Dell Inspiron 14 review: Pinning a lot of hope on the low end

The Dell Inspiron 14 (5441) is another iteration of a device that saw a lot going on last year. This one changes very little outwardly. It changes some ports and slots, and swaps facial recognition in place of the fingerprint reader. The biggest change is under the hood, where the Dell Inspiron 14 has switched to an ARM chip from Qualcomm.

There’s been a lot of excitement around these chips, and the Dell Inspiron 14 has one on offer starting at $749. However, Dell opted for the weakest Snapdragon That’s Dell’s excellent Inspiron 14. plus.

Further reading: Best laptops of 2024: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more

Dell Inspiron 14: specifications and features

• Model number: 5441
• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100
• Memory: 16 GB LPDDR5x
• Graphics/GPU: Adreno Graphics X1-45
• Screen: 14 inches 1200 pixel IPS
• Storage: 512GB PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p + IR
• Connectivity: 2x USB4 Type-C with Power Delivery and DisplayPort Alternate Mode, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x MicroSD Card Reader, 1x 3.5mm Audio Mixer
• Networking: Qualcomm FastConnect7800 WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Facial recognition in Windows Hello
• Battery capacity: 54 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.36 x 8.81 x 0.7 inches
• Weight: 3.3 pounds
• MSRP: $799 as tested ($749 base)

Dell Inspiron 14: Quality design and build

This laptop does little to differentiate itself from many of the Inspiron versions that came before it. It’s a bit similar to the Inspiron 14 Plus I tested earlier this year. And while this isn’t a Plus mode, it has a high-end touch with a sturdy aluminum body throughout. It’s neither too thick at 0.7 inches nor too heavy at 3.3 pounds. Sure, it could be sleeker, but it meets expectations for a sub-$1,000 laptop.

Despite the more premium design, the Inspiron 14 still looks rather bland. It’s all silver except for the black plastic of the keyboard and display bezel, which dates the design a bit. The frame is well rounded and doesn’t make any major design statements.

The hinge takes a small step away from the basic by being the type that raises the back edge of the laptop when opened beyond 90 degrees. While this can improve typing ergonomics, the trade-off is less comfort when using the laptop on your lap, as the back edge of the screen will add pressure on your thighs.

The bottom of the laptop rests on two small rubber feet on the front and one wide one on the back. There are two small speaker holes near the front of the laptop, and there is a grille for airflow. Oddly enough, the grille does not align well with the fan inside the Inspiron 14, which may affect its effectiveness.

Dell Inspiron 14: Keyboard, Trackpad

The Inspiron 14’s keyboard is uninspiring, but at the same time quite capable. The keycaps provide enough stability and resistance to provide a stable platform for typing. So, even though the keyboard doesn’t have a particularly memorable look, it gets the job done for quick typing.

After just one hour of using the laptop, I was already able to increase my typing speed to 118 words per minute with 96 percent accuracy in Monkeytype. I would like to see more outlines of the keycaps, as I find that most typos come from reaching the edge of the flat keycaps, which is difficult to feel. The keys include a basic white backlight that effectively illuminates all legends.

The trackpad isn’t anything too special. It’s very smooth and reasonably large, although not as wide as it could be. It’s adequate even for large hands, but there are definitely better ones out there. It has a fairly deep physical click, which proved fairly stable in my testing.

Dell Inspiron 14: Display and Sound

If you like the quality of the display, don’t get too excited. It’s a huge disappointment with only 65 percent of the sRGB color space and 50 percent of the DCI-P3 color space covered. This makes content of all types look very nice even with the 1690:1 contrast ratio.

The screen gets reasonably bright with a peak brightness of 370.9 nits, which combines well with the matte finish for easy viewing even in less than ideal conditions. But compared to the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, it’s an overall downgrade. This laptop achieves 79 percent DCI-P3 coverage, 418 nits peak brightness, and features a higher resolution.

The Inspiron 14 headphones are a mixed bag, too. They fire from the bottom of the laptop, and this can leave them sounding a little boxy depending on the surface they’re set to, especially when listening at high volume levels.

High volumes also come with a bit of reverberation in the body, which makes for harsher listening. At lower volumes, the speakers are fairly satisfactory, providing a touch of bass depth alongside bright, clear mid-frequencies, and the higher frequencies aren’t particularly well executed, coming through with high-pitched sibilance. This is less important for the dialogue but hurts the music.

Dell Inspiron 14: Webcam, microphone, and biometrics

The Inspiron 14 only offers a 1080p webcam, but it works surprisingly well. In a room with modest lighting, I was able to capture bright, clear images without noticeable noise. The shots also had no difficulty with exposure. Being able to capture enough light helps greatly with sharpness as well, as even sharp high-resolution cameras that need to resort to high ISO settings will end up with so much digital noise that their images become soft and grainy. When you’re not using the camera, there’s a physical shutter that flips up the sensors at the top of the screen.

