Till now, the Dell XPS 13 ultrabook had, by far, been the perfect all rounder – with excellent looks, a very premium finish and impressive performance scores. However, the new kid on the block, the XPS 14, is looking to take over that mantle. Can it do that? From what we have seen, it surely does!Asus A42-G75 Battery
Build & Design
We were more than impressed (and considerably surprised, admittedly) with the Dell XPS 13 (read our review). The efforts Dell put in on making that ultrabook are more than acknowledged and appreciated. Even more surprising was the fact that the desired effect was achieved with possibly the most humble and minimalist ultrabook. Quite expected then, that the next generation from the same line of ultrabooks, would follow the same path.DELL Vostro V13 Series Battery

The XPS 14, right out of the box, looks like one solid slab of aluminum, with a very matter to fact look. That however, doesn’t take away the fact that a lot of exotic materials have been slapped on to this ultrabook, to give it the real high-end feel. Gone is the carbon fibre that was quite predominant on the chassis of the XPS 13, and has been replaced with the triple team of aluminum, magnesium and silicon.HP 3115m Battery
The XPS 14’s lid has the grey aluminum finish, with the Dell logo in the middle. Open it up, and a black matte finish greets you around the keypad, and the keypad itself. The material used here is the magnesium, given a soft touch finish. Popularly known as the “rubberized” feel, we would prefer something like this any given day on our laptops over a glossy or even the remotely shiny enamel finish.
A similar finish extends to the touchpad as well, which has integrated right and left click keys. There are absolutely no quick access keys spread around the XPS 14 to ruin the looks.Sony VGP-BPS9/S Battery
On the base, the carbon fibre from the XPS 13 has given way to silicon. This is a heat absorbing material, and there is a pretty thick layer of it. Essentially, if you are using the XPS 14 on your lap for long periods, the chances of it becoming uncomfortable have been reduced to a large extent. On the near and the far sides are two channels of vents that really blow out the warm air. You should be very careful to not block any of these.ASUS G51JX-X1 Battery
The left side of the XPS 14 has a couple of USB ports, HDMI out and the Ethernet port. The right side has just the 3.5mm jack. With the dimensions of the laptop, particularly the thickness, exactly the same at the front and at the back, this does give the resemblance similar to a MacBook Pro.
Performance
With the same processor as the HP Envy 4 and the Samsung Series 5, we did not expect the performance to be very different. While the Dell and the HP get 4GB of RAM as standard, Samsung offers 6GB with the Series 5. As far as benchmarks were concerned, all three machines did pretty similar scores, thanks to the relatively similar hardware.
In the PC Mark 07 test, the XPS 14 scores 3159 while the Envy 4 isn’t far behind with 3150 clocked. The Samsung Series 5 did score a bit less with 2371, but that shouldn’t take away anything from the fact that the performance is still rather good. Samsung gets its own back in the PC Mark Vantage test with a score of 7465, which is higher than the 7383 the XPS 14 scored. The HP Envy 4, incidentally, had a whopping score of 9966 in the same test.DELL Alienware M15x Series Battery
In terms of real life usability, all three machines offer a relatively similar experience – quick startup, zippy application response, no slowdowns while multi-tasking and a generally smooth Windows experience. The critical bit is the additional flash storage for the caching tasks, and while Samsung has 24GB of that, HP and Dell offer 32GB each. This is over and above the conventional HDD that will be the primary storage device.
Gaming is where the HP Envy takes the advantage, thanks to the more powerful AMD Radeon HD7670M (2GB) graphics solution. While the Nvidia GeForce GT630M (1GB) on the XPS does stand up to the 7670M on the Envy for quite a while, it does lose out in the frame rate stakes. In the Unigene benchmark test, the GT630M scores 17.8 while the Radeon HD 7670M on the Envy scores an impressive 25.9 FPS. The performance is verified by the CineBench OpenGL test – 30.26 for the XPS 14 and 33.78 for the HP Envy 4.
