Dell XPS 16 Review: Beautiful, Polarizing Full-Featured Laptop

Dell XPS 16 (2024): Starting @ $1,699, $3,399 As Tested The Dell XPS 16 is a premium laptop with a polarizing design that is well suited to many uses cases, but its price point could give some consumers pause.
Gorgeous But Polarizing Design Large, Stunning OLED Panel Solid Battery Life Discrete GPU Delivers Gaming And Creation Power	Some Won’t Like Invisible Touchpad Price Premium

A sleek CNC aluminum chassis paired with tough Gorilla Glass, a gorgeous OLED display, powerful speakers and a strong CPU and GPU – there’s no question that the Dell XPS 16 is a premium machine. But what exactly does that mean for consumers? It’s simple; think of Dell’s latest flagship as the fanciest of Swiss Army knife laptops in the 16-inch category. It’s capable of doing a lot of things, many of them pretty well.

Armed with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, the laptop is more than capable of handling plenty of productivity tasks. Gamers and creators will appreciate the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, which falls in line with the whole theme of this machine of straddling the mid-range in performance. And when it comes to displays, bigger is definitely better, especially when the 16.3-inch panel in question is a color-rich OLED touch display. Honestly, I prefer a 15.6-inch system as that form factor consistently gives me reasonable portability without sacrificing too much power. But with the Dell XPS 15 being put out to pasture, this 16-inch notebook could be the next best thing.

So that’s where we are. A newbie, packed with features and promise, stepping into some big shoes of the departing XPS 15. Let’s see how the Dell XPS 16 does on its debut, starting with the specs.

Dell XPS 16 Features And Specifications

Dell has always been big on SKU variety, and nothing’s changed with the XPS 16. The company offers three processors to choose from Intel’s new 14th Gen Meteor Lake line. First, you have the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and Intel Core Ultra 7 165H CPUs which have a 28W TDP. And if you want a bump in power there’s the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor with 45W TDP.

And while you wouldn’t necessarily associate the XPS line with gaming, the XPS 16 can absolutely scratch that itch. In addition to its integrated Intel Arc graphics, the notebook can be configured with one of three NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs –– the 4050, 4060 and 4070. The RTX 4050 offers 6GB of video memory while the 4060 and 4070 both have 8GB, respectively. The 4070’s wattage sits somewhere in the middle of the range (35 - 115W) at 60W, with no turbo boost to speak of.

I might be in the minority, but when it comes to premium laptops, I prioritize horsepower over efficiency. To that end, I really wish Dell would pull the trigger and squeeze an RTX 4080 option into its larger XPS laptops.

Dell XPS 16 Features and Build Quality

The Dell XPS 16 is pretty and polished. And depending on how you felt about the Dell's XPS 13 Plus design, it could also be polarizing. Just like the original 13 Plus, Dell made the XPS 16’s touchpad and tactile top Function keys disappear. The touchpad has melded into the palm rest, creating a seamless Gorilla Glass 3 matte gray surface that’s smooth and cool to the touch. The keyboard is ensconced in the glass deck, leaving just enough room up top to interact with the backlit capacitive touch function row keys. If you press the Fn and Esc keys simultaneously, the keys switch over to media control.

Of the two design choices, I’ve found that people are more chuffed about the invisible touchpad. Sure, it can be visually jarring, but who’s really looking down at the palm rest to find the touchpad. Once you get over this visual hang-up, you’ll find it’s like any other touchpad – quick and responsive.

As for the lid and the rest of the XPS 16’s chassis, it’s made from CNC machined aluminum. Our review unit’s body is a silvery color Dell calls Platinum. The matte, slightly pearlescent finish is completed by the glossy Dell logo stamped in the middle. And despite my constant need to touch it, the metal rejected any and all attempts to smudge the lid. While I’m a fan of light-colored Dells, if you prefer a darker colorway, the laptop is also available in Graphite.

All that metal and glass makes for a solidly built laptop without a hint of flex. Measuring 14.1 x 9.4 x 0.74 inches, the XPS 16 has a starting weight of 4.7 pounds which gets you the FHD+ display. The OLED panel adds a scooch more weight at 4.8 pounds.

Speaking of displays, again Dell comes through with the options. For the XPS 16 and its 16.3-inch InfinityEdge panels, you can either go with the 1920 x 1200 non-touch display or the super high-res 3840 x 2400 OLED touch panel which our review unit has. All those pixels make for sharper details whether you’re watching a video, playing a game or working through some spreadsheets. The panel has a max refresh rate of 90Hz which is okay for gaming, although we’d prefer at least 120Hz.

