Best Dell laptops in 2025

Dell has consistently made some of the best laptops you can buy, and it's really no surprise. The Dell XPS line is absolutely iconic and a landmark of the Windows laptop space, and Alienware has the same kind of presence when it comes to gaming laptops. Plus, the budget-oriented Inspiron line also has a lot going for it, and the Latitude business laptops are also some of the best you can get.

With so many great laptops to choose from, it can be hard to know which one is right for you, but we're here to help. We've rounded up the best laptops in the company's lineup, all of which run Windows 11, though the company also makes some Chromebooks.

Our top Dell laptops in 2023

The Dell XPS 13 has long been one of the most iconic laptops on the market, and the latest model is no different. The 2024 XPS 13 picks up where the XPS 13 Plus of the past couple of years left off, now featuring INtel's latest and greatest Core Ultra processors, up to a Core Ultra 7 with 16 cores, 22 threads, plus integrated Intel Arc graphics. That's paired with up to 64GB of fast RAM and a 2TB SSD for storage. There's also a Snapdragon version now available that might be even better, though we haven't had the chance to test that one yet.

But there's more to a great laptop than performance, and the Dell XPS 13 also comes with an excellent display, including a brnad-new 2.8K OLED panel that uses the same Tandem OLED technology Apple boasted for its newest iPad Pro. It's an excellent display that gets very bright while delivering perfect blacks, plus it has phenomenal color reproduction. It also finally has a 1080p webcam, which was long overdue on previous models.

This all comes wrapped in one of the most futuristic-feeling designs you can get in a laptop, even though it first debuted two years ago. The XPS 13 forgoes a visible touchpad in favor of a completely seamless surface that helps it feel much more modern and clean, and the function row was similarly replaced with touch-based buttons. The zero-lattice keyboard leaves almost no space between the keys, and it stretches to the edges of the laptop so it feels even more modern. It's also a sleek laptop that's super portable and easy to carry.

All this makes for one of the best laptops money can buy, and one we ahve no problems recommending.

Dell shook up the XPS lineup for 2024, and with that shakeup came a brnad new laptop, the XPS 14. Building off of the XPS 13 Plus of years past, the XPS 14 features a clean, almost futuristic design and top-notch performance, making it very easy to recommend.

That performance is granted by the Intel Core Ultra processors inside, specifically a Core Ultra 7 155H, with integrated Intel Arc graphics for great overall performance, even in workloads that require some graphics power. But if that's not good enough for you, you can also add an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU with 30W of power, which will give you an extra kick for video editing or even some light gaming. Up to 64GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD round out the top-tier specs.

The display, too, is excellent. It's a 14.5-inch panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio, and it comes in either a Full HD+ IPS configuration or a stunning 3.2K OLED display that looks absolutely fantastic, as is typical for Dell. The OLED model also adds touch support, but you can't go wrong with either of these options. The webcam is a 1080p sensor, which is a long overdue upgrade for the XPS series and makes this laptop much easier to recommend.

Turning to its looks, the XPS 14 borrows most of its identity from the XPS 13 Plus, and that means it has a plain, but very modern design. It uses a zero-lattice keyboard with large, square keys that feel great to type on. However, unlike its smaller brother, the XPS 14 does have some space on the sides of the keyboard, which house the top-firing speakers for a fantastic audio experience. Ports-wise, you get three Thunderbolt 4 ports, a microSD card slot, and a headphone jack. The problem with it is the weight, which starts at 3.7 pounds, meaning it's not the most portable machine, but it is very compact.

Simply put, this is an excellent laptop for almost anyone.

The Dell XPS 13 Plus may be the most premium laptop in Dell's lineup, but the Inspiron 14 Plus is where it's at if you want a more mainstream device that still offers a great experience.

In fact, the 2024 Inspiron 14 Plus is already available, and it comes with the latest Intel Core Ultra processors, including integrated Intel Arc graphics, so it should perform better than the XPS 13 Plus in gaming. What's more, you get up to 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, so you have everything you need for a great experience.

The display is also pretty sharp, with the base model featuring 2.2K (2240x1400) resolution, with the option to upgrade to 2.8K if you want an even sharper screen. Both options use a non-touch IPS panel, so there's no OLED here, which is a bit of a bummer. Above the display is a 1080p webcam, but Windows Hello support is only available with a fingerprint reader.

In terms of design, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus comes in an aluminum chassis and a standard silver color, so it doesn't stand out, which may be a good or bad thing depending on your taste. The port selection is solid, with a Thunderbolt 4 port, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, a headphone jack, and a microSD card reader.

