Dell XPS 16 Real User Verdict: Beauty or Bust?

Everytime I see a major publication do a glow up review of a new XPS with no serious discussion of temperature or battery life I wonder whether they've actually even used it. For well over a decade the XPS has been a portable hotplate when under load and with a new chip, new chassis, new video card this is the first question any serious buyer wants answered.

Josh nailed it, especially if one considers the larger picture, i.e., what's available that's better and for less. Dell's definitely resting on its laurels, hoping 'form over function' blinds the consumer.

Objectively debatable. Speakers: yes Macbooks have better ones. Screen: OLED > MiniLED (only thing worst is the 90Hz vs 120Hz). CPU: it depends, better than M3 in multi, worse than M3 Pro/Max. GPU: 4070 even at 60W wins. Battery: Macbook is better.

There's a few little things that might add up to a deal-breaker for me. The capacitive function row. I use the delete key a lot when programming, and I'd rather have a physical key for that. I also use the escape button a fair bit. I just noticed that 32GB RAM is a $600 upgrade?!! Edit: Apparently it's $600 if you have the Intel Arc graphics selected, but $200 with the Nvidia options.

I agree with you, the new XPS line is way too expensive laptop, last gen you could find for $1200 in a sale but apparently the new will be far more expensive.

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 is faster with an RTX 4060 than the XPS 16 is with the RTX 4070, for less money. 130 watts TDP vs 80 watts TDP.

The MacBook pro's screen is quite literally worse than even the cheapest OLED panels on the market. Brightness/resolution/glossy does not equal quality. The RTX 4070 is leagues ahead of anything Apple has in terms of straight up GPU pixel pushing/rendering in applications like Maya and Solidworks.

What keeps me really from getting an XPS anymore is that the battery capacity discharge is so high that you can buy every two years a new battery. You can nearly see how the remaining max capacity gets lower.

I would get either the XPS 16 or the zephyrus g16. I was deciding between the two and got the XPS because I didn't really need a gaming laptop, just wanted light gaming on the side. I am a mechanical engineer too but just graduated. Love the XPS and am happy with my decision. The touchscreen is incredibly convenient for work, battery life is amazing, screen is amazing, and the keyboard feels nice but takes a little getting used to. Build quality is amazing.

I use both a MacBook M3 Max for development and the XPS for gaming. I removed the bloated Win 11 with TinyPC and so many tweaks my XPS is as fast as my M3. SSD on my XPS is so much better and battery keeps up.

The FHD will definitely have better battery life but it's an ugly screen. You gotta see it in person. It's too low of a resolution for the 16 inch canvas. The OLED is a beautiful screen. When doing web browsing and video streaming at 70% brightness it drains around 15% an hour.

Although I really like this Dell XPS 16, I recommend the new Asus Pro Art P16, it has a good design, excellent screen, a more refined sound although not by much really, and the battery lasts longer without sacrificing the screen.

Something like the Zephyrus G14/G16 comes much closer to offering the kind of value the traditional XPS models offered. It's a similar form factor to last year's chassis, OLED screen, more power to the CPU/GPU, but at the cost of a proprietary power brick, and at a lower cost.

The zephyrus struggles to get 8 hours of battery life with light web browsing, and the XPS trackpad is in a different league. The zephyrus is oriented more towards people who are plugged in most of the time but need portability, while the XPS is a better laptop.

I got my Dell XPS 16 yesterday and overall I am liking it. I like the keyboard very much and the overall design is really great for me. The touch keys do not bother me, but I rarely use the ESC key and I don't do any kind of development. I am also loving the trackpad. It's very precise and definitely on par with a Macbook Pro. Battery life seems to be very good for a windows laptop.

The build quality is incredible and it feels very premium. After installation I noticed a dead pixel on the screen. The replacement arrived and there was another dead pixel. When I buy a laptop that nearly costs 4200 euros it should be close to perfect. I wish they have better quality controls, especially on the replacement units.

I have it and love everything except the keyboard which I hate. Fortunately 90% of the time I have an external keyboard and monitor.

Had it, returned it. That keyboard is a great idea on a 13 inch. To have the absolute same-sized keyboard on the 16 inch is a terrible design choice. It basically maroons the zero lattice keyboard in the middle of a sharp-edged deck where your fingers and hands can never quite land on the right ergodynamics. With an external keyboard (and only with that), this is a dream machine. But that defeats the purpose of having a $2500+ laptop.

I think it's a beautiful machine. The one thing that surprised me about the 9640 when checking it out at the store: even with the 16 inch screen, it definitely felt really heavy. Maybe that's just because I am used to smaller form factors but I couldn't see myself lugging it around.

I have xps9640 with u9 64gb rtx 4070 oled display and I am facing blurry text in almost all the apps.

