Customer Ratings & Reviews

I’ve been using the Dell Plus 16” for a few days now and I’m really impressed. The 2K touchscreen looks amazing—super sharp and great for both work and movies. Performance with the Ryzen AI 7 and 32GB RAM is excellent, I can run multiple programs without any lag. The 1TB SSD makes startup super fast and has plenty of room for everything I need. On top of that, the Ice color design looks sleek and modern. So far, it’s been a great purchase

Awesome laptop with plenty of speed and storage. Looks great also.

For the price and hardware, this is one of the best options. Nice keyboard, big screen, lots of storage and lots of RAM.

The dpeed is fast, the display is nice. So far I love it.

Got to admit, I'm impressed. For a variety of reasons, I have recently had some experience with Windows 11 PC's. I've had two different ones at work, the most recent a much more powerful one due to the nature of my work. I had to set up a new laptop for someone, and I have another one that came with Windows 11 on it (replaced with Linux). Given all of that experience, I can finally say that this Dell 16 Plus laptop is the first one I have used where the computer actually does not feel sluggish running Windows. For this review, I am going to focus mainly on the hardware, as that is what you are receiving when you purchase it. Most users will likely continue on Windows, but as there is a market for Linux users and few Linux-based PC's to choose from (especially in the U.S.). Many others may also decide to dual-boot since getting away from Windows is difficult for gamers, proprietary software users, and legacy software users. Regardless, you are purchasing the hardware and may opt to change the software running on it. BASIC SPECS - AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor - Integrated Radeon 860 M video - 32 GB memory - not upgradeable - 1 TB disk space - upgradeable using QLC PCIE NVME 2230 SSD (CLASS 25) according to the Dell website This is a beefy computer. Whether or not you use, or want to use, AI technologies, the processing power necessary to run them also gives the computer the power to handle more demanding tasks. This is the first Windows 11 computer I have used that has felt "snappy". The 32 GB of memory helps as well, especially when your browser has 11 tabs open and you can't find the one running Spotify so you can quickly skip that song you can't stand! If you tend to run 4-5 applications at a time, you will definitely notice a difference if you are coming 8 GB or less, but even from 16 GB that is common, but should be minimal in today's computers. There is also enough storage to keep your documents on your local drive for when you are not online, a rare treat today. OTHER BASIC FEATURES - Dell - generally a good quality brand, and this one is no exception - Full 10-key number pad with (and I say this with GREAT emphasis) a PROPERLY designed layout! - A calculator button (HALLELUJAH they're finally putting a calculator button on a laptop keyboard!) - Backlit keyboard with 2 levels of brightness, or off - Touchscreen with thin bezels (although I've seen thinner but they're not bad) - Fingerprint reader - Large touchpad - Full-size HDMI port - Large 16" display (1920 x 1200 resolution) In case you couldn't tell, I have a background in Accounting and now work in Analytics. Laptops over the past few years have driven me nuts as manufacturers have been rearranging the keys on the number pad to remove a column of keys. If you can use 10-key typing, you KNOW what I mean. This laptop has a normal layout for the number pad, and includes a button above the Num Lock key to launch the calculator app (this works in Linux as well although you may have to configure it). Too bad I changed careers just in time for them to make an accountant-friendly laptop. *NOTE* The Num Lock key does NOT have an LED light to indicate its status. This is a MAJOR oversight on Dell's part and is a huge annoyance. CAPS Lock does have the indicator light. Someone in quality control was on break when this passed through. The Function Lock (located on the ESC key) is also missing an indicator light. The keyboard backlighting is sufficient and even (all keys lit equally), there's a fingerprint reader built into the power button, and the large touchpad has all the familiar gestures for easy navigation, and you can reverse the scrolling direction if you, like myself, hate the "natural" scrolling that they all keep defaulting to. OTHER THOUGHTS For a 16-inch laptop, the weight of this device is quite reasonable at 4 lbs, 4.7 oz. The chassis is metal on the top (screen) and plastic on the base, and all feel high quality. The plastic casing, however, is slightly rough in texture. By this, I mean that when I first opened up the laptop, I thought that dust or dirt was in the box and even wiped it with a damp cloth. That annoys me because I hate feeling like my laptop is dirty. I have another new laptop from a competing manufacturer and the plastic is so smooth to the touch. Not this device. I'm sure many won't be bothered by that the way I am, but worth pointing out. The keyboard is rather quiet, although the keys are clicky (not a soft touch), but they are low travel with just a little resistance. I am typing this review on the keyboard and find the keys responsive without being overly sensitive. The Print Screen (Prt Sc), Home, End, and Insert keys are, in that order, occupy F10, F11, F12 and one more before the Delete key, in case you are a regular user of those. The Dell Optimizer Console (on the Taskbar initially) allows you to control the thermal management. The default is optimized and I did find the fan ran most of the time while in use. It's a steady fan sound, so if you are sensitive to this, know that it's more like white noise and not a constant throttling up and down with changing volume. It can get rather loud if you are pushing the processor though, but it is noticeable even when running lightly. Ports include a full-size HDMI, a USB-C for charging, along with another USB-C, all on one side, and a USB-A and headphone jack on the other. I would like to have seen an additional USB-A on it as that is still a common standard, especially for wireless receivers. An SD card slot would be nice in place of another USB-A port and might diminish the need for the second one. The screen is HDR and is crisp and clear and makes everything from reading text to photo editing very easy to do. Battery life is average but doesn't drain too much in standby - it's better in Linux (I'm using Manjaro KDE), but with 1-1.5 hours of use per day and sleep mode, I was able to go about 4 days without charging (and about half and half between the two operating systems). Overall, this is a very good computer for the money. It's "up to the task" of what even power users may need it for. With a full-size keyboard and large screen, it's comfortable to use without needing to default to a regular monitor/keyboard/mouse setup. It's thin and relatively light for its size, and has a nice long power cord for when the battery just isn't going to make it. It does have a couple of design flaws (gritty plastic and lack of indicator lights) which can impede functionality (the missing Num Lock light is a huge annoyance for me). Ports are a little lacking in my opinion. I would definitely recommend this computer to just about anyone who can budget for the higher cost.