All in all, while it's not blowing anyone's mind, the 2024 Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is a terrific laptop if you don't want to spend too much on a new laptop.

Business laptops are Dell's bread and butter, and the Latitude series sits at the high end of the segment. But this year, the Dell Latitude 9440 is an especially great option, with a refreshed design that looks and feels more modern, paired with more powerful performance.

Powering the Dell Latitude 9440 are 13th-generation Intel Core processors up to a Core i7-1365U processor with vPro. That means you get 10 cores and 12 threads with speeds up to 5.2GHz, paired with management and security features that make this suitable for enterprise scenarios. You can also configure the laptop with up to 32GB of RAM (which is soldered onto the motherboard) and a 1TB SSD, so you get solid performance and storage space all around.

For the display, we're looking at a 14-inch panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a very sharp resolution of 2560x1600 (Quad HD+). This is pretty much the only configuration that's available, and it's all anyone will really need in a laptop of this size. This is also a convertible, so touch and pen support comes by default. Above the display is a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello facial recognition support, something we'd like to see in the company's XPS laptops, too.

Coming around to the design, this is a fully aluminum laptop that looks and feels premium, and Dell has modernized it with a zero-lattice keyboard that stretches closer to the edges of the chassis, as well as a larger touchpad that now features shortcuts for Zoom calls, so you can mute your microphone or turn off your webcam, for example. The laptop is just 14.2mm thick at its thickest point, and it weighs 3.38 pounds, so it's very portable. Ports, however, are a bit limited, with three Thunderbolt 4 ports, a headphone jack, and a nano-SIM slot on cellular-enabled models.

While it's not without its downsides, most notably the price, the Dell Latitude 9440 is a phenomenal machine for business. It looks and feels great, it has fast processors, and it's topped off with a very sharp display. You can't ask for much more.

The Alienware brand is synonymous with high-end gaming, and the latest Alienware m18 R2 is the pinnacle of that. It offers incredible performance and an immersive display, if you're willing to sacrifice portability.

Powering this beast are 14th-gen Intel Core HX-series processors with up to 24 cores and 32 threads, along with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, meaning it can handle just about any game you want to play at pretty high settings. It also comes with up to 64GB of RAM and a massive 8TB of storage with an optional RAID 0 configuration for insanely fast performance.

Those games will be displayed on a huge 18-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, making for a super immersive experience. There's a Quad HD+ model with a 165Hz refresh rate or a FUll HD+ model with a super-fast 480Hz refresh rate that's ideal for esports. It even manages to fit a 1080p webcam, which is especially nice to see on a gaming laptop.

The downside to this laptop is its size, since it's over 25mm thick and it can weigh up to 9.32 pounds, so you won't be carrying it with you all the time. On the flip side, the large chassis does make room for a ton of ports, including Thunderbolt 4, USB Type-A, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, and a headphone jack.

If you value performance above all else, the Alienware m18 R2 is hard to beat, and it's a gaming behemoth.

The final and most powerful addition to the XPS lineup in 2024 is the Dell XPS 16, and it's the easiest one to recommend to content creators and anyone who often edits video or works on 3D projects.

Powering the Dell XPS 16 are Intel Core Ultra processors, but this time you can go up to an Intel Core Ultra 9, which is significantly more powerful than what's available in the smaller models. What's more, you can pair it with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 with 50W of power, meaning you can reasonably use this PC for gaming, but more importantly, you can use that power for editing videos or rendering 3D objects. You can also get up to 64GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD.

This is the first time Dell has made a 16-inch XPS in the modern era, and the 16.3-inch panel here is great. THe base model is a Full HD+ IPS panel, which is solid enough, but the real star of the show is the 4K OLED display, which is both incredibly sharp and very vivid and punchy thanks to OLED technology. It looks fantastic, and looking above the display, we finally have a 1080p camera.

Dell unified the XPS lineup with a totally modernized design, and the XPS 16 isn't immune, with a sleek look overall, a zero-lattice keyboard, touch function keys, and a seamless touchpad that blend completely into the body of the laptop. This approach may not be good for everyone, but it does look futuristic and modern unlike most other laptops on the market, and we love it as a result. The laptop isn't light, though, starting at 4.7 pounds. As for ports, you get three USB-C ports, with at least two supporting Thunderbolt depending on your configuration. There's also a headphone jack, microSD card reader, and an adapter for USB Type-A and HDMI.

If you need power in a sleek and modern design, the Dell XPS 16 is easily the one to go for.

Convertible or 2-in-1 laptops give you a new dimension of versatility with the ability to be used as tablets in addition to traditional laptops. Dell makes a few of these devices, but the best one right now is the Dell Inspiron 2-in-1 with Intel processors.