Was looking to upgrade from my xps 15 9500 to the newest gen 14/16, but the pricing just does not make sense. The m3 pros are just better in both performance and battery, and the bigger XPS are now non-upgradeable? No way am I supporting this business model.

I was thinking about getting back to XPS again, and thanks to Josh, I've decided not to go anywhere near Dell. Golden rule in 2024: get away from Dell if you want to get a good laptop.

I recently got the base model Asus Zephyrus G16 with Ultra 7 processor and RTX 4060 in the hope that it would not overheat and be able to handle some games. To prevent the fans from running at insane volumes while playing games I had to reduce the fps cap to like 70 and limit the watts sent to the CPU a little.

Just bought new one. Sending back cause of battery issues. Drained several times with no activity, no apps loaded, optimal battery settings, etc., in 1.5 hours. Could literally watch level fall.

so mad at dell for my xps, breaking all the time. Stay away.

I have a Dell XPS 15 and tbh I'd avoid it for sure. It's too high priced for what it is and the competition is so good now that it's not needed or worth it anymore. There are far better choices now in the price range. Asus or Lenovo would be where I'd look. I love the aesthetic of the XPS line up (main reason I got it) but the price to performance doesn't match what other brands are putting out for this price.

Don't let Reddit convince you that beautiful design and premium build quality don't matter. It's wild how many replies act like thermal margins and benchmark scores are the only things that count. Not everyone wants a giant plastic brick with a spreadsheet for a personality. Some of us actually value refined design, material quality, and a device that feels as good to use as it performs.

I am currently using Dell XPS 16 9640. Ultra 9, 64GB ram and 4tb SSD. I have not faced any issues until now. If you are getting it under a 50% discount of the original price I would suggest you to take it. If you carry it around, I would suggest you otherwise. It is heavy and the palm rest edges are sharp so you cannot type for extended hours. Display is great.

Sure, at a hefty discount. Massive issues with CPU and GPU throttling, as has been with the case with XPS for a while. Avoid if possible. Overall XPS/Dell Premium in the 2020s have not lived up to the performance, quality, or durability of the pre-2020 models.

Massive issues with CPU and GPU throttling, as has been with the case with XPS for a while. Avoid if possible.

I just bought a DELL XPS 9640. I owned a lot of XPS laptops, this one is by far the best. I use this laptop mainly for stock trading on the go because I travel a lot. I must have 4K display in order to trade properly. With low brightness I am getting more than 10h with light browsing and thinkorswim running in extended hours.

I hate the keyboard. I would not have purchased if I had known how much I would hate the keyboard.

I had to set up 6 of these for a company recently along with 3 similar spec Lenovo thinkpads. My thought with the XPS was that the keyboard and trackpad were the most awful design to use that they could have come up with. The keyboard keys have to be looked for and being completely flat to the case there is no tactile feeling to find them.

The XPS 16 9640 is the worst keyboard design. The keys are far too close together and you constantly hit double-keys and the ESC by accident - because it is NOT a key - making surface alignment difficult when typing with keys your whole life. I have used Dell since XP - I would recommend this layout design to no one.

I have just received the XPS 16 9640 as a replacement for my well-used Precision 7740, and I must say I'm overly disappointed. This computer is just not suited for this kind of work - not by a long shot! The screen is highly reflective which can make it a pain for your eyes.

The touchpad is driving me absolutely insane. I think it's the huge area that is the problem. It keeps registering false clicks from my palm, or shift-selecting items, false scrolling etc.

The fan noise is driving me crazy with mine - its fresh out of the box and I only have email, teams and edge open and it sounds like an airplane about to take off.

I respected Dell line for years, but this touch row, I can't find ESC by touching it. While coding I am using delete button and escape button a lot, I can't understand where it is.

I just got my new XPS 16 9640, replacing an Inspiron 17" 7706 2in1. The XPS far outperforms the Inspiron. However, this PC is the worst when it comes to the trackpad. There is NO outline for the trackpad at all. So figuring out how to do a right and left click is producing frustration.

Agreed with all those complaints and many more. Huge buyer regret. Paid full price 6 months ago, like an idiot.

I've been coding, running virtual machines for pen testing, using 3D design applications, all pretty much simultaneously while also getting 10 hours of battery life when my XPS 15 (brand new) was only getting 4 hours, getting very warm to the touch, for the exact same price.

I have the notebook for like 1 month and the touchpad is already making weird noises. Build quality is also poor - you can see the gaps between the speakers and touchpad. The stereo sound is awful mostly because of Windows, keeps shutting down due to drivers. I have 32GB RAM, 4060, 1TB.

My 2017 XPS 15 9550 died yesterday. I looked at XPS 16 but I did not like the touch screen for function keys. I do write lots of programs and I don't think instead of ESC key I will hit a touch screen ESC key. Glass finish also I did not like. For casual users its OK but not for me.