates the Pro 14 Premium’s capabilities for more graphically intensive tasks.

The 32GB of RAM on this top model is plenty for both multi-tasking and for any more intensive workloads, while the 1TB SSD is a decent capacity for storing files, apps and more. In addition, it’s quite a fast SSD, with measured read and write speeds of 6555.90 MB/s and 5836.92 MB/s respectively.

Software

• Especially clean Windows 11 install
• Not much in the way of Dell-specific software
• Copilot+ PC functionality is present

The Pro 14 Premium comes running Windows 11, and comes with very little additional software, be it from Dell themselves, or from a third party.

The most useful pieces of Dell-specific software are Dell Optimizer, which is an app for checking on your system’s vitals and allowing for changing power modes and similar settings to get your machine running how you wish. There is also Dell Command, which is a system updater.

Otherwise, most of the other system apps come in the form of Microsoft’s AI features, as the Pro 14 Premium has enough AI horsepower (or TOPS) to be considered a Copilot+ PC. This gives you access to features such as the clever Windows Studio webcam effects for auto-framing and background blur, as well as generative AI capabilities in Photos and Microsoft Paint.

Battery Life

• Lasted for 22 hours 53 minutes in the battery test
• Capable of lasting for between two and three working days

Where the Pro 14 Premium is virtually unmatched is with its battery life. Don’t let the modest 60Whr capacity fool you – in the PCMark10 battery test with the screen brightness at its requisite 150 nits, this Dell laptop managed to last for 22 hours and 53 minutes. That means it beats the previous efficiency king, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, by a full half an hour, and easily gives you enough charge to do two working days, and potentially even a third.

The battery life on offer here is also long enough to beat the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 result by nearly 10 hours, and makes this easily one of the best laptops we’ve tested by way of runtime.

Charging speeds are also pretty solid too thanks to the 65W brick, with the Pro 14 Premium taking 31 minutes to go from zero to 50%, while a full charge took 66 minutes. That’s pretty good, all things considered.

Should you buy it?

FAQs