2025 is the year of the Dell design rebirth. Gone are the familiar XPS, Precision, and Latitude lines. The Dell Pro 14 Premium is the second model of new Dell that I’ve reviewed. The Dell 16 Plus was the last one I reviewed and that turned out to be a killer laptop. That laptop stuck a fork in the Inspiron nameplate and the Dell Pro 14 Premium is trading in the Latitude nameplate for a new attitude, new design, and new adventure. This new design venture might startle some users, but Dell’s done enough to keep things familiar while refreshing its lineup.
Estimated reading time: 19 minutes
Before we jump into the Dell Pro 14 Premium review, it needs to be mentioned that this lineup is aimed at commercial users and IT teams because they offer better performance, security, manageability, and stability. They also offer other features not found in consumer laptops, such as Intel Active Management Technology (Intel AMT) for remote management, require activation and IT administration.
As with the Latitude lineup, the new Pro lineup is generally a laptop that is purchased in bulk by companies who need to deploy multiple units. But, the Dell Pro 14 Premium is still available to consumers, just know that buying a single unit is generally more expensive than what the company’s bulk pricing might be. These laptops are optimized for commercial use, so if you’re looking for gaming and entertainment, while this will do some of that, it’s not optimized for it. Let’s get into this review.
The Quick Take
When I worked at Fermi National Lab, I was part of the inventory team, and we handled hundreds of commercial laptops like the Dell Pro 14 Premium. These laptops are like an army, and it’s wild to see piles of these come in at one time. There were reasons the IT teams chose these types of Dell laptops, and those reasons stand today.
The new Dell Pro 14 Premium brings all those required IT demands but also brings a better-looking design, display, and aesthetics. The old Latitudes were boring, and even as a business user, you like to have something that looks good. This is a solid laptop for business users who want something portable, lightweight, secure, feature-packed, and stable.
Score and Bottom Line
Dell Pro 14 Premium
Starting @ $1,799 | $2,645 as configured
Nailed it
- Very nice looking redesign
- Trackpad is one of the best I’ve used, though a little small
- The new keyboard looks fantastic, though some may feel the travel is too little
- My unit’s Tandem OLED display is great
- Battery life is outstanding
Needs work
- Pricey when purchased as a one off
- Keyboard travel feels shallow
If you’re looking at the Dell Pro 14 Premium as a personal laptop, you might look at some of Dell’s other offerings. Of course, if you require the enterprise features like the security, management features, and stability of the platform. Then you’re probably looking in the right place. For general users, you need to browse other Dell options.
For the rest of you. The Dell Pro 14 Premium is a massive upgrade in its design aesthetic and feel. The Latitude lineup was boring and this is a fresh, sleek and refreshing change. The lattice keyboard is one of the main design changes that brings that fresh, sleek change to the lineup. It looks spectacular, though I will add that the travel on this model feels a bit shallow, which may not sit well with some users.
The Dell Pro 14 Premium is also lightweight, even though its profile looks a bit chunky. The Tandem OLED display on this unit is fantastic, though I always like to have 500 nits in my panels. Still, 400 nits is acceptable and I won’t ding it. The battery life is also outstanding, and that should please users who are on the move.
Overall, I believe when IT-teams start issuing these models, users are going to actually love what they’re being given. It’s a bold new look that finally throws out the boring look of its predecessor and opts for something far more appealing. But pleasing the end user is only half the battle as the other half is security, stability and manageability by IT and this has all those.
Affiliate Link Disclosure
In some of our articles and especially in our reviews, you will find Amazon or other affiliate links. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases. Any other purchases you make through these links often result in a small amount being earned for the site and/or our writers. Techaeris often covers brand press releases. Doing this does not constitute an endorsement of any product or service by Techaeris. We provide the press release information for our audience to be informed and make their own decision on a purchase or not. Only our reviews are an endorsement or lack thereof. For more information, you can read our full disclaimer.
