Laptop Mag Verdict
The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel) is an affordable convertible with solid performance, great battery life, and strong hinges, but it’s hindered by a dismal display and flat audio.
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Dell dressed its laptop lineup in new “simple” monikers, including this simply named Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1. While we had high hopes for the Dell 14 Plus (2025) clamshell, the new Dell Plus didn’t quite live up to the now-discontinued Dell Inspiron 14’s legacy.
So, I tried to temper my expectations of the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel) convertible. After all, it’s got very similar specs to the clamshell Dell 14 Plus, though there are some obvious differences in design and construction to fit that convertible form factor. Much like the clamshell edition, the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 offers great battery life and solid performance and comes at an incredibly reasonable price. But it similarly suffers from a dull display and poor audio quality.
That's a high hurdle to clear if you aspire to be one of the best 2-in-1 laptops, but no laptop is truly perfect.
Let’s find out if the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 is among the best Dell laptops.
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Specs and benchmarks
|
Price: |
$999 starting, $1,099 as reviewed |
|
CPU: |
Intel Core Ultra 7 256V |
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GPU: |
Intel Arc 140V integrated |
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RAM: |
16GB |
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Storage: |
1TB SSD |
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Display: |
14-inch, 1920 x 1200, touchscreen |
|
Battery (HH:MM): |
15:14 |
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Dimensions: |
12.36 x 8.9 x 0.65 inches |
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Weight: |
3.42 pounds |
Click to view full benchmark test results
| Header Cell - Column 0 |
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel) |
|---|---|
|
Geekbench 6 (Higher is better) |
10,880 |
|
Handbrake conversion (Lower is better) |
07:25 |
|
25GB File Transfer Test (Lower is better) |
27.9 |
|
25GB File Transfer Test (SSD speed) |
962 |
|
Heat (Degrees Fahrenheit) |
97.8 |
|
Battery life (Higher is better) |
15:14 |
|
Display brightness (Higher is better) |
295 |
|
sRGB color gamut (Higher is better) |
67.5% |
|
DCI-P3 color gamut (Higher is better) |
47.8% |
|
Color accuracy (Lower is better) |
0.27 |
|
3DMark Fire Strike (Higher is better) |
8,462 |
|
3DMark Time Spy (Higher is better) |
3,896 |
|
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p, fps) |
53.22 |
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Price and configurations
As far as 2-in-1 laptops go, the Dell 14 Plus is a pretty affordable machine
The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 starts at $999 for an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V processor with 16GB of memory, a 512GB SSD, and a 14-inch, 1920 x 1200, touchscreen display.
Upgrading to the more powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor and a 1TB SSD will set you back just $100 more for a total of $1,099. This is our review spec, and is currently on sale for $979.
The highest configuration of Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 features an upgraded Intel Core Ultra 9 288V processor, 32GB of memory, a 1TB SSD, and 14-inch, 1920 x 1200, touchscreen display. This model retails for $1,479.
As far as 2-in-1 laptops go, the Dell 14 Plus is a pretty affordable machine, even when it isn’t on sale. Considering Intel’s Core Ultra 200V platform is a power-efficient chip, power users would be better off opting for the Core Ultra 7 or Core Ultra 9 configurations for added multitasking power.
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Design
The new Dell 14 Plus looks too basic for my taste...
To say the new Dell designs underwhelm me would, perhaps, be under-selling it. While the Dell Inspiron line was always somewhat understated, it at least felt like a Dell.
The new Dell 14 Plus looks too basic for my taste, almost like a knock-off Apple chassis. But at least the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 still features some individuality, thanks to its ice blue colorway, wedge-shaped aluminum chassis, and sturdy 2-in-1 convertible hinges. Sure, the ice blue color reads as silver, but it's a cooler silver tone than some other laptops, which helps set the otherwise bland Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 apart. Like the Dell 14 Plus clamshell, the keyboard deck is rather minimalist, with a darker-toned keyboard, and a fingerprint reader and power button combo in the upper right corner.
