Dell XPS 16 Redesign: Premium Hardware, Flawed Keyboard

Verdict: A Premium Windows Laptop With One Big Caveat

The Dell XPS 16 is a premium Windows laptop that combines a refined CNC‑aluminum design, a 16‑inch 3.2K OLED touchscreen, and latest‑generation Intel Core Ultra hardware to serve demanding creatives and professionals who value portability and visual quality. At its core, this is the creative professional laptop many Windows users have been waiting for: thin, light, and powerful enough to handle heavy workloads while offering one of the best OLED screens in its class. However, the redesigned Dell XPS 16 keyboard—with its zero‑lattice layout, shallow 0.8mm travel, and flat, slightly mushy feel—keeps it from being universally recommendable to people who type all day. If you can live with the keyboard compromise and limited ports, the XPS 16 earns its premium price through build quality, display, and performance. If typing comfort is your priority, you may leave frustrated.

Design and Build: Premium Feel, Minimal Ports

The latest XPS 16 drops the older sloped look for a clean rectangular chassis that feels both modern and practical. The CNC‑machined aluminum shell in Graphite, paired with Gorilla Glass 3 on the palm rest and Gorilla Glass Victus over the display, gives it a sturdy, high‑end feel suitable for a premium Windows laptop. At 13.88 x 9.35 x 0.58 inches and 3.65 lbs, the OLED model is impressively portable for a 16‑inch machine. It feels solid enough to handle everyday knocks without flex or creaks. The downside is connectivity: you get three Thunderbolt 4 ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack, and that is it. For many creative professional laptop users, that means living in dongle territory for SD cards, HDMI, and USB‑A peripherals, which clashes with the otherwise polished experience.

OLED Display and Performance: A Creative Professional Laptop Workhorse

The XPS 16 OLED display is easily its star feature. The 16‑inch 3.2K tandem‑OLED touchscreen delivers rich, accurate colors, excellent sharpness, and full DCI‑P3 coverage, making it ideal for photo editing and content creation. The 400‑nit brightness and high refresh range mean you can comfortably run split‑screen layouts and tiled windows without eye strain. According to one review, "the Dell XPS 16's tandem‑OLED screen is a highlight" on this form factor. Performance backs up that visual punch: the Series 3 Intel Core Ultra chips beat laptops with last‑generation Ultra Series 2 processors in synthetic benchmarks and raw processing power, though machines with discrete GPUs and some Apple laptops still edge it out. A reported Cinebench 2026 score of 4,065 for the integrated Intel Arc GPU shows it can handle heavy creative workloads well, despite lacking a dedicated graphics card. For most creative professionals, this level of CPU and GPU performance will be more than enough.

Dell XPS 16 Keyboard: The Compromise You Feel Every Day

After the screen, the Dell XPS 16 keyboard is the most talked‑about feature—and for many, the most frustrating. Dell moved away from the controversial capacitive function row and brought back physical function keys, which is an undeniable improvement. But the core layout is still a zero‑lattice design: keys sit flush with one another, with no gaps, and offer only 0.8mm of travel. Multiple reviewers found that this combination made them prone to typing errors and described the keys as a bit mushy compared with traditional 1.5mm‑travel keyboards. For casual use, email, and light note‑taking, you might adapt after a short learning curve. For writers, coders, or anyone who spends hours typing, the ergonomics can feel like a daily tax you pay for the XPS 16’s clean aesthetics. This is the main reason some users will hesitate to call it the perfect premium Windows laptop, despite its many strengths.

Price, Value and Final Recommendation

Pricing underscores the XPS 16’s premium positioning. One source lists pricing starting around USD 1,900 (approx. RM8,740) for a base configuration with an Intel Core Ultra 7 325, integrated graphics, 16GB LPDDR5x RAM, 512GB SSD, and a 16‑inch 2K display. Another notes a base model at USD 2,450 (approx. RM11,270) with a Core Ultra 7 355, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and non‑touch 2K IPS LCD, discounted to USD 1,930 (approx. RM8,880) on Dell’s online store at the time of writing. The OLED configuration reviewed, with a Core Ultra X7 358H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and the 3.2K tandem‑OLED, was priced around USD 2,730 (approx. RM12,560) after discounts. These numbers show how fast the price climbs, but also why many reviewers consider it a strong case for one of the best premium Windows laptops of the year: you are paying for build quality, a world‑class XPS 16 OLED display, powerful hardware, and a sleek creative professional laptop—offset by a polarizing keyboard and modest battery life.

Buy if / Skip if

• Buy the Dell XPS 16 if you want a premium Windows laptop with one of the best 16‑inch OLED touchscreens for content creation and media.
• Skip the Dell XPS 16 if you care most about typing comfort and prefer deep‑travel, traditional keyboards over a shallow, zero‑lattice design.
• Buy the Dell XPS 16 if you are a creative professional who needs a powerful, portable workstation for photo, video, or design workloads on the go.
• Skip the Dell XPS 16 if you rely on a wide range of built‑in ports and dislike carrying Thunderbolt 4 adapters and dongles for everyday tasks.
• Buy the Dell XPS 16 if you are willing to pay a premium price for top‑tier performance, build quality, and a refined modern design.
• Skip the Dell XPS 16 if you want the absolute best battery life or faster CPU performance from Snapdragon‑powered laptops at similar price points.