Customers recognize the XPS 16 laptop's exceptional performance, sleek design, and impressive speakers. They appreciate its powerful processor and long battery life, making it suitable for both gaming and professional tasks. However, some users have expressed concerns about the flat keyboard keys and the occasional accidental touchpad clicks.
This summary was generated by AI based on customer reviews.
The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.
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Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Almost Perfect: Just Add Ports and a Better Keyboa
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Posted . Owned for 2 weeks when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is truly a premium laptop—I love it! It’s super lightweight, has a sleek design, and the screen is beautiful. It uses an IPS LED display, which looks amazing, though I would’ve preferred a touchscreen.
The one thing I don’t like is the keyboard. It doesn’t follow the typical standard layout, and it’s missing the number pad on the right side—something I really appreciated on the Lenovo Yoga 9i. If it had that, I’d recommend this model even more.
One of the biggest drawbacks is that it only supports USB Type-C. So if you need regular USB ports or HDMI—for presentations or connecting accessories—you’re out of luck unless you carry an adapter. That could be a dealbreaker for some.
That said, I still love the inclusion of USB-C—it’s fast and modern. The battery life is solid, the performance is smooth, and my absolute favorite thing about this laptop is the hinge. It feels super premium—way better than the one on the Yoga 9i.
Got it? Boom boom!
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Great to work!
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Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The Dell XPS 16 is a great computer for individuals who need a good computer to have several programs that need a lot of memory and good graphics open at the same time. I work with Autocad, photoshop, InDesign and Sketchup open at the same time most of the time and it doesn't crash.
Great value at a great price
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
What a Poor Design Choice
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Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The keyboard is easily among the worst I have ever used. It is phenomenal how a company as big as Dell can think to prioritize aesthetic design over actually usable workspace. The short-sightedness that led to the placement of vents on either side, and the choice to reduce space between the keys, makes for an experience that detracts from the otherwise impressive capabilites of this machine.
This device was only available online, so I was not afforded the opportunity to use it before buying. Having been busy, I have passed the return period, so I will have to resort to selling it myself.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Battery life, Design
Cons mentioned:
Touchpad
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
A sleek and Powerful Laptop with Good battery life
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The Dell XPS 16 9640 is a thin and sturdy 16” laptop that comes packaged in a beautiful black box with the laptop enclosed in a white fabric pocket. All of the materials scream “High End”, yet recyclable, and the unwrapping experience is premium.
The 16” size gives you a full size keyboard so you aren’t cramped. However there is no Number Pad next to the keyboard. The key action feels very positive, they do not have a mushy feeling, and the key travel distance is good for a laptop keyboard. Keys can be backlit, but just one level of lighting is available. Dell has changed the function keys to a back-lit row of touch buttons across the top of the keyboard. The touch panel is made of Gorilla glass with a satin finish just like the palmrest and touchpad area. The “fn” key toggles the function buttons between the usual, mute speaker, volume up, volume down and the actual “F” keys. The function lock on the escape button allows you to keep the “F” keys active for applications that still require “F” keys. There are some things that could be better on the function bar. When mute microphone is enabled, the touch bar shows a small white dot next to the button. However, the mute speaker button does not have an indicator when it is enabled. Now that the delete key and escape keys are touch buttons instead of a physical key, there is no tactile feedback to know you are on the button or have “pressed” a button. The touchpad has haptic feedback so it would have been nice if they included haptic feedback on the function buttons.
The touch-pad and palm rests are one continuous piece of Gorilla glass, so you can’t tell where the touch-pad area starts and stops. This didn’t hinder using the touch-pad since the usable area is so large you can always find the touch-pad. Since the touchpad active area goes all the way to the bottom edge of the laptop, I did have issues when resting my hand on the edge of the laptop when using it. It is very easy to accidentally “click” the touchpad with the side of your hand. Other laptops have come with software to configure the usable area of the touch-pad but this Dell does not. It is using the built in controls of Windows 11 which doesn’t allow for configuring the active area. If you could set the bottom edge of the touchpad to inactive it would fix this problem. I’m assuming, and hopeful, Dell will address this with future updates. The touchpad is very responsive and multi-touch gestures work well. When using the touchpad you think that it is physically clicking meaning the haptic feedback is just that good.
This laptop has the new Intel Core Ultra 7 processor with Intel’s Neural Processing Unit ( NPU ) for AI acceleration. The processor has up to 16 cores and 22 threads, so this is no regular processor. Yet this processor uses less power than previous generations of Intel laptop processors. Therefore, you get a cooler running laptop and longer battery life. Under my use, I estimated the battery life to be between 13-17 hours. The Evo certificate pretty much assures 10 hours minimum using their standards. This XPS model doesn’t have the cooling vents on the bottom of the laptop like the previous XPS models. There is just the vent at the back of the laptop. I found, when running at full load it doesn’t put out as much heat as other laptops in its class.