In our full stress load battery tests, the XPS 14’s battery lasted 210 minutes on a single charge – that is 3 hours and 30 minutes. Translate that into a traditional daily usage routine at work or at home checking mails and browsing the web with the brightness slightly less than 50%, we got a backup very similar to the HP Envy 4 – around 7 hours easily.Asus K50I Series Battery

Bottom Line
You must be wondering why we are comparing the Dell XPS 14 to ultrabooks that are considerably lesser priced. There is a reason for that! The idea being simple – the hardware you get with the XPS 14 is very similar to what you get with the HP Envy 4 and the Samsung Series 5, but you are paying about Rs. 30,000 more for the Dell and the exotic materials used on the finished product. Currently, none of the other similarly priced, but slightly better-specced ultrabooks – such as the new Samsung Series 9 ultrabook or HP Envy Spectre, have been made available to test.
Having said that, if the XPS 14 is well within your budget, then the admittedly superb build quality is something that will be a delight. The use of different materials across the same chassis lends it a very premium feel. Not a surprise then that the XPS 14 will be equally comfortable in a teenager’s college dorm room as well as in the executive board room of a Fortune 500 company.

Summary
With the Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition’s performance and price, it easily makes the leader in our Laptop Top 10 listing.Toshiba PABAS117 battery It has an impressive spec sheet, delivers on the potential, is put together with the ’premium’ finish in mind and a price that is actually less than what we had expected! What more can one ask from a winner?The new Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition has become a bit of a favorite in the test labs. Not only because of the power package, but also because it feels worth the money a consumer will pay for it. This pretty much goes to the top of our Laptop Top 10, undisputed.Toshiba PA3638U-1BAP battery
Build & Design
What immediately catches your eye on the Dell Inspiron 14R SE is the anodized aluminum on the lid, and the same runs across for the most part of the notebook. Toshiba PA3636U-1BRL battery The lid covers look very similar to the classy carbon fibre finish we saw on the Dell XPS 13 ultrabook (read our review). For all purposes, the finish throughout is matte, but the lid cover does have a bit of shine to it – in a good way and not overtly.Toshiba PA3635U-1BRM battery
This is the same finish around the touchpad and the keyboard as well. Unlike glossy laptops that will catch dust, scratches and fingerprints in a jiffy, this one will not at all be that maintenance hungry.Toshiba PA3635U-1BAM battery
The Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition’s power key is very closely integrated, design wise, with the silver laptop hinge. It seems like silver metal just flowed down and the power key found the perfect place to sit!Toshiba PA3634U-1BAS battery
Quick access keys seem to be going out of fashion with most laptops doing away with them, and we don’t really know why! But the Inspiron 14R SE has three of them – Settings key for quick accessing the Windows Mobility Centre, a Multimedia key that quickly takes you to your media and a configurable quick launch key that can be configured to either open an app or execute a command.Toshiba PA3728U-1BRS battery
Unfortunately, a crowd favorite feature of changing the lid covers isn’t available on this machine.Toshiba PABAS230 battery Even though the Inspiron 14R Special Edition is more than capable of being supported by this feature, Dell has somehow chucked this feature off the list.Interestingly, when closed and placed on a desk, you can’t really make out where the front and the back of the Inspiron 14R SE are. Toshiba PABAS229 battery
The display hinge has been very nicely hidden away, and the dimensions (read thickness and design) remain the same throughout, unlike most laptops that tend to become slimmer towards the front. This isn’t the slimmest laptop around, but then again, the Inspiron 14R SE seems to be aimed at the demographic that want a solidly built laptop, and not just a slim one.Toshiba PABAS228 battery
There is no shortage of connectivity options on the Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition, quite expected considering this is a full-fledged laptop. Toshiba PABAS227 battery On the right side is the optical drive along with a couple of USB 3.0 ports, and the Ethernet port. On the left is another USB 3.0 port along with one USB 2.0 port as well. You could connect this to an external display if you so wish, thanks to the HDMI out.Toshiba PA3819U-1BRS battery
