Dell makes some of the best laptops you can buy across all categories. You can configure laptops to order on the Dell website, a convenience if you know you want more memory or storage. Dell gains fans for its sturdy construction and features at competitive prices—a reputation that helps make it one of the best laptop brands you can consider when buying a new laptop.
The best Dell laptops, like the Dell XPS 13 2-in-2 laptop, bring powerful performance into a ... [+] portable chassis.
Illustration: Forbes / Photo: RetailersIf you want the best that Dell has to offer, we think that the Dell XPS 15 reigns supreme—even though we still love the smaller XPS 13 OLED. With its excellent build quality, beautiful display and impressive performance, there's nothing quite like the XPS 15 among Windows laptops. If you want supreme gaming power, you'll need to upgrade to the Dell Alienware M18, though the Dell G15 is a viable alternative if you have a tighter budget.
If none of those models tickle your fancy, Dell has plenty of other laptops worth considering. Here are our picks for the best Dell laptops you can buy today.
- Best Dell Laptop Overall: Dell XPS 15
- Best Dell Portable Business Workstation: Dell Precision 3480
- Best Dell Gaming Laptop: Dell Alienware M18
- Best Budget Dell Gaming Laptop: Dell G15
- Best Value Dell Laptop: Dell Inspiron 16
- Best 2-in-1 Dell Laptop: Dell XPS 13 2-in-1
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CPU: Intel Core i7-13700H | RAM: 16GB DDR5 | Graphics: Nvidia RTX 4050 | Storage: 512GB SSD | Display: 15.6-inch | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,200 | Refresh rate: 60Hz | Battery: Up to 14 hours | Weight: 4.2
Best for: Just about anything.
The Dell XPS 15 is Dell's most complete modern laptop. It has high-end processor performance, a great graphics chip (which you can upgrade if you wish) and a bright display in a compact chassis with great battery life. There's plenty of scope for more power if you want it, but we love this configuration for its raw bang for buck performance. The Intel 13700H is 14-core CPU with excellent multitasking power, and the Nvidia RTX 4050 is plenty for casual gaming or light 3D rendering.
There's half a terabyte of storage in this model, but if you need more for bigger apps and games, then you can pack up to 8TB of space in there—though that raises the price. The bezels on this design are incredibly thin, making the display extra immersive, and with its 500 nits of brightness, the colors pop off the screen. If you want greater contrast and clarity, there is an optional OLED display available, though its brightness is lower and it will reduce your battery life. Either way though, you get a lot of life between charges with the XPS 15, with as much as 14 hours on a single charge.
Pros:
- Excellent battery life
- Solid performance from the latest generations of hardware
- Bright display, with optional OLED upgrade
Cons:
- A little heavy compared to smaller Dell laptops
Dell
Precision 3480 Mobile Workstation
CPU: Intel Core i7-1370P | RAM: 32GB DDR5 | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 | Storage: 1TB SSD | Display: 14-inch | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,200 | Refresh rate: 60Hz | Battery: Up to 10 hours | Weight: 3.1 pounds
Best for: Professional work on the go.
Dell's Precision 3480 is an excellent modern workstation for working on the go. The base configuration was a little lighter on specifications, so we made some adjustments to find this favorite design of ours. It combines the high-end Intel Core i7 processor with 32GB of fast DDR5 memory, and an Nvidia RTX 4070 to give it a little graphical power for 3D work or CUDA-accelerated workloads. The terabyte of SSD storage gives you plenty of space for all your files, and you can upgrade it with an additional terabyte if needed. The compact design features all the important ports, including Thunderbolt 4, USB-A, HDMI, a Gigabit Ethernet connection and an SD card reader.
This laptop supports Wi-Fi 6E as standard, with support for 5G WWAN, though it can also be equipped with a 4G or 5G cellular connection, if you want additional connectivity options while travelling. The 54Wh battery should give you around 10 hours of mixed use with the screen brightness down, and comes with a three-year warranty if you need to replace it before the laptop. It charges up fast too, thanks to the 130W USB-C charger.
