The Rise of the Dell XPS
Dell has brought the XPS name back for 2026 — here’s what’s new across the XPS 14 and 16,
and how to choose the right one for your team.
Quick Summary
The Dell XPS laptop is back from oblivion.
After retiring their flagship XPS range back in January 2025, Dell has brought the XPS name back for 2026, alongside updated AI-ready hardware and several design changes that address feedback from long-time XPS users.
For business buyers, that’s good news. The XPS range has always sat at the premium end of the Windows laptop market, being one of the first to offer premium features and edge-to-edge displays.
Now, the question is no longer whether the XPS is back. It’s which laptop belongs on your team’s desk.
What’s Changed From Previous Dell XPS Models?
Dell has made several notable changes to the new XPS range:
- Physical function keys are back, replacing the touch-sensitive function row found on previous models
- The seamless touchpad now has a subtle physical edge, making it easier to locate during everyday use
- There is no fingerprint reader, despite it being available on previous XPS 13 configurations.
- XPS is displayed on the lid
- The new laptops weigh significantly less than prior laptops
These changes won’t matter on a spec sheet, but they make a real difference to how the laptop feels to use throughout a busy working day.
What Is Included in the New Dell XPS Range?
HardSoft leases two of Dell’s new premium XPS laptops:
1. Dell XPS 14: Balanced business performance and portability
2. Dell XPS 16: Larger display and higher performance for power users
But Dell also released:
3. Dell announced the XPS 16 Creator Edition AI PC, which is built with the NVIDIA RTX Spark Chip instead of Intel core platform
4. Dell XPS 13: Which is primarily for education (comparable to the MacBook Neo)
Dell XPS 14 & 16: Compact Design, Large-Screen Experience
If you’re weighing these up against a MacBook Pro for your team, here’s the short version: the XPS 14 and 16 are Dell’s most premium laptops, aimed at people doing demanding creative or technical work. They’re not the right call for a standard laptop refresh – but for the right role, they’re excellent.
Both are Copilot+ PCs, so your team gets access to Microsoft’s on-device AI features out of the box.
They’re also the thinnest and lightest XPS laptops Dell has made:
- XPS 14: 1.4 Kg about the same as a 13″ MacBook Air
- XPS 16: 1.7 Kg very similar to a 14” MacBook Pro M5 Max
Here’s what your people would actually be getting, and who should be on the list for one.
Processors
Both run Intel’s new Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” chips, with a choice from: Core Ultra 5, 7, X7 or X9. We recommend X7 or X9 for anyone doing sustained, demanding work (e.g. development, video editing, CAD) where the extra cores and graphics keep things smooth for the length of the workload, not just in a quick burst.
Performance & Connectivity
Both laptops feature three USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, distributed across either side of the chassis, alongside a combined headphone and microphone jack. Dell also claims fast-charging capabilities, with the battery reaching up to 80% charge in around 40 minutes.
However for a premium laptop range, the lack of Thunderbolt 5 is likely to be a disappointment. While Thunderbolt 4 will be more than sufficient for most day-to-day business requirements, if your organisation is investing in premium devices with a long refresh cycle, you may question why Dell’s flagship XPS range has not adopted Thunderbolt 5.
With devices such as the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus and MacBook Pro (M5 Pro) already offering the latest connectivity standard, you may find these alternatives better aligned with your long-term future-proofing strategy.
Display
Both the XPS 14 & 16 are available with either a 2K InfinityEdge (non-touch) display or a premium 3.2K TandemOLED InfinityEdge touchscreen. The Tandem OLED upgrade is one of the standout features of the range; it uses two OLED emissive layers stacked on top of each other to improve brightness and deeper contracts, compared to traditional OLED displays. It also saves energy as each layer is working at a lower efficiency.
While Tandem OLED is not a new technology, having already appeared in devices such as Apple’s iPad Pros, its inclusion in the XPS range brings the technology to a wider audience of premium Windows users.
To put the display quality in perspective, Dell’s Tandem OLED offers a different experience to the Liquid Retina XDR display found in MacBook Pros.
Apple’s mini-LED technology remains the benchmark for sustained brightness, particularly in bright environments and HDR workflows. However, the XPS’s OLED panel provides deeper blacks and pixel-level contrast that many users associate with a more immersive and visually impressive viewing experience. The OLED panel also covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, the industry standard used in film and video production.
Security
Security-wise, both come with facial recognition (Windows Hello) for sign-in, but no fingerprint reader. If your business relies on fingerprint login for shared devices or specific security policies, that’s worth flagging to your IT team.
In contrast, Dell continues to offer fingerprint authentication on selected higher-spec configurations of the Dell Pro 16.
Keyboard
Both laptops feature a zero-lattice keyboard design with clearly defined, physical borders around the trackpad. This is a major improvement to the previous invisible trackpad.