I love this laptop Apple has always let me down and now I’m never going back!!

-=> Outside <=- One good thing about Dell laptops is that they are consistent. They generally don't present any surprises in their design. They are, dare I say, boring. But that is not a bad thing. The design is very plain and neutral, which I find to be a good thing. I don’t like the design elements that are “edgy” and “gamer.” The looks of this laptop are plain, but very functional. It measures at under 0.8 inches thick, making it perfect for travel. Note that this is a laptop only; the hinge does not go past 180 degrees to form a tablet mode. The packaging is also minimal but functional, and seems to be almost completely recyclable. I would much rather my money go towards specifications and build quality, instead of fancy packaging and useless RGB lights It features minimal but functional ports. The left has two USB-C, both of which feature video out as well as charging. They had no problems driving a 3440 x 1440 display at 120 Hz. There is also a full-sized HDMI output on the left side. While Dell claims it only supports 1920x1080 @ 60Hz, I had no problems driving 3440 x 1440 @ 100 Hz, so it delivers more than it promises. The right side simply features a USB-A jack and an audio jack. Yes, only one single USB-A is included. Somewhat unfortunate, but understandable. More unforgivable is the complete lack of any sort of SD card reader at all. There is plenty of room for a card reader, and its lack is puzzling. Of less concern, but still notable is the lack of a slot for a cable lock. Dell has switched to the “Noble” style cable locks for their higher-end gear, but consumer-level gear still could use this. People working in a public coffee shop could still use a way to attach a cable to their laptop to keep it from “walking off” if they have to use the toilet. Dell, if you are reading this, please include cable lock attachments on all future laptops. The bottom features air intakes, and the speaker outputs. The air is sucked in from the bottom and exhausts on the rear. The speakers work, but are not particularly loud or balanced. The sound is somewhat tinny, with absolutely no bass at all. Still, this is expected for a machine of this price and size. The speakers are not ideal, but they will be adequate for many use cases. The top of the monitor also features a rather pleasing camera, with a physical privacy shutter. The picture quality is certainly more than adequate for online meetings, and was sharp and clear. -=> Opening Up <=- Opening up the laptop yields a nicely-sized display, a keyboard with a numeric keypad on the right, and a very sizable touch pad. If you have used a Dell laptop keyboard recently, then you know what to expect. The key touch is decent, but not outstanding. No mechanical key switches here, as the laptop has a price point to meet. But the keyboard is of good quality and usable once you get used to it. So, no surprises at all here. The power button also features a fingerprint reader, which is a nice touch for easily getting into Windows. The display is 1920 x 1200. Although not OLED, it is a very good LCD display. HDR seems to be available for video, but not for gaming. But this is not marketed as a gaming machine, and I have never found HDR to add that much to gaming either. The display is capped at 60 Hz, but for a productivity machine, this is plenty. The touchpad is quite large, and it feels very usable. However, I am much more of a “mouse” guy and will always be using this with a mouse. -=> Performance <=- This computer features the latest Ryzen 7 processor. Part of designing a laptop is balancing power usage. More power gives more performance, but at the cost of shorter battery life, and a thicker machine with more fans, fins, and heat pipes. Dell went for minimal power usage. When running at 100% CPU usage, this laptop only drew 28 watts from a USB power supply. This means that some performance is left on the table, but the result is a laptop that is well under an inch thick, and has an all-day battery. But even limited to 28W, the performance is still impressive. It got a multicore Cinebench 2004 score of 595. While an Apple M1 Max chip does get 32% more performance in this benchmark, you are looking at two to three times the price for a Mac laptop with this much RAM and hard drive space. I have attached pictures of some benchmarks that I ran. Note that McAfee anti-virus came preinstalled, which will slow down performance a bit. But that is how it shipped, so that is how I tested it. This computer also has the ability to do some light gaming. It is not a powerhouse, but even some previous AAA titles can be run if you turn the settings down to medium or low. Definitely not bad for a machine this size and price. Running the CyberPunk benchmark at 1920x1200 medium settings gives 28.2 FPS. The Shadow of the TombRaider benchmark at 1900x1200 medium settings gave 34 FPS. The processor promises “AI” performance, but that is a bit difficult to test at this particular time. Most applications won’t make use of the NPU included in the processor. The NPU was used to good effectiveness in blurring the background while using the camera (once the appropriate settings were changed in the system settings). I also tried software such as LMStudio and Ollama, and neither one actually seemed to take advantage of the NPU at all. But these applications can use the GPU, and since the GPU shares RAM with the CPU, it has access to more memory than many graphics cards. I was able to get models running that took almost 18G GB. It ran rather slowly at around one token per second, but it did run. I also performed a “YouTube” test where I played a video continuously for several hours while the screen was on medium brightness. I estimate that the realistic battery life under light usage will be in the neighborhood of eight to ten hours. Of course, harder tasks and a brighter screen will shorten this time, but I found it to be very impressive. -=> Inside <=- This computer was somewhat difficult to get into. There are several screws on the bottom that are easily removed. However, the back is also held on by plastic clips that simply did not want to let go. But after prying the back off, it is clear that the memory cannot be replaced or upgraded. Still, with 32 GB of memory (running at 7.2 GT/s), most people will not need more memory than this. 16 GB is adequate these days, and having double that is downright spacious. The battery is easily replaceable should the need arise. The only other parts that are easily replaceable are the WiFi card and the SSD. It comes with a 1TB M.2 SSD, which should be enough for most people. For my own needs, however, 1 TB of storage is a bit limiting, so I easily installed a 2TB model. The drive that is included is a 2230 size, and it comes attached with an extender to allow it to fit in the 2280 socket. So this machine can use a 2280 or a 2230 should you feel the need to replace the storage. While the WiFi card is technically replaceable, the card offers excellent performance, so a replacement is not likely to be needed. I achieved speeds in the neighborhood of 1.5 Gb/s, which should be fast enough for nearly anybody. -=> Conclusion <=- Overall, this is an extremely capable machine for most people, with good performance and construction.