The island style keyboard on the Inspiron 14R Special Edition looks well spaced out. Toshiba PA3818U-1BRS battery What is missing is a dedicated number pad, but that is quite expected considering this is a 14-inch display and there are space limitations. The display resolution is 1366 x 768 pixels, while the bigger siblings – the 15R and the 17R get the 1920 x 1080 pixel displays.Toshiba PA3817U-1BRS battery
This does seem like discrimination! Turn it on, and we played some videos, and the results were impressive. The display is natively bright, and the colour reproduction seems quite impressive. Unfortunately, the display is a tad reflective. Having said that, it is much lesser than some of the laptops that we have tested off late.Cheap Toshiba PA3816U-1BRS battery
Mercifully, the Inspiron 14R SE’s touchpad isn’t following the trend a lot of rivals are setting, and has separate right and left click keys – with no ridiculous integration business within the touchpad area. Cheap Toshiba M800-10A battery On the other hand, that does mean that the real estate for the touchpad does become a tad less, but it is still more than enough for deploying multi-touch gestures comfortably. Sure and consistent response for the most part, but only after we did a driver update from Dell’s support website.Cheap Toshiba M800-107 battery
Undoubtedly, the Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition’s build quality feels premium and in tune with the price tag slapped on it. It is very well put together, with the only real drawback being theCheap Toshiba Portege M800-106 battery
Features & Specifications
Let us run you through the power package of the Inspiron 14R Special Edition. We got the top of the line version for the testing and review purpose It is powered by an Intel Core-i7 - 3612QM processor, Cheap Toshiba Portege M800-105 battery clocking in at 2.1GHz. When in Turbo Boost mode, this can be clocked up to 3.1GHz. Needless to mention, but this is the third gen Core series processor, lovingly known as Ivy Bridge series. The 14R SE features 6GB of RAM, along with the dual Nvidia GT640M (2GB) and Intel HD 4000 graphics, news that will surely warm the hearts of the gamers out there.Cheap Toshiba Portege M800-101 battery
The goodness on the Inspiron 14R Special Edition doesn’t end there, with a 1TB HDD as well. Dell preloads the machine with Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), along with a bunch of Dell branded apps as well as some third party trials.Cheap Toshiba Portege M800 battery
It is a bit unfortunate that the Inspiron 14R Special Edition’s display doesn’t have the goodness of the 1080p resolution, but is limited to 1366 x 768 pixels on the 14-inch display. The bigger sibling –the Inspiron 17R Special Edition gets a full HD display, and surprisingly, Cheap Toshiba Equium U400-146 battery even the Inspiron 15R Special Edition doesn’t! Nevertheless, we really like the overall display quality. Let us get to the good things first - this display is natively bright, which is a solid base to start on. Surprisingly, the black levels are better than what we expected, and is probably better than what most rivals offer. Cheap Toshiba Equium U400-145 battery
Good colour vividness and is quite even as well, and is also definitely quite some way better than most of the rivals. Cheap Toshiba Equium U400-124 battery Crispness is in adequate amounts, and that really helps with text viewing as well as multimedia viewing. The real kicker is the ability to handle fast moving visuals with ease – something that is critical for movie playback as well as for gaming.Cheap Toshiba Equium U400 battery
Unfortunately, the reflective nature of this display does take away some of the good work done elsewhere. Sitting at home, or in office, there will be continuous reflections off the display, of anything and everything in the ambience. More than anything, this causes eyestrain when working on it for long durations.Cheap Toshiba SS M52 253E/3W battery
Despite the Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition being limited in terms of real estate because of a 14-inch display, the keyboard layout is quite comfortable to get used to. Cheap Toshiba Dynabook SS M52 220C/3W battery The spacing between the keys is more than expected, also helped by the fact that the keys are slightly smaller than usual. But let us make it plainly clear – it will not make any difference when you are typing a document. No dips in the keyboard, and will not even the most violent of typing on it will make it rattle. The touchpad also has generous amounts of space, despite separate keys for the right and left click.Cheap Toshiba Dynabook CX/48H battery
The Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition’s ports are spread out on the right and the left of the display, with no dabbling with the idea of placing them at the back. The memory card shifts to the front near side spine, something we notice is becoming a bit of a trend.Cheap Toshiba Dynabook CX/48G battery
