The Dell XPS 14 puts the revived brand in your face in a good way by putting the XPS logo right on the lid, and this machine makes a good first impression. You get a sturdy CNC-machine aluminum chassis that's just 14.6mm thin, which is in between the MacBook Air M4 (11.3mm) and MacBook Pro M5 (15.5mm).

Despite being smaller than a MacBook Air, the XPS 14 has much more battery capacity, coming in at 70WHr to the Air's 53.8WHr. In combination with the new Intel Panther Lake chip, the result is incredible claimed battery life of up to 40 hours of local video playback and 27 hours of streaming video.

A year after Dell retired the branding, the XPS 14 and XPS 16 are returning in shiny new form factors, alongside the XPS 13 at a later date.

Dell is walking back recent branding changes with the 'Plus' and 'Premium' monikers, returning the XPS name to its flagship position.

I wrote a column last month about the best laptops for working remotely. After feedback from readers, it seems that the biggest question was “which of the powerhouse laptops is better for getting real work done–the MacBook Pro or the Dell XPS 13?”

Dell is bringing back the XPS laptop brand, and has redesigned the system to remove the controversial capacitive function row. This year's XPS 14 and 16 are getting Intel's Panther Lake processors, and a new 13-incher is coming later this year.