I’ve been using this laptop for a few weeks, and I’m really happy with it. It’s fast, light, and perfect for school and work. The screen is clear, and the battery lasts a good amount of time. The design looks modern and professional. I gave it 4 stars because the fan can get a little noisy sometimes, but overall it’s a great value for the price.

Perfect for going back to school! Works quickly and efficiently

Laptop is amazing and it’s my first one and haven’t had any issues with it! No complaints!

[ TL;DR / Summary ] The Dell Plus DB16255 with Windows 11 Home edition is a speedy and well-designed laptop that focuses on the essential features you expect to see in an all-around laptop for folks who appreciate convenience and a vibrant 16:10 (1920x1200, "Full HD+") touch display. It comes with two USB-C (10 Gbps) ports, one USB-A (5 Gbps) port, one HDMI 1.4 port, and a headphone/microphone combo jack. Though no Ethernet port is provided, it supports all existing Wi-Fi standards, including Wi-Fi 7. The laptop features two speakers, left & right, at 2 Watts, each, a keyboard that feels quite nice, and a rather large touchpad. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor with a built-in Radeon 860M Graphics Card, a 1-TB SSD, and 32 GB RAM makes the everyday computing experience complete. The laptop is more than fast enough to not only support AI tools but also enjoy using them, such as Copilot (see screen capture) and four other AI tools described in a section below. The laptop is foldable by 180 degrees, so you can use it as a tablet, thanks to its touchscreen. But then, the keyboard might be in the way (see photo). Verdict: 4 stars, recommended for everyday use (e.g., creating presentations, writing documents, working with spreadsheets, or web browsing). I would not recommend this laptop for hardcore software development and/or gaming, as it would result in a very audible high-speed fan to cool the laptop. It might not be the best choice for UI Design either. [ Other thoughts ] Setting up the laptop was overall a very smooth process, and you will be prompted to join your Wi-Fi network early on. However, it took almost 2 hours to complete the setup due to various Windows 11 updates that were downloaded during setup, and then also, after setup was completed through [Settings--Windows Updates]. There was also a new Dell System BIOS part of the overall update process, and in my case, it resulted in a blue "BitLocker Recovery" screen prompting for a recovery key because the "SecureBoot policy has unexpectedly changed". Since part of the setup process included registering your Windows 11 device with your Microsoft account, the recovery key was retrievable from the Microsoft account website, aka.ms/myrecoverykey . I found the battery is good for about 10 hours of continuous use through the "Optimized" Thermal Management setting; other settings are "Cool" (cooler system surface, may reduce system performance and increase fan noise), "Quiet" (reduced processor speed and fan noise), and "Ultra Performance" (higher processor and fan speed, resulting in a higher system surface temperature). As such, it is possible to make it through a day on battery use, which is fantastic. Though there are enough ports supplied with the laptop, I had to wonder why the two USB-C ports only support 10 Gbps speed (power supply would use one of the USB-C ports). It might be sufficient for most users, but if you plan on using high-speed external SSDs, 10 Gbps will not provide the infrastructure to support higher SSD speeds. Nowadays, in my opinion, current laptop USB-C speeds should be 40 Gbps or higher. As for Wi-Fi, this laptop supports all current wireless modules: 2.4 GHz/5 GHz/6 GHz and wireless standards: WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be (802.11 be represents Wifi 7) The built-in camera (really cool: it has a built-in privacy shutter that opens/closes the camera lens) supports 2 megapixels for still pictures and 1920x1080 (Full HD) at 30 fps video. There are two microphones left and right of the camera. The supplied power adapter supports 65 Watts for international use (100–240 VAC, 50 Hz-60 Hz). According to the manual, alternatively, the minimum power that is required from a power adapter to operate this laptop and charge the battery is 45 Watts. The integrated fingerprint reader provides an easy way to skip the PIN code entry, and it works flawlessly. According to the manual, regarding external display support, two external displays are supported with the laptop display enabled; otherwise, three external displays are supported with the laptop display disabled. Last, but not least, the Anti-Virus discussion: This laptop came preinstalled with a free 30-day trial of McAfee, so "you can enjoy a carefree digital life", which you can extend to a full-year coverage for a fee. There are lots of great Anti-Virus options available for purchase (e.g., Norton, Bitdefender, etc.). Make sure you settle for one tool that fits your needs. Never go online without active Anti-Virus protection. [ Microsoft's four AI components in Windows 11 ] As I am new to Microsoft Windows 11 AI features, I thought I'd consult with Google to find out more about what AI tools come with Windows 11 and what they do: (1) AI Content Extraction, (2) AI Image Search, (3) AI Phi Silica, and (4) AI Semantic Analysis. They are designed to enhance various aspects of the user experience through enabling intelligent content processing, visual search, on-device language understanding, and context-aware search capabilities, built into clickable AI actions from context menus (typically opened through right clicks on an object). - AI Content Extraction -- This component focuses on intelligently identifying and extracting specific information from various types of content, like text, objects, or data points within documents, images, and other files. It can be used for tasks like automated data entry, document processing, and more. - AI Image Search -- This feature allows users to search for images based on their content rather than just file names or tags. It leverages AI to understand the visual elements within images and match them with search queries, enabling users to find similar images or images containing specific objects or scenes using natural language. - AI Phi Silica -- This is a small language model (SLM) developed by Microsoft, specifically optimized to run efficiently on the Neural Processing Units (NPUs) of Copilot+ PCs. Phi Silica is designed for on-device language understanding and generation tasks, such as text summarization, rewriting, and more. It's a key component in enabling features like "Click to Do" and other AI-powered experiences on these devices. - AI Semantic Analysis -- This component focuses on understanding the meaning and context of user input, particularly in search queries. It goes beyond simple keyword matching, using AI to interpret the user's intent and provide more relevant search results. This is related to the Semantic Indexing feature in Windows 11, which helps the system understand the relationships between different pieces of information. Microsoft showcases its Windows 11 AI tools on its website at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ai-features