Pros:
- Great performance from the latest hardware
- Plenty of storage space
- Strong built quality
Cons:
- Limited GPU performance
- Expensive
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX | RAM: 32GB DDR5 | Graphics: Nvidia RTX 4090 | Storage: 2TB SSD | Display: 18-inch | Resolution: 2,560 x 1,600 | Refresh rate: 165Hz | Battery: Up to 6 hours | Weight: 8.9 pounds
Best for: AAA gaming at high frame rates.
The Alienware M18 gaming laptop offers desktop-grade performance in an attractive design, with a great build quality, comfortable and responsive mechanical keyboard and a beautiful display. For gaming at high frame rates and high detail settings—even ray tracing—this is the best gaming laptop Dell has to offer. Its combination of AMD's fastest ever mobile CPU—the 16-core 7945HX—and Nvidia's fastest ever mobile graphics chip—the RTX 4090—gives this laptop peak gaming performance that will not only beat almost any other gaming laptops, but most full-size desktop PCs, too. That's the kind of performance you need to drive AAA games at 1600P resolution at high frame rates. With this laptop's 165Hz refresh rate, you can make all your games run super smooth.
There is a 400Hz 1080p option if you're more into your competitive games. That will give you a slight advantage over even other gamers running high refresh rate displays. There are lots of configuration options if you want to drop the CPU or GPU down, and there's extra storage space available if you want it. It comes with all the ports you need for your accessories, including USB-A, USB-C and HDMI and mini-DisplayPort outputs for external monitors. This is a super heavy laptop, however, so don't try to carry it around all day or expect to play games anywhere but at a desk. The limited battery life will keep you tethered to a power socket, too.
Pros:
- Ultimate gaming performance
- Expansive configuration options
- Display has great color support and high refresh rate
Cons:
- Expensive
- Very heavy
CPU: Intel Core i7-13650HX | RAM: 16GB DDR5 | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 | Storage: 1TB SSD | Display: 15.6-inch | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 | Refresh rate: 360Hz | Battery: Up to 6 hours | Weight: 6.2 pounds
Best for: Playing lightweight games at high frame rates.
The 2023 Dell G15 has seen a substantial upgrade over its predecessors with some impressive hardware at an affordable price. Instead of an entry-level GPU from its generation, this G15 configuration comes with an Nvidia RTX 4060—a powerful mid-range graphics card which not only offers next-gen performance, but has support for DLSS 3. This allows it to insert AI-generated frames in supporting games, massively boosting frame rates beyond what this GPU should be able to manage. When paired up with the Intel Core i7-13650HX with its 14 cores and high-clock speeds, it’s a seriously capable gaming laptop.
It has enough power to play AAA games, but its focus is more on high frame rates than high resolution. Its amazing 360Hz 1080p display is incredibly smooth. That makes this laptop incredibly responsive in high-speed, competitive games. It is pretty heavy at over six pounds, so don't try to play with this one on your lap on a train, and battery life is going to be limited to an hour or two at most when gaming away from your power bank. For general web browsing and watching videos, you should be able to get five or so hours out of it.
Pros:
- Affordable price for a Dell gaming laptop
- High refresh rate display
- Plenty of performance for high frame rate esports play at 1080p
Cons:
- Poor battery life
- Heavy
CPU: Intel Core i7-1360p | RAM: 16GB DDR5 | Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2050 | Storage: 1TB SSD | Display: 16-inch | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,200 | Refresh rate: 60Hz | Battery: Up to 10 hours | Weight: 4 pounds
Best for: Working and relaxing without hurting your wallet.
The Dell Inspiron 16 is a no-frills, great all-round laptop for work and play. It offers excellent hardware for its price, with a crisp, bright screen, acceptable battery life and a great overall build quality. It doesn't have the performance of high-end laptops, and its battery won't last multiple workdays without a charge, but for a laptop under $1,000, it's a great choice. Its 1080p screen looks good at 16-inches. There's an option for a 1600p version if you prefer it, but it adds substantial cost.