Specifically, we're focusing on the configuration that includes an Intel Core i7-1360P processor with 12 cores and 16 threads. Along with that, this model includes an Nvidia GeForce MX450 GPU, which gives you a little extra power to run some games or do things like photo or video editing. You also get 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, so the experience is great all around.

What really makes this configuration special, however, is the display. Other models of the Inspiron 16 2-in-1 will include a basic IPS panel, but this version includes an incredibly sharp 4K Ultra HD+ OLED panel. Not only is the resolution very high, but the OLED panel means you get stunning colors and visuals in anything you do. Plus, you get a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello support.

Design-wise, the Inspiron 16 2-in-1 is fairly unremarkable, coming in either silver or "dark river blue". It's a little heavy, starting at 4.61 pounds, but that's reasonable for a 16-inch convertible. It does give you plenty of ports, though, including two Thunderbolt 4 ports, USB Type-A, HDMI, a headphone jack, and a full-size SD card slot.

All of this comes out to a price tag of $1,500, which is a great deal for what you're getting here. It's definitely worth checking this one out.

We get that it's not easy to justify spending over a thousand dollars on a laptop, but thankfully, there are great budget alternatives on the market, too. Dell's Inspiron 14 2-in-1 is a great example of exactly that, with the latest AMD-powered model earning quite a bit of praise in our review. This model comes with AMD Ryzen 8040HS series processors, which deliver really good performance in day-to-day use, so you don't have to worry about your laptop slowing you down. Even the integrated graphics are quite good, so gaming is totally possible on this machine if you temper your expectations.

A cheap laptop has to cut corners somewhere, though, and the display here isn't fantastic, as it's neither very bright nor all that vibrant. But if you're buying a cheap laptop to read news or write up documents, color accuracy may not be a great concern, and you'll find that most laptops in this price range will make similar sacrifices. The speakers are also not the best, at least at max volume.

Back on the bright side, though, the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 has a pretty great keyboard, which is arguably more important for getting work done. Our reviewer Sherri L. Smith said that "the island-style keyboard delivers firm, springy feedback with large keys that enjoy generous spacing", so you're in for a good experience here. The whole package comes wrapped in a fairly subdued design that's not overly flashy, but still feels decently modern and clean, so it fits right in anywhere you take it.

While the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 does make some compromises, if you're on a tighter budget, this is a great laptop to get you through work or to use casually at home.

If your work requires the absolute best performance money can buy, the Dell Precision 5690 is a mobile workstation that leaves almost nothing to be desired. It offers top-tier performance across both CPU and GPU along with tons of configuration options so you get the machine you need.

Performance is the main focus here, and it includes up to an intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor with 16 cores and 22 threads, plus integrated Intel Arc graphics. If that's not enough, you can add up to an nvidia RTX 5000 Ada Generation GPU for the best of the best in mobile GPU performance, so anything you need to run will run, and fast. You can also get up to 64GB of RAM and 8TB of SSD storage.

The display is a 16-inch 16:10 panel, and while the base model isn't the most remarkable with its Full HD 60Hz IPS display, the star of the show is the stunning 4K OLED option that looks absolutely fantastic. In our review, we said that the screen is "bursting with color" and that's backed up by the 100% coverage of both sRGB and DCI-P3, as well as 96% coverage of Adobe RGB and NTSC. That's not something you can just get on any old laptop. The speakers are also excellent thanks in part to the top-firing position.

This all comes wrapped in a chassis that's surprisingly thin and light for how much power is packed in here, yet it still has a gret keyboard, too, so typing is as comfortable as you could expect from a laptop. The real major downside of this design is that it lacks a lot of the ports you'd expect in a workstation, as it only has Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, and a headphone jack. Some USB Type-A ports would have been welcome, but a USB hub will also be pretty cheap if you're spending this much on a laptop.

And yes, you'll be spending a lot. The Dell Precision 5690 starts at just over $2,200, but with all the configuration options available, it can get well into the $5,000 range. It's not a laptop for everyone, though, and if you need it, the price is worth it.

Best Dell laptops in 2023: Bottom line

Depending on your use case, all of these laptops are fantastic choices, and it's all up to what you need. The Dell XPS 13 takes our best overall pick thanks to its blend of portability, a premium ultra-modern design, and performance, packing everything you'd want out of a 13-inch ultrabook into a chassis that looks like it came from the future.

Alternatively, you can buy the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 if you want something cheaper that still delivers great performance. Depending on your needs, ther's bound to be a laptop from Dell that does exactly what you need it to, and it's probably on this list.