Dell’s XPS 16 (9640) is one of our favorite AI PCs on the market today. We tested and reviewed this laptop first-hand, and Editor Rebecca Spear loved it enough to hand it a Windows Central Best Award alongside a near-perfect score.
The XPS 16 is the successor to the discontinued XPS 17 model, and despite the redesign, it remains the flagship Dell laptop for power users who need elite performance and a large OLED display.
Pricing for the XPS 16 usually starts at about $1,700 before any discounts, climbing to more than $4,000 for the most powerful configurations. Even mid-range models like the one featured here normally sit at more than $3,000, but that’s why this discount is so impressive.
An XPS 16 with Intel’s Core Ultra 9 185H processor (CPU), Windows 11 Pro, NVIDIA RTX 4060 discrete laptop graphics card (GPU), 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM, 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD), and 16.3-inch UHD+ OLED touch display is currently $645 off the regular price. That brings the total down to $2,500.
That’s about the equivalent of a model with an FHD+ IPS display, half as much storage, and a Core Ultra 7 CPU. Speaking of other configs, Dell has lesser discounts on nearly all combinations of hardware. These are the best prices we’ve seen in the XPS 16’s lifetime.
Why we love the Dell XPS 16 (9640): Review highlights
The entire XPS lineup took on a more futuristic look in 2024, absorbing the design we first saw in the experimental XPS 13 Plus. The changes make the XPS 16 stand out in a sea of 16-inch notebooks.
It’s a stellar alternative to the MacBook Pro, but like Apple’s laptop, it doesn’t usually come cheap. That’s at least solved with this discount. The only other drawbacks that Editor Rebecca Spear noted in her XPS 16 (9640) review were a lack of privacy shutter for the webcam, no HDMI or USB-A ports, and the fact that the redesign might be divisive.
The keys have minimal spacing between them, but the keycaps are larger for easier presses. The touchpad, now using haptic feedback instead of moving parts, blends into the glass palm rests for a seamless look. And above the keyboard are capacitive touch buttons instead of physical keys. It might take some time to get used to the changes, but Dell has ultimately created a premium setup that’s unlike other high-end Windows laptops.
The XPS 16’s OLED display is undoubtedly one of its best features, and it’s included in this mega deal. Spear tested the OLED display, seeing 100% sRGB and DCI-P3 color reproduction, as well as more than 400 nits brightness. It has a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, an anti-reflective finish to reduce glare without a matte appearance, and touch functionality for extra versatility. Here’s what Spear had to say about the OLED display:
“I was likewise unsurprised in the brightness and contrast testing to see that the OLED display offered fantastic contrast. This result is because OLED screens produce true black by turning pixels off when they are supposed to be at their darkest, making the colors around them seriously pop in comparison. As you can imagine, this makes for a beautiful viewing experience when playing games, watching shows, or working in creative software.”
The XPS 16 model highlighted here has an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), making it an AI PC. The inclusion of an NVIDIA RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD means you’ll be able to crush design, development, and editing work, with some gaming on the side. I’d still recommend you check out a proper gaming laptop if you want to primarily have fun, but the XPS 16 will be able to handle itself well with many titles.
The $645 discount currently running at Dell brings the high-end model down to the best price we’ve ever seen, but it looks like all configs are on sale. Prices start at $1,400, so there’s plenty of room to experiment.