Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 review: Snappy Snapdragon

As the tech world waits for the next advent in battery technology, laptop manufacturers have instead focused on processor-level enhancements. Part of the AI hype has led to laptops with neural processor units (NPUs), which offer a dedicated way to handle certain AI tasks at a hardware level, freeing up battery-draining resources on the CPU and, where available, dedicated GPUs in gaming laptops.

One of the other solutions is Snapdragon processors in laptops. Once exclusively the domain of mobile devices, 2024 has seen the release of laptops powered by Snapdragon X Elite processors. But are they any good? Dell sent me an Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 review sample to take for a spin to find out whether Snapdragon has the bite to take on AMD and Intel in the laptop space.

Depending on which brand and model you go with, Snapdragon X Elite laptops range from reasonably priced to prohibitively expensive. While there is a cheaper model for just under $2,000, that particular Dell Inspiron 14 Plus has the less powerful Snapdragon X Plus processor. If you want Snapdragon X Elite, you’re looking at a $2,398 RRP, which is beaten only by the Acer Swift 14 AI in terms of cheapest picks.

The next cheapest competitor is the Microsoft Surface Laptop, which starts at $2,549, followed by the Asus Vivobook S 15 at $2,699. If you want to go all out, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s costs $3,999. Bottom line: the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is competitively priced relative to its Snapdragon X Elite peers.

There’s nothing overly ‘Inspiron’ (ahem) about the design of the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus. While the chip is novel, the shell is likely what you’d expect from a laptop. Admittedly, the aluminium chassis feels robust while maintaining a lightweight 1.4kg.

The lack of ports is the first real disappointment. On the left of the laptop is a MicroSD port and two USB 4 Type-C ports. The catch, though, is you need one of those USB-C ports to charge the Inspiron 14 Plus. On the right of the laptop base is a solitary USB 3.2 Type-A port and a 3.5mm audio jack. It feels at least a port or two short even without griping about absent HDMI or Ethernet.

Under the lid is a backlit keyboard that I didn’t have any issues with, and it has the in-vogue dedicated Copilot key that feels overkill given that piece of Microsoft AI software is pinned to the taskbar by default. Flanking the keyboard are stereo speakers, which got the job done without blowing me away. The other input options are a moderately sized precision touchpad or the 14-inch 2560x1600 IPS touchscreen.

Again, both of those are serviceable without any extra wow. That said, I do appreciate the inclusion of new wireless tech standards like WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Also appreciated is the 1080p webcam with a privacy shield.

Snapdragon X is a first-gen technology as far as laptops are concerned, so you shouldn’t expect to jump into the latest AAA games. If you do want to play games, get used to dropping the resolution to 1080p and the fidelity settings to lower or medium for playable frame rates, unless you’re playing something ancient or less demanding. The 16GB of RAM also feels limiting on that front and for other demanding non-game software. In fairness, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 isn’t trying to be a gaming laptop, but it is also somewhere between Everyday and Enthusiast as far as our rankings go.

The Snapdragon X Elite processor has 12 cores and boosts up to 4GHz, but the main selling point is the integrated NPU. Admittedly, I did have some benchmarking issues. Cinebench refused to run any tests, which wasn’t the best start. Geekbench and Novabench tests did work, though with varying results.

In terms of what impressed, the Snapdragon X Elite processor scored a bronze medal in the Geekbench single-core tests against recent Intel and AMD laptops we’ve reviewed, and it also made it into the top five for Geekbench multi-core scores. The lack of a dedicated GPU, though, saw it unsurprisingly pushed to the bottom of the pack for Geekbench GPU tests, behind the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x but comfortably ahead of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Copilot Plus, both of which sport Snapdragon X Elite processors.

In Novabench, though, the Inspiron 14 Plus was close to last, again behind the Yoga Slim but ahead of the Surface Laptop. Geekbench AI is seemingly capable of testing NPUs nowadays—which wasn’t the case when I was testing the Alienware M16 R2 and Asus Zenbook S16—but its results were comfortably behind the equivalent tests for the Intel Core Ultra 7-powered HP Omnibook Ultra Flip 14.

Battery life is one of the big selling points of the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441, with Dell claiming up to 21 hours of local video playback. Reportedly, that’s with the 400 nits display dimmed to 150 nits. For our tests, we disconnect the power and use default battery settings to stream a 1080p YouTube video. The Inspiron 14 Plus hit a whisker over 11 hours in that test, which is the lowest of the non-gaming laptops I’ve tested lately, comfortably behind the Asus Zenbook S16 and the HP Omnibook Ultra Flip 14. Recharging times are impressive, though, with around 90% battery in the first hour with the screen on, and a 99% charge after an hour and 14 minutes.

If you’re unafraid of being an early tech adopter, there’s a lot to like about the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441. It’s competitively priced, lightweight and offers decent performance for anyone seeking something that leans more towards everyday computing than high-end functionality. Still, if you were hoping for a Snapdragon X Elite laptop that’d cut down the entrenched AMD/Intel duopoly, you’re better off waiting for what comes next.