CONCLUSION: A very powerful, quiet, feature laden laptop with a large SSD Drive, 16 Gb Ram, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 video card for some gaming. The laptop features great battery life and quiet operation. Three Thunderbolt 4 USB-c connections are included for data and charging, along with a 130 watt power supply, a dongle for HDMI and USB-a connections. A Micro SD slot is also included. All in all a very powerful and feature laden laptop packaged in a sharp silver exterior. I would hope Dell will offer some updates to correct some of the oversights I have mentioned. With that said, I would recommend this laptop to a friend.
I would recommend this to a friend
Cons mentioned:
F-key row, Ports
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
A very good, but not quite perfect, laptop.
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Dell has revised their XPS laptops this year to include a new 14 and 16 inch model. This one is the 16.3 inch model, a good size to use as a replacement for a desktop, but perhaps a bit large and heavy to tote around (see the 14 inch option for that). This XPS Evo Edition is fairly powerful, with a new Intel Ultra 7 processor, 16 gigs of RAM, a 1TB SSD drive, and a dedicated NVIDIA RTX 4050 graphics card with 6 gigs of RAM on it’s own. The 16.3 inch screen (NOT a touch screen) is pretty bright and colorful, but unfortunately only a standard non-OLED display with 1920 x 1200 pixels; for the price, I really think a 2K or 4K OLED display should have been included and not be an upcharge. An updated 1080p webcam is on top of the monitor and gives better clarify and light ranges than previous models.
Charging is with a medium-large, 130w brick. There are no lights on the laptop itself to let you know when it’s charging – only a light on the brick itself.
The keyboard isn’t a typical “chicklet” type laptop keyboard. The keys are overall larger, and up against each other with no space in-between them. You’ll either love this or hate it – I’m indifferent about it, as they have a decent amount of give to them. What I don’t like is the entire row of F-keys is now gone, replaced by a smooth, touch-sensitive surface instead. I’m old school… I prefer actual keys. There is a fingerprint reader on the upper-right of the keyboard, that doubles as the power key. The trackpad is now invisible, below the keyboard, along a glassy bottom. You just touch/tap near the middle and it knows what you’re doing. It makes things cleaner looking, but you sometimes have to guess just a bit as to the best place to click, two-finger click, etc. Dual stereo speakers are on each end of the keyboard, with good sound as they face up. There is now a dedicated Microsoft CoPilot key on the keyboard if you want to take a test drive using built-in AI features to create letters, notes, or even images using Artificial Intelligence.
Overall build quality (mostly aluminum) is very good and the Dell feels solid. Port wise, you get three USB-C type ports that are all powered, and one micro-SD card slot, with a headphone jack. No HDMI port or USB-A ports – but a little plastic dongle with one each of these is included – not a fan of this, as I’d rather see these ports on the laptop as it’s very easy to lose dongles. The micro-SD card slot replaces the regular SD card slot on older models, so you’re out of luck if you’re a photographer wanting to plug your camera’s memory card directly into this laptop… you’ll need a card reader now.
I haven’t had this long enough to fully gauge battery life yet, but it does charge reasonably quickly, and has so far lasted me a full day easily, with mixed use. I’ve tried a mix of photo editing, a couple of mild video renders, watching streaming services, and typical office type work, and the processor with the help of the dedicated graphics card hasn’t had any hiccups or issues with anything I’ve tossed at it so far. Depending on what your needs are, I think this setup should handle most mid-range things pretty well. You can order it with more RAM or a beefier graphics card (at an even higher cost of course) if you need more for heavier projects.
Overall I think the XPS Evo 16 is a solid laptop that should suit many people’s needs, but there are some concerns: First is the standard resolution screen, which in my opinion again while it’s good, at this price point should be a 2K or 4K screen, 16 gigs of RAM (I would have liked 24 or 32 gigs at this price point, and lack of a couple of ports - it’s an expensive laptop, and in my opinion, these items should have been beefed up a bit when you are spending this amount of money. The lack of a F-key row may turn some off as well. I’d say keep it on your list of considerations, but when on sale, as my rating is based on “value per price” as it stands at full retail.
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Performance, Speakers
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Great professional laptop, built for longevity.
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This laptop is jammed pack with high range specs and performs exceptionally well. Most impressive is how quiet this laptop is while in use. I used the laptop for various tasks, mostly basic office tasks, but I did stream a live basketball game and use photo editing software to test out its performance. During all tasks, the fan ran extraordinarily little and was barely noticeable when it did run. The laptop and all programs ran quickly and smoothly too. One concern I still have with Dell laptops is the output heat while running under heavier process loads or after long-time usage, and this was not an issue whatsoever with this laptop.
