The Best Dell Laptops for 2020
Looking for a budget laptop or a Chromebook for the kids? Or do you need a system powerful enough for design work or gaming? Dell offers a wide variety of capable portable PCs. These are the top performers (and top values) in our testing.
Dude, You're Getting a Dell...But Which One?
If you're shopping for a laptop, you have torrent of options to choose among, be it a thin mobile companion or a hefty, rugged notebook, with a vast range of options in between. Where even to start? Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to narrow down your options based on what you know. And sometimes that's a brand you've long used and trusted.
If you're familiar with Dell, you probably have some opinion regarding how reliable the company's products are, how its customer service works, and the general quality of the user experience that those products and services deliver. If you're brand-loyal, it's a reasonable way to whittle down your options, while still helping you zero in on a great product. Picking a brand you trust does half the deciding for you.
Whether you're after a powerful laptop for crunching numbers at work, or a laptop for staying productive at home or on the go, there's a good chance that Dell has a model you've considered buying. The company has solid machines at all levels of the market.
Decoding Dell's Key Laptop Brands
When you're looking at Dell's laptop product line, you'll want to concentrate on which of its six main families of laptop best meets your needs. The ones to familiarize yourself with are Inspiron, XPS, Alienware, G Series, Latitude, and Precision. You'll find both clamshell and 2-in-1 convertible entries in all of these families apart from the two gaming-oriented ones.
Inspiron: The Mainstream Choice
For use in home or school, Dell's Inspiron brand comprises consumer laptops of every stripe: power machines, inexpensive "just enough" machines, big displays, ultracompacts. Whether you're editing photos or managing your home finances, Inspiron's copious options fit both screen-size and budget needs for most buyers. These machines are mostly Windows models; if you want something a little less expensive for simple tasks and browsing online, consider Dell's Chromebooks, which put basic functionality into an affordable package that works great for kids and students.
Dell breaks its Inspiron line into three gradations or levels: 3000, 5000, and 7000 series. As you go up that stack, you tend to see more premium features, and higher relative pricing. The number between the word "Inspiron" and the series number is typically the screen size of the laptop; an Inspiron 13 7000, for example, would be a 13-inch-screened laptop with top-end characteristics.
XPS: The Power-User Class
The various guises of the Dell XPS 13 have been our "near-perfect" mainstream and power laptops for some time now. Refresh after refresh, Dell keeps tuning to keep this hardy machine on top. XPS signifies, on both the desktop and laptop side of the fence, a premium-design, fully decked-out machine that bridges demanding consumers and business users. It's Dell's line of power tools that are equally at home in a home office, a coffee shop, a conference room, or a high-stakes business meeting.
You won't find a lot of variety in the XPS laptop line in terms of screen size or stratification, just configurable versions of the 13-inch-screened XPS 13 and 15-inch XPS 15 as both clamshells and swiveling-screen 2-in-1s. Notable developments in the XPS line in last year or so include the XPS 15 2-in-1, one of the few PCs on the market using the unusual Intel/AMD hybrid "Kaby Lake-G" CPUs with Intel core processing and AMD Radeon graphics, and the latest 2019 version of the XPS 13, referenced above, which is an Editors' Choice winner and brings six-core power to this thin model. The late-2019 XPS 13 2-in-1 is also much improved with the addition of 10th Generation "Ice Lake" processors.
Alienware and G Series: Full-Spectrum Gaming
If gaming is more your style, Dell's Alienware brand delivers, if you're on the market for a serious, blinged-out gaming cruiser. The latest components combine with premium construction and design, earning Alienware a well-deserved reputation as an aspirational brand among PC gamers. The Alienware machines tend to be big, brawny models with heavy graphics firepower and prices to match, though some of its 2018 machines, the brand is making forays into leaner machines. That said, the wholly redesigned 2019 Alienware Area-51m is a futuristic, winning take on the classic gaming bruiser.
Dell also sells some gaming laptops under its G Series brand, introduced in 2018. Before this new sub-brand's introduction, this aggressively priced, lower-end line was part of the Inspiron family. Dell split it out as its own animal, and now the G Series is aimed at mainstream and budget-constrained gamers, with more modest designs than the Alienwares and component loadouts that are humbler but still workable for the latest games.
The G Series models hover above and below the $1,000 mark, while the Alienwares start north of that. Models in the G Series are gradated like the Inspirons, into G3, G5, and G7 classes, with the higher numbers indicating higher-grade builds and feature sets.
Latitude: The Umbrella for Business Machines
Then there's business. Dell's Latitude brand is the mainstay for its business laptops, competing with options from Lenovo (the ThinkPad T series) and HP (the various EliteBook lines). Latitude offers options for workers in the office or in the field, with a mix of thin-yet-powerful laptops and durable systems that can take a beating.
Like the Inspirons and the G Series, the Latitudes make use of the same 3000, 5000, and 7000 nomenclature. The second number in the four-digit model number, though, signifies the screen size. So a Dell Latitude 7390 is in the top of the three lines, with a 13.3-inch screen; a Latitude 5591 would be a middle-grade machine with a 15.6-inch screen.
Beyond the "simply" durable units, the Latitude line is also home to a few costly, highly ruggedized models that are designed to be used in hostile environments: doused in water, clipped onto an ATV, exposed to cold and wind, and the like. These are branded under the Latitude Rugged Extreme moniker.
Precision: For Demanding Professionals
Mobile workstations are a breed of machines that share some traits with business models, but they stand apart for their Independent Software Vendor (ISV) certifications and, in some cases, specialized CPU and GPU options and support for highly precise ECC (error-correcting) memory. ISV certifications give users of demanding professional business apps (in areas such as scientific computing, architecture, and engineering) assurances that the workstation will run up to snuff with a given application. Companies such as Adobe, Autodesk, Avid, Dassault Systemés, and Siemens tend to be the ISVs involved.
