Dell’s XPS line has long been the Windows answer to the MacBook Pro, blending power with premium design. The new XPS 16 pushes this philosophy to its extreme, forging a bold, minimalist path for large-format creator laptops. It’s a statement piece that asks whether you’re ready to embrace the future of laptop interaction.
The Dell XPS 16 is a masterclass in monolithic design. Carved from a single block of CNC-machined aluminum with Gorilla Glass 3 on the palm rest, it feels impossibly solid and futuristic. Opening the lid reveals the laptop’s most controversial and defining features, inherited from its smaller XPS siblings. The keyboard is a lattice-less grid of large, flat keycaps with minimal spacing, while a row of capacitive touch buttons replaces the traditional function key row. Below it, a seamless glass wrist rest hides a massive, invisible haptic touchpad. This is minimalism taken to its logical conclusion, resulting in a machine that looks more like a prop from a sci-fi film than a traditional workhorse. While visually stunning, these choices have practical implications. The capacitive keys lack the tactile certainty of physical buttons, and locating the boundaries of the touchpad requires a brief period of muscle memory adjustment.
Performance is where the XPS 16 flexes its muscles as a true pro-grade machine. Outfitted with Intel’s new Core Ultra processors and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, it chews through demanding creative workloads. Compiling code, rendering 4K video timelines in DaVinci Resolve, and manipulating complex models in Blender are handled with impressive speed. The new NPU (Neural Processing Unit) on the Intel chip also helps accelerate AI-driven tasks, a growing necessity in modern creative apps. Dell’s vapor chamber cooling system does an admirable job of taming these powerful components within the slim chassis, though the fans will certainly make themselves heard under sustained, heavy loads.
The centerpiece of the user experience is the 16.3-inch InfinityEdge display. While the base model’s FHD+ screen is perfectly adequate, the optional 4K+ OLED panel is the star of the show. It’s breathtakingly sharp, with perfect blacks, incredible contrast, and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage that makes it a dream for photo and video editors. The visuals are complemented by a surprisingly robust quad-speaker setup that delivers loud, clear, and relatively full-bodied audio. However, the laptop’s commitment to minimalism extends to its port selection. With only three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports, a microSD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, you will be living the dongle life. Dell includes a USB-C to USB-A and HDMI adapter in the box, but for professionals juggling multiple peripherals, it’s a tangible compromise.
Ultimately, the XPS 16 is an exercise in prioritization. It unabashedly prioritizes a clean, futuristic aesthetic and a premium feel over the practical conventions of traditional laptop design. If you are a creative professional who values a powerful, beautifully constructed machine and are willing to adapt to its forward-thinking (and sometimes frustrating) input methods, the XPS 16 is a compelling, if expensive, proposition. However, for those who require the tactile feedback of function keys and the convenience of legacy ports, this beautifully crafted machine may feel like a step in the wrong direction.
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Dell XPS 16 (2024 model) Quick Summary
Key Scores:
-
Value:
78% -
Design:
93% -
Performance:
90% -
Quality:
92% -
Popularity:
88%
Top Pros
- ✅ Sleek monolithic design feels exceptionally modern and premium.
- ✅ The optional 4K OLED display is stunning for creative work.
- ✅ Core Ultra CPU and NVIDIA GPU deliver excellent performance.
- …
Key Cons
- ❌ The capacitive function row is frustrating and lacks tactile feedback.
- ❌ Limited port selection forces a heavy reliance on dongles.
- ❌ Shallow keyboard travel may not satisfy all typists.