**** Summary **** The Dell Plus 16 is a well-rounded and performant upper-midrange laptop that will make most people quite satisfied and happy. The 16" display is vibrant, bright, and crisp, which is good for both media consumption and multitasking productivity apps. The speakers are a bit lacking in terms of sound stage and bass but that's to be expected from a laptop. The keyboard is spaciously laid out with a numpad (!), and the keys are quiet in operation. The touchpad is relatively large and it's very responsive to the touch. Thanks to an 8-core/16-thread AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 APU with the AMD Radeon 860M graphics, 32GB of DDR5 memory, and 1TB Micron NVME drive, the performance is very strong and very good, as is the battery life. ____ *Pros: -Vibrant & crisp 16" display with slim bezels. -Good fit and finish and build quality. -Large and responsive touchpad area. -Keyboard keys are well-spaced out. There is a number pad! -Almost no third-party bloatware. -The Dell apps are actually useful. -The touchscreen works well and has Windows Ink and Pen support. -Excellent battery life. -Good value. ____ *Neutral: -So-so speakers. -The touchpad makes hollow, plastiky sounds when left- and right-clicking. -The keyboard keys feel a bit heavy. ____ *Cons: -None **** Design and Build Quality **** The Dell Plus 16 is a clean and simple-looking laptop that doesn't stand out to grab my attention but it also doesn't offend either with any glaringly bad design or ergonomic choices. I got the Ice Blue model but under most lighting conditions, I see more gray and not much of the blue. The fit and finish is spot on, and I find handling to be comfortable and nice. Despite its 16" screen size, it doesn't weigh too much at 4.45lbs, and the corners are rounded and doesn't dig into my flesh. The display bezels are relatively thin, and I really appreciate the expanded viewing space compared to 13", 14" and 15.5" displays - 16" is now my bare minimum and 18" is my preferred size for a laptop. The 1920 x 1200 Full HD+ resolution (120 dpi) is rated at 60Hz refresh rate and 300 nits brightness, which is what I would expect at this price point and product placement. I find the display to be bright enough, clear and crisp, evenly-lit, and with a good color spectrum and saturation. Dell gives users the option to play around with different color profiles via its Dell Optimizer app where one can toggle among Movie, ComfortView, Sports, and Animation modes. You can select a mode first then play around with the Saturation, Temperature, and Contrast sliders to fine-tune the display to your liking which is nice. The display lacks an infrared sensor for Windows Hello facial recognition but it is touchscreen and Windows Ink and Pen is supported. Having both options would be the best, of course, but if I had to choose between Windows Hello or touchscreen and Ink, I prefer the latter because it improves my productivity and convenience. Moving down from the display to the keyboard and touchpad area, I discovered more things I like about the Dell Plus 16. Thanks to the larger 16" formfactor, the keys on the keyboard are comfortably spaced out, and there is even a number pad on the right, which I LOVE. When I first began typing on the keyboard, they felt a bit heavy to me, probably due to a combination of a longer key travel distance as well as higher key actuation force requirement. Less resistance and a more tactile feel would've been appreciated. In other words, the typing experience and feel was initially not very pleasant, and this part took me the longest time to get used to. Still, I did get used to it eventually and adjusted my typing rhythm, and everything was fine after a while. I go through similar adjustment periods whenever I change my gaming keyboards for my gaming desktop so I won't knock any points from the Dell Plus 16. Further down from the keyboard is that big and lovely touchpad area. I'm so glad more and more manufacturers are making touchpads bigger and more expansive as having a large area really improves one's quality of life when using a laptop daily for multiple hours. It's a Microsoft Precision touchpad, meaning custom gestures and taps are offered for those power users who like to tinker with advanced settings. The touchpad surface is not glass and thus not super smooth and slick but the finger still glides and moves smoothly and I experienced no issues. Pushing down on the touchpad to left- or right-click generates plasticky noise, which annoys me, so I prefer the tap option instead (single-tap for left click, two-finger tap for right-click). It's not loud and clunky by any means but a bit noisy and clicky for me. In terms of ports, the Dell Plus 16 offers an audio jack and a USB-A port on the right side, and one HDMI and two USB-C ports on the left. If you need to keep the laptop plugged in, then the effective number of USB-C ports available to you reduces to just one. I think for most casual, non-power users, the number and selection of ports will not be a big issue. If you do need more ports, like Ethernet or micro/SD card support, then there are plenty of quality hubs out there that can connect to a USB-C port. Air gets pulled in from the bottom and gets expelled out the two vent strips on the rear of the chassis. When doing normal browser and office productivity stuff, the fans were very quiet and never called attention to itself. When I played some games, however, the fans kicked in and generated a noticeable but not distracting whooshing sound. It's louder than a hum but not as loud as a whirring or whining sound. To get around this, you can either up the volume or put on some headphones. Speaking of sound, they were just so-so, and I'll go into more detail in the Performance section below. Overall, I find the design and build quality of the Dell Plus 16 to be good and appropriate for its price and placement in the upper-midrange category. It's noticeably more attractive, better built, and powerful than budget-level laptops but not quite as polished or full of features as the next level-up premium category of devices. I think Dell struck a good balance with the Plus 16, and the device is easy to use and live with on a daily basis. **** Performance **** Thanks to the 8-core/16-thread AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 APU, Radeon 860M iGPU, 32GB of DDR5 memory, and 1TB Micron NVME drive, the Plus 16 is quite a fast, snappy, and responsive machine. Multitasking on the Plus 16 is a smooth and lag-free affair, where even Chrome with >30 tabs open, music playing in the background, and Word and Excel open could not slow the machine down. The benchmark scores backed up my impression and feel, where the Ryzen AI 7 350 scored 2860 for single-core and 12,521 for multi-core in Geekbench 6, besting the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU's single-core score of 2722 from my $3200 Asus gaming laptop despite having 24 cores. AMD's integrated graphics - the Radeon 860M - also fared better than the integrated graphics of the Core Ultra 9 275HX - the Plus 16 had a score of 31,714 in Vulkan Compute vs 20,417. Although the Plus 16 isn't a gaming machine, I played Dandy's World in Roblux and it ran very well with nary a stutter or lag. Other games that ran smoothly at the display's Full HD resolution included Minecraft, Fortnite, and Counter Strike 2. As a music player, the Plus 16's two downward-firing speakers proved to be a bit lacking. As you approach higher levels of volume toward 100%, the audio becomes progressively more echoey and the bass is anemic and weak. Connecting to headphones or an external speaker are recommended if you listen to music very often. In terms of networking and hard drive speed, everything was good and peachy. We have a Wi-Fi 7 router so the Plus 16 was able to take advantage of the increased speed and reliability offered by the Wi-Fi 7 standard. The 1TB Micron NVME hard drive, despite being QLC, was still pretty fast and put up some nice benchmark scores (see pic). For the battery life, the Plus 16 had pretty good stamina as well. With Chrome open with >30 tabs, music playing in the background, Windows 11 Performance Mode set to Balanced, and display brightness at 70%, I got consistent screen time between 7.5 to 8.5 hours. I don't like to take down the battery below 20%, and the Plus 16 took about 6.5 to 7 hours to hit 20% from 100% with the usual setup mentioned above. All in all, I find the performance and general responsiveness of the Plus 16 to be very satisfactory and good. **** Windows 11 and Software **** I was pleasantly surprised by a largely absent lack of third-party software preinstalled in the laptop. The first 3rd party app to go was McAfee security software, which only came with a 30-day free trial anyways. Two Dell apps were preinstalled - the Dell Optimizer and Dell SupportAssist - and both of them were keepers due to their usefulness. The Optimizer app, as mentioned above, adjusts the Saturation, Temperature, and Contrast of the display. The Optimizer can also be used to check on battery info and health and select from four different thermal management options (Optimized, Cool, Quiet, Ultra Performance). The SupportAssist, as its name suggests, handles warranty information and system updates such as drivers and BIOS. The Plus 16 arrived with Windows 11 Home with the 24H2 update, and it's been good and reliable. TIP: If you prefer the Windows 10-like Start Menu and Taskbar, then install an app called ExplorerPatcher (by Valinet). I've installed that app on all of my Windows 11 machines, and I love it. **** Is it worth the coin? **** Absolutely. The Plus 16 offers an excellent performance-and-goods for money ratio, and it's very easy to recommend. The 16" formfactor is great for both productivity and media consumption, and the long battery life will ease charge anxiety. Dell did a pretty good job here, and I give it 5 Stars.