Dell Pro 14 Premium Specifications
- Processor: Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 268V, vPro® (48 TOPS NPU, 8 cores, up to 5.0 GHz)
- Operating System: Windows 11 Pro, Copilot+ PC
- Graphics Card: Integrated Intel® Arc™ graphics for Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 268V vPro® processor, 32 GB LPDDR5x memory
- Display: 14″, Touch, Gorilla® Glass, QHD+ Tandem OLED, 400 nits, Low power, HDR, ComfortView+ 8MP IR Cam
- Memory: 32 GB: LPDDR5x, 8533 MT/s (onboard)
- Storage: 1 TB TLC SSD
- Ports:
- 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
- 2 Thunderbolt™ 4 with Power Delivery 3.1 & DisplayPort 2.1 (USB Type-C™)
- 1 HDMI 2.1
- 1 Global Headset Jack
- Wedge-shaped lock slot
- SIM card tray (optional)
- Dimensions & Weight:
- Height (front): 0.64 in. (16.38 mm)
- Height (rear): 0.67 in. (16.99 mm)
- Height (max): 0.71 in. (17.95 mm)
- Depth: 8.53 in. (216.70 mm)
- Width: 12.25 in. (311.2 mm)
- Starting Weight: 2.52 lbs (1.141 kg)
- Touchpad: Fingerprint Reader, Collaboration Touchpad, WLAN
- Camera: 8MP HDR + IR Camera with Presence Detection, Facial Recognition, TNR, Camera Shutter, Microphone
- Audio and Speakers: Two top-firing speakers and two bottom-firing speakers, Hi-Fi Audio
- Wireless: Intel® BE201 Wi-Fi 7 2×2, Bluetooth® 5.4 Technology, Wireless Card
- Primary Battery: 3-cell, 60 Wh, ExpressCharge™ Capable, ExpressCharge™ Boost Capable
- Power: 65W Type-C Adapter
- Color: Gray
- Model: PA14250
What’s In The Box
- Dell Pro 14 Premium
- Power Adapter and Cable
- Manuals and Documentation
Design
The Dell Pro 14 Premium design is the most significant change for this year, and it is a most welcomed change indeed. The Latitude lineup had been getting stale, if it wasn’t already stuffy before. The really nice sleek designs seemed to be reserved for XPS, but this year, I feel that’s changed.
The Dell Pro 14 Premium is svelte and attractive but at the same time, it still holds on to the business aspects of its design. The top of the laptop is simple but with some nice lines that fall off the sides. At some angles, the light reflection gives a nice look to this laptop. The Dell logo is front and center, but it’s nicely done and not gaudy. I am glad the round Dell logo is gone.
Flipping the Dell Pro 14 Premium over, it’s business as usual here. With two front rubber feet and one long foot at the rear. There’s also a long vent for cooling and two bottom firing speakers. The bottom is held on with seven screws and the SSD is upgradeable, but the RAM is soldered on, so choose wisely.
Along the right side of the laptop are the USB-A port, Thunderbolt 4 port, and Kensington Lock slot. Along the left side is the HDMI 2.1 port, Thunderbolt 4 port, headphone jack and microphone. You can charge this laptop from either Thunderbolt 4/USB-C port with the included 65W charger.
The hinge reminds me of the last year’s XPS and when you open the lid, this hinge slightly raises the laptop, tilting it towards you. It’s not an extreme tilt, but it is noticeable. The top edge houses another microphone and the privacy shutter switch. I like that this is mechanical.
You can open the lid with one finger, not a problem, and once that’s done you’re greeted with that beautiful Tandem OLED display. There is a small rubber gasket all the way around the glass to keep it elevated from the deck. The bezels are very slim, with the top one being slightly bigger. The glass is edge to edge, so no plastic frame here.
Moving down to the deck, you’re greeted with the backlit zero-lattice keyboard. This reminds me of last year’s XPS models, but slightly different. This keyboard really gives this laptop a more modern look, and I love that. The keyboard itself is comfortable to type on, though the travel is shallower than other keyboards I’ve used. Some people may not like that.
There is a fingerprint sensor at the top right of the keyboard and that doubles as a power button. Of course, there is a Co-Pilot key here as well. The space bar is shorter than what I am used to, but it works fine.
The trackpad is a diving board style trackpad, not haptic, I wish it were. That being said, this is one of the nicest diving board trackpads I’ve used in a long time. The range of tactility is better than most, and the touch responsiveness and gestures work great. I will say, it is a bit smaller than I prefer.
Laptops these days do lack ports, so if you need more, you can get something like the Dell Pro Thunderbolt 4 Smart Dock to add some ports you might be lacking. And while the Dell Pro 14 is a robust laptop, the Dell Pro 14–16 Premium EcoLoop Backpack is also a great add-on to protect it while you move from one job to another.
