We’ve had less than a year to mourn the loss of the XPS, and frankly, I’m still not over it. But time marches on. Engadget has already reviewed the dell 14 premium, formerly the XPS 14, and now I have the opportunity to put the dell 16 premium in its own category. My fate? It’s still as good as the last XPS 16, but I also think Dell seriously needs to rethink its Ultramodern Design strategy.
With its minimalist design (look Ma, no trackpad in sight!), a smooth metal case and clean lines, the dell 16 premium looks like a work of art. It’s the kind of thing that I think someone creates like a sci-fi movie set in the 90s, where we can imagine real bricks going through these gray bricks. But those good things come at a cost – both in terms of price (starting at $2000) and basic functionality.
Disrespect
Prell’s 16’s Premium looks as good as ever, but the company’s usability issues from the XPS LineUp remain.
- Sleek Minimalist design
- Fast operation
- A solid keyboard
- An invisible trackpad is useless
- Capacitive function buttons disappear in sunlight
- It needs more ports
- Mediocre battery life
$2000 at Dell
If you’ve read my reviews of the XPS 16 and XPS 13 Plus, Dell’s first models to use this feature, you’d think I’d hit a dead horse. But it’s worth pointing out – come backIt’s been more than three years since I started being punished by Dell for chasing the investigative style, that the company seems to be learning nothing. Sure, it’s faster than ever, thanks to Intel’s Core Ultra Chips and NVIDIA’s RTX 50-Series GPUS, but that’s not saying much.
I’m still having trouble using the premium 16 inch trackpad with no power because it’s hard to tell where the repeaters are. I still hate the capacitive funky line, both because it is not visible miraculously in bright light and it is difficult to create muscle memory with certain buttons (such as changing the brightness or volume). And honestly, I don’t know how Dell can justify offering only USB-C ports and a MicroSD card slot in a laptop that was meant for serious work. Even Apple realized it had to include a wide variety of ports for professionals, and that’s also something other PC makers like ASUS and ACER offer. Did Dell miss the memo?
Worst of all, the One’s 4K 4K screen hurts its battery life. It only lasted six hours and five minutes on basic video playback, while previous XPS lasted eight and a half hours on the more intensive battery test. .
At least it’s faster than before. The Dell 16 Premium I’m looking at is equipped with Intel’s Core Ultra 7 255h chip and a lower version of the NVIDIA 5070 GPU. It scored 10 percent higher than last year’s XPS in PCPRS E-PCPS 10, and it was very important in Guekbench Ai Benchmark Thanks to Intel’s modified NPU. I was able to play and even play Cyberpunk 2077 In 4K at 84 FPS thanks to the 5070, although I had to enable DLSS 4 Framework to do so. For that particular reason, the system will reduce the crawl completely whenever I enable the ray tracing features. Even better, I only saw 60 FPS at 1080p while using low tracking settings.
Dell 16 premium from back. (Devindra Hard Hardawar for Engadget)
Of course, it’s not a gaming laptop, so I can’t directly compare it to something like the razer blade 16. But it’s amazing to see one of the GPUs out there that performs well. As you’d expect, the Dell 16 Premium also got loud every time its fans tested it. At least they managed to keep the system cool and good: Its CPU and GPU stay at 68c and 70c, respectively, under load.
The more I look at the beautiful Dell 16 Premium’s Facade, the more I want something … More. It needs usable ports, like HDMI and a full SD card reader. It needs more useful function buttons that are visible with a bright light – and also sit in one place – so I can touch the type easily. And for the love of God, just provide an invisible trackpad. It’s a Parlor trick that just makes it hard to tell with left and right mouse clicks, despite the trackpad’s large surface area.
The 16-inch Premium “invisible” trackpad blends seamlessly into its wrist rest, while the keyboard rests comfortably on the floor and the capacitive function keys are located above. (Devindra Hard Hardawar for Engadget)
Given its premium status, I also expected more from laptop speakers. They sound good compared to most Windows laptops, but they can’t hold a candle to the audio quality Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro achieves. When playing music, the Premium 16 doesn’t have a strong range or low tone, while Apple speakers often surprise me with their depth and enveloping coverage. During late night writing sessions, I often find myself playing music directly through the 16-inch MacBook Pro, rather than ditching my SONOS 16 premium speakers that force me to.
To avoid going completely wrong, I’ll go back and enjoy it again and again you were looking in Dell 16 Premium. I like how its keyboard and large keycaps fit nicely in the bottom region of the notebook. And I’ll admit, the 16-inch OLED screen looks more colorful when needed. I’m just asking Dell designers to consider a better style fit and Performance is their next stab at the Premium 16-Inch Laptop.