The internal hardware includes a mid-range Intel CPU from its latest-generation with 12 cores, making it excellent for multitasking. Paired with a terabyte of storage space, it offers more than enough storage for plenty of apps and games, and it even has an RTX graphics chip for casual gaming. While you’ll be getting the RTX 2050 from a few years ago, it's perfectly functional for working purposes and casual gaming.
Pros:
- Impressive performance for the price
- Good battery life
- Nvidia GPU is enough for casual gaming
Cons:
- GPU is two generations old
CPU: Intel Core i5-1250U | RAM: 16GB LPDDR4x | Graphics: Intel Iris Xe | Storage: 512GB SSD | Display: 13-inch | Resolution: 2,880 x 1,920| Refresh rate: 60Hz | Battery: Up to 9 hours | Weight: 1.6 pounds
Best for: Using as a lightweight laptop and tablet when you need them.
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 is a rare combination of high-performance laptop and superlight tablet in one. While built on slightly older hardware with a last-generation CPU and memory and smaller SSD, it's still a very capable machine with plenty of cores and excellent scope for work and play. It doesn't have a dedicated graphics chip, so this laptop isn't the best for gaming—though game streaming is always an option through a service like GeForce Now. Its 3:2 display looks gorgeous with crisp and clear text and a high brightness that makes HDR movies look excellent on-screen, even in bright ambient light.
The real standout on this laptop is its weight. At just 1.6 pounds it's one of the lightest laptops available today. It manages this by using a detachable keyboard design, making the screen an awesome touchscreen tablet. It even has a 4K camera built-in so you can snap pictures of the world around you in crisp detail. There's Thunderbolt 4 ports for high-speed connectivity, and Wi-Fi 6E support for fast internet access. This is a laptop that can do everything well and at an affordable price.
Pros:
- Great performance even with older hardware
- Incredibly light
- Great connectivity
Cons:
- Lacks latest-generation hardware
- No dedicated GPU makes it a poor choice for gaming
How We Chose The Best Dell Laptops
To find the best Dell laptops, we combined our first-hand knowledge of a wide range of laptops, with the opinions of our fellow tech writers here at Forbes, thoughts of colleagues throughout the industry and robust research.
We've have hands on time with some of these models in person, so well know their build quality and features, and we've performed extensive comparisons between third-party and user reviews, to find the Dell laptops that everyone says are great; not just the professionals.
You can rest assured, these are the best Dell laptops you can buy in 2023.
Why Trust Forbes Vetted
The Forbes Vetted tech team is well-versed in all things digital, having written hundreds of articles in the category. A couple of staffers, including Dave Johnson, our deputy editor, have even authored a number of books on the subject. The tech vertical is overseen by Rebecca Isaacs, the consumer tech and electronics editor at Forbes Vetted.
Jon Martindale, the writer of this story, is a regular Forbes Vetted tech contributor. He has bylines in digital publications including Digital Trends and PCGamer, and formerly ran his own PC hardware review website. We’ve collectively conducted extensive research and testing on the best Dell laptops to create this extensive list.
The Best Laptop By Category
Looking for more options? We’ve got a list to help you find the best laptop for your lifestyle. From MacBooks and Chromebooks, to models under $500, we've got you covered.
Best Laptops By Brand
- Best Dell Laptops
- Best Lenovo Laptops
- Best HP Laptops
- Best MacBooks
- Best Chromebooks
Best Laptops By Type
- Best Gaming Laptops
- Best 2-In-1 Laptops
- Best Laptops For College Students
- Best 17-Inch Laptops
- Best MacBooks For College Students
- Best Business Laptops
Best Laptops By Price
- Best Laptops Under $500
- Best Affordable Laptops
- Best Laptops Under $1,000
- Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,000
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