The Dell 14 Plus measures 12.36 x 8.9 x 0.65 inches and weighs 3.42 pounds. This is a little heavier than some 2-in-1s, but not to a distracting degree, and it’ll still fit into any laptop bag. If you were wondering, here’s how the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 stacks up against its competition:
- Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition: 12.44 x 8.66 x 0.65 inches, 2.9 pounds
- MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo A2VM: 11.82 x 8.75 x 0.64 inches, 2.9 pounds
- Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441: 12.36 x 8.81 x 0.58~0.67 inches, 3.71 pounds
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Ports
The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 features a pretty full port array that should cover most people’s needs:
- 1x Thunderbolt™ 4 (40 Gbps, DisplayPort 2.1, Power Delivery)
- 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (10 Gbps,DisplayPort 1.4, Power Delivery)
- 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (5 Gbps)
- 1x HDMI 2.1
- 1x Audio
If you still need additional connections, you may want to snag one of the best laptop docking stations or USB-C hubs.
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Battery life
The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 lasted an impressive 15 hours and 14 minutes...
Intel’s Core Ultra 200V “Lunar Lake” chips are known to be very efficient, offering fantastic battery life. The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 is no exception. During my average workday, I was easily able to get through hours of web surfing, photo editing, spreadsheet jenga, and word processing without draining the battery below 35%.
It was only while benchmarking the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 on battery life for a story that I had to break out the charger. But unless you’re going to be re-running a bunch of stress-test benchmarks for multiple hours straight, you’re unlikely to run into the same issue.
The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 lasted an impressive 15 hours and 14 minutes on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test. While we have seen more impressive battery life before, 15 hours on our battery test will get you through a full workday even when pushing a laptop’s performance, which is about all most people really need.
Click to view chart data in table format
| Header Cell - Column 0 |
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel) |
Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition |
MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo |
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Battery life (Higher is better) |
15:14 |
12:47 |
16:52 |
18:20 |
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Display
I got a much nicer-looking picture by setting Dell Optimizer to the “Movie” preset...
Dell’s laptop displays have been rather disappointing to us lately, and unfortunately, the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 is no different. Much like the XPS 13s we saw last year, the 14-inch, 1920 x 1200, touchscreen panel on the Dell 14 Plus is dim and rather dull, displaying washed-out colors.
Watching the trailer for the John Wick spin-off, Ballerina, the super-saturated blue and orange colors that dominate the trailer were lifeless. The vibrant interior scenes of Ana de Armas training against a punching bag were almost as washed out as the snowy exterior sequences.
I got a much nicer-looking picture by setting Dell Optimizer to the “Movie” preset, which offered more vibrant colors, so the trailer looked less washed out. However, even in “Movie” mode, the Dell 14 Plus still wasn’t quite as vibrant as most displays we see. It was far more watchable than the default, though.
This is a serious drawback for a 2-in-1 since it makes the tent mode almost useless for watching movies or a TV show. You won’t want to use this display for your content binges unless you’re absolutely desperate.
Click to view chart data in table format.
| Header Cell - Column 0 |
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel) |
Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition |
MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo |
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Display brightness (Higher is better) |
295 |
421 |
366 |
470 |
|
sRGB color gamut (Higher is better) |
67.5% |
210.6% |
120.0% |
97.6% |
|
DCI-P3 color gamut (Higher is better) |
47.8% |
149.2% |
85.0% |
69.1% |
|
Color accuracy (Lower is better) |
0.27 |
0.29 |
0.21 |
0.29 |
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Keyboard and touchpad
The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 keyboard is the same as the clamshell, with a decent bounce to the keys and a well-spaced layout. The keys are a bit oversized, which can take some getting used to.
On the 10fastfingers.com advanced typing test, I averaged a typing speed of 84 words per minute (WPM) which is a bit shy of the 88 WPM I maintain on the MacBook Pro 14. I was a bit tripped up by the key size, but not so badly I wasn’t able to type.
Dell opted for a mylar touchpad on the Dell 14 Plus, which has a slightly rough feel to it. The touchpad also lacks haptics, instead relying on a shallow click, which is particularly unsatisfying. Clicking near the top of the touchpad seems to bend the chassis in a way that I find particularly disconcerting.
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Audio
The dual speaker array on the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 is bottom-firing, so it’s got a decent bit of distortion.
I queued up “We Close Our Eyes” by Danny Elfman’s 80’s new wave rock outfit Oingo Boingo to test the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1’s audio system and I was immediately disappointed. The song features great depth between the synth melody and steady bassline, but the Dell 14 Plus flattened the sound out so it seemed hollow, and almost shrill on the high-notes. The volume was also not particularly impressive either.
