Dell Xps 16 (2026) Review: Return Of The King

Last year, Dell came this adjacent to abdicating its throne arsenic nan shaper of nan champion premium Windows laptops erstwhile it announced it was sidesplitting disconnected nan XPS brand. Thankfully, nan institution regained its wits, admitted its mistake and doubled down connected its flagship notebook statement by revealing a afloat redesign for 2026 pinch ace sleek builds, improved capacity and adjuvant tweaks to astir everything other we loved astir its predecessors. The 1 blemish to Dell's crown jewel is immoderate keyboard issues connected early units. But make nary mistake, nan king of laptops is back.

Design and display

For this revamp, Dell didn't stray distant from nan XPS line's emblematic operation of solid and aluminum. However, this clip around, nan institution streamlined beautiful overmuch everything. The XPS 16 now weighs conscionable 3.65 pounds (or 3.85 if you opt for nan heavier LCD display), which is almost a afloat lb lighter than its predecessor (4.56 pounds). That's a monolithic driblet and it makes this strategy person successful heft to a 15-inch MacBook Air (3.3 pounds) than a 16-inch MacBook Pro (4.7 pounds), contempt nan second being XPS's accustomed rival. It's besides noticeably thinner astatine 0.58 to 0.6 inches (depending connected nan nonstop configuration), which is erstwhile again a sizable alteration from nan erstwhile exemplary (0.75 inches). Honestly, this laptop needs to beryllium held to beryllium genuinely appreciated. Even aft utilizing it for a while, it still feels impossibly sleek each clip I prime it up.

Elsewhere, Dell kept important features for illustration nan XPS line's up-firing stereo speakers (which sound great), on pinch a decent operation of ports, including 3 USB-C jacks that support Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort 2.1 and powerfulness delivery. The 1 point I wish Dell had included though, is immoderate benignant of SD paper reader. With nan XPS 16 being nan largest personnel of nan family, it's often a premier action for group who for illustration to edit photos and videos connected nan go, truthful having an easy measurement to transportation media from a camera to nan laptop would beryllium really nice.

As for its display, Dell's optional 3.2K tandem OLED sheet for illustration nan 1 connected our reappraisal portion reinforces nan laptop's domiciled arsenic a mobile editing platform. It produces vibrant hues and features a adaptable refresh complaint that tin spell betwixt 20 and 120Hz depending connected what's connected nan screen. Despite having a nominal highest brightness of 400 nits, it looks overmuch brighter successful person, truthful you're getting an fantabulous viewing experience.

Keyboard and touchpad

Perhaps nan biggest alteration to nan XPS statement is its reworked keyboard and touchpad, which brings immoderate ups and downs. Dell kept nan solid platform and seamless touchpad utilized connected erstwhile models, isolated from now there's a faint statement going astir its perimeter, truthful you ne'er person to conjecture wherever it is. The institution besides replaced nan statement of capacitive touch usability and media controls from its predecessor pinch regular keys. As a instrumentality of beingness buttons, this is conscionable great.

The rumor is that for discerning typists, nan keyboard seems to beryllium missing anti-ghosting aliases N-key rollover tech. This intends that if you property 2 keys very quickly 1 aft another, nan 2nd property really gets registered first, which tin consequence successful erroneous inputs. We ran into nan aforesaid problem erstwhile testing nan XPS 14. Dell claims this rumor only impacts nan first batch of systems disconnected nan statement and that units connected waste coming person had this rumor patched already. Furthermore, nan institution says it will merchandise an update to reside nan rumor connected nan remaining units, which should beryllium retired sometime successful March. Though astatine nan clip of publication, I haven't received thing yet.

There is different nitpick astir nan keyboard. While I don't mind that Dell retained its zero-gap layout alternatively of going pinch a much accepted chiclet-style design, nan much I type connected it nan much I wish Dell would connection thing pinch a spot much cardinal recreation and heavier actuation. For reasons retired of my control, my company-assigned activity instrumentality is simply a Dell Precision 5680 from 2023. I don't for illustration it very overmuch speech from its keyboard, which is importantly bouncier and conscionable mostly nicer to usage than nan 1 connected nan XPS 16.

Performance

A large logic why Dell was capable to make nan XPS 16 truthful bladed and ray is that nan institution didn't time off room for discrete graphics. That intends you tin only take betwixt a fistful of Intel's latest Series 3 Core Ultra chips, ranging from nan Ultra 5 325 to nan Ultra X7 358H, pinch nan second being nan 1 I tested here. That's not a bad point though, arsenic nan laptop easy handled each nan various productivity tasks I threw astatine it. And moreover without a due GPU, nan XPS 16 still pumped retired 62 fps successful Cyberpunk 2077 at 1920 x 1080, utilizing Ultra settings and Intel's XeSS group to Quality. Those kinds of numbers aren't going to make anyone flip retired their dedicated gaming rig, but erstwhile again, that's not excessively shabby for a notebook this easy to transportation around.

Battery life

Thanks to a larger 99.5Whr battery, nan XPS 16 fared amended connected our rundown trial than its smaller sibling.  This could beryllium a deciding facet for anyone trying to take betwixt nan two. In PCMark 10's Modern Office artillery benchmark, nan XPS 16 lasted conscionable awkward of 12 hours (11:53), which is much than an hr and a half longer than what we sewage from nan XPS 14 (10:21). As agelong arsenic you're not going to beryllium gone for much than a time aliases you're really pushing it, you should beryllium capable to time off its powerfulness ceramic astatine home.

Wrap-up

When Dell decided to bring backmost nan XPS name, COO Jeff Clake said nan institution was going to get backmost to its roots. That's nan benignant of messaging that's easy to enactment connected a stage, but aft testing retired nan reborn XPS 16, I tin corroborate it isn't conscionable flimsy rhetoric.

This laptop is simply a sparkling illustration of a premium ultraportable Windows laptop done well. It features a ace sleek aluminum chassis, beardown performance, coagulated artillery life and an fantabulous display, peculiarly if you upgrade to nan 3.2K OLED option. The relationship to nan iconic award-winning systems isn't conscionable tegument deep. This point is conscionable arsenic overmuch an XPS arsenic nan ones we loved a decade agone and Dell is driving that constituent location by letting nan XPS logo beryllium beforehand and halfway connected its lid alternatively of nan company's accustomed branding.

My 1 title is that I wish Dell would bring backmost nan chiclet-style keyboards we sewage connected models from the early 2020s. Though arsenic agelong arsenic nan institution tin merchandise updated package to hole nan ghosting issues I've encountered, what's connected location now is much than bully enough. Granted, astatine $2,349 for our reappraisal unit, nan XPS 16 is simply a spot pricey, but that's nan going complaint for a high-end notebook these days. If you snag a discount akin to nan 1 Dell is presently moving , suddenly, you're looking astatine an moreover much enticing package astatine $1,900.

The biggest logic personification mightiness want to clasp disconnected for now is if you do request much powerful graphics, arsenic I'm expecting Dell to merchandise an alternate type of nan XPS 16 pinch room for a discrete GPU (and hopefully an SD paper reader) sometime earlier nan extremity of nan year. Despite Dell astir tossing decades of pedigree successful nan trash conscionable months ago, nan XPS 16 has returned to reclaim its spot astatine nan top.