After decades, Dell still offers a massive catalog of consumer laptops, but some models with modern components can quickly become expensive, given the industry's ongoing memory (RAM) shortages.
Thankfully, Best Buy's early Black Friday sale cuts hundreds of dollars off two of Dell's more compact and portable options.
You can grab the 14-inch Dell 14S for $999.99 at Best Buy (was $1,449.99), saving $450 on a productivity-focused laptop, or pick up the more affordable Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 for $799.99 (was $1,299.99) as a flexible convertible 14-inch option for note-taking, sketching, and regular everyday use, with a $500 saving.
Which Dell deal should you buy?
While both laptops offer durable designs, portable 14-inch displays, and dedicated NPUs for local AI features, they're aimed at different users depending on your wants and needs. Before you spend during Black Friday season, it's worth looking into the specs a little deeper.
If you're after a productivity laptop, the Dell 14S (31% off) is better. It comes equipped with a long-lasting battery, an OLED 2K touchscreen with deep contrast, and a modern AMD Ryzen AI 7 445 processor paired with 16GB of RAM to boost multitasking with multiple web browser tabs, creating documents or spreadsheets, video calling, and plenty more.
Otherwise, if you're shopping on a tighter budget or want a Windows laptop that's equally useful for school and everyday use, the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (38% off) is a good fit. It still offers good productivity performance with substantial standby power efficiency thanks to its Intel Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) 256V CPU coupled with 16GB of RAM, a 120Hz 2K touchscreen that makes scrolling and digital sketching with compatible (but sold separately) pens feel seamless, and a solid design so it can pull multiple duties as a notepad, movie viewer, or regular laptop with ease.
Should I wait for Black Friday for a better deal?
Even if you're hesitant to buy before Black Friday, Best Buy's 'Price Match Guarantee' may allow eligible customers to request a refund of the difference if Best Buy lowers its own price during the applicable return window: "If our price goes lower during the holiday season, we’ll match it."
Can you upgrade their RAMs and SSDs?
Both of these laptops have their RAM soldered permanently, so they can't be upgraded. Their default 512GB SSDs, however, can be swapped with larger 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB SSDs to upgrade their storage capacity.
Are they good for gaming?
Neither of these laptops is made for PC gaming because their integrated graphics cards limit their ability to run the most graphically demanding games beyond lighter, casual titles.
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