Unfortunately, all this does come with a bit of weight, and bulk! At 2.38kg, this isn’t any heavier than Sony Vaio E-series (read our review) or the Toshiba Satellite L850 (read our review), but the fact that it is thicker than any rival laptop means it does have a more imposing look.Cheap Toshiba Dynabook CX/48F battery
Performance
Without a shadow of a doubt, the Ivy Bridge Core i7 performs very well on the benchmark comparison sheet, and not entirely surprisingly so. Cheap Toshiba Dynabook CX/47J battery The 6GB of RAM helps it shuffle along quite quickly. For comparison, we have the 14R SE up against the Toshiba Satellite L850, which is also powered by an Core i7 processor on the Ivy Bridge platform, but has 8GB of RAM to help it along. Cheap Toshiba Dynabook CX/47H battery
Also, we have a Sony Vaio E-series laptop in the mix, with an Intel Core i5 on the Sandy Bridge platform – just to give you an idea of the performance difference.From these scores, you can easily see that the two Ivy Bridge machines are neck and neck. Cheap Toshiba Dynabook CX/47G batteryThe Toshiba has an advantage in one benchmark, but the Inspiron 14R SE gets its own back in the next one. In a nutshell, the performance is indeed pointing to a very powerful laptop, which will not get bogged down with whatever you may throw at it, in terms of heavy apps or even multitasking on it to the fullest.Cheap Toshiba Dynabook CX/47F battery
Critically, once you move beyond the benchmarks, the machine feels rather zippy even in a real life usage scenario. Double click on a software shortcut, and you will see it open and ready before you can finish saying “winning”!Cheap Toshiba Dynabook CX/45J battery
With the dual team of the Intel HD 4000 and the Nvidia GeForce GT640M (1GB), gaming is certainly a comfortable territory for the Inspiron 14R Special Edition. High quality Toshiba Dynabook CX/45G battery The 3D Mark score of 12635 is by far the highest among all Ivy Bridge laptops that we have tested. Even on the more taxing 3D Mark 11, the scores of 3132 (Entry Mode), 1915 (Performance mode) and 592 (Extreme mode) are still the highest on our score comparison sheet.High quality Toshiba CX/45F battery
Unigene verifies that with an FPS score of 30.1, indicating that you will be able to do quite a bit of gaming on this laptop. In fact, we had mentioned a couple of games when we were talking about the real world performance, and can say it for a certainty.High quality Toshiba Satellite Pro U500 battery
These machines are pretty capable in terms of handling some games as well. The review unit has a GeForce GT640M (2GB), and handles games without any issues. Am not much of a gamer, but do have a bit of a fascination with racing games.High quality Toshiba Satellite Pro U400 battery The old favorite, GRID played back without any issues at all, and we didn’t see any drop in frame rates. The critical bit with racing games is the smoothness of the very fast scenes, and they were very smooth. To verify, we also played the slightly newer NFS: Hot Pursuit, and the results were very impressive. High quality Toshiba Satellite Pro U Series battery
For all you gamers out there, this laptop will serve that purpose for the most part.High quality Toshiba T110 battery However, do update the graphics drivers in the very beginning itself, because we did see quite a difference in the benchmark scores before and after the new drivers were installed. While you may not really see any difference in real time usage, but updates might bring in some tweaks to make the hardware run better – safer in the longer run, surely!High quality Toshiba Satellite Pro T130 battery
In our very stressful battery test (Examples of the setup - High Performance mode with display at full brightness all the time), we clocked this laptop doing 110 minutes from full charge to full discharge. High quality Toshiba L670 battery That is almost two hours, and in a typical real world usage scenario, this one should be good for a bit more than 3 hours. Quite good, considering the amount of power that is available whenever you want it, and the specs indicate this can be a very competent notebook and a desktop replacement, all at the same time.Bottom LineHigh quality Toshiba Satellite Pro M300 battery

Without a shadow of a doubt, the Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition is the laptop to buy if you are in the market to buy something powerful, yet not very costly. Considering the fact that the entire range is now updated with the Ivy Bridge processors, it is up to you to take the pick. As far as our recommendation goes, we would suggest you consider this before buying anything elseHigh quality Toshiba Satellite Pro L650 battery
 


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