New Delhi: The new Dell Pro 14 is a reliable workhorse notebook aimed squarely at professionals or small businesses. While still a consumer laptop, there are security-oriented features and security packages available as add-ons, that makes this device a compelling proposition for those who work with sensitive files, including lawyers, architects, doctors, activists or journalists. Apart from the Windows Hello biometric security and a physical hardware lock, there is protection against chassis intrusion and the BIOS is secured to prevent any persistent malware from getting a foothold in the system.
The Dell logo on the lid is the only location with the branding. (Image Credit: Aditya Madanapalle/News9).
The Dell Pro 14 ships in a square box with the laptop sitting on top in a protective sleeve. A compartment on the bottom has the charging adapter and cable. The adapter uses a small brick, increasing the mobility of the device. This whole brick is small enough to easily pass through standard cable grommets. The entire charging apparatus can be ditched, which we will circle back to later. There is a user manual and warranty documents. The laptop itself is sleek and light enough to be carried with one hand. The lid has a silver, reflective Dell logo, which is the only place it appears on the whole device. This laptop looks and feels like it has a solid build quality as soon as you get your hands on it.
Build and Design
The chassis is made up of ABS, a durable thermoplastic polymer that looks metallic because of the two finishes the device ships in, Magnetite and Platinum Silver. This is a sleek, lightweight device and the lid does not open up without the base being supported, with the action pushing the laptop backwards. The laptop is just over 2cm in thickness, with a tapering front, and weighs about 1.35 kg, which is light enough to carry around in one hand, and for comfortable daily commutes as well. The display is an IPS panel that goes up to 300 nits of brightness, and has a 16:10 aspect ratio which shows a few more lines on spreadsheets compared to 16:9 displays. The lid is supported by two long hinges on either side. The lid opens up by 180 degrees, allowing the screen to be easily shared around a coffee or conference table.
From nearly all angles the laptop appears much thinner than it really is because of the clever design. (Image Credit: Aditya Madanapalle/News9).
The base has a generously large trackpad, and contrasting keys, that are backlit. The power button is located on the top right corner, and also doubles up as a fingerprint scanner. There is a generously large trackpad on the bottom. The trackpad is clean and does not have any markings on it, and supports multitouch gestures. 14 inch laptops often have to compress the function keys, but Dell has chosen to limit the extent to which they are flattened, providing reasonably large function keys. The keys sit in a slight depression that prevent ugly marks from appearing on the screen. There is a notch on the front edge to make it easier to lift the lid and open up the laptop.
The keyboard gets it right in terms of layout at least. (Image Credit: Aditya Madanapalle/News9).
On the left side is the power port, the HDMI port, two USB-C ports and a 3.5 mm audio jack. On the right side is a slot that uses the Noble Locks TZ04T Compact Wedge Lock, an RJ45 slot that flips open to accommodate a cable, and two USB-A ports. The clever design on the RJ45 slot ensures that the laptop is flat even when a LAN cable is plugged in. This is a sensible and practical layout for the slots, which in typical use will see a mouse on the right side, and most of the other peripherals out of the way on the left side. Now the thing is, the laptop can be juiced up using a standard USB-C cable, so it is not at all a problem if you leave the charger at home. In fact, you do not need to use the charger in the box at all, and it is perfectly possible to use the same cable for both your smartphone and your laptop.
The ports on the right side of the laptop. (Image Credit: Aditya Madanapalle/News9).
Apart from the physical lock slot and the fingerprint scanner, Dell offers a chassis intrusion switch. This is an alert that the user gets if anyone attempts to open up the chassis, for say replacing with compromised components, or simply stealing hardware. For those professionals whose work demands additional security, Dell offers optional security packages. On the top of the lid is the camera, which is secured by a physical shutter. On either side of the camera with the physical shutter are microphones, that can be intelligently used for noise cancellation as well.
The ports on the left side of the machine. (Image Credit: Aditya Madanapalle/News9).
On the base of the laptop are the pair of speaker grilles, that are facing forward and downward. There is enough room for the sound not to be muffled by the surface. The ‘Pro’ branding is embossed on the base. There are no vents on the sides of the machine, but there are on the back and towards the back of the base. Essentially, the rear vents have been partially moved to the base, which is a clever design trick. There are also vents on the base of the laptop. The rubbery feet, an elongated one on the back, and two smaller ones on the front give the vents some room to breathe. In all this is a very cleverly constructed laptop that mimics more premium, thinner notebooks with metal bodies.
