Dell 14" LDB14250-9698BLU-PCA, Core Ultra 9 288V, 32GB, 1TB SSD, Ice Blue

This laptop's port selection is in the 100th percentile, and its 3TB of storage is near the top of the charts, making it a connectivity and data-hoarding monster. However, the integrated graphics are a huge letdown, scoring a dismal 14.3/100 for gaming, and the 6.56kg weight makes it one of the least portable 14-inch machines we've ever seen. It's a desktop replacement in the truest, heaviest sense of the term.

The Core Ultra 9-288V is a solid performer for productivity, sitting in the 68th percentile for CPUs. It'll chew through browser tabs, Office apps, and coding projects without breaking a sweat, and the 32GB of RAM gives you a ton of headroom. But the integrated Intel UHD Graphics are a real bottleneck. With a gaming score of just 14.3 out of 100, this thing is dead last for anything beyond casual 2D games or video streaming. The real star of the show here is the storage. A 1TB NVMe SSD paired with a 2TB HDD is an absolutely cavernous amount of space, putting it near the top of the charts. You could store a decade of photos, projects, and media without thinking twice.

Stacked against the competition, the Dell Plus 14 carves out a strange niche. The Apple MacBook Pro M4 Max will obliterate it in CPU and GPU performance while being a fraction of the weight, but it can't touch this Dell's storage capacity or port count. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is a gaming powerhouse that makes the Dell's graphical performance look prehistoric, yet it offers far less internal storage. Even the MSI Prestige, a fellow productivity-focused machine, will likely have a much better screen and be far more portable. You're choosing the Dell specifically because you need a semi-portable data vault with every port imaginable, and you're willing to sacrifice nearly everything else to get it.

At $1840, the value proposition is entirely dependent on your needs. You're paying a premium for that ludicrous port selection and massive dual-drive storage setup, not for raw processing power or a pixel-perfect display. If you're a data hoarder who needs to plug in a dozen legacy devices and doesn't care about gaming, the price per terabyte and per port is actually quite compelling. But for anyone else, that same money gets you into a MacBook Pro or a high-end ASUS Zephyrus with a dedicated GPU and a screen that doesn't make you squint.

The Dell Plus 14 is a bit of a puzzle box. On paper, you're looking at a 14-inch laptop with a 100th percentile port selection, a massive 3TB of combined storage that lands in the 97th percentile, and 32GB of DDR5 RAM. That's a spec sheet that screams 'desktop replacement workstation,' and the 6.56kg weight certainly backs that up. But then you pop the hood and find an Intel Core Ultra 9-288V paired with basic Intel UHD Graphics, a combo that puts its gaming capability in the 13th percentile. It's a machine that's unapologetically built for a very specific kind of user, and it makes no apologies for what it isn't.

Gamers and creative pros should run, not walk, in the other direction. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics are one of the weakest we've seen, making this a non-starter for any GPU-intensive task. You should also skip it if you value a good screen, as its 22nd percentile display ranking means it's not bright or color-accurate enough for photo or video editing. And if you need to carry your laptop every day, the 6.56kg weight is a genuine dealbreaker. This machine is for desk-bound data wranglers, period.

The Dell Plus 14 is a specialist's tool, not a generalist's dream. If your workflow revolves around managing massive local datasets, connecting to a museum's worth of peripherals, and you plan to leave it on a desk 99% of the time, it's a uniquely capable machine. The 3TB of storage and 10 USB ports are genuinely best-in-class. But for the vast majority of users, the abysmal gaming performance, poor screen, and back-breaking weight are dealbreakers that far outweigh the storage and connectivity perks. Buy it for the ports and the drive space, or don't buy it at all.