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Dell XPS 14 9440: Two minute review

The Dell XPS 14 is the newest entrant into an already storied line of laptops, and it is arguably the best laptop of this newest crop of XPS devices thanks to its powerful new processor, stunning OLED display, and a design that looks better than just about any other Windows laptop on the market.

The XPS 14 9440 starts at a somewhat pricey $1,499 / £1,599 / AU$2,998.60, and it lacks the dedicated Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU and OLED display, so you’ll want to upgrade these two specs in particular, though it will end up costing you much more for the privilege.

To be clear, Dell XPS laptops have never been cheap, but my recommended configuration, the same as the one I reviewed, will set you back nearly $2,400 / £2,650 / AU$4,300. For the hardware packed into such a slim 14-inch form factor, it’s more than worth the investment as this laptop will last for years before it becomes obsolete.

In terms of design, the XPS 14 fully commits to the design changes that the Dell XPS 13 Plus introduced back in 2022, but introduces a couple of quality-of-life improvements on its smaller cousin.

For one, the down-firing speakers have been moved up top alongside the keyboard, producing far better sound in exchange for diminishing the XPS 13 Plus’s infinity edge-style keyboard. This is a much better design choice, ultimately, and you don’t sacrifice much in the way of key space on the deck itself.

The display is what really steals the show here: a gorgeous 3.2K OLED display with super-slim bezels. This latter feature is impressive because Dell has somehow managed to squeeze in a 1080p webcam. There’s no physical privacy shutter, but that’s never really been Dell’s thing, unfortunately.

The Dell XPS 14’s Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and the Nvidia RTX 4050 deliver powerful performance across all workloads, and in some cases can even match or exceed what you’d get from a MacBook Pro 14-inch, especially for gaming (though the RTX 4050 isn’t nearly powerful enough to keep up with the best gaming laptops).

Overall, the Dell XPS 14 9440 is a powerful performer for everything from everyday computing use to 1080p gaming to moderate content creation. It’s an expensive investment, but on balance, it’s one of the best Windows laptops you can buy right now.

Dell XPS 14 9440: Price and availability

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

How much does it cost? Starting at $1,499 / £1,599 / AU$2,998.60
When is it out? It’s available right now
Where can you get it? You can get it in the US, UK, and Australia

The Dell XPS 14 9440 is available now in the US, UK, and Australia, starting at $1,499 / £1,599 / AU$2,998.60. For that price, you get an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with integrated Arc graphics, 16GB LPDDR5x memory, 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD storage, and a 14.5-inch full HD+ (1920x1200p) non-touch display.

My review unit, which sells for $900 / £1,050 / AU$1,300 more, upgrades to discrete graphics with an Nvidia RTX 4050 (30W) GPU, 32GB LPDDR5x memory, 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD, and a 14.5-inch 3.2K (3200x2000p) OLED display.

You can max out your configuration with 64GB LPDDR5x RAM and 4TB M.2 PCIe SSD, in addition to the above, for $3,399 / £3,238.99 / AU$5,999.40.

Dell XPS 14 9440: Specs

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Dell XPS 14 9440
Header Cell – Column 0	Base configuration	Review configuration	Max configuration
Price	$1,499 / £1,599 / AU$2,998.60	$2,399 / £2,649 / AU$4,298.80	$3,399 / £3,238.99 / AU$5,999.40
CPU	Intel Core Ultra 7 155H	Intel Core Ultra 7 155H	Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
GPU	Intel Arc Graphics	Nvidia RTX 4050 (30W)	Nvidia RTX 4050 (30W)
Memory	16GB LPDDR5x	32GB LPDDR5x	64GB LPDDR5x
Storage	512GB PCIe SSD	1TB PCIe SSD	4TB PCIe SSD
Display	14.5-inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200) InfinityEdge, 500-nits	14.5-inch 3.2K 93200 x 2000) OLED Infinity Edge Touch	14.5-inch 3.2K 93200 x 2000) OLED Infinity Edge Touch

Dell XPS 14 9440: Design

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Gorgeous design
OLED display is stunning
Upfiring speakers

The Dell XPS 14 doesn’t shy away from the design choices that the XPS 13 Plus introduced, for better or for worse, but it does make some very important improvements to the previous design iterations.