Another feature that surprised me with this laptop was the quality and loudness of the quad-speakers – holy-moly do they really pack a punch! I watched one of the NCAA tournament games on the laptop and the sound quality was excellent. I didn’t even have the sound up halfway and I could hear it clearly throughout the house (single story). One issue I did come across while watching the game was getting the laptop to connect to my smartTV so I could project its screen to the TV. It never did connect, and I have never had this issue before so I will have to do some digging to figure out why.
Out of the box, the laptop is super sleek looking and feels very solid with its aluminum shell. The build and high-performance features provide a premium touch to the laptop. The keyboard is an additional highlight of this laptop with the soft touch keys being of a larger size than most laptops and more typical of a true keyboard, making it wonderfully comfortable to use. The mouse pad is large and very responsive, and I had no touch issues with it while typing. With all the high-end features of this laptop, one thing that was noticeably disappointing was the screen. I was aware that it wasn’t a touch screen, and I really didn’t think it would bother me, but considering all the excellent features of this laptop, it did end up being a bit of a letdown. The quality of the screen is fairly good but definitely not excellent. Coloring is still bright but could be better and sharper if the screen was a higher resolution OLED. The antireflective finish provides a matte-like look to the screen, but if it helps with eyestrain then that is certainly a welcomed feature for a laptop used heavily by a working professional or student.
Other features worth highlighting include: the accuracy of the fingerprint reader (which makes logging in SO easy), the 3 available thunder/ USB-C ports (of which is also used for the charging), the microSD slot and, surprisingly, a headphone/microphone jack. With the transition to USB-C ports still occurring, Dell also includes a small adapter with one USB-A port and an HDMI port. The battery life of the laptop is particularly good as well, and the charges very quickly. I charged the laptop upon receiving it and then worked off it without charging for many days of light use (1-2 hours) and it did very well. Last, there are some AI features available with this laptop which I thought was really cool. I started to dabble with a couple of them and appreciated quick directions provided to make them easy to figure out. The guidance prompts of the laptop were additionally appreciated as that is how I was made aware of the availability of such AI features.
Overall, the performance features and build of this laptop is made for longevity and it would be a great option for heavy use by working professionals or students.
PROs
Speakers sound quality and volume
Performance & build features
Incredibly quiet – nearly zero fan noise
Soft touch, backlit keyboard with large keys
Aluminum shell
Battery life and fast charging
Included adapter with USB-B and HDMI ports
CONs
Screen quality and no touchscreen
No numeric keypad
No privacy shield for camera
Connection issues with Wi-Fi during setup and with smartTV
Required acceptance to lengthy terms and licensing agreements prior to using laptop. (I also found it odd that there is a clause stating that the laptop could not be resold.)
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Speakers
Cons mentioned:
Touchpad
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Computer from the Future is here today!
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Wow! Needed to replace my 2012 17.3 inch Dell laptop and kept trying various models over the years but the screens are too small for this Senior. This Dell XPS 16 16.3" inch laptop Model 9640 Platinum Intel EVO Edition really helps. So many new features like a backlit soft touch, quiet keyboard. The top row actually is off the keyboard and lights up the former keys like Delete, Insert, End, Home, Escape and the volume buttons. Hold down FN and they change to the function keys! Then you can turn off the annoying default startup that happens every time you open and close the lid. Set up a PIN to sign in or magically have it recognize your face when seated in front of the screen. Speedy Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor and a Solid-State Drive with 1 TB and 16 GB memory. NIVIDIA GeoForce RTX 4050 6 GB Graphics which probably means something to a gamer.
Windows 11 Home installed and a free 12 months of McAfee Premium that I removed since I prefer the other name brand. Wireless BE+ Bluetooth and Micro SD card reader. Thunderbolt 4.0. This is another electronic device that comes with no instructions so a first time user may find it confusing. Just getting it out of the damaged cardboard box took a minute then the laptop is inside a plastic shell carton that flips open, so it is well protected from the factory in Vietnam to the USA to OH to CA. Inside the shell with the laptop, you will find the power cord that plugs into the power cube that has a regular 3 prong plug and a dongle that fits one of the 3 USB-C ports to plug in an HDMI or regular USB (for my mouse). It has a touchpad that is not visible but you can guess where it is and move the cursor or click on something, but I always prefer a mouse. Charges fast from any of the USB-C ports and battery lasts a long time but haven't had it long enough to fully test battery life. Speakers on each side of the keyboard. Lots of other settings and adjustments that I can try out as I get used to using it more. Restarts fast after updates. This is not a touch screen like my previous two Dell laptops, so nothing happens if I touch instead of click. Didn't realize how much I use the touch screen options.
