Our primary overall benchmark, UL’s PCMark 10, puts a system through its paces in productivity apps ranging from web browsing to word processing and spreadsheet work. Its Full System Drive subtest measures a PC’s storage throughput.
Three more tests are CPU-centric or processor-intensive: Maxon’s Cinebench 2024 uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene; Primate Labs’ Geekbench 6.3 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning; and we see how long it takes the video transcoder HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute clip from 4K to 1080p resolution. Finally, workstation maker Puget Systems’ PugetBench for Creators utility rates a PC’s image editing prowess via various automated operations in Adobe Photoshop 25.
The Dell 14 Plus performed well above average in PCMark’s main test, matching the MSI but falling behind the more powerful (Ryzen AI 9) Acer. Its CPU results in Geekbench were also competitive with the MSI, though it lagged noticeably in the longer-running HandBrake test and was far slower than the Arm-based Apple and Asus laptops. These results indicate that while Dell offers sufficient power for everyday tasks, it isn’t a leader in sustained performance.
Dell’s midranger also couldn’t complete some tests. It failed the Cinebench multi-core test (not uncommon for Lunar Lake laptops with 16GB of memory) and encountered a benchmark-related error in Photoshop, neither of which we held against it. Performance-wise, this is a thoroughly middle-of-the-road system: a high-quality laptop for homework, managing bills, and web browsing—but not your go-to video editing machine, for instance.