Performance
Now in terms of specifications, we got to test the top-of-the-line model with the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU supported by AMD Radeon 860M Graphics. We also got 32 GB of RAM and 500GB of storage. Both the RAM and the Storage can be upgraded, which is something that we were very happy about. The fingerprint scanner as well as the face unlocking features are fast and reliable, and work smoothly every time. Over regular use, if the shutter is kept open, Windows Hello ensures that you never have to key in the pins. Benchmarks are embedded below.
Dell Pro 14 Benchmarks by Aditya Madanpalle
Now the thing is AMD Ryzen chips have great on-device graphics, that are better for some tasks than Intel chips, such as rendering 3D graphics in Blender, or videos from Adobe Premiere Pro. On the other hand, the sheer number of cores on Intel silicon is better for multitasking and hypertasking, you can switch between more active applications at a time, and have more software up and running if you are using Intel chips. This is a call that users have to make depending on their computing requirements and preferences. The battery life is also better on machines with AMD chips.
The display is nice and bright, and the graphics are powerful enough to support additional displays. (Image Credit: Aditya Madanapalle/News9).
Now the screen is nice and bright, goes up to 300 nits of luminosity, which is suitable for outdoor use as long as it is not under direct sunlight. The IPS display does a great job at blocking out the harsh overhead lights in an office environment. The laptop continuously demonstrates this with the strip on top of the display housing the camera and the microphones, that is covered by a far more reflective material, that catches and distorts the light, while the display right below is largely unaffected. The reflections are spread out or diffused. The viewing angles are also great, and even the rendering of the smallest text is crisp and clear. This is a suitable display for streaming content to unwind after work, and is in fact quite vibrant.
The camera module is secured by a physical shutter. This gives a lot of peace of mind. (Image Credit: Aditya Madanapalle/News9).
Now the 720p HD camera is of sufficiently high resolution for video conferences, especially with multiple participants, but may fall short for streaming or video production. The camera functions perfectly well in low-light conditions. However, the fancy AI powered features such as background blurring and gaze retention are not available. The AI noise reduction works pretty well, and it is possible to use the device without any audio peripherals connected. However, the quality, especially the clarity of the user’s voice is significantly improved if you do use an external microphone.
Turning on additional control options for the camera does nothing, as none are supported. (Image Credit: Aditya Madanapalle/News9).
The speakers can go up to 88 decibels, which makes the Dell 14 Pro a good enough setup for streaming content. This is just within the safe limits, but is still about as loud as laptops get. The positioning of the speakers prevents the sounds from being muffled, and especially human voices are crisp and clear. The lower frequencies can sound just a little muddied, which is to be expected. Overall, if you end up using the laptop like a television in the downtime, it can get the job done despite the small screen, as the audio is loud enough to fill a room, and even a stairwell.
The rear vents are partially pushed to the base. This is just about the only angle that shows the true thickness of the laptop. (Image Credit: Aditya Madanapalle/News9).
One shortcoming of the laptop is the keyboard. The base is a bit bendy and regular typing causes the keyboard to flex quite a bit. We also noticed around a 10 words per minute reduction in typing speed compared to another 14 inch laptop that provides a comfortable typing experience. There are two levels of brightness available for the backlighting, and it would be useful to have an on-screen indicator to display the level of brightness, similar to the bar displaying the brightness of the display. Apart from the lacklustre keyboard, there were no major issues with the performance of the device.
Verdict
This is a well-rounded offering. The Radeon graphics are particularly suitable for those who work with multiple screens. We did encounter a few performance issues where the laptop froze up or the screen glitched, but this seems to be a unit-level problem with the display. The laptop restarts rapidly enough, so even these stumbles do not interrupt the work for long. The construction is also robust, so Dell is providing a reliable, long-lasting offering. The battery has a limited warranty of three years, and those looking to improve the setup in the future can easily upgrade the RAM and on-board storage.
The screen can be easily shared around a conference table. (Image Credit: Aditya Madanapalle/News9).
The practical layout of the I/O slots, the intelligent vent placement and metallic finish all demonstrate thoughtful design finetuned for the product category. The compatibility with USB-C charging is a big benefit to the laptop that improves the convenience and mobility of the device, eliminating dependency on the charging cable and adapter at the same time. This is still a top-of-the-line device that might not make sense in terms of value at the full MRP of Rs 1,74,286, but the lower-spec models with prices starting at Rs 72,802 do make a lot of sense.