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Speakers
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Super Dell XPS 16
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Model: 9640
Platinum
Display
16.3” FHD+ Display with Webcam
Performance
Intel Core Ultra 7 155H Processor
16GB Memory
1TB SSD
NVIDIA GeForce RTC 4050 6GB
Graphics
Software
Windows 11 Home English & French
McAfee Premium (12 months)
Includes
Wireless-BE + Bluetooth.
Micro SD Card Reader
Thunderbolt 4.0
Backlit Keyboard
Fingerprint Reader
Arrived quick and came very well packaged.
The reason I listed all the info on my new Dell XPS 9640, is to be sure you know exactly which laptop I was reviewing. Apparently different configurations of the same laptop can have some slightly different operational attributes.
Great looking laptop, it is heavy at about 4.7 lbs., with casing machined (CNC) aluminum and Gorilla Glass 3.
On the left side of the XPS 16 9640 there is,
1. Two “Thunderbolt 4.0” ports, with Power Delivery and DisplayPort(2). You can connect a Dell Docking Station to the Thunderbolt 4 ports. These are USB (Type-C) ports.
On the right side of the XPS 9640 there is,
1. microSD-card slot v6.0
2. USB 3.2 Gen 2(Type-C) port with DisplayPort.
3. Headphone and speaker port.
There is a supplied dongle USB Type-C to USB Type-A and HDMI adapter.
Set up was fast and easy. A fair number of updates, however running 1G of the internet helped in speeding up the downloads. The XPS 16 9640 is very responsive/quick.
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 155H 3.80 GHz
Installed Ram: 16.0 GB (15.6 GB usable)
System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Edition: Windows 11 Home
Version: 23H2
The graphics are excellent, they’re very vibrant without appearing altered.
The fingerprint reader and the facial recognition work perfectly and are a quick way to log onto the XPS 16 9640.
The Touchpad/keyboard is unique to me. It is a Seamless glass touchpad with haptics. I added a picture.
The audio is great, 10W quad-speakers with lots of great sound.
The Dell XPS 16 9640 came with a program called SupportAssist for Home PCs. The SupportAssist states you can keep your computer running at its best by performing the tests. The test consists of “Get drivers & downloads”, “Scan hardware”, “Clean files” Tune performance”, Optimize network”, and Remove viruses & malware”. I ran the program, and it displayed 2 critical updates.
The two critical Updates, in the Dell SupportAssist program, would not update, after multiple attempts the “Support Assist OS Recovery Tools” updated however the “Intel 2D Imaging /MCU/Visual Sensing Controller Driver for Camera” continued to Fail. Not sure why and if I can’t find a means to get this update to download, I will have to contact Dell. Restarting the XPS 16 did not help.
There is spot to click on, it states “Dell Migrate can help you copy your files and settings to your new PC, and securely erase data from your old one. Go now.” Have not tried it yet, however we have another computer that we will download to the XPS 16 9640.
Whether you’re running spread sheets or watching videos the XPS 9640 is fast, vibrant and has more abilities than I could tell you about at this time.
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Battery life, Fast
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Incredible Premium Laptop
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I got this to replace an old desktop computer that was our main home computer with three internal and two external hard drives. Therefore, it had to have a lot of storage, large memory, and be fast. This laptop met all those requirements. The 1 Terabyte SSD has plenty of storage, I have installed all my programs and moved by very large photo/video collection to the laptop and still have 67% available space. With 16 gig of memory and the i7 processor, it is lighting fast. Programs that used to take a little time to load pop right open on this computer. Battery life is very, very good with a full charge it says 8 hours. I am finding that it is in the 6-8 hour range depending on what you are doing on it.
Setup was typical of any new computer since it came preinstalled with Windows 11. I had some internet hiccups getting it setup and occasionally since. There is no ethernet port on it. Wi-Fi is the only option, so it is 100% wireless (unless someone makes a Thunderbolt (more later) to Ethernet adapter which I haven’t checked on yet). Several times during setup and again, occasionally since then, a box pops up and says that I need an internet connection to do that. But is already connected when this pops up. Not sure if this is Window or the Dell software. It is not a popup that I have seen before on Windows 11, so I am inclined to think it is Dell.
Speakers are located on both sides of the keyboard and the sound is OK, nothing great. I will generally be using external speakers. There are also no USB A ports. The only ports are three Thunderbolt ports (see pics) that I believe are also USB C. It comes with a small adapter that plugs into a Thunderbolt port and has 1 USB A and 1 HDMI. Other than the three ports already mentioned, there is a 3mm audio jack and a MicroSD slot. It is very simple, sleek (thin), and obviously built for the future (see pics). One of the things that makes it so sleek is that there is visually no mouse pad. Most of the area below the keyboard is mousepad. I love this with one exception. Sometimes resting your palms on it causes some unexpected results. Another thing that I love is that there are no air vents at all on the bottom, unlike any other laptop I have ever used. You can sit this on your lap, couch, etc. and it doesn’t get hot. The only vents are in the back and on the sides. Before I start on the negatives, I do want to say that the positives outweigh by far the things I don’t like, and so far I love this laptop.
