Dell’s new Dell 14S laptop sounds a lot like a MacBook Neo: it is available in 4 colours, is aimed toward college students, and it begins with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Announced at IFA 2026, the 14S is supposed to take a seat beneath the just lately launched XPS 13 and supply one other reasonably priced laptop possibility as most different fashions proceed to climb in value. The 14S will are available linen (beige), dusty rose (pink), washed denim (blue), and velvet inexperienced (yep, that’s inexperienced). That’s far more colourful than the XPS 13, and like its fancier brethren, the 14S will be configured with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB or 1TB SSD.
The Dell 14S isn’t as skinny or as gentle because the XPS 13, however along with the identical two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, it additionally has HDMI 1.4 and a 3.5mm audio jack. (Why the XPS 13 lacks a headphone jack, I’ll by no means perceive). But the 14S has far more fundamental, non-touch show choices: a 300-nit 1920 x 1200 / 60Hz LCD or a 450-nit 2880 x 1800 / 120Hz one.
There are another niceties for college students on the 14S, together with a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello face unlock assist, and battery life that Dell claims can final for as much as 23 hours of Netflix streaming. For chip choices, it’ll be both the Intel Core 5 320 or Core 7 350 — the 14S received’t scale as much as Intel Panther Lake choices like the XPS 13 is quickly anticipated to.
We don’t know the way a lot any of this can price simply but, as pricing is TBD for now, however in a digital briefing Dell reps mentioned the 14S shall be near the XPS 13’s $700 beginning value but barely extra accessible. We’ll know precise costs nearer to its launch later this fall. I’m at present testing and reviewing the XPS 13, and I’ve been very impressed with the {hardware} (aside from the lacking headphone jack). I’m all for seeing extra good, reasonably priced laptops on the market — hopefully the 14S makes the precise compromises to get the value down.