The webcam also offers Windows Hello facial recognition, which is useful for quick login and biometric authentication. Although the keyboard layout is similar to other Dell laptops with fingerprint scanners, the Inspiron 14 doesn’t get one.

The microphone does its job well, picking up my voice clearly while easily subduing light background noise.

Dell Inspiron 14: Connect

The Dell Inspiron 14 is at least spot on when it comes to connectivity. It doesn’t compromise on connection quality with two USB4 Type-C ports capable of providing some serious bandwidth, display output, and power. Splitting these ports between each side would have been nice, but instead, Dell has placed both ports on the left edge next to the microSD card reader. The right side of the laptop includes a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port and a 3.5mm headphone jack, giving the Inspiron 14 a leg up over even the XPS models when it comes to wired connections.

With a Qualcomm chipset inside, the Inspiron 14 gets Qualcomm FastConnect7800 Wi-Fi 7, which was very fast and stable in my tests. It also gets newer Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity.

Dell Inspiron 14: Performance

The Dell Inspiron 14 doesn’t promise to be a performance monster built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon I’ve already seen higher-end Qualcomm chips struggle to keep up with Intel and AMD chips when emulation is required, and the Inspiron 14 chip has less horsepower available to help it keep up.

To be sure, whether it’s single-core or multi-core performance, the Inspiron 14 struggles to keep up with the $999 Dell Inspiron 14 Plus and the $849 Asus Zenbook 14 OLED in Cinebench R23, Cinebench R20, and Cinebench R15, all of which don’t. Run natively on ARM. Even the relatively weak Intel Core Ultra 5 125U chip from the $749 Acer Aspire Vero 16 outperformed the Dell in these tests.

This is a tough spot for the Inspiron 14, as the CPU doesn’t seem to be bad. In fact, when it comes to running a native app, things can change. Other systems that lose out to Cinebench R23, like the Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 and Acer TravelMate P4, fall behind in Cinebench R24, which runs natively on ARM.

The problem is that variable performance can lead to an inconsistent experience. Additionally, it doesn’t look like the Inspiron 14 will always turn things around, as it still loses out to the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 7445, and thus will very likely still lag behind the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED powered by the same chip.

To its credit, the Inspiron 14 ran the Snapdragon

Graphics performance is also not a strong point for the Dell Inspiron 14. At Time Spy, it struggles to keep up with the basic Intel graphics found inside the Acer Aspire Vero. And next to both Intel Arc Graphics and AMD Radeon 780M, there’s no competition.

3DMark’s Night Raid benchmark is a slightly different story. Designed with ARM systems in mind, the Dell Inspiron 14 definitely results in better performance. The Inspiron 14 and Asus ProArt PZ13 both managed to outperform the Acer Aspire Vero 16 and its Intel graphics. But they still don’t come close to scratching the performance of the Intel Arc Graphics in the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus or the AMD Radeon 780M in the Asus ZenBook 14 OLED.

The Inspiron 14 also experiences the hiccup I’ve encountered on many Windows systems with weak integrated graphics. While streaming video, it sometimes stops all video updates on the screen and appears to be completely frozen. However, the system remains responsive, and minimizing all windows quickly restores everything. But a simple fix doesn’t erase the fact that your Inspiron 14 is experiencing a malfunction that shouldn’t be happening in the first place.

Dell Inspiron 14: Battery life

Battery life is a great refuge for low-performance systems, and while the Inspiron 14 is good, it doesn’t stand out. It’s efficient, managing to run for over 17 hours on average on a native 4K video playback benchmark using just a 54 Wh battery. But many Windows devices have stepped up to the plate recently.

In fact, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus has achieved the same score so far, yet it performs better in almost every way. It’s a similar story for the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, which lasted just a few minutes less in our battery test but had a lot to offer in other aspects.

In regular use with browsing and some streaming video playback, the Inspiron 14 delivers just over 8 hours of playback time. This differs greatly from its video playback time, but is not unexpected.

Dell Inspiron 14: Conclusion

You could do a lot worse than the Dell Inspiron 14. It’s a sleek, if bland, device that has a lot to offer in terms of connectivity and ease of use. But that’s not all it could have been. Dell moved to a lower-end Snapdragon X Plus chip for this model, and performance left a lot to be desired. As long as emulation is required, you’ll end up better off even with some of Intel’s less popular CPUs, and graphics lag completely behind.

Factor in a very disappointing screen and the fact that even the low-powered processor couldn’t set the Dell Inspiron 14 apart from the competition in battery life, and you have a laptop that’s not easy to justify itself over others.