The thing that I totally dislike about this computer is the cap lock key. It is huge, where most keyboards make this a smaller less obvious key. With it being right under the tab key and bigger than same, I am constantly turning on the cap lock when going for the tab and A keys. Have no clue why such a well-designed laptop would have this design flaw. This is really the only design feature that is flawed. Another issue I am having and again, not sure if Windows or the Dell software, is that it constantly puts itself to sleep when not used for a short time. I have the power settings so that it is never to go to sleep when plugged in and yet it still does. Hopefully I can debug this. The last issue I have with it was mentioned earlier. I was very surprised to find that there was no ethernet port.
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Performance, Speakers
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Dell - XPS
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
As a work from home, streaming, casual gamer who wanted a top of the line laptop, this Dell - XPS 16 16.3” FHD+ Laptop was perfect.Unboxing it the first thing I noticed was the weight. It's not light at 4.5 lbs but it does feel well built with it's platinum colored aluminum shell. When opening the lid you will notice it doesn't have a 10 key number pad but that the actual keyboard has giant keys that are backlit. The touchpad is also not your typical touchpad. It's seamless for a sleek look. The whole palm rest and touchpad are a very smooth glass surface that is very comfortable to use.
As for the performance, The Dell XPS 16 16.3" laptop is a powerhouse that excels not only in gaming but also in professional workloads. Featuring an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 16GB of memory, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card, this laptop delivers exceptional performance across various tasks. During gaming sessions, I tested it with games like Call of Duty and Rainbow Six Siege, experiencing high frame rates even on high graphics settings, thanks to the robust GPU and ample memory. Beyond gaming, the laptop shines in professional applications, effortlessly handling video editing, graphic design, and software development tasks. The 1TB SSD provides ample storage space for large files and projects, ensuring quick access to data and seamless multitasking. Whether you're playing games or tackling intensive work projects, the Dell XPS 16 16.3" laptop offers the processing power, graphics capabilities, and storage capacity to meet the demands of both gaming enthusiasts and professionals alike.
The 16.3" screen produces a great quality picture with bright colors and deep blacks. The infinity edge looks very clean as there is no bezel to interfere with the picture. The anti glare screen is ideal for watching videos and gaming. Also a bonus is the 2 10W quad-speakers on the sides off the keyboard. They produce great quality sound, deep bass, and can be turned up loud without any distortion.
All in all, this Dell - XPS 16 16.3” FHD+ Laptop serves all my needs for a high quality, high speed laptop.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
The Latest and Greatest Computing from Dell
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The XPS 16 look like it is going to become the new face of Dell laptops. With amazing visuals, high end processors, more memory and a larger SSD, you can understand why this line of Dell laptops is top notch in a vast landscape of Laptops. The XPS 16 can also be described as a “laptop-desktop” weighing in around 4.7 lbs. That is pretty hefty and protected in today’s world of feather light on the go laptops. The positive spin is the new XPS 16 is loaded with rich features and benefits to match.
This is a great looking, simplistic and monochromatic (basically all one color) machine. The screen is 16.3” with a thin bezel so you see everything that the laptop has in store for you. The FHD+ non-reflective screen, I think looks better than the specs. The color rich, sharp, detailed with amazing depth should satisfy the pickiest viewer. I know it’s not 4k or OLED, but it sure looks amazing.
The Keyboard is plenty large. The keys are resilient when typing and are just a bit larger than a “regular keyboard.” There seems to be a thin slightly tacky feel on the keys which feels good. The keys that are quiet when typing and is completely backlit. I love that feature. The touchpad is made of glass and is hidden in plain sight. There are no markers where the touchpad is, but it is in the bottom half of the keyboard in the middle. Once you locate it, it feels great to use (in place of a mouse). The entire top line of the keyboard, where the function keys (hidden) can be switched with the alternate set of escape, volume control, etc., is hidden until it is touched. Then it lights up (same light as the keyboard) and is easily seen. There are also two speakers on either side of the keyboard. The sound was surprisingly good without the volume being maxed out.
This is a high-level laptop so how big is the SSD? How about 1 TB! While that is not a lot for gamers it is a lot for documents, pictures, intricate projects, Microsoft Office, some simple games or printing from the SSD. A great feature of the SSD is there are no moving parts. This makes it faster and easier to get information recalled quickly. If you do get a choice between 512GB and 1TB, it is worth it to get 1 TB. I have had computers with both quantities, and I have to say the 1TB frees you up to do so many more things for saving work. The 1TB is almost double of the 512GB so it really is worth the extra effort you could get in your computer.
