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Date added: 10/24/2011 PcWorld -Dell XPS 14z laptop (preview)

Dell's XPS laptop line up will expand on 15 November, which is the date when the XPS 14z will be released here in Australia. The 14z is based on the same basic design as the XPS 15z, except that it's smaller and feels a little better to use (based on our brief encounter with it yesterday). It will be available either with an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 full voltage CPU, up to 8GB of RAM and storage options will include a 256GB solid state drive in addition to 7200rpm hard drives.

The 14z looks a lot like the 15z, but it has narrower speakers either side of the keyboard and the screen's bezel is very thin. Dell says it's a 14in screen that's been crammed into a case designed for a 13in laptop — it's 335mm wide and 234mm deep. Nevertheless, it still has a native resolution of 1366x768 (the same as a 13in laptop) and there is a black border between the screen and the bezel. This is similar to what we saw in the Acer TravelMate 8481G.

The thickness of the 14z is around 25mm and it has a reported starting weight of 1.98kg. It feels very well built thanks to its one-piece anodised aluminium chassis and magnesium alloy palm rest — there was barely any noticeable movement in the chassis when we tried to bend it.

The chassis has enough room for a slot-loading DVD burner as well as two USB ports (one is USB 3.0 capable), Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 1.4, Mini DisplayPort and microphone and headphone ports. In an Adamo-like design, all but the audio ports are located at the rear of the chassis, which helps keep a neat desk, but which can be inconvenient for plugging in USB sticks, for example. The audio ports reside on the left side with the SD card slot.

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