Dell 16 Plus review 2026 - Get APP Zone

 

A trustworthy mid range outing that is light runs well and has fine battery life. The Dell 16 Plus offers a solid mid tier laptop experience throughout. Between great general computing performance for any college student or executive and long lasting battery life. The base $799 options make a ton of sense. Add a thin and lightweight design and there is much to appreciate here. However there are some drawbacks like a weak webcam and speakers plus some missing features.

Cons

Speakers sound weak especially the bass

Webcam is not great

Lacks SD card slot and touchscreen

Limited gaming and creative task performance

Pros

Respectable battery life

Solid lightweight design with a full keyboard

Affordable

Nice looking 120Hz display

Fantastic general performance

Price and Availability

The starting price is $799/£ 1455/$1598. It is available now. Available in the US UK and Australia from Dell.com and from the other retailers. Available now the Dell 16 Plus can be purchased from Dell online store alongside other retailers in the United States. United Kingdom and Australia. There are also a variety of options at different price points as well.

Starting in the US the 16 Plus can be purchased between $799 and as high as $1299 with the same GPU and display spread across them. Our review unit sat at the lowest cost while the mid priced configuration rounded out at around $949.99. That will net potential buyers an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU 32GB RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. At the highest pricepoint comes an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD storage packed in.

Interested buyers living in the UK have a slew of customization options that will range between £1454.23 and £2143.61. The lowest end model comes with an Intel Core Ultra 5 236V integrated Intel Arc 16GB and 512GB SSD storage. Interestingly enough the lowest price point lacks a backlit keyboard and fingerprint scanner. The highest priced configuration comes with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265U. Integrated Intel Graphics 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD. Also this tier also allows for a touchscreen as well.

Finally in the Australian citizens have a few options including an AU$1598 configuration with an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD. The highest option at AU$2197 has an Intel Core Ultra9 288V 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD. Both of those configurations have the same integration Intel Arc Graphics GPU and 16inch 2560 x 1600 display.

Review of Dell 16 Plus

Dell 16 inch laptop lineup has become a staple in the company catalog. Known for striking a balance between portability and performance. Offering both 14 and 16 inch display options. These devices typically deliver reliable build quality with a design that feels solid yet travel friendly. Most importantly the line of laptops usually comes at an aggressively affordable price. The same goes for the latest Dell 16 Plus one of the best Dell laptops you can buy today. Starting at $799/ £1,454.23 / $1,598 the 16 plus features the latest Intel Lunar Lake chips up to 32GB RAM and up to 2TB of SSD storage.

Other features include a full QWERTY keyboard and number pad a 16 inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate an FHD webcam with privacy slider and more. Of course internal components can be pushed a little higher for additional cost. For those who are always on the move and need a truly portable device the Dell 16 Plus delivers with a relatively lightweight build at around four pounds. When closed it measures under an inch thick making it easy to slip into most backpacks without adding bulk.

This makes it one of the best student laptops for those who need more screen real estate or someone who needs a laptop to do occasional web browsing word processing number crunching and some light media needs on the creative or consumption front. The low price comes at the cost of missing features like an SD card reader slot or even a touchscreen display.

Anyone looking to watch the occasional YouTube or Netflix video or listen to the music while plugging away the 16Plus is a bit of a mixed bag. When it comes to the display as mentioned earlier the 120Hz refresh rate display is beautiful to look at despite lacking HDR. Through the lower and mid volume levels allow for some nice sonic nuance that falls apart at higher volume levels. It does not help that overall bass is on the weaker side of things as well.

Adding to the portability is a solid battery that Dell promises will work up to 20 hours. However out tests did not show that much battery life the results were still good enough for most of the people.

Overall the Dell 16 Plus stands out as a solid mid range option for users who value portability respectable performance and a budget conscious price point. Even rivaling those of the best laptops on the market. While it may fall short for power users or gamers its sleek build reliable battery life and sharp display make it worthy companion for everyday productivity and media tasks.

Design of Dell 16 Plus

The Dell 16 Plus features a chassis made with sustainable materials like recycled and low emissions aluminum recycled steel and ocean bound plastics. For the envornmentally conscious individual they will be happy to know that the laptop has EPEAT Gold with Climate+ and Energy Star certification. Though the colorway may look a bit boring with the silver chassis with a gray keyboard it goes a long way toward being more functional than sleek. The Dell 16 Plus weighs around four pounds. And when closed is about an inch thick. The top display half has a Dell logo and the bottom does feature a rubber strip which raises the laptop at a slight angle for the comfort.

On the sides is where users will see various ports. A singular USB-A and headphone jack on the right while the left side has duel USB-C ports and HDMI port. The left side also has a small LED light to hive battery status when charging as well as. Unfortunately there is not an SD card slot which means users are going to need an adapter for more creative tasks.

Once open users are going to notice the 16 inch display which has a standard FHD webcam with a manual privacy slider at the top. The bottom portion of the display is connected to two hinges that fold back to 180 degrees. Regardless of what angle the Laptop is in it is pretty sturdy. The full size keyboard complete with a number pad offers a satisfying typing experience with well balanced tactile feedback and minimal noise.

Integrated into the top right corner of the number pad is a fingerprint scanner that also serves as the power button working reliably in everyday use. The trackpad is impressively smooth and responsive making navigation feel seamless though the physical click could be more refined.

Battery Life

During our week and some days span with the Dell 16 Plus rigorous daily use meant that I was able to get a real feel for how battery life would work on the laptop. Though Dell promises up to 20 hours we were able to squeeze 13 hours on one charge. A lot of that has to go with the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V alongside Dell optimizer which does a great job of balancing performance and power usage.

For sure the 16 Plus will be more than enough for bi coastal travelers and could technically make a flight from Los Angeles to London with a few hours to spare. While working on the laptop during a full day. I only needed to charge it once through one of the USB-C ports on the left side. To charge from around 0 percent to around 50 it took around 40 minutes with a little under two hours to fully charge. When it comes to battery life the 16 Plus holds its own among the best available at the moment.

Performance of Dell 16 Plus

During my time with the Dell 6 plus I was really impressed by its ability to handle demanding multitasking without noticeable slowdowns even with 20 to 30 Google Chrome tabs open. Whether I was drafting this review in the Google Docs or managing projects in Asana. Everything ran smoothly. The laptop also performed well when launching apps like Microsoft and even Adobe Photoshop.

In terms of creative workloads Photoshop handles high resolution images comfortably though performance dipped when working with numerous complex layers. Similarly Premiere Pro worked well for 1080p editing but more demanding 4K projects introduced occasional lag and slowdown. The Intel Core Ultra 7 256V is a fairly powerful mobile CPU that works well with the 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD storage.

Why should you buy the dell 16 plus and why you do not buy dell 16 plus?

If you need an affordable general tasks laptop. Then the Dell 16 Plus Performs well for anyone who wants to do activities from multi-tab Google Chrome browsing to light photo editing for a sub $800 price tag.

If you want a lightweight design with a full keyboard than it is the best option for you. The laptop design is around four pounds and less than an inch tall when closed. A full keyboard with ten key numpad makes this one of the best in its class.

If you want a better webcam than do not buy it because it is the full HD webcam is not the best in less than ideal lighting scenarios and there are not many software features though the manual privacy slider is a nice touch.

If you had like something a bit more powerful than this is not for you. Users who want to do more heavy lifting in the gaming department to make better use of that 2.5k display running at 120Hz may be a bit disappointed.