Overall, the Dell Pro 14 Premium design is part of a new effort from Dell to change not only its naming convention but its look as well. I think they did the enterprise community a favor by making something that looks fantastic.
Display
The Dell Pro 14 Premium I have here for review came with a Tandem OLED Mini LED display. There are a few different choices you can make for a display, and I haven’t used the others. The other choices are FHD+ LCD panels, with one of them having only 300 nits of brightness. I would recommend you at least get the one that is 400 nits if you’re not wanting to get the Tandem OLED.
This OLED is touch capable and responsiveness is good. I rarely use my touchscreens on my laptops, mostly because I abhor fingerprints on my screen, and I’d rather not use it. But I did use it here to test quickly, and this Tandem OLED on the Dell Pro 14 Premium works very well with accurate inputs.
Colors on this OLED display are vibrant and punchy, just as you would expect. The panel also has ComfortView+, great for those who suffer from eye fatigue. The blacks on this OLED are what you would expect from an OLED, deep and inky. And the whites are clean and crisp, with the text being sharp.
The viewing angles on this panel are not too bad, there is some glare, but it’s not horrible, unless you’re in some heavy sunlight or bright lighting. The Dell Pro 14 Premium OLED does a good job outdoors as well, it’s not perfect, but it is better than the low-nit LCD option.
You can also use the Dell Pro 14 Premium with something like the Dell 32 Plus S3225QC and pair the Dell Pro Plus Compact Keyboard and Mouse with that for office use.
Overall, this is an excellent OLED display, and it should serve users well in pretty much every condition.
Software
On the software side, the Dell Pro 14 Premium is much different from what I normally review. Yes, it has Windows 11 with CoPilot+ and all those AI features every other Windows laptop has. But it also has a bunch of security and IT features, and I will list these below. Most of these I would never use, but for those who will, it’s good to know what’s here.
- Security: Improve fleet-wide security with multiple layers of defense and reduce the attack surface and enhance long-term cyber resilience with Dell Trusted Workspace.
- Be secure from first boot with rigorous supply chain controls.
- Maintain BIOS integrity with deep, firmware-level visibility.
- Protect end-user identity from malware that looks to steal credentials.
- Enrich OS-level data with PC telemetry to speed detection, response and remediation.
- Layer on advanced threat protection from our ecosystem of best-of-breed software partners.
- Manageability: Manage your fleet of PCs – reliably and easily, Help secure and optimize your endpoints and deliver end-user productivity with Dell Manageability Solutions
- With Dell Management Portal, you can manage Dell PCs, over the cloud, in conjunction with Microsoft Intune.
- Update and secure your fleet of Dell PCs, with one application – Dell Client Device Manager.
- Dell Trusted Update Experience makes it simple to update endpoints with the latest BIOS and driver versions.
There are a few other software goodies included with the Dell Pro 14 Premium, but one of the more interesting ones is on the trackpad. The Collaboration Touchpad works within Teams and Zoom. You can make changes and control the touchpad functions within the Dell Optimizer app on the laptop. It’s a nice feature if you need to quickly mute your mic, turn off your cam or whatever. The functions appear at the top of the trackpad and work like a touchscreen.
Overall, there’s a lot more here on the software side than consumer laptops get. A lot of the extras do revolve around security and manageability and will be most useful for IT and computer security teams in businesses. Though, consumers could certainly take advantage of things, should they know what they’re doing. I am assuming that if you’ve made it this far in the review, you know what you’re doing.
Performance
To be honest, the Dell Pro 14 Premium isn’t really made for me. These Pro models are geared more to business users, engineers, and that type of user. I’m a content creator and the tools I generally use are going to require a different setup. So I used the Dell Pro 14 Premium more as a day-to-day basics device. I didn’t throw any heavy programs at it, but I’m sure it could handle it.
