Dell's first Snapdragon-powered Windows laptop arrives at just $500

Shawn Knight

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In a nutshell: Dell has launched its first Snapdragon-powered laptop, and it is priced under $500. The new Inspiron 14 is a Windows 11-powered machine sporting a 14.0-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,080) anti-glare LED screen (non-touch). On the inside is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 Compute Platform alongside Adreno 690 graphics, 8GB of LPDDR4x memory and a 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.

Expansion ports include two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type C ports, a USB 2.0 Type A port and a headset jack as well as a micro-SD card reader. A standard 1080p webcam sits atop the display and is flanked by dual microphones. Connectivity-wise, you get dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 support.

A two-cell, 40Wh battery can reportedly provide up to 16 hours of local HD video playback. Thanks to the Snapdragon chip and the SSD, buyers will also enjoy a noiseless experience.

Dell's Inspiron 14 measures 0.75 inches (18.99mm) at its thickest point, is 12.74 inches wide (323.67mm) and 8.65 inches deep (219.76mm), and weighs 3.18 pounds (1.44kg). It only comes in one color – silver – and the keyboard is not backlit.

The machine is offered in just one Snapdragon configuration (with the specs listed above) and carries a price tag of $499.99. According to Dell's online store, orders placed today should arrive by March 23.

If you are not sold on the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 (which was first announced in September 2020 and has since been succeeded by the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3), there are traditional x86 options to choose from for the Inspiron 14. A model with a Ryzen 7 5825U processor and Radeon graphics from AMD is also available, as is a configuration sporting an Intel Core i7-1255U chip with Irix Xe graphics. Both the AMD and Intel systems include twice as much memory (with higher frequencies, too) and double the SSD storage space but will set you back a bit more.

The AMD system commands $579.99 while the Intel setup goes for $649.99, and both can be delivered this week.

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This is interesting. I wonder how does its battery life compare to apple M2? They really need a touchscreen 2n1 version though. I want better battery life in my laptop more than anything, but I won't buy a non-touch laptop.
 
For $500 that is a pretty weak offering. So its running Windows for ARM? Pretty much nothing significant has been ported to that version, last I heard.
 
That's because you're uninformed.
Most windows software has not been ported to ARM. Sorry to burst your bubble.
8GB RAM? I should hope that's upgradable... otherwise this machine is going to be struggling to do things in a hurry.
LPDDR4X, non upgradeable.
For $500 that is a pretty weak offering. So its running Windows for ARM? Pretty much nothing significant has been ported to that version, last I heard.
I want to know why they keep making these things so weak. Where are the 16 or 32GB versions? Why would you debut this now when the gen 3 is right around the corner? Why is nobody trying to make a legitimate 15-28W ARM chip to rival apple's M series?
 
Most windows software has not been ported to ARM. Sorry to burst your bubble.
LPDDR4X, non upgradeable.
I want to know why they keep making these things so weak. Where are the 16 or 32GB versions? Why would you debut this now when the gen 3 is right around the corner? Why is nobody trying to make a legitimate 15-28W ARM chip to rival apple's M series?
I agree about most Windows software doesn't run on ARM, but the same can be said about Mac's with ARM processors, as well as the 8GB non-expandable RAM (with a $200 upgrade!) and fixed SSD storage. However most people buying these machines use them more like a Chromebook and $500 beats what Apple charges. Personally neither is a good value for me if I'm going to buy a hobbled machine I would just get a cheap Windows laptop where at least I have options to use for other things in the future. Plus neither has a cellular modem which would at least be useful for commercial users.
 
For $500 that is a pretty weak offering. So its running Windows for ARM? Pretty much nothing significant has been ported to that version, last I heard.
Edge and Firefox has native 64 bit Windows arm version.
Microsoft office, excluding Visio and Project, has beta version for it
But I'd rather pay $80 extra for the ryzen 16GB one
 
The Ryzen configuration is actually only $549 on Dell's site right now. With twice the RAM and twice the storage, that alone is worth the extra $50. Then you have a decent CPU that can run all Windows software. Why would anyone buy the ARM variant?

Edit: The Ryzen version also has a backlit keyboard and can output to two external displays. Though I can't understand why the HDMI port is limited to 1920x1080@60Hz.
 
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The Ryzen configuration is actually only $549 on Dell's site right now. With twice the RAM and twice the storage, that alone is worth the extra $50. Then you have a decent CPU that can run all Windows software. Why would anyone buy the ARM variant?

Edit: The Ryzen version also has a backlit keyboard and can output to two external displays. Though I can't understand why the HDMI port is limited to 1920x1080@60Hz.
Because Dell. Same company that sells the latitude 3330 with only an 8GB option, and the 5330 with only 8 or 16GB when the 5320 had 32GB.
 
Windows 11 running on an ARM CPU? Yeah, I'll wait for the independent benchmarks because I have a sneaking suspicion that it's going to be a real slug. I'd probably get similar performance from my old A8-3500M craptop! :laughing:
 
I agree about most Windows software doesn't run on ARM, but the same can be said about Mac's with ARM processors, as well as the 8GB non-expandable RAM (with a $200 upgrade!) and fixed SSD storage. However most people buying these machines use them more like a Chromebook and $500 beats what Apple charges. Personally neither is a good value for me if I'm going to buy a hobbled machine I would just get a cheap Windows laptop where at least I have options to use for other things in the future. Plus neither has a cellular modem which would at least be useful for commercial users.

Actually nearly all windows software works on arm now, the newest version of ARM for windows now supports X64 apps on ARM. Before it used to only be the x86 (32bit) apps.

Same with the M1 Macbook, nearly everything works. Granted it needs to be 64bit. Mac OS killed support for 32bit apps a few releases ago, even on intel macs. I've never had a issue with support on my M1 Macbook Air. Granted everything is not native Arm, but the X86-64 stuff runs just fine.
 
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