Dell's new 14-inch laptop clearly takes aim at the MacBook Neo — but I'm worried about the price

Dell has unveiled a new 14-inch laptop at IFA 2026 The Dell 14S is aimed at students and comes in vibrant colors like the MacBook Neo Dell has yet to reveal the price tag, which is a crucial missing piece of info with a wallet-friendly laptop like this Dell has revealed a new 14-inch laptop over at

<![CDATA[ <article> <ul><li><strong>Dell has unveiled a new 14-inch laptop at IFA 2026</strong></li><li><strong>The Dell 14S is aimed at students and comes in vibrant colors like the MacBook Neo</strong></li><li><strong>Dell has yet to reveal the price tag, which is a crucial missing piece of info with a wallet-friendly laptop like this</strong></li></ul><p>Dell has revealed a new 14-inch laptop over at IFA 2026 — and it's clear that this is a Windows 11 take on <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/macbooks/apple-macbook-neo">Apple's MacBook Neo</a> formula.</p><p>The Dell 14S is a smart-looking, compact <a href="https://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/best-laptops-1304361">laptop</a> which is aimed at students, and it comes in a selection of vibrant colors. That includes a rather striking green (velvet green as it's dubbed), as well as a light pink (dusty rose), beige (linen) and light blue (washed denim).</p><p>It'll be no great surprise to learn that the 14S is powered by Intel's Core Series 3 (Wildcat Lake) CPUs, which are performant but affordable chips that do a good job on the power-efficiency front.</p><p>RAM and storage start at 8GB and 256GB, but a higher-tier model offers 16GB and a 512GB or 1TB SSD.</p><p>The pitch is essentially a lesser version of <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows-laptops/dell-announces-the-new-xps-13-as-a-budget-priced-macbook-neo-rival">Dell's XPS 13 for 2026</a>, so you don't get quite the same thinness or lightweight nature (though the 14S is still 13.5mm thin and 1.15kg, so pretty trim).</p><p>The screen on the Dell 14S isn't touch-enabled either — it's a more basic 1920 x 1200 resolution display with a 60Hz refresh rate and 300 nits of brightness (with the XPS 13 you get 120Hz VRR and 500 nits). There is a fancier screen, mind, on the upper-tier model of the Dell 14S, which sharpens the resolution to 2880 x 1800 and gives you 120Hz.</p><p>How much is the Dell 14S? Well, that's really the crucial question when it comes to a MacBook Neo rival like this, and the answer is: we don't know because Dell isn't saying yet.</p><div class="youtube-video" data-nosnippet ><div class="video-aspect-box"><iframe data-lazy-priority="low" data-lazy-src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ZVpHNh5heSs" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div><h2 id="analysis-a-growing-no-price-at-launch-trend">Analysis: a growing no-price-at-launch trend</h2><p>It makes me a bit nervous that no official price is forthcoming with this IFA unveiling, but we have got a hint behind the scenes of how much the Dell 14S might cost. <a href="https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/987839/dell-14s-student-laptop-ifa-2026-price-specs" target="_blank">According to The Verge</a>, Dell reps are saying that this laptop will be "close" to the starting price of the XPS 13 – which is $700 in the US – but "slightly more accessible", which makes sense given the student target market, of course.</p><p>Indeed, based on the spec downgrades, I would hope it's cheaper, but the use of the word 'slightly' suggests that there's not going to be much difference. Although to be fair to Dell, the XPS 13 is level with the MacBook Neo's price tag (since Apple hiked the price from the launch MSRP) over in the US. That said, in other regions, the XPS 13 can be a good bit pricier than the Neo – in the UK currently it's 10% more, and it has been a heftier premium than that in the past. We'll likely see a similar scenario with the Dell 14S.</p><p>What compounds this concern is the RAM crisis, which is really kicking up a gear, and is expected to make hardware more expensive as 2026 continues (and matters are likely to worsen in 2027). Is Dell keeping quiet on the MSRP of the 14S right now because it's expecting further price pressures to exert themselves by the time it comes to this laptop's launch? I don't think we can rule that out.</p><p>Maybe I'm overthinking this, granted, and I like the look of the Dell 14S and the general pitch of this notebook. It just makes me a touch suspicious when we have a product that's built around being wallet-friendly, yet we don't get an MSRP, which, for this category of laptop, is an absolutely key consideration.</p><p>Hopefully my fears will prove unfounded, and it's worth noting that Dell isn't alone at being shy about revealing prices, with manufacturers avoiding pinning a recommended price on their offerings at launch being something of a trend of late (one that was noticeable at Computex). This is a symptom of the RAM crisis, of course, and component inflation on various fronts, all of which is <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/memory/the-ram-crisis-just-hit-a-new-low-heres-my-advice-on-what-to-do-based-on-30-years-of-writing-about-gpus-memory-and-pc-components">predicted to get more severe as this year rolls into next</a>.</p> </article> ]]>