Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (Snapdragon X Elite) Review: AI PCs still need a killer app

The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus has an instantly familiar design and good battery life, but I’m still waiting to be impressed by Copilot+ PCs.

Score: 3/5

In this review

Dell Inspiron 14 Plus Specifications
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus Design
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus Performance
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus Battery
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus Conclusion

Microsoft’s “CoPilot+” designation for Windows laptops running on ARM processors – so far, just a choice between a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite or Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus – landed a few months back, and in that time most of the big laptop makers have had their go at producing a Copilot+ laptop alongside devices such as Microsoft’s own Surface Laptop 7.

The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is Dell’s take, and while the exterior design is instantly familiar – for better and worse – the internals still point towards the best selling point for Copilot+ PCs not being their fancy AI chops – or possibly even TOPS – but instead somewhat enhanced battery life.

Design

From the outside, you would not pick that the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is anything but a stock-standard Inspiron laptop. It’s a design that Dell has used for quite a long time now, which has both its benefits and its drawbacks. There are some small design touches, like the way that the screen stand tilts the keyboard up slightly when leaned back that I do rather like.

The keyboard is nicely responsive without being particularly noisy, which is a big plus for anyone using it in a busy office.

At the same time… it’s kind of plain, which is not exactly what you might expect out of a laptop that costs north of $2,000.

It probably saves Dell a lot of money to iterate on the same exterior chassis designs for many of its laptops, but it also means that they can’t help but all feel very samey across the line. The mix of metal and plastic in the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus’ construction is solid enough, but it doesn’t feel premium in the way that the Surface Laptop 7 does.

Then again, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is one of the lower-cost Copilot+ PCs on the market right now, so maybe it’s a question of getting what you pay for.

In terms of ports the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus featuresx two USB-C DisplayPort/PD capable ports on the left side near a microSD card reader, and then a single USB-A and combo microphone/headphone jack on the right.

There’s no custom charging port on the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, so one of those USB-C ports will intermittently have to do duty as your charging port as well when the battery needs topping up.

Dell sells the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus with a couple of choices of display; the model loaned to me for the purposes of review featured a very nice 14 inch 16:10 QHD+ (2560x1600) pixel IPS LCD touchscreen.

Touchscreens and Windows have never sat particularly well with me, and it is worth noting that the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus does not have a full 360 degree hinge, so it’s not the kind of laptop that you can twist around into a tablet formation.

Biometrics are handled via a responsive 1080p webcam, and if you’re the privacy-minded type, you’ll appreciate the presence of a physical camera privacy shutter.

I had no issues with Windows Hello unlocking of the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus during my review period except when I forgot that I’d closed the privacy shutter. It’s reasonable that the camera might not see me if I don’t actually let it see me!

Performance

All of the Copilot+ PCs you can buy right now are based around just two different processors; either the effective “entry level” Snapdragon X Plus or the more premium Snapdragon X Elite.

Dell (as is its usual wont) does produce the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus in either configuration and with either 16GB or 32GB of RAM and either a 512GB or 1TB SSD. The model sent to me for review was the higher tier Snapdragon X Elite variant with a 1TB hard drive but only 16GB of RAM, which would cost you $2398 at the time of writing.

The lowest cost model with a Snapdragon Plus, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD would run you $1998.70. Dell does offer up other models in its XPS and Latitude ranges with Snapdragon processors if that style appeals to you more, with prices topping out at $3,633.26 for a Latitude 7455 model.

The whole point of difference with using Snapdragon Processors rather than silicon from the likes of Intel or AMD is that this isn’t a traditional x86 architecture Windows laptop.

Instead it’s running on ARM with a mix of ARM-specific Windows apps and Microsoft’s Prism emulator stepping in behind the scenes to run x86 Windows apps.

This does make direct comparison somewhat difficult; if there’s an ARM version of a given Windows app then that’s always the one that you want to run on the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, because it’s the most optimised for the laptop.

However, Windows has a long history and despite the fact that Microsoft’s been pushing Windows on ARM for some time now (I still have the scars from the Surface RT, let us never speak of it again…), you’re far more likely to run into x86 apps that you want to run on a daily basis.

Will they work? It very much depends. Typically for laptops, for example, I would compare
performance using PCMark 10, because that benchmark is all about productivity… but it doesn’t run at all on ARM Windows laptops, not even under Prism emulation.

3DMark Time Spy does run, but it lacks a native ARM version, so there’s the impact of emulation to take into account when considering its scores. I’ll keep this purely in ARM land for the purposes of review; here’s how the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus compares:

Within its class the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus compares well enough given it’s less pricey than either laptop in that chart, but that’s not a figure that points to exceptional GPU performance.

Then again, the point of Copilot+ PCs is meant to be that they’re AI powerhouses, boosting your creativity and productivity by leveraging the specific NPU built into the Snapdragon X Elite.

At least… that’s the theory. I’m still not convinced that much of what’s happening here is all that noteworthy. Microsoft has yet to fully release Recall for Copilot+ PCs (and I’m 100% fine with that, Recall does not feel to me to be a good idea at all), but what else it’s got that’s specific to the Copilot+ PCs just doesn’t feel like it’s all that useful.