The hardest thing I did on this laptop was photo editing, and it ran Affinity Photo just fine. There were some AI image rendering tools I used as well and those also had no issue. The day to day stuff like email, web browsing, chats, meetings, videos, and writing were all a breeze. This configuration is one of the top ones and it contained the following:
- Processor: Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 268V, vPro® (48 TOPS NPU, 8 cores, up to 5.0 GHz)
- Operating System: Windows 11 Pro, Copilot+ PC
- Graphics Card: Integrated Intel® Arc™ graphics for Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 268V vPro® processor, 32 GB LPDDR5x memory
- Memory: 32 GB: LPDDR5x, 8533 MT/s (onboard)
- Storage: 1 TB TLC SSD
The processor difference in the Dell Pro 14 Premium, versus a consumer laptop, is that this one is running the vPro chip. That’s going to be a better performing chip for business tasks and is aimed at enterprise-level users. You’re also getting Wi-Fi 7e and Bluetooth 5.4 on this SKU, something you won’t generally find on a consumer laptop, at least widely.
Overall, the performance from the Dell Pro 14 Premium is excellent. It’s hard for me to test it for business users, as I don’t run the tasks they would normally run. But I feel comfortable saying, having worked in an enterprise environment for years, this will take care of them very well.
Battery Life
Battery life on any battery operated device is going to vary wildly. I don’t do special battery tests, but instead, I rely on my day-to-day use. This will be different from your use case and you should expect different results. Battery life will be highly dependent on your battery settings and energy settings. It will also depend on how you use your laptop, screen brightness, and the content being consumed.
I always leave my settings on Windows at Balanced, and I suspect most users will as well. and I always have my brightness to full, not adaptive. This is mostly doing work related things, email, light photo editing, writing on WordPress, social media, YouTube content, and web browsing. I didn’t do anything heavy like video editing, but I did do some light photo editing and some AI photo creation. I also, usually have my keyboard backlighting on all the time.
So, I was able to get through a normal day of work with about 43% battery life left in the tank. Some days were better than others, again, it depends on what you’re doing. Some days I watch YouTube videos far more often than others. It’s just going to depend on your settings and use case.
Overall, I think most users will be able to get through an entire day and more with this battery. You actually may be able to get a lot more if you’re more aggressive with the battery saver as well as brightness and keyboard backlighting.
Speakers/Audio/Camera
The speakers on the Dell Pro 14 Premium are actually pretty decent. They do struggle with bass, but most laptops do. The mids and highs are pretty good, though, and where these speakers shine is in conference calls. The callers sound full and rich, and that’s what you need in a business laptop. It’s nice that you can also catch some entertainment with these speakers as well, it won’t be home theater quality, but good enough.
The 8MP HDR + IR camera is great, and you can blur backgrounds and track your movement. It’s 2025, and I think we are finally getting great cameras on laptops, finally. This one works perfect for conferencing and video calls.
Overall, the speakers are not bad at all. Not perfect, but not horrible either. They do exceptionally well for video calls. The audio for entertainment is decent, it won’t win awards, but you can watch a movie in your hotel and be okay with the sound. And the camera is finally something worth using. It also has Face Unlock and the IR camera does sense your presence.
Price/Value
Pricing for the Dell Pro 14 Premium starts at eighteen-hundred dollars and can go up depending on how the system is configured. It’s difficult to talk about price when it comes to the Pro line, as most of the purchases made for these laptops are enterprise sales. Those sales tend to get a price break due to bulk ordering, so these prices may not reflect a bunch of savings that can be had. Either way, I do think the price is justified, and you are getting what you pay for here.
Wrap Up
If you’re looking at the Dell Pro 14 Premium as a personal laptop, you might look at some of Dell’s other offerings. Of course, if you require the enterprise features like the security, management features, and stability of the platform. Then you’re probably looking in the right place. For general users, you need to browse other Dell options.
For the rest of you. The Dell Pro 14 Premium is a massive upgrade in its design aesthetic and feel. The Latitude lineup was boring and this is a fresh, sleek and refreshing change. The lattice keyboard is one of the main design changes that brings that fresh, sleek change to the lineup. It looks spectacular, though I will add that the travel on this model feels a bit shallow, which may not sit well with some users.
The Dell Pro 14 Premium is also lightweight, even though its profile looks a bit chunky. The Tandem OLED display on this unit is fantastic, though I always like to have 500 nits in my panels. Still, 400 nits is acceptable and I won’t ding it. The battery life is also outstanding, and that should please users who are on the move.
Overall, I believe when IT-teams start issuing these models, users are going to actually love what they’re being given. It’s a bold new look that finally throws out the boring look of its predecessor and opts for something far more appealing. But pleasing the end user is only half the battle as the other half is security, stability and manageability by IT and this has all those.