There are 3 ports for Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. You can use them to charge or run external drives, mouse or a USB Type A Hub with a Type C connection. When transferring information via a Thunderbolt port you can move up to 40Gbps! This makes moving files, especially large ones, transfer quickly saving you time. I had around 600Mbs of music to move from the laptop to a USB Type C drive. Then I dropped the music from the laptop to the USB Type C drive. A lightning-fast transfer, it really surprised me how fast the songs moved. It is great to have Thunderbolt-4 ports! Not all my peripherals were Thunderbolt 4 Type C connections. I connected a Type C hub with four USB Type A 3.0 ports to the XPS 16. I was able to plug in my mouse, printer, game pad and external drive. All four USB 3.0 Type A ports were full, and I still had one Thunderbolt 4 I could add to (the third Thunderbolt 4 port I used for charging the laptop). Everything ran smoothly and worked as it should. The XPS also includes a microSD card reader and “surprise” a 3.5mm jack perfect for connecting headphones.
The heart of the XPS 16 is the new Intel Core Ultra 7 (Evo Edition)! This chip handled all the processing I could throw at it. Whether I was opening high resolution pictures, moving large files, all kinds of multi-tasking with 10 or more tabs open, technologically I also had no trouble. It also used its computing power to play with the most demanding games like Tekken 7, Battlefield 4, Bulletstorm and Riptide 2. I experienced no lag, no tearing, smooth transitions, fantastic graphics and lots of fun. The Ultra 7 ran quietly, stayed cool and I only experienced all day performance.
The NVIDIA GeoForce RTX 4050 is a high-powered graphics card. This graphics card made pictures look outstanding, graphically orientated web pages with no stutter, not mention the high level of games I tested. The NVIDIA GeoForce RTX 4050 is an amazing graphics card for higher powered computing. Plenty of detail, sharpness, color rich website graphics were loaded with no issues. This Card works so well with the processor and 16GBs of memory for an experience to be remembered from a laptop. The 16GBs of memory was plenty for tasks. Working in conjunction with the advanced Ultra 7 processing chip, the 16GBs of memory helped make the XPS 16 run like dream through complicated processing. I made my parents a photo book for their anniversary. Selecting pictures, moving around pictures, placing them in an organized manner, some large and some small, but I had no trouble with all those pictures being blurry or pixilated. Needless to say, the pictures throughout the years in the photo came out great. In addition to the photo book, the games (listed in the paragraph above) really showed how powerful the 16Mbs were. No screen tearing, distortion or lag, just performance on a high level.
The new XPS 16 is powerful, stylish, sturdy, fast and user friendly. With most just about the entire latest and greatest tech available, the XPS 16’s screen is vivid, has one of the fastest Intel chips, plenty of memory, 1 TB SSD and large computer graphics card. This laptop will take you wherever your imagination or creativity wants to go.
I would recommend this to a friend
Cons mentioned:
Touchpad
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly Great Gaming Laptop
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I don’t often equate Dell with gaming laptops (other than the Alienware label) so to say I was skeptical of Dell’s XPS 16 would be an understatement. However I’m really surprised what they’ve achieved here, both in a sense of how powerful it is and how strangely unsatisfying some of the aspects are.
So to start, this is a Windows 11 laptop with 16gb of RAM, 3.8 Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 1tb NVMe Samsung SSD, and topped off with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 laptop graphics. The chassis is recycled aluminum, which is a bonus if you’re trying to be environmentally friendly i suppose. What really caught me off guard was the trackpad, its invisible! Normally your laptop is going to go keyboard down to that wrist rest area with the rectangle of trackpad sucken in a little but on the XPS 16 the trackpad is level and seamlessly blends into the lower portion of your laptop. I found it really attractive and mostly intuitive, although it definitely will take some getting used to as far as where the sides are. The speakers are on the sides next to the keyboard, which is excellent since I feel too many laptops have them pointed down or backwards making the sound harder to hear unless you’re a bystander in the room instead of the user. One more neat thing about the keyboard on this laptop is that instead of having function buttons at the top the Esc, Volume, brightness, home, etc. keys are touch sensitive backlit areas above the keyboard and pressing the Fn key swaps them to your F keys. Again, its a neat and elegant way of refreshing a product everyone is doing a half dozen times a year or more. Dell being stylish and cool is not a sentence I thought I’d have to type ever!
