Dell Pro Premium WL7024 Review

Dell has never simply stacked accessories around its computers, and the Pro Premium WL7024 is the most accomplished expression of active noise cancellation in its professional range. It targets the demanding home worker and the mobile manager who spend their days in video meetings, and almost every design decision follows from that brief.

From the outset the WL7024 has the bearing of a high-end consumer headset rather than an austere office peripheral. There is no protruding boom microphone. The lines are restrained, the matt black is elegant and the finish lives up to its premium billing.

The construction combines faux leather, memory foam and plastics. Although it looks fragile, the reported test found it robust and well fitted. At 297 g it remains light for a headset packed with sensors, which is an asset when it is worn for eight hours a day.

On the head, the headband distributes pressure correctly, while the memory-foam pads follow the contour of the ears without clamping, so the hold is good. The semi-aural format quoted by Dell behaves in practice like a genuine circumaural headset that encloses the ear. After two hours of meetings, though, a slight warmth eventually settles under the pads, without ever becoming a nuisance.

The earcups rotate, which makes the headset easy to store flat. It does not fold into an ultra-compact shape and relies instead on the supplied case for travel.

There are dedicated physical buttons for power and pairing, microphone mute, a three-position ANC control and a Microsoft Teams shortcut. The touch surface on the earcup then takes over, handling volume, playback, answering and rejecting calls, the voice assistant and even noise suppression applied to incoming audio.

The connection runs over Bluetooth 5.3 or the supplied USB-C dongle. A sensor built into the headband detects when the headset is removed in order to pause music or mute the microphone. It is clever, occasionally a little too sensitive, but easy to get used to. The charging stand included in the box makes an impression on a desk without being indispensable day to day.

It is worth being direct: the WL7024 was not designed first and foremost for music listeners, and that is audible. The signature is resolutely balanced, almost neutral.

The bass extends correctly but lacks the physical thunder that low-end enthusiasts look for. It stays clean and articulate, never bloated, yet it does not make anything vibrate either. That is a coherent choice for a headset built around the voice, although it will leave some listeners wanting more.

The midrange is where this headset really plays, and it is comfortable there. Voices are pushed forward, clear and natural, which lends credibility to the conference orientation of the product. The overall dynamics are measured and the level of detail is honest without being analytical.

On noise cancellation, the adaptive ANC does its work discreetly. It removes the noise of an open-plan office or an air-conditioning unit efficiently, without creating that sensation of pressure in the ears. Transparency mode lets nearby voices through naturally, which is enough to exchange a few words without taking the headset off, and it offers five transparency levels.

This is where the WL7024 deploys all of its arguments, and it does so with some flair. Its seven microphones, supported by beamforming and AI noise reduction, form the core of the proposition, and the result matches the ambition.

Indoors, in a quiet room, the voice comes through crisp, warm and perfectly intelligible, without the nasal colouration so often heard on boomless headsets. This is probably the area in which the headset most clearly earns its premium positioning.

Outdoors, the reported test found the system effective at isolating speech from wind and traffic, at the cost of slightly audible processing at the ends of sentences. In noisy surroundings the selective capture of the speaker remained impressive: neighbouring conversations were strongly attenuated and the person at the other end heard the speaker's voice above all. Microsoft Teams Open Office certification is also part of the specification.

On the software side Dell plays on two tables. On a computer, Dell Peripheral Manager drives the equaliser, the ANC and transparency modes and the finer settings of the headset, while the Dell Audio mobile application gives simplified access to the same controls from a smartphone.

The interface remains functional rather than seductive, faithful to the brand's utilitarian philosophy: the essentials are there without embellishment, which suits professional use but will look a little austere to anyone used to more playful consumer apps.

Multipoint is one of the strong points of the experience, with up to eight remembered devices and two simultaneous connections. Moving from a laptop to a phone to take a call happens smoothly in most cases, even if a little hesitation appears occasionally when both sources demand the headset's attention at the same time.

Testing found Bluetooth stability solid across the quoted range. LE Audio compatibility is announced through a firmware update. A few over-zealous sensors aside, the package worked with reassuring consistency in the reported use.

On endurance the WL7024 delivers on its promises. Dell quotes up to 80 hours of listening without ANC and 60 hours with active noise cancellation engaged, figures that translate concretely into a full week of intensive work without having to think about a socket. In the reported battery run, around thirty hours of listening and calls with ANC active left 52 per cent remaining, which supports the quoted figures.

A full charge takes less than three hours over USB-C or through the supplied stand, and the fast charge proves a lifesaver: a quarter of an hour plugged in returns up to twelve hours of use, enough to rescue a badly started day. It is difficult to catch the headset out on this front, and it is one of the rare models that is literally forgotten at charging time. Quoted talk time follows the same pattern, at up to 26 hours with ANC engaged and 28 hours with it switched off.