The Dell 16 Plus DB16255 is a workhorse that can do most anything. It handled just about everything I threw at all. To begin, the design is excellent. Yes, it's a laptop. Consider this a full size modern laptop. It is big and beautiful. With a larger screen comes larger real estate. If you are looking for a small compact notebook, this is not it. But it is thin and fits in most backpacks or laptop bags designed for larger laptops. The display on this computer is as expected, gorgeous. The 16" Full High-Definition Display looks great. Colors are accurate, vibrant, and clear. Text was easy to read at almost any font size. Contrast was excellent as well. Using it in a bright room was no issue at all. Yes, using in direct sunlight will be a challenge, but so is almost any LED display. The WVA does not disappoint. As for speed, the AMD Risen AI 350 Processor handled all tasks I asked it to with no problems or hiccups. Beyond the expected, light photo editing and light video editing were done with no issues at all. It never slowed down or hesitated. The 32GB Memory helps a lot with running multiple programs. As for storage, the 1 TB SSD I found to be more than adequate and quick read and write times. It is quiet and efficient. The AMD Radeon Graphics 860M does a great job. Remember, this is not a gaming laptop and is not meant to be. I still tried some light gaming and had no issues. Latency was not an issue and graphics were smooth. For photos and video editing, the AMD 860M hit a home run. Windows 11 Home runs smooth on this computer and is easy to use. The backlit keyboard is awesome and works great, especially in low light conditions. I liked the tactile feel of the keyboard and had no issues at all typing on it. It was smooth and concise, and I have big sausage fingers. The fingerprint reader is a real winner and makes accessing files so much easier! I only use HDMI and USB-C so for me, the inputs are perfect. Wi-Fi was fast and connected to my Wi-Fi 6 system with no issues. Speeds were quick. Overall, Dell did a great job with this laptop. It is a workhorse and should be great for almost any user, minus a heavy gamer. It handles all tasks with no issues and looks great doing it. Great for any office, student, teacher, or adult needing a desktop comparable laptop. PS - The battery life is awesome! I was able to work all day and never an issue. It ran strong and laster and entire 10 hour work load and still had plenty of juice left. Really, a no-brainer. Great laptop and Dell scored big time on this one.

I have to say, I do tend to stick with Dell for my laptop needs. They make a solid product. This Dell model, Plus 16" FHD+ Touch screen is a great work or every day laptop. The screen is big and bright and the keys feel nice, along with a 10 key which is always a plus for me. It's not super light, but it's not heavy either. It's packaged well with the charger on the side. Start up was easy, there were some updates, as there always are with new laptops, but they didn't take long. Logging in with my MS account was no problem. The power button can also serve as a fingerprint reader but I opted out of that. It has Windows 11 and Copilot+. If you haven't used Copilot+ then you are in for a treat. It's a fun AI tool that will keep prompting you to help it learn. While it is kind of creepy it's also extraordinary. Totally could get lost in that rabbit hole. This laptop is fast, powers up quickly, battery life has been great, and I really love the screen - touch enabled, crisp, clear and bright with a nice bezel. It'll be great to watch videos on as well as scroll and do some work. It's also a nice icy blue color, it's very eye-catching and unique. The touchpad is fine, I think it's more me getting used to where left ends and right starts, but I'll get used to the orientation - it's certainly not anything to frown over. This is a great laptop - and the price is not bad for all that you are getting. This will stay relevant for a while so if you're in the market this is one to consider purchasing.