For one, let’s talk about top-firing speakers. Down-firing speakers are genuinely terrible. They might be necessary, but they’re terrible, and any time we can get top-firing speakers on a laptop, your audio experience is automatically going to improve substantially.

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The exterior finish comes in two colors: Platinum or Graphite. The finish is a CNC machined aluminum with a glass palm rest, and everything about it feels premium. The chasis itself isn’t all that heavy, but it’s not as light as something like the LG Gram or some of the best ultrabooks that prioritize portability over performance.

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

For ports, you have three Thunderbolt 4 ports with power delivery and DisplayPort output, a 3.5mm combo jack, and a microSD slot. Given its size, I’m not expecting all that much on the ports front, but it’s good to see the microSD slot included since this at least gives some flexibility for creative professionals or those who might have a device that saves to microSD, like one of the best drone models.

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

As for the keyboard, this is one area that’s not so great, since the nearly flat surface of the keys makes it difficult for touch typers who are used to a bit more definition to find their place among the keys. You’ll get used to it, but it’s not the best typing experience I’ve ever had on a keyboard out of the box.

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Another major issue is the trackpad, in that it’s invisible. This does give the laptop a bit of a ‘future’ feel to it, but at the cost of accessibility. Likewise, the touchbar along the top is in place of actual function keys. All of these features work fine enough for me, but I can see someone with reduced vision struggling with this keyboard and trackpad.

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Next, you have the webcam. Somehow, Dell managed to fit a 1080p webcam into the narrow top bezel of the display panel, and it’s a welcome addition. Too many laptops skip the 1080p webcam in order to retain the thin bezels, and that was fine in the pre-work-from-home era, but nowadays, you need a quality webcam, there’s just no getting around it.

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Finally, the air intake on the Dell XPS 14 comes in from the side and bleeds out the back though a vent underneath the display hinge. The heat management is ok, but given its thin form factor, the underside can get hot under load.

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

As far as Windows laptops go, this is possibly one of the best-looking laptops going. There are some who won’t love—or even like—the planar-leveled keyboard and lack of physical function keys or clearly defined trackpad, but overall, there is way more to like here than to nitpick, especially if you’re opting for the OLED display.

Dell XPS 14 9440: Performance

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk running resource intensive apps

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Excellent all-around performance
Surprisingly competitive against the MacBook Pro for creative work
Fantastic productivity and solid gaming performance

Finally we come down to the performance of the Dell XPS 14, and I can definitely say that it is among the best you’re going to get on a laptop right now.

The direct rival of the Dell XPS 14 is the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3 Pro, and the XPS 14 holds its own against the best Apple has to offer in terms of general performance, features superior gaming performance, and also manages to battle the MacBook Pro 14 to a draw for some typical creative workloads.

While the MacBook Pro 14-inch ultimately offers better single-core performance and slightly better multicore performance, the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H paired with an Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU does an admirable job against one of Apple’s best processors.

In terms of overall system performance, the MacBook Pro 14 with M3 Pro (11-core) does manage to score about 23% better in our Crossmark benchmark, as well as scoring about 12% better in Geekbench 6.2’s multicore performance test.

The two laptops are evenly matched for SSD performance, and the MacBook Pro 14-inch scores better in 3DMark’s Wildlife Extreme and Wildlife Extreme Unlimited. The RTX 4050 in the XPS 14, meanwhile, pulls ahead of the M3 Pro’s GPU in Solar Bay and Solar Bay Unlimited, which are ray-tracing workloads, so this shouldn’t be surprising as Nvidia’s hardware can handle ray tracing far better than Apple’s chips right now.

In terms of creative performance, the Nvidia RTX GPU in the XPS 14 will outperform pretty much any comparable Apple device when it comes to 3D modeling, since just about every 3D modeling tool relies on Nvidia’s CUDA instruction set, so Apple, AMD, and Intel will always be at a disadvantage.

When it comes to video encoding, the XPS 14 manages to encode a 4K video into 1080p about 7% faster in Handbrake 1.7, though depending on the app you’re using, Apple’s specialized encoding engine might be determinative. If you’re a creative pro working in film and video, you’ll know which tools play best with Apple and which lean towards Nvidia, so which is better will come down to the tools you’ll ultimately need to use.