Dell's line of mobile workstations is its Precision line, which comprises both laptop and desktop models. On the laptop side, Precision makes use of the same 3000, 5000, and 7000 series lingo as the Latitudes, with the screen size indicated within the model number.
A workstation might make use of consumer- or business-grade Intel CPUs, but the mark of a high-end workstation is the presence of a mobile Intel Xeon CPU and a dedicated workstation-grade graphics processor from Nvidia (Quadro) or AMD (Radeon Pro). The latter are in contrast to their consumer-GPU counterparts (GeForce GTX/RTX and Radeon RX, respectively) and are designed specifically for the kind of heavy-duty calculations that ISV-class applications require. Dell also offers a few 2-in-1 SKUs in the Precision line; convertible workstations are far less common than their consumer counterparts.
Ready for Our Recommendations?
There are plenty of solid Dell systems to choose from, but don't be overwhelmed by the options. We've combed through our many reviews and singled out the best Dell systems in multiple categories. For more (Dell and non-Dell) options, check out our 10 favorite laptops overall (updated constantly), as well as our lists of the best Chromebooks, the best cheap laptops, and the best gaming laptops.
Best Dell Laptops Featured in This Roundup:
Pros: Thin, light chassis. Excellent build quality. Brilliant 4K display. Includes powerful, efficient Intel 10th Gen "Comet Lake" CPU. Support for Wi-Fi 6. Plentiful I/O ports.Cons: Slightly uncomfortable keyboard. Occasional fan noise.Bottom Line: Packing Intel's latest 10th Generation "Comet Lake" CPUs (now, with up to six cores), the latest rev of Dell's XPS 13 is one of the most powerful and best designed ultraportables you can buy.Read Review
Pros: Excellent design and build quality. Intel 10th Gen "Ice Lake" CPU and graphics. Wi-Fi 6 support. Top-notch screen. Long battery life. Bundled USB adapter. microSD slot.Cons: Shallow keyboard. No USB Type-A ports. Balky fingerprint reader.Bottom Line: With sterling build quality, a brilliant display, and an Intel "Ice Lake" CPU with real graphics pep, the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 is tops among convertible laptops.Read Review
Pros: Astounding graphics and general computing performance. Desktop-class processor. Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU. Built-in eye tracking. Comfortable keyboard. 144Hz display. Excellent component access for upgrades.Cons: Heavy, bulky. Requires two power bricks. Expensive. No 4K display option. Very short battery life.Bottom Line: Packing an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 graphics chip and a desktop-class Intel Core i9, Alienware's massively rejiggered flagship, the Area-51m, is the best-performing gaming laptop we've tested, a monster in every sense a laptop can be.Read Review
Pros: Very bright, polarized screen. Long-lasting batteries are hot-swappable. Extensive selection of accessories.Cons: Keyboard cover is a pricey extra. Unresponsive touchpad.Bottom Line: The Dell Latitude 7212 is a well-designed, tough detachable Windows tablet that can take pretty much anything you (and nature) can throw at it. And compared with the rugged competition it's a relative bargain.Read Review
Pros: Proximity sensor streamlines sign in. Sturdy, sleek chassis. Thin screen bezels, and relatively large 14-inch screen. Excellent touchpad and keyboard. Three-year warranty. Prime-time battery life.Cons: Relatively low maximum screen brightness. Lackluster audio quality.Bottom Line: With a deluxe chassis, keyboard, and touchpad, paired with a snappy sign-in feature and superb battery life, Dell's Latitude 7400 2-in-1 is a top contender among business convertibles.Read Review
Pros: Remarkably thin and light. Formidable six-core Xeon horsepower. Gorgeous 4K touch screen.Cons: Expensive. Unusable webcam placement. No middle button (or any buttons) on touchpad. Only one Thunderbolt 3 port.Bottom Line: Dell splices its XPS 15 DNA with its Precision mobile workstation line to create the 5530, a lightweight basher with overpowering six-core Xeon and Nvidia Quadro chops and a spiffy 4K touch panel.Read Review
Pros: Classy design with ingenious pen-holder hinge. Solid performance. Decent display.Cons: No Thunderbolt 3 port. Typically game-proof integrated graphics. Subpar speakers.Bottom Line: Dell's new Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 Black Edition (the moniker for just-south-of-XPS deluxe models) shoots to near the top of the convertible ranks with impressive features at a fair price, and the best pen storage bar none.Read Review
Pros: Automatically extending kickstand. Sturdy keyboard case. Three-year warranty, as configured. Excellent computing performance.Cons: Expensive in test configuration. No LTE data option. No 4K display.Bottom Line: The Dell Latitude 7200 2-in-1 is a detachable Windows tablet that includes comprehensive IT security features, along with excellent build quality and the field's niftiest kickstand.Read Review
Pros: Light weight. Long battery life. Top-tier performance for business apps.Cons: No 4K display option. Finicky fingerprint reader. Privacy screen has a wider field of view than it ought to.Bottom Line: The Dell Latitude 7400 is a 14-inch business ultraportable with excellent performance and battery life and a wide array of configuration choices.Read Review
Pros: Stellar 4K OLED display. Quality build. Gaming-capable GTX 1650 GPU in our review unit. Good battery life. Wide range of configuration options. Webcam back where it belongs.Cons: Design starting to feel a tad dated. So-so touchpad and keyboard.Bottom Line: The 7590 model doesn't reinvent the XPS 15 design, but the OLED display and top-tier components of our test unit keep this Dell staple a crowd-pleasing desktop-replacement laptop.Read Review
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