I am very impressed with this laptop, and the price point Dell is selling these at. One 'con' is that the memory is soldered on and is not upgradeable, but it IS scalable to meet your needs. Time from power on to productivity (able to use the laptop, while windows updates were installing in the background) was about 45 minutes, which is one of the faster setups I have seen from a laptop in recent memory. There were some dell firmware updates that installed upon the next 1-2 restarts, and those required the power adapter to be connected so please keep the laptop plugged into power until you fully finish the setup process. For testing, I left on all of the normal dell bloatware, and only uninstalled McAfee virus scanner and installed my Spectrum Security Suite. This laptop did come with Windows 11 home edition, so if you are looking for a higher O/S you will have to purchase and install that yourself. Geekbench 6 results: Single Core 1974 Multi-Core: 9278 (this is almost double the speed of my Gigabyte Aorus laptop that is less than 2 years old) Geekbench AI results: Single precision score: 2013 Half precision score: 1033 Quantized score: 4629 Copy Speeds: USC C copy speeds got up to 701 mb/s. A 42 Gb file took less than 5 minutes to copy from my USB-c connected portable hard drive 575 mb/s copying from laptop to external usb-C Hard Drive Memory Scalability: Through the AMD Adrenalin software, you ARE able to allocate more (or less) system memory for GPU usage via the AMD software - although the first laptop I received from dell had some issues including windows not un-allocating half of the installed memory, and the AMD adrenalin software kept crashing and then somehow uninstalled itself. The dell support team was quick to send me another laptop to replace the original one that had these issues. This new laptop hasn’t encountered either of these issues since. For gaming, I installed and played Tomb Raider from the xbox app, the GPU utilization jumped up to about 46% during game play but power consumption did not go over 8 watts. Wi Fi: This does have a 7th generation wifi adapter onboard, but since my home router is only wifi 6 capable, the speed tests I ran were very close to my other (wifi 6th gen) devices. My speed test came back with 485 Mbps download and 11 Mbps upload speeds. Heat: when using this laptop on battery, the bottom of the laptop does NOT ever get overly warm. This is nice, as my lap usually feels on fire when using other laptops for extended periods of time. However, if you are charging the laptop, while using it, the upper left corner of the laptop will generate some heat (close to where the charging port is.) TouchScreen: I did not have any issues using the touch screen over the trackpad. Great for one handed computing while holding my newborn in the other hand 😊 Overall, this thing is a beast. If you are thinking about getting one, I say go-for-it!

The Dell 16 Plus DB16255 laptop is a very nicely equipped and reasonably priced product. This particular model was configured with the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor, AMD Radeon 860M graphics, 32GB LPDDR5X memory and a 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. The laptop also includes a 1920 x 1200 FHD+ touch display, 1080p 30fps FHD camera, fingerprint reader, backlit keyboard and wireless support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth. Available physical ports include 2 USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) with Power Delivery and DisplayPort, 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1 HDMI 1.4 and 1 Universal Audio Jack. A 65W USB-C charging adapter is included with the laptop. The laptop overall appearance is clean and smooth, and it feels solid and nicely constructed. The keyboard is well supported and has a good feel with smooth and quiet keys, and includes a numeric keypad. The track pad is large and easy to use with clearly visible boundaries, and is easy to disable if you prefer a mouse. Setting up the laptop was very easy. There was no Dell-specific configuration, and Windows 11 updates were installed as part of the setup process prior to first login. Dell software to update system firmware and drivers was transparently installed, and after a few hours it updated the system automatically. Microsoft doesn't make it easy, but it is possible to set up the pre-installed Windows 11 using a local account not linked to a Microsoft account login. This disables OneDrive, preventing it from becoming the default location for Documents and more. If biometrics (fingerprint or facial recognition) are not provided, the Recall snapshot feature is disabled. These are useful things to know, whether you are or are not a fan of OneDrive keeping your documents in Microsoft cloud storage, or of Recall recording screenshots of your activity. The PassMark performance tests were run, and results were as expected for the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor. The scores were generally better than a laptop based on the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V with Intel Arc 140V GPU. The Dell CPU, 2D graphics and disk scores were 6.7%, 54% and 40% higher respectively. The Dell 3D graphics score was 2.5% lower, and the memory score was 13% lower. Running HWiNFO64 showed that the LPDDR5X timing numbers move around, suggesting that memory is slowed down to save power when idle which may or may not be affecting the benchmark result. Our internet service provides 500Mbps up and down, and internet speed tests showed that the laptop comfortably achieved that rate over a Wi-Fi connection. I used the Microsoft Camera application to check out the FHD camera and was impressed. It works very well, producing a very clear HD image. Laptop audio is very clear, and the speakers have plenty of volume. Like most laptops, there just isn't enough physical volume to do a good job with low frequency reproduction so you'll want headphones or external speakers for any serious listening. The 16" FHD+ laptop touch display is clear, sharp and bright with a wide viewing angle, but color is a bit lackluster. The colors lack intensity, appearing muted or washed out depending on screen brightness. Reds just don't quite look red, they appear muted with a slight orange hue. I've included a photo of the same color test image displayed on the laptop screen and on a Samsung LS24D300G, an inexpensive monitor with a 24" IPS panel that retails for $100 to $120. The monitor is connected through the laptop HDMI port. I've experimented with Windows 11 display calibration and settings, and with Dell Optimizer color profiles and custom settings, but have not been able to correct the color issue I'm seeing. I don't believe this is a problem of the monitor colors being too vivid, as I also have an OLED screen with colors more vivid than the monitor. I will pursue this with Dell support to see if there are other color controls or options that I am not aware of. Unlike other laptops I've used, the bottom edge of the cover comes in contact with desktop when it is opened up, lifting the back edge of the laptop up a little. There are a couple of small plastic nubs on the bottom edge of the cover that prevent the metal cover itself from coming in direct contact with the desktop. Time will tell how well the plastic nubs wear over time, which will depend on the surface the laptop sits on, how often it is slid around with the cover open, and how often the cover is opened and closed. The laptop owner's manual is wonderful. In addition to setup information, specifications, BIOS operation, troubleshooting and self test information, the manual contains a wealth of mechanical and service information. There are removal and replacement instructions for customer replaceable units like the battery or solid state drive, and for field replaceable units like the system board that would normally be handled at a repair center. The detail in these instructions is impressive, with exploded views that provide the types and locations of each fastener involved. The Dell 16 Plus DB16255 is a very solid product. It has excellent performance and value, a useful assortment of external ports, and allows additional connectivity through 10Gbps USB-C ports. It would be a great choice for everyday casual use, for an office or work at home environment, or for general engineering development or lab use. The 16" screen has a wide viewing angle and produces clear and crisp images. I've not been able to make colors appear quite as rich looking as on other displays, but the image quality is still generally very good. Video is very watchable and images look realistic.