We absolutely recommend a set of the best headphones if you’re going to be doing a lot of music streaming on the Dell 14 Plus.
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Performance and heat
I didn’t run into any hangups even with 20 Chrome research tabs open...
With an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V chipset, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, the Dell 14 Plus is powerful enough to handle web surfing, light photo editing, email management, and even some spreadsheet jockeying. If you need to do a lot of multitasking, you may want to opt for the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V configuration, but most people will be perfectly fine with the Core Ultra 5 or Ultra 7 models.
I didn’t run into any hangups even with 20 Chrome research tabs open, including a few spreadsheets and multimedia pages. Adding Photoshop on top of that didn’t really slow the Dell down, either.
The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 does get a little hot under pressure, hitting almost 98 degrees Fahrenheit on the underside after 15 minutes of video streaming. So if you’re going to be pushing the Dell’s performance you may want to make sure you rest it on a table rather than your lap.
Click to view chart data in table format.
| Header Cell - Column 0 |
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel) |
Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition |
MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo |
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Geekbench 6 (Higher is better) |
10,880 |
11,059 |
10,895 |
13,281 |
|
Handbrake conversion (Lower is better) |
07:25 |
06:26 |
09:10 |
07:02 |
|
25GB File Transfer Test (Lower is better) |
27.9 |
18.55 |
16.09 |
17.78 |
|
25GB File Transfer Test (SSD speed) |
962 |
1,448 |
1,669 |
1,510 |
|
Heat (Degrees Fahrenheit) |
97.8 |
88.3 |
101.5 |
100 |
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Gaming and graphics
Intel’s integrated Arc 140V graphics tile is a pretty powerful little iGPU.
It’s the same graphics used for the MSI Claw 8 AI+, so you get some solid gaming power at 1080p and medium graphics presets.
I opted for Baldur’s Gate III for my game testing this time around, as BG3 is rather well optimized for lower-end hardware and isn’t the most graphically demanding title despite being rather gorgeous at higher graphics settings. I didn’t run into many CPU bottleneck hangups, even in large-scale encounters, and the game ran smoothly at the max 1200p resolution and Medium graphics. My framerates kept over 50 frames per second, more than meeting the minimum 30 fps standard for playability.
While the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 is not a gaming laptop, it’s not a bad choice if you plan to get some casual gaming done.
Click to view chart data in table format.
| Header Cell - Column 0 |
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel) |
Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition |
MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo |
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
3DMark Fire Strike (Higher is better) |
8,462 |
9,081 |
7,187 |
5,965 |
|
3DMark Time Spy (Higher is better) |
3,896 |
4,420 |
3,640 |
1,903 |
|
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p, fps) |
53.22 |
68.83 |
45.30 |
20.79 |
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): AI features
The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 features an Intel Core Ultra 200V chipset which means it has a powerful enough NPU to enable the entire Copilot+ suite of applications like CoCreate, LiveCaptions, and Recall in addition to advanced Windows Studio Effects and the full version of Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant.
You can also download Intel’s AI Playground if you’d rather utilize other AI models.
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Webcam
Dell has packed an FHD camera into the slim bezels of the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 which is ideal for handling Windows Hello secure sign-in or the occasional video call.
The FHD webcam feed isn’t the clearest we’ve ever seen, but it is accurate enough to function for the occasional video call or virtual meeting. I did have a bit of a pink cast over my face with the internal webcam, but not a distracting degree.
If you plan to take a lot of video calls on the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1, you may want to invest in one of our best webcams for a better video feed.
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel): Software and warranty
Dell offers both Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro installations on the Dell 14 Plus, though our review unit came with Windows 11 Home. This comes with some pre-installed Microsoft applications like Copilot, Microsoft Office 365, Windows MediaPlayer, and the Xbox app.
Dell has also pre-installed a number of its own proprietary applications like Dell Optimizer and Support Assist to get the most out of your Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1. Dell Optimizer can help optimize your display and thermal settings, while Dell Support Assist can help you troubleshoot any issues you might encounter.
Dell offers a one-year limited warranty with the Dell Plus 14 2-in-1.