Live captions, for example, leverages the NPU for on-device language translations, which could have appeal if you don’t want that kind of data being processed by third parties… but it really doesn’t seem to work all that well depending on context.

Direct translation using the microphone is functional but not particularly fast based on my own tests using Japanese to US English and French to US English – and no, I’ve not moved countries, but right now captions are only available in US English.

Switching over to online streaming video sources however saw the Live Caption function essentially fail to work beyond a few words. In a simple test pitting the Live Captions function against YouTube’s own (often shaky) caption translation for a Japanese video, while the YouTube text was far from perfect, it at least gave a sense of what was being said. Live Captions was very start-stop in its approach and missed a lot.

Cocreator is meant to allow those of us with limited graphical arts capabilities (hey, that’s me!) to create more interesting pictures, again not using cloud-based AI services… but it feels really just like any of them, right down to the wait period while it does its rendering.

I’m not a big fan of AI writing, so it would feel rather hypocritical of me to say that AI-generated art is fine if AI writing isn’t, but you can make your own value judgements there. What I’ve created using Copilot+’s Cocreator to date really hasn’t felt to me like it’s all that inspired anyway, even if it is better than my own inept scribbles.

Battery

The one area where ARM-based laptops have long had supremacy over their x86 counterparts is in battery life, with the more power efficient nature of ARM giving laptops with the same (or similar) battery capacities many hours of additional performance – at least in theory.

Typically for laptops I test to two extremes, using PCMark 10’s Gaming Battery benchmark for a more brutal test and then a simpler local 1080p looping video test to give a lower power usage scenario. Most people’s usage will fall between those two extremes, and it’s useful to know both the best and worst battery life you can expect out of a laptop.

One problem here: The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus absolutely refused to complete running the PCMark 10 Gaming Battery test. It’s just not ARM-friendly, leaving me with only the direct video playback test results to compare relative ARM laptop performance:

While the Surface Laptop 7 bests the field here, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is considerably less expensive than the model of Surface Laptop 7 as tested, keeping on rolling for over 20 hours before the battery faded. Video playback isn’t the most intensive test – and more anecdotally with some direct heavier games testing, at the other end you’re maybe talking an hour or two of intense use – but for most mid-range users the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus should provide easy all-day battery life.

The Inspiron 14 Plus recharges via USB-C, with a supplied and nicely compact charger in the box to top it up when the battery does start to run low.

Dell Inspiron 14 Plus: Alex’s Verdict

As a laptop by itself, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus’ best selling point is its battery life; while I’ve not been able to more comprehensively benchmark it in a repeatable way, there’s little doubt that the benefits of ARM are best seen in the Windows world if you’re after superior battery life. It’s not quite as good as the Surface Laptop 7 in this respect – but it’s also not quite as expensive either.

However, the sales pitch here is also around Windows compatibility and Copilot+ features. On the former front there’s still some guesswork as to how well a given Windows application may run – if at all – while the latter just leaves me wanting a whole lot more in terms of performance or some kind of “must have” feature.

Dell Inspiron 14 Plus: Pricing and availability

Pricing varies for the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus depending on precise configuration; the model as tested retailed at $2,398 at the time of writing.

Was this review useful to you? Support independent media by dropping a dollar or two in the tip jar below!

UGREEN USB C Charger 65W Nexode 3 Ports GaN II Fast Charger Block, PD3.0 Compact Charger AU Plug for MacBook Pro/Air, Dell XPS, iPhone 16 Pro Max/15/14, iPad Pro, Galaxy S24 Ultra (PPS 45W), Pixel 9/8

(240)

$35.37 (as of January 19, 2025 17:59 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

INIU 22.5W Power Bank, 10000mAh Slim USB C Portable Charger Fast Charging PD3.0 QC4.0, LED Display Battery Pack Portable for iPhone 16 15 14 13 12 Pro Max Samsung S22 Google LG AirPods Switch iPad

(18344)

$25.49 (as of January 19, 2025 17:59 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

NOVOO 100W USB C Charger, MacBook Charger, 3-Port GaN III Fast Charger Block with PD3.0, PPS, Compact USB C Laptop Charger, USB C Plug for iPad Pro,Galaxy S24/S23 Ultra,iPhone 16/15/Pro,Dell XPS 13

(779)

$39.09 (as of January 18, 2025 17:56 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

HEYMIX 20W USB C Fast Charger, 2-Port PD USB-C Wall Plug with Fast Charging QC3.0, USB-C Power Adapter C Wall Charger AU-Plug Compatible with iPhone 15/14/13/12/11, iPad, Samsung,Galaxy,Pixel,Airpods

(1450)

$14.44 (as of January 19, 2025 17:59 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

TR4U 3 in 1 Samsung A16 Case, Matte Case with 2-Pack Screen Protectors, [Shockproof] Galaxy A16 Case [Military Grade Protection] [Non-Slip Slim Fit] Protective Case for A16 5G/4G 6.7-Inch (2024)

(151)

$16.99 (as of January 18, 2025 17:56 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)