We've watched a few movies, including the beautifully lit Tyler Perry flick “Mea Culpa.” We chose to ignore the stilted dialogue and swiss-cheese plot in favor of the luscious reds, blues and golds of the myriad of outfits, not to mention how well actors Kelly Rowland and Trevante Rhodes' beautiful bronze skin looked covered in paint. The new XPS 16 definitely lives up to its display's 100% DCI-P3 rating. The display is also plenty bright. After adjusting the brightness to 100% and switching to a pure white background, I measured display brightness in the corner and center of the display for an average of 670.4 lux. If I have one complaint about the panel, it’s that Dell doesn’t bundle a stylus with the XPS 16. That means if you want to interact with the screen, you're going to muss the screen with unsightly fingerprints.

Seated at the top of the display, in a relatively tiny bezel is a 1080p, Windows Hello-compliant webcam with a dual-mic digital array. And while we’re on the topic of security, you’ll find a fingerprint reader embedded in the power button in the top-right corner of the keyboard. The laptop also features TPM 2.0 for added security.

The XPS 16 has a full-size, zero lattice keyboard nestled between a pair of speaker grilles with what Dell says is 1-millimeter key travel. I typed the whole of my review on it and my fingers were very comfortable. I never bottomed out and the keys are springy and give just enough noise when typing to give its own version of ASMR. The backlighting is such that it was very easy for me to burn the midnight oil and work with the lights off so as to not disturb my partner while they slept. And now on to the portage. There isn’t much of it, but there’s just enough to make the XPS a viable workstation. But, you’ll definitely want to invest in a dock or  dongle for legacy port support. You’ve got three Thunderbolt 4 ports – two on the left with the remaining on the right. Also on the right side of the laptop is a microSDXC card reader and a combination headphone/microphone jack.

Dell XPS 16 Software Experience

In terms of Windows licensed, third-party software, Dell keeps things pretty light on the pre-installed bloat. For instance, there’s a limited time McAfee security subscription. The most exciting software from Microsoft is Copilot, the company’s AI chatbot that’s gotten an inordinate amount of buzz as of late. It’s even got its own button on the keyboard so you can take it for a spin.

As for Dell, the company did include its usual suite of branded software such as Dell Digital Delivery that downloads any software you ordered with the laptop during the initial purchase. And Dell Update is there to keep your software up to date, aggregating the latest drivers, firmware and tools. The most useful Dell utility hands down is the MyDell console as this is where you can tweak audio, display, power and thermal management, among other operations. You can also check system diagnostics including battery health and direct network traffic via Intel's Killer Intelligence Center. Finally, if something goes wrong with your system, you can launch Dell SupportAssist to troubleshoot on your own, or call in the big guns and contact a Dell tech support agent.

And so with that, let's fire up the new Dell XPS 16 and look at a few performance benchmark data points...

A sleek CNC aluminum chassis paired with tough Gorilla Glass, a gorgeous OLED display, powerful speakers and a strong CPU and GPU – there’s no question that the Dell XPS 16 is a premium machine. But what exactly does that mean for consumers? It’s simple, think of Dell’s latest flagship as the fanciest Swiss Army knife. It’s capable of doing a lot of things, many of them pretty well. 

Armed with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, the laptop is more than capable of handling plenty of productivity tasks. Gamers and creators will appreciate the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU and all its middle-of-the-road performance, which again, falls in line with the whole theme of this machine of straddling the middle. And when it comes to screens, bigger is definitely better especially when the 16.3-inch display in question is color-rich OLED touch display.  Honestly, I prefer a 15.6-inch system as that form factor consistently gives me reasonable portability without sacrificing too much power. And with the XPS 15 being put out to pasture, the 16-inch notebook is the next best thing.

So that’s where we are. A newbie, packed with specs and promise stepping into some big shoes of the departing XPS 15. Let’s see how the Dell XPS 16 does on its debut starting with the specs. 

A sleek CNC aluminum chassis paired with tough Gorilla Glass, a gorgeous OLED display, powerful speakers and a strong CPU and GPU – there’s no question that the Dell XPS 16 is a premium machine. But what exactly does that mean for consumers? It’s simple, think of Dell’s latest flagship as the fanciest Swiss Army knife. It’s capable of doing a lot of things, many of them pretty well. 

Armed with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, the laptop is more than capable of handling plenty of productivity tasks. Gamers and creators will appreciate the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU and all its middle-of-the-road performance, which again, falls in line with the whole theme of this machine of straddling the middle. And when it comes to screens, bigger is definitely better especially when the 16.3-inch display in question is color-rich OLED touch display.  Honestly, I prefer a 15.6-inch system as that form factor consistently gives me reasonable portability without sacrificing too much power. And with the XPS 15 being put out to pasture, the 16-inch notebook is the next best thing.

So that’s where we are. A newbie, packed with specs and promise stepping into some big shoes of the departing XPS 15. Let’s see how the Dell XPS 16 does on its debut starting with the specs.Dell XPS 16 Features and Build Quality