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk running resource intensive apps

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Finally, taking the average 1200p gaming performance on Max settings, the Dell XPS 14 does a better job than the MacBook Pro 14 across the board. The XPS 14 does about 62% better with Civilization VI, getting nearly 90 fps at 1200p with performance and memory impact set to max. In Total War: Warhammer III’s battle benchmark, the XPS 14 gets around 40 fps, which is about 25% higher than the MacBook Pro 14-inch’s 32 fps. It’s only in Shadow of the Tomb Raider that the MacBook Pro 14-inch scores a win, getting 48 fps at 1200p on highest settings, while the Dell XPS 14 manages to get 47 fps, but there’s a huge caveat there.

This doesn’t factor in the RTX 4050’s DLSS upscaler, which can push the XPS 14’s fps much higher than that, depending on the settings you select. This is a huge advantage for the XPS 14 that, for right now at least, Apple’s best MacBook struggles to counter since its upscaler, Apple MetalFX, is developer-dependent, and not a lot of games include it as an option.

In the end, then, the Dell XPS 14 manages to go toe-to-toe with the venerable MacBook Pro 14 and comes out with some very important wins in the process.

Dell XPS 14 9440: Battery life

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Intel Evo is back, baby!
Charges to full in less than 90 minutes

Intel chips have not had good battery life for years. Back in 2020, Intel Evo was a big deal, and one of its biggest qualifiers was achieving more than 9 hours of battery life on a standard battery test. With the 12th-gen Intel Alder Lake laptop processors released in 2021, battery life on Intel laptops absolutely tanked, and Intel Evo faded away for a few years as Intel went through Alder Lake, Raptor Lake, and Raptor Lake Refresh, all of which had generally terrible battery life (even on an ultrabook!).

Now, with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, Intel seems to have refocused itself on more battery efficiency rather than dumping electrons into maximum performance.

The Dell XPS 14 benefits with a nine-hour 35-minute battery life on our proprietary web surfing test, which is far better than the six or seven hours these laptops were getting just a year or two ago.

Under heavier load, the XPS 14 still struggles to get more than seven hours of battery life on PCMark 10’s Modern Office battery test, and the PCMark 10 Gaming battery test only ran for about one hour 50 minutes before shutting down.

These are a far cry from what Apple is able to pull off with the MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3 Pro, which lasted about 17 hours 32 minutes in our battery tests, but knowing where Windows laptops have been in the past couple of years, I’ll gladly take a laptop that can last a full workday without a charge.

Should you buy a Dell XPS 14 9440?

A Dell XPS 14 on a desk

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Buy the Dell XPS 14 9440 if…

Don’t buy it if…

Also consider

Dell XPS 14 9440: Report card

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Value	While it can get very expensive, the Dell XPS 14 starts at a fairly reasonable price and gives you good specs for the investment.	4 / 5
Design	This is easily one of the best looking Windows laptops you can buy, even if some of its design quirks will irk some and will be a deal breaker for a few people.	4.5 / 5
Performance	The XPS 14 goes toe-to-toe with the MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3 Pro and manages to walk away with its head held high.	5 / 5
Battery Life	While not nearly as long-lasting as the MacBook Pro 14-inch, the Dell XPS 14 gets decent battery life for a Windows laptop.	4 / 5
Total	The Dell XPS 14 is one of the best laptops I’ve tested this year, and while it’s an investment, it’ll pay dividends for many years to come.	4.38 / 5

First reviewed April 2024

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained – regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it’s on our radar.

Meta Quest Pro 2: Price

Because the Meta Quest Pro 2 hasn’t been announced we don’t know exactly how much it’ll cost, but we expect it’ll be at least as pricey as the original which launched at $1,499.99 / £1,499.99 / AU$2,449.99.

The Meta Quest Pro being worn by a person in an active stance

(Image credit: Meta)

The Meta Quest Pro was permanently discounted to $999.99 / £999.99 / AU$1729.99 five months after it launched, but we expect this was Meta attempting to give the Quest Pro a much-needed sales boost rather than an indication of the headsets actual cost. So we expect this is much cheaper than Quest Pro 2 will be.

What’s more, given that the device is expected to be more of an Apple Vision Pro competitor — which costs $3,500 or around £2,800 / AU$5,350 – with powerful specs, LG-made OLED panels, and could boast next-gen mixed reality capabilities there’s a good chance it could cost more than its predecessor.