Between the graphics card (or however its attached to the motherboard) and the processor you shouldn’t find too many games which you won’t be able to run (Hell Divers 2, Diablo iV, GTA5 are all good to go) but some of the recent open world games only run on minimum settings: Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, and Cyberpunk to name a few. Photoshop is no problem as well as any 3D design programs you might use (I tested on SolidWorks). And so it should go without saying that photo editing, school or work tasks, and entertainment viewing will all be a no sweat task on this beast! And speaking of entertainment, the speakers on this laptop are incredible! You can really get a LOUD volume with this system, and although the higher volume levels watching action seemed to be a little distorted or tinny its the best speakers I’ve heard from a laptop in a long time, arguably better than my Alienware laptop.
Some minor gripes to take into consideration is that for some reason I can’t explain, the keyboard feels cramped to me. I keep having trouble finding the home row to type and the texture or flat levelness of the keys makes it a little harder than most keyboards for me to know which key I’ve moved to resulting in more spelling errors. Its not a super big deal and it may work itself out over time with the laptop but it's worth mentioning. I wasn’t super impressed with the battery life, it seemed like you could probably tune it to last longer with less brightness and only use it for emails or typing but that’s not why you get a laptop with this much power inside. It seems like if you were to run it from 100% to dead you’d probably get about 7-8 hours. Clearly your mileage will vary and it's really about what you value vs. what you’ll sacrifice but this isn’t going to go a full school or work day without a charge.
Highly recommend this laptop if its in your shortlist of options. Short of going all the way into Alienware, this is the best performing laptop you’ll find and the sound is amazing. Even though the keyboard feels weirdly foreign in how many mistakes, the hidden trackpad and the solid battery more than make up for it.
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Fast
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Excellent and fast workhorse
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
At just under 5 lbs. this is a formidable laptop with a beautiful 16.3” anti-glare screen.
Tip – the Power Button is to the right of Backspace and is not labeled.
Setup is easy and just takes about 15 minutes before the laptop is usable. Allow about another hour for the windows updates and multiple restarts. Four updates remained on “Retry” but then were absent the next day. Not sure if they actually updated or not. Then you can customize for your use and preferences. Facial recognition is a breeze to setup.
Thunderbolt 4.0 ports are very fast and support two 4K or one 8K display. Backwards compatible and can connect to a docking station. There are 2 display ports on the left side, one for the charger. On the right side there is a headphone/speaker port, Thunderbolt 4.0 port and a Micro SD card reader. A dongle with 1 USB Type-C to USB Type-A and HDMI adapter is included. No DVD drive is included but you can purchase an external DVD drive for use with multiple computers.
I miss a keypad. The keyboard has large keys and a seamless glass touchpad. I wish the keys were closer to the front for my smaller hands. In reality, I rarely use the touchpad as I prefer a mouse. The touchpad was responsive. The keyboard is also backlit which is very helpful.
It is fast. After I installed various software and loaded up the laptop, it was much faster than the last laptop I was using. The Intel Core Ultra 7 is fast with only 16GB of RAM. I may upgrade to 32GB in the future but 16GB held up. I did try gaming but I don’t play some of the more resource heavy games so it worked fine for me. If you game you may want 32GB. The graphics card preformed excellent.
Speakers are very good quality for a laptop and actually loud.
Very happy with this laptop. A larger screen is much appreciated.
TIP - If you have an old school user you can purchase software to make an old time Windows 7 start up menu. My husband needs this but I switch back and forth.
I would recommend this to a friend
Cons mentioned:
No dedicated number pad
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Not the best from XPS
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Dell XPS are normally top of the line on the consumer side. Usually with higher end cases, screens and features. This is more along the lines of a latitude.
Out of the box this is a good looking laptop. It’s 16 inches so do not expect lightweight. There is no clear power button. But it is the button on the top right with no label. This is windows 11. As far as I can tell so is very similar to 10 but with windows AI built in. If you have other Dell/windows computers you can migrate all
Of your data from a previous computer to this computer. You decide if you want all new of more of a clone.
Several things you may notice that this does not have from a higher end laptop. There is no backlit keyboard. This is a pretty standard feature this does not have. If you buy a larger laptop for the 10 key, this does not have it. There is also no indicator where the built in trackpad is. It’s in the middle. It takes some getting accustomed to. Also what wound have been a function key for your brightness and sound are embedded. The camera is at the top of the screen and has really good quality. 1080p is the default video quality.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Dell’s Courageous Leap Forward – Bravo!
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
“And now for something completely different…”
Dell has stepped directly into a New Age with their latest release of the 2024 Family of Dell XPS Laptops, they are Brilliant, a Technological Work of Art in gorgeous metal case of Minimalism design.
When the Dell XPS 16 arrived, the packaging at once gave the impression that something extraordinary at arrived at my home. I was happily correct when I opened the box and first powered up the XPS 16, it was like no other laptop, or PC for that matter that I have had the pleasure of on my desk.
