Dell has added two new mainstream laptops to its line-up: the Dell 14S and Dell 16S. These sit below the premium XPS family, but the spec sheet is clearly aimed at people who want a clean productivity machine with modern AI hardware, OLED screen options and strong everyday connectivity.
For Malaysian buyers, this is the kind of laptop category that matters more than the ultra-expensive halo stuff. Not everyone needs a gaming monster or a creator workstation. A lot of students, office workers, freelancers and business users just want something portable, fast, and tahan for daily work — Chrome tabs, Canva, Excel, Teams calls, light editing, maybe some casual gaming after hours.
The Dell 14S is the smaller model, measuring 313.7 x 224 x 15.4 mm and weighing between 1.49 kg and 1.54 kg depending on the configuration. That puts it in the “bring to class, cafe or office bag” zone. It can be configured up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H, with up to 32 GB LPDDR5X memory and a 14-inch FHD+ OLED touchscreen.
One interesting configuration uses the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H. Compared with the lower setup, this version gets a few meaningful upgrades: Intel Arc graphics instead of standard Intel Graphics, 32 GB LPDDR5X memory, and a 1 TB PCIe NVMe SSD. Dell also changes the colour from Frost Blue to Celestial Blue and swaps in a touch-enabled FHD+ OLED panel. The catch? That higher-end model goes up to US$2,169 — roughly RM10k-class before local taxes, shipping and official Malaysia pricing adjustments.
The Dell 16S follows a similar idea but stretches it into a larger 16-inch body. It measures 356.8 x 251.4 x 15.4 mm, with weight between 1.79 kg and 1.86 kg. That extra screen space should appeal to users who work with spreadsheets, multiple browser windows, coding layouts or creative timelines. Dell also offers optional 2.8K OLED touch display variants, which sounds like the sweet spot if you care about sharper visuals and better colour.
Both models share a solid port and wireless setup. You get two Thunderbolt 4 ports with DisplayPort 2.1 and Power Delivery, HDMI 2.1, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth, a 70 Wh battery and a 65 W USB-C charger. Honestly, keeping USB-A alongside Thunderbolt is a good move for SEA users — plenty of us still plug in older mice, thumb drives, capture cards and random office peripherals.
Dell is also pushing the AI PC angle here. Both laptops include Copilot+ AI features powered through Intel’s onboard NPU hardware. Whether that matters to you right now depends on your workflow, but it does make these machines more future-ready as Windows AI tools become more common.
Base configurations start at US$1,319, or roughly RM6k-class before Malaysia-specific pricing. That entry model includes an Intel Core Ultra 5 322 six-core processor, 16 GB RAM, a 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD and an FHD+ touch display.
The main takeaway: the Dell 14S and 16S are not gaming laptops, and the higher-end pricing can climb fast. But for productivity users who want a premium-feeling mid-range machine without jumping into XPS territory, these could be worth watching — especially if Dell Malaysia brings in sensible configurations instead of only the pricey OLED-heavy ones.
Source: TechPowerUp