Key Consideration
One of the standout features of the Dell XPS 14 and XPS 16 is their portability. Interestingly, the higher-spec XPS 16 configuration with the 3.2K Tandem OLED display weighs just 1.65kg, making it lighter than the lower-spec model at 1.74kg.
Dell XPS 14 vs Dell XPS 16: Key Differences Compared
| Dell XPS 16 | Dell XPS 14 | |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Series 3 Intel Core Ultra 5 325 / 7 355 / X7 358H / X9 388H | Series 3 Intel Core Ultra 5 325 / 7 355 / X7 358H / X9 388H |
| Display (lower spec) | 16”, Non-Touch, 2K | 14”, Non-Touch, 2K |
| Display (higher spec) | 16”, Touch, 3.2K, Tandem OLED | 14”, Touch, 2.8K, Tandem OLED |
| Ports | 3 x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), 1 x Audio jack | 3 x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), 1 x Audio jack |
| Weight | 1.74 kg for 2K LCD / 1.65 kg for 3.2K OLED | 1.36 kg for 2K LCD and 2.8K OLED |
| Leasing from | £22.72 + VAT per week | £21.14 + VAT per week |
Where Do the XPS 13 and XPS 16 Creator Edition Fit Into This Range?
We believe the Dell XPS 13 and the Creator Edition are designed to fill specific gaps in the XPS range. For people who love Dell and are looking for a more budget-friendly option or dedicated GPU processing power, these two laptops make a lot of sense.
However, if you’re an IT admin or business manager who isn’t particularly tied to the Dell ecosystem, we’d generally recommend focusing on the Dell XPS 14 and XPS 16. They represent the core of the range and are likely to be the best fit for most businesses. The XPS 13 and Creator Edition are both good laptops, but they’re aimed at more specific audiences rather than offering something completely new.
Honest Trade-Offs
This is the part worth being upfront about: the XPS 14 and 16 are expensive, and unless your team needs what the higher-spec configuration offers, that price is hard to justify. And the step up to the OLED display and X7/X9 processors is a real jump in cost – one you should only make for people whose work actually needs it.
Financing your XPS with Leasing
As laptops get more capable — AI features, better displays, faster chips — the price tag climbs with them. Leasing is how you stop that upfront number from being the thing that decides who gets a good machine and who doesn’t.
Imagine a video editor looking to get the Dell XPS 16 with the Tandem OLED touchscreen display, Intel Core X7 processor and 32GB of memory to support their large files and creative software without slowing down.
Spread across one of our leasing plans, that large upfront cost becomes a smaller monthly payment instead:
- Pure plan: £22.72 per week +VAT
- Flexi plan: £28.40 per week +VAT
Take a look at our new Dell XPS range to help lower the cost of your productivity today.
Similarly, if the ports on the laptop feel limiting for the way your team works, we can recommend and price the right accessories too – a dock with extra HDMI and SD card support, for example – so you’re not working around a laptop’s limits at the desk.
Running a Dell-Only Team?
If your business runs 100% Dell, our Devices for Teams solution covers you from 50+ staff upwards, including the new XPS range.
The weight and slim design of the XPS 14 and 16 make them close to a one-size-fits-all option across a Dell fleet — and if something isn’t working out, or your business scales up or down, you can switch, add, or return devices rather than being locked into what you first ordered.
Devices for Teams also comes with around-the-clock support, from Silver through to Platinum plans, so you can pick the level of cover that actually matches your team’s needs.
Ready to Equip Your Team?
Whether it’s one XPS for a new hire or a full team rollout, we’ll help you land on the right configuration, and the right lease, for what your people actually do all day.
Get in touch with HardSoft and we’ll take it from there.
FAQs
The headline changes are size and power. The 2026 XPS 14 and 16 are the thinnest and lightest XPS laptops Dell has made — the 14 weighs about the same as a 13″ MacBook Air, and the 16 about the same as the older Dell Premium 14. Under the hood, they move to Intel’s new Panther Lake processors, brighter and more colour-accurate displays, and Copilot+ AI features built in as standard.
Yes. The chassis is made from recycled, low-emissions aluminium, and the range is certified ENERGY STAR and registered EPEAT Gold with Climate+. Pair that with HardSoft’s carbon offset service on your lease, and it’s a genuinely sustainable choice for equipping your team — not just a badge on the box.
Better than you’d expect from a business laptop. Both models use a quad-speaker setup, tuned with Waves MaxxAudio and supporting Dolby Atmos, which adds up to clear, full sound rather than the thin, tinny audio a lot of laptops settle for. In practice, that means video calls come through clearer and anyone using the laptop for presentations or media doesn’t need to reach for headphones or a speaker as often.
Built to hold up to daily business use: a CNC-machined aluminium chassis for strength, and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 over the display for scratch resistance. Over a three-year lease, that durability is what keeps repair and replacement costs down.