As such we’re expecting it to come in at nearer $2,000 / £2,000 / AU$3,000. Over time, and as more leaks about the hardware come out, we should start to get a better idea of its price – though as always we won’t know for certain how much it’ll cost until Meta says something officially.

Meta Quest Pro 2: Release date

The Meta Quest 3 on a notebook surrounded by pens and school supplies on a desk

The Meta Quest 3 (Image credit: Meta)

Meta hasn’t announced the Quest Pro 2 yet – or even teased it. Given its usual release schedule this means the earliest we’re likely to see a Pro model is October 2025; that’s because it would tease the device at this year’s Meta Connect in September/October 2024, and then launch it the following year’s event as it did with the original Quest Pro and Quest 3.

But there are a few reasons we could see it launch sooner or later. On the later release date side of things we have the rumored Meta Quest 3 Lite – a cheaper version of the Meta Quest 3. Meta may want to push this affordable model out the gate sooner rather than later, meaning that it might need to take a release slot that could have been used by the Quest Pro 2.

Alternatively, Meta may want to push a high-end model out ASAP so as to not let the Apple Vision Pro and others like the Samsung XR headset corner the high-end VR market. If this is the case it could forgo its usual tease then release strategy and just release the headset later this year – or tease it at Connect 2024 then launch it in early 2025 rather than a year later in late 2025 as it usually would.

This speculation all assumes a Meta Quest Pro 2 is even on the way – though Meta has strongly suggested that another Pro model would come in the future; we’ll just have to wait and see what’s up its sleeve.

Meta Quest Pro 2: Specs

Based on LG and Meta’s announcement of their official partnership to bring OLED displays to Meta VR headsets in the future, it’s likely that the Meta Quest Pro 2 would feature OLED screens. While these kind of displays are typically pricey, the Quest Pro 2 is expected to be a high-end model (with a high price tag), and boasting OLED panels would put it on par with other high-end XR products like the Apple Vision Pro.

Key Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 specs, including that it has support fo 4.3k displays, 8x better AI performance, and 2.5x better GPU performance

(Image credit: Qualcomm)

It also seems likely the Meta Quest Pro 2 will boast a Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 chipset – the successor to the Gen 1 used by the Quest Pro. If it launches further in the future than we expect it would instead boast a currently unannounced Gen 3 model.

While rumors haven’t teased any other specs, we also assume the device would feature full-color mixed reality like Meta’s Quest 3 and Quest Pro – though ideally the passthrough would be higher quality than either of these devices (or at least, better than the Quest Pro’s rather poor mixed reality).

Beyond this, we predict the device would have specs at least as good as its predecessor. By that we mean we expect the base Quest Pro 2 would come with 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and a two-hour minimum battery life.

Meta Quest Pro 2: What we want to see

We’ve already highlighted in depth what we want to see from the Meta Quest Pro 2 – namely it should ditch eye-tracking and replace it with four different features. But we’ll recap some of those points here, and make a few new ones of things we want to see from the Quest Pro 2.

Vastly better mixed-reality passthrough, more entertainment apps and, 4K OLED displays would go a long way to making the Meta Quest Pro 2 feel a lot more like a Vision Pro competitor – so we hope to see them on the Quest Pro 2.

Eye-tracking could also help, but Meta really needs to prove it’s worthwhile. So far every instance of the tech feels like an expensive tech demo for a feature that’s neat, but not all that useful.

The Meta Quest Pro being worn by Hamish Hector, his cheeks are puffed up

What we want from the next Quest Pro (Image credit: Meta)

Ignoring specs and design for a second, our most important hope is that the Quest Pro 2 isn’t as prohibitively expensive as the Apple Vision Pro. While the Vision Pro is great, $3,500 is too much even for a high-end VR headset when you consider the realities of how and how often the device will be used. Ideally the Quest Pro 2 would be at most $2,000 / £2,000 / AU$3,000, though until we know more about its specs we won’t know how realistic our request is.

Lastly we hope the device is light, perhaps with a removable battery pack like the one seen in the HTC Vive XR Elite. This would allow someone who wants to work at their desk or sit back and watch a film in VR wear a much lighter device for the extended period of time (provided their near a power source). Alternatively they can plug the battery in and enjoy a typical standalone VR experience – to us this would be a win-win.

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