Dell Inspiron 14 Plus review: plus in more ways than one

The Inspiron 14 Plus is one of a new breed of 14-inch laptops powered by Intel’s 45-watt 12th-gen CPUs. That’s a powerful processor to pack inside a 14-inch chassis, but we’ve seen it done more often than with past Intel generations. The Core i7-12700H in my review unit has performed very well in larger laptops, but its performance in 14-inch machines has been mixed.

Unlike most of those other laptops we’ve reviewed, Dell made a discrete GPU available rather than relying wholly on Intel’s integrated Iris Xe graphics. It’s the Nvidia RTX 3050, which is an entry-level GPU, but it’s significantly faster than Iris Xe, particularly at powering creative applications that can use the GPU to speed up various processes.

The result is a laptop that provides solid productivity and impressive creative performance for a 14-inch machine. As you can see from the table below, the Inspiron 14 Plus performed well against other 14-inch laptops equipped with the same CPU. The only faster laptop in our comparison group is the Del XPS 15, a larger laptop with more room for enhanced thermals. Note that I tested the laptop in both balanced and performance modes, configurable via the MyDell utility, and reported both results below. The utility was effective in our two most CPU-intensive tests, Handbrake and Cinebench R23.

I also tan the Pugetbench Premiere Pro test that runs a live version of Adobe’s Premiere Pro and can use a discrete GPU. The Inspiron 14 Plus hit 569 in balanced mode and 627 in performance mode. That’s roughly twice as fast as similarly configured machines with Iris Xe graphics and is a solid score for entry-level creators.

Overall performance was a strength. The Inspiron 14 Plus can handle demanding productivity tasks and manage creative applications in a pinch. It’s the best-performing 14-inch laptop with the Core i7-12700H that we’ve tested so far.

With the RTX 3050 on hand, you might consider the laptop an entry-level gaming machine. Unfortunately, my results were inconclusive. The Inspiron 14 Plus did fine in the 3DMark Time Spy test at 4,438, in line with other RTX 3050 machines. And it hit 44 frames per second (fps) at 1,200p and epic graphics in Fortnite and 32 fps at 1080p and ultra high graphics in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Both of those are good scores for the GPU.

However, the laptop wouldn’t run either Civilization VI  or Cyberpunk 2077 without crashing, indicating some instability in the hardware or drivers. Until Dell works those out, I wouldn’t count on the Inspiron 14 Plus even for entry-level gaming.

Battery life from the 64 watt-hour battery was competitive with other 14-inch laptops running the Core i7-12700H. In fact, it was quite a bit better across all our battery tests. Compared to laptops running the 28-watt Core i7-1260P, however, which provide competitive performance in this size chassis, the Inspiron 14 Plus wasn’t terribly impressive. And its results are below average across all the laptops we’ve tested by about an hour in each test.

I could tell from the moment I turned it on that the Inspiron 14 Plus had a vastly superior display to the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 I’d reviewed. The panel was bright, colorful, and enjoyed deep blacks, all attributes my colorimeter confirmed.

The 14-inch 16:10 2.2K (2,240 x 1,400) display hit 392 nits, which exceeds our 300-nit standard and should be bright enough for any indoor (and some outdoor) settings. Its contrast was exceptionally high for an IPS display at 1,800:1, making for deep blacks and text that pops on a white background. Color width slightly exceeded the premium laptop average, and accuracy was great at a DeltaE of 1.02 (1.0 or less is indistinguishable to the human eye). As mentioned above, it’s a display that fits a machine at its price, unlike the panel on the “normal” Inspiron.

In particular, productivity workers and media consumers will appreciate this display, while creators will find its colors a bit lacking for professional work. But for quick photo and video editing, it’s more than good enough.

There are just two downward-firing speakers that produce enough volume for a small office, with clear mids and highs without distortion. Bass is lacking, though, so action movies and music will demand a good pair of headphones.

Dell’s various lines can be complex, with a wealth of configuration options sometimes making for a complicated purchase decision. The Inspiron 14 Plus is the opposite. There are just two configurations to choose from as this review is being written. First is a $1,000 version with a 14-core/20-thread 45-watt Core i7-12700H CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and a 14-inch 2.2K (2,240 x 1,400) IPS display.

The only other option is a $1,150 model that swaps out an Nvidia RTX 3050 GPU for Intel’s integrated Iris Xe, which is the model I reviewed. According to Dell’s specifications, a 12-core/16-thread Core i5-12500H will be available along with more RAM and storage options.

The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus improves significantly on the standard Inspiron line, speeding up performance dramatically and greatly improving the display. It’s not much more expensive, either, meaning that if you’re looking for a budget to midrange laptop, Dell now has a more competitive offering.

Are there any alternatives?