This is a nice 16” laptop that I had a few initial issues that I could deal with. However, someone that is not PC savvy would likely have a big problem with one of the issues. Plus, there is one big issue with a secondary monitor that I haven’t been able to resolve. The screen is clear and bright but can have a lot of glare in the right conditions. The power button has a fingerprint reader that is great when it works. I had a few issues with it initially, but it has been working well since I performed some updates. The keyboard works fine and is backlit with a white light. The number pad is tight but still nice to have. The mouse pad can be a bit touchy at times but mostly works well. Battery life has been good. Using the laptop on and off throughout the day, I’m seeing about 6-7 hours per full charge. Note: The charger gets very hot while charging. Connectivity is a little limited. There are 2 USB C ports and one USB A as well as an HDMI Port. If you are charging the laptop, you only have one of each. I often use a monitor that connects via USB C, a USB A Mouse and a Memory stick that can use either port. This leaves no room for the charger unless I get an additional USB hub. There is no memory card reader. So if you use SD cards, you will need another USB adaptor. For a laptop that is marketed for creative use, it needs additional USB ports. The most disappointing thing for me is the USC-C ports support only DisplayPort over USB-C. The expensive USB-C monitor I have requires DisplayPort Alternate Mode. The two modes are not interchangeable. Therefore, at the moment, I cannot use this monitor with this laptop. I’m hoping to find a workaround, but this is very frustrating to say the least. I have a much lower quality USB-A monitor but if I use that, I can’t use my mouse… Again, frustrating. There is a lot of quick memory (32gb) and storage (1tb). Programs load quickly. The main drive is a Micron 2500 with QLC memory. This drive is intended for general use and is rated quite well in reviews. Based on Dell’s service documents, the drive is M.2 and can be replaced with a larger drive if desired. However, there is only one M.2 slot. An additional internal drive cannot be added. I was planning to use this as a production PC. My main programs are MS Office, AutoCAD, SketchUp and Paint Shop Pro. SketchUp can be a little jumpy with more detailed models but otherwise works well. One issue is the Graphics in this Laptop is by AMD. Any software that requires nVidia CUDA cores either won’t work properly or works slower. I can use the Enscape plugin in Sketchup in a limited fashion (no VR) but not V-Ray for SketchUp because of the lack of CUDA. If you don’t need CUDA cores, the graphics are good. I did have some additional issues. First the biggest one. MS Update updated the BIOS and afterwards the computer asked for my BitLocker (encryption) key. Apparently, this is turned on by default on this Laptop. I was able to get the key from my MS account, but it was a bit of a scare. Someone who is not PC savy would likely have a big problem with this. There have also been a few times when the PC wakes up with a blank screen. Each time this happens, I need to hold the power button until the laptop shuts off and then restart. After a driver update, I haven’t had this happen anymore. I’m not fan of the pre-installed McAfee software. That was uninstalled immediately. All in all, this is a really good laptop (especially after updates are installed) but with some limitations. For me the monitor issue and the lack of USB ports might be a deal killer. I would definitely recommend it for someone doing content creation so long as CUDA cores are not required for their programs and they don’t use a monitor similar to mine.

This works great with my data - it's super fast, has powerful processors, great battery life, and looks so sleek. The large screen is a big plus. I love it and will recommend!"

This silver Dell Plus 16 notebook has a lot of potential (and good bones as I say).  It's based on AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU, 8 Cores and 16 Threads (4x Zen 5, 4x Zen 5c running from 2 GHz to 3.5 GHz(Zen 5c) and 2 GHz to 5.0 GHz(Zen 5). Its multi thread rating is 21,127 and single thread rating is 3,919. Typically consuming 15W but peaking at 45w.  It's a power efficient processor that has been popular in mid to high-end notebooks supporting AI (NPU TOPS up to 50 TOPS).  It weighs 4.46 pounds and the external case is all aluminum (silver).  It has a 1920x1200 HD+ touch screen. This Dell uses the AMD Radeon 860M GPU.  It also has a nice backlit keyboard. It also does not have an Ethernet port or a SDcard reader.  It has two USB 3.2 USB-C ports and one 3.2 USB-A port and 1 HDMI 1.4 port (w/HDR video). It has a headphone/mic jack.  It supports Wi-Fi 6 and 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. It has a very nice 2K camera (but no physical shutter).  It integrates Microsoft Copilot with a Copilot key.  The USB ports are all limited to 20Gbps, it does support outputting to a USB monitor via the USB-C port.  It has a nice trackpad. The back of the monitor is a silver metal as is the keyboard base, the bottom of the computer is also a sturdy metal base.  The bottom can easily be removed by removing 9 screws (good/easy). The AMD Radeon 860M GPU decent integrated graphics processor, it can handle light gaming at lower settings. It is fine for basic video editing and creative tasks and for browsing the internet.  It's energy efficient; it is not suitable for high-end gaming. It should get about 20 hours of usage on battery power.  It comes with a pretty good Micron Gen 4x4 SSD; spec'd to have max seq writes at 7000 MBs and reads at 6900 MBs.  It supports DDR5x memory 7500Mhz. It comes with 32GB (2x16GB).  The SSD is removable/replaceable.  This is why I acquired this notebook; to upgrade it.  I can live with 32GB of fast RAM. I did the initial set up and upgrades with the base hardware.  Windows Home 11 requires you to have a Microsoft account to log into. I went through a DELL BIOS upgrade and needed at least 5 sets of "updates" to get throught all of the Microsoft updates. I'm replacing the SSD with a faster 4TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD rated at 7,450 seq reads and 6,900 seq writes, of which I got 7,014/3,804 reads and 5,951/5,233 writes.  To clone the SSD you must disable Windows 11 BitLocker (Encryption), with Windows 11 Home this is slightly more complicated but doable.  The included Micron SSD tested out at 6,992/3,569 reads and 6,055/3,866 writes (CrystalDiskMark9, see image).  This is close to the same on reads, but slower than the Samsung 990 Pro SSD on writes.  The SSD migration/upgrade went smoothly. The notebook runs pretty cool; you can just barely feel that the left side of the keyboard and palmrest is warmer than the right side. But it has a pretty nice HD+ screen and it's FAST and only 0.61" thick. The keyboard is better than I expected, almost no give.  The island keys are plastic but they don't have a cheap feel to them. Key travel is so-so (I'd like a little more), but I do appreciate having a backlit keyboard.  With the faster SSD and some configuration changes browsing the internet with either Edge or Chrome (via WiFi 6) was very fast.  I did some audio editing and it was smooth and fast.  The two 2.5 watt speakers are adequate, nothing to write home about.  I usually edit with a BT connection or using headphones/earbuds, both of these worked very well.  I do astrophotography where I stack hundreds of night photos.  The applications I use are fairly CPU intensive, not so GPU intensive as it is memory intensive. Loading and comparing hundreds of images can only be done efficiently with lots of memory.  This computer's Ryzen AI 7 processor handles this pretty efficiently (better than Intel I7 that I got this year).  I processed a stack of about 100 images in just over 2 minutes 10 seconds.  My newer Intel notebook (i7 w/64Gb memory)) took just over 2 minutes 50 seconds.  So this notebook, as upgraded, will be faster; partially because SSDs have gotten faster.  When notebooks start shipping with Gen5 M.2 interfaces and SSD's, they will come down in price, and I'll likely upgrade again (This Samsung 990 Pro supports both Gen4 and Gen5).  But for now this is a pretty good compromise This Dell 15 Plus does not support USB4 (but the Ryzen 7 AI 350 does) and does not have a SD card reader or ethernet.  It's only power input is via one of the two USB-C ports, only leaving one USB-C and one USB-A port.  Here they lose a star, they should support USB4. It's becoming more and more common and only having 2 USB ports is not enough.  So I'll need to add a USB hub (probably powered) with a SDcard reader and probably at least one USB-C port to be able to use this with my astro-photography camera.