The Dell XPS 16 9640 that I am sitting in front of is distinctive in design with cutting-edge technology aimed at power users; Dell has moved the laptop forward amazingly.
- Function keys and related task keys (audio settings, display settings…) are now a capacitive row embedded into the computer face above the keyboard. It is a “why didn’t I think of that moment!” Dell – this is cool.
- Keyboard comes with a built-in Co-Pilot Key. Convenient key addition. Built-in Palm-rest.
- “3x Thunderbolt 4 (USB C) with display port 2.1(dongle) and power support”
- Does not include USB ports prior to USB-C, HDMI, or DisplayPort.
- “USB Type-C to USB Type-A and HDMI adapter.”
- “MicroSDXC v6.0 UHS-I/UHS-II card reader”
- Remarkable battery life.
- Great sound with the with the quad speaker design.
- Seamless glass touchpad – Best Touchpad I have laid my finger on.
Key Specs:
- “Intel® Core Ultra 7 155H processor with built-in AI” (24MB Cache, 16 cores, up to 4.8 GHz)”
- Memory “16GB, LPDDR5X, 6400MT/s.” Upgradable to 64GB - Easy to upgrade.
- 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 6gb GDDR6
- Weighs in right at 5lbs
- Metal case – no chassis flex
- Wi-Fi 7 “Intel® Killer™ Wi-Fi 7 1750 (BE200) 2x2 + Bluetooth 5.4 Wireless Card” You are going to want this when, or if you have a Wi-Fi 7 router! The Wi-Fi is fantastically fast, nothing today comes close over the air. Try it, you will like it.
“Hello!” Dell has the Microsoft Hello system perfected in the Dell XPS 16, superior to any other adaptations of the Hello system in my computers, aside from the Dell monitor Sitting in front of me. Both the Facial and Fingerprint devices work flawlessly. That in my experience is worth its weight in gold.
Though not designed as a gaming platform it pushes the graphic intensive Civilization 6 very nicely. Being a fan of CIV 6 I like the setup, what is nice as it will play the game in high graphics settings without requiring 300w of power and heavy-duty cooling. Good to kick back on the couch and play a game sans the roar of beefy fan systems.
Dell Safe Bios can be a blessing for IT departments in corporate and small to mid-range businesses or projects. Besides superb BIOS protection there is the added feature for Networks:
- “Dell SafeBIOS alerts IT departments of any changes to the BIOS configuration and helps them respond to shut down the attack."
This is close to home for me as corporate Director of IT.
Deserves a full mention, that Dell includes a complete 112 Page English Tech/Owner Manual for the Dell XPS 16 9640. Appreciate thorough well-prepared documentation with all my devices.
They say the proof is in the pudding, in our home we sport 4 Dell laptops, two current Alien gaming rigs, one XPS as well as an Inspiron. Additionally, we have one Inspiron AIO, and last but not least a Dell XPS 8300-5215NBK desktop purchased in 2012 and still in service for accounting/archiving in our home under my wife’s desk.
The XPS 16 is intense in speed with brilliant graphics, components are well-appointed throughout the system. The Dell XPS 16 has simply in a few days replaced my long-term workhorse laptop, the XPS is a solid build.
Dells have served and are still serving us well, and the addition of the new Dell XPS 16 9640 is most welcomed.
I would recommend this to a friend
Pros mentioned:
Performance
Cons mentioned:
Touchpad
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
New laptop
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Posted . Owned for 3 weeks when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I recently purchased this laptop to replace one that was at the end of life, so to speak. So far, this laptop’s working great. The slightest complaint I may have is the keyboard narrower than I’m used to and is taking time to adjust to. Overall, an excellent laptop.
I would recommend this to a friend
Cons mentioned:
Touchpad
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Almost 5 stars! ⭐️
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Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This laptop is pretty amazing and does everything I need it to. Great camera quality.
I would have given it 5 stars if not for the keyboard. The keyboard does not have raised buttons. I often mistype because it’s just not spaced like a traditional keyboard.
I can hook up a blue tooth keyboard to combat this issue. So it’s not a huge deal. I wouldn’t let the keyboard stop me from buying this laptop.
I would recommend this to a friend
Cons mentioned:
Touchpad
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Definitely worth the money!
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Posted . Owned for 3 weeks when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The computer is very powerful, the screen is bright, the speakers are alright, the charging is fast and it lasts a while. My only complaint is the keyboard. The keys are completely flat and it makes them hard to type with.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
The All-in-one type of laptop
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is my 2nd XPS laptop and I'm loving it. Not only has the power to deliver all the entertainment for personal use but also it's a great tool for productivity at work. Large screen, good cooling system, and muscle under the hood are the perfect combination for the most adventurous person.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Good laptop
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Posted . Owned for 1 month when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Good laptop for professional use. Very large the screen