If you’re looking for a premium laptop, the Dell XPS 15 and the MacBook Pro 14 are two of the best options available in the market. If you want a Windows laptop, you should definitely get the Dell XPS 15, but if you are already invested in Apple’s ecosystem, the MacBook Pro 14 is the obvious pick. However, if you don’t really have an OS preference, which of these two is better? We compare them below, taking their design, performance, battery life, and other features into consideration.
Dell XPS 15 vs MacBook Pro 14 Comparison Chart
Design
The Dell XPS 15 and MacBook Pro 14 are on par when it comes to build and display quality, but the latter is more portable.
Both laptops have an excellent build, as you would expect of laptops at their price point. The Dell XPS 15 has a machined aluminum chassis with carbon and glass fiber in the keyboard deck. Similarly, the MacBook Pro 14 uses machined aluminum in its design. Both of them look good, and it’s a matter of preference as to which one looks better. One thing to note, though, is that the Dell XPS 15 has rounded off edges while the MacBook Pro 14 has a boxier build with sharper edges. Overall, both have a modern and elegant design that will please a lot of people.
When it comes to size, the Dell XPS 15 is larger due to having a bigger 15.6-inch screen. It measures 9.06 x 13.56 x 0.73 inches and it weighs up to 4.62lbs (depending on the display/model that you go with). Compared to that, the MacBook Pro 14’s physical dimensions are 8.71 x 12.31 x 0.61 inches and it weighs only 3.5lbs. In the portability department, the MacBook Pro 14 is definitely the winner as it is smaller, thinner and lighter. That said, the Dell XPS 15 also portable enough given that it has a 15.6-inch display.
Display
The Dell XPS 15 has three display options available. There’s a 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1200 non-touchscreen option, a 15.6-inch, 3456 x 2160, OLED, touchscreen and a 15.6-inch, 3840 x 2400, touchscreen as well. The OLED option is the best out of the three as it can display more accurate colors, it has an excellent contrast ratio and it’s nice to look at. However, it’s also the most battery hungry.
As for the MacBook Pro 14, there’s only one display option, a non-touch 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR with a resolution of 3024 x 1964. The screens on Apple devices are quite good, and it’s no different here. It has accurate colors, great contrast and excellent brightness. This display competes with the Dell XPS 15’s OLED screen option.
Ports
Having more ports is important for versatility, and the two laptops excel in this area. The Dell XPS 15 has a single USB-C 3.2 port with DisplayPort and PowerDelivery, a combo 3.5mm jack, two Thunderbolt USB Type-C with DisplayPort and PowerDelivery, and an SD card reader. Meanwhile, the MacBook Pro 14 has three Thunderbolt USB Type-C ports, an HDMI 2.0 port, a card reader and a 3.5mm jack.
Performance
The MacBook Pro 14 offers performance than the Dell XPS 15 in everything except for gaming.
Right off the bat, the MacBook Pro 14 will outperform the Dell XPS 15 in almost every task, except for gaming. The M1 Pro and M1 Max chips offer excellent performance when it comes to content creation, video editing and other demanding workloads. They are about twice as fast as the Intel i7 variant when transcoding video files, for instance.
For productivity, the two will perform flawlessly, but again, with the advantage going to the MacBook Pro 14. That said, the advantage here is not that big as productivity tasks are not that demanding.
Gaming is where the Dell XPS 15 outperforms the MacBook Pro 14. The dedicated NVIDIA 3050 and 3050 Ti cards, as well as the integrated Intel graphics, will run games better than Apple’s GPU. In addition to this, majority of games are optimized for Windows, so the Dell XPS 15 has an advantage there. There aren’t that many games that are ported over to MacOS, and those that do get ports will run worse on their hardware despite their power simply because they aren’t optimized.
Battery Life
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 will last longer than the Dell XPS 15.
When it comes to battery life, the MacBook Pro 14 trumps the Dell XPS 15 by a significant margin. Even though the MacBook Pro 14 has a smaller 70Wh battery capacity, the more efficient Apple M1 Pro and Max chips allow it to run for a longer period, about twice as long as the Dell XPS 15 with the same settings.
The MacBook Pro 14 can last up to a little over 14 hours when browsing the web continuously at moderate brightness setting. In contrast, the Dell XPS 15 lasted a little under seven hours using the same test and setting.
Verdict
The MacBook Pro 14 is better than the Dell XPS 15 in almost every major category, except for gaming performance.
Dell XPS 15
Best for casual gaming
MacBook Pro 14
Best for more demanding workloads
If you don’t have an OS preference, the Apple MacBook Pro 14 is the better overall laptop to get as it outshines the Dell XPS 15 in almost every way. It offers better performance, portability and battery life. Its display is also excellent and accurate, which is great for creators. The Dell XPS 15, on the other hand, excels in gaming since it runs on Windows and having a dedicated GPU ups its performance there.
FAQs
Yes, if you are looking for a premium Windows laptop, the Dell XPS 15 is one of the best options available.
No, it does not have a touchscreen.
It has a battery life of around 6-8 hours, depending on what you are doing.
It depends on your needs, but the MacBook Pro 14 offers excellent performance and battery life due to the M1 Pro and Max chips.