Overview The Dell - 16" FHD+ Touch Screen with AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 Copilot+ is a beautiful performer at a reasonable price. It stands up well as a business and programming performer. While it can handle some gaming, it is not a high-end performer. With all the graphics and performance settings provided, there might be some better device drivers coming to improve the performance. I am pleased with this laptop, and I do recommend it at four stars. My reasoning is below: Unboxing and Setup The laptop comes in a durable box suitable for shipping. It is thinner and lighter than I expected for a 16" laptop. The lid and base have a smooth aluminum texture, which helps to prevent fingerprint marks. The hinges are firm and smooth. When raising the lid, the base of the lid will increase the bottom of the laptop at a slight angle for better airflow. The bottom has vents for airflow and rubber strip feet. The full-size keyboard has two levels of white backlighting, a large touchpad, and the keys are amply wide enough for my speed typing. The power button has a fingerprint scanner for secure login. The 16" Full HD display is beautiful. The display can be extended until flat, which is suitable for sharing the views with others around a table. The Windows install, setup, and updates took around an hour. After one of the updates and a reboot, the BitLocker screen appeared, and I had to retrieve my Microsoft recovery key via another computer. It was fine after that. I uninstalled McAfee and the foreign language versions of Microsoft 365 and OneNote. Configuration and Performance The laptop comes with the AMD Adrenalin Edition software, which has the most extensive graphics and configuration settings I have ever seen. Some of the options include Virtual Super Resolution, GPU Scaling, Fluid Motion Frames, Anti-Lag, Boost, and Video Profiles. The display can be rotated to portrait or landscape views, and the Video Profiles provide a quick selection depending on what the target use is, such as Cinema, Outdoor use, Sports, and more. The app also supports performance metrics, tracking, and adjustments. While my target use for this laptop is for programming and writing, I also intend to do some gaming with it. My primary target games are Microsoft's Flight Simulator and No Man's Sky. Before running the games, I set the AMD software to HYPR-RX, and I set Windows to gaming mode. To get the best performance configuration, the AMD software monitors how the games perform. While it implied there would be automatic adjustments to the GPU settings, I didn't see any deviation from the initial configuration I selected. No Man's Sky played smoothly with a mix of standard and enhanced graphics settings within the game itself. In Microsoft's Flight Simulator, I used the lower-end graphic settings, and the flying went smoothly. Even though the graphic settings were at the low settings, the FHD display made it look great. One of the strengths of this laptop is the beautiful display. Programming code in a small font is clear, crisp, and easy on the eyes—streaming videos and watching movies look amazing. However, I do recommend a good set of headphones or external speakers for the sound. While the laptop performed well with MSFS and NMS, the performance statistics with the following benchmarks are a little disappointing. The implementation of the Radeon 860M is very new, and the 3DMark benchmarks identified the GPU locally. However, it remains unclear when comparing results online. These statistics will improve with future device driver releases. The battery held up for over 8 hours of regular office work of programming, internet use, and occasional streaming. Benchmarks • Valley Benchmark @ 1920x1200, Direct3D11, High Quality ○ Max. FPS: 94 ○ Avg. FPS: 52.4 ○ Score: 2191 • 3DMark AMD FSR Feature Test ○ FSR off FPS: 3.51 ○ FSR on FPS: 6.63 • 3DMark Fire Strike ○ FPS: 32.04 ○ Score: 5923 • 3DMark CPU Profile ○ Max threads score: 6142 ○ 16 threads score: 6060 ○ 1 thread score: 1124 Specifications: • CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 w/Radeon 860M, 8 Cores, 2GHz, 16 Threads • Neural Processing Unit, 50 trillion operations per sec • Memory: 32GB • GPU: AMD Radeon™ 860M 512 MB LPDDRS, 800 MHz • 1920 x 1200 FHD+ touch screen, LED, 300 nits, anti-glare coating, 60Hz refresh rate • Full-size backlit keyboard with fingerprint reader • 1080p webcam, 2.07 Megapixels, built-in microphone • Windows 11 64-bit, Windows AI CoPilot+ • 1 TB SSD EG6 KIOXIA • Lithium-ion Battery, up to 20 hours • 1 HDMI 1.4 port • 1 USB-A 3.2 • 2 USB-C 3.2 • Headphone Jack • Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 7 • Realtek ALC3204 Audio