By The Dell 16 Plus is a 16-inch laptop that offers a strong overall experience, outstanding performance, and fair pricing. The Dell 16 Plus is a laptop made for everyday use; while it has a nice style, it is obvious that its pricey, high-end features won’t draw attention or earn any accolades. It’s a good option if you’re searching for a 16-inch workhorse.
This is particularly true as competing laptops at this price range frequently have CPUs from earlier generations, whereas Intel’s most recent Lunar Lake chips are available here. Dell discontinued the Inspiron, Latitude, and XPS brands in 2025. Currently, everything is unified under a single brand. The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus from the previous year appears to have a spiritual descendant in the Dell 16 Plus.
Specification
The Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) processor, or, to put it another way, Intel’s Lunar Lake technology, powers the 16-inch Dell 16 Plus laptop. The Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor, Intel Arc 140V graphics, and 16 GB of RAM were all included in our review model. You get a neural processing unit (NPU) for AI jobs and Copilot+ PC features in Windows because this is Lunar Lake.
As I finish this article, the Dell online site is selling this model for $799, even though Dell claims it retails for $1149. Additionally, Dell has noted that this PC has been on sale lately, with prices as low as $699 on Dell’s website. Given that this laptop includes a contemporary Intel Lunar Lake processor, but comparable laptops in that price range typically have hardware from earlier generations, that’s a significant deal.
Other CPU combinations for this computer are also available, ranging from an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V processor to an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V processor. Additionally, you can choose from various RAM, storage, and display options. Although the model we reviewed lacked a touch screen, this machine is also available with one.
- Number of model: DB16250
- CPU: 256V Intel Core Ultra 7
- 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM is available.
- GPU and graphics: Intel Arc 140V
- Intel AI Boost (up to 48 TOPS) as the NPU
- Display: IPS 2560×1600 screen
- 1 TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD for storage
- The 1080p webcam has a physical privacy shutter.
- Connectivity: 1x USB Type-A (USB 3.2 Gen 1), 1x HDMI 2.1 out, 1x combination audio jack, and 2x USB Type-C (one Thunderbolt 4 , one USB 3.2 Gen 2).
- Networking: Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 7.
- Biometrics: Windows Hello fingerprint reader and infrared camera
- Capacity of battery: 64 watt hours
- 14.05 x 9.87 x 0.67 inches in size
- 4.12 pounds in weight
- MSRP as tested: $1,149
Design and build quality
The Dell 16 Plus is sturdy and well-designed. At 4.12 pounds, it is somewhat heavier, but at 16 inches, it is also somewhat larger, so that makes sense. The laptop doesn’t feel especially thick, and its 0.67-inch thickness is perfectly acceptable. The base and lid of the chassis are composed of aluminum, while the palm rest and bezel are composed of plastic. The texture of the plastic is slightly matte, and it feels good.
You can lie this machine flat thanks to the hinge’s good performance and 180-degree opening. The back of the laptop, which is the area closest to the hinge, tilts up when you turn the hinge open, making typing more comfortable. I think the “Ice Blue” color scheme here is more like silver, with a hint of blue under the correct lighting.
 Keyboard and trackpad
The keyboard of the Dell 16 Plus is nice. When I press down on the keys, they travel smoothly and have a distinct “clicky” sound. Nothing feels squishy, and it responds quickly. You can also utilize the white keyboard backlight. This 16-inch laptop keyboard’s full-size number pad on the right side is always a little controversial. On the one hand, a lot of people opt for 16-inch laptops because they include a full-size keyboard with a number pad. Some workflows benefit greatly from this input technique, especially if you spend a lot of time entering figures or using spreadsheets. However, some people could choose a laptop without a number pad since they don’t like it. When space permits, I prefer to see a number pad on a 16-inch laptop.
The touchpad feels quick and is rather roomy. Although this is a huge and responsive touchpad, I do believe that a great glass-surface touchpad feels smoother to slide your finger over because it is made of glass. Please note that the Dell 16 Plus model we received does not have a touchscreen, so you’ll need to find one or select an alternative laptop if that’s what you desire. As an alternative, I do like having a touch screen, but I am aware that many people don’t care.
Connectivity
While respectable, the Dell 16 Plus’s connectivity is a bit weak. This device has a USB Type-A (USB 3.2 Gen 1) connector and a combo audio jack on the right side. It features two USB Type-C ports on the left side, one of which supports Thunderbolt 4 and the other USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds. It also has an HDMI 2.1 out port. Although Thunderbolt 4 is a good alternative and the ports are properly identified, it would be ideal if they were both Thunderbolt 4 ports.
USB-C is used to charge this device. Because of this, the charger must always be plugged into a port on the left. That irritates me a little. If Dell had included a USB Type-C port on each side, you would have had additional options.
Overall, for a 16-inch laptop, this is a small port selection. Many people would likely prefer more connectors, such as a second USB Type-A port or even a microSD card reader, as is easy to foresee. A dongle or dock is always an option, but if you use a lot of peripherals, you might need to acquire one. It’s wonderful to see that Lunar Lake has made this machine future-proof by supporting Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7.
Dell 16 Plus Laptop DB16250-16.0-inch 16:10 2.5K (2560×1600) Display
Performance
Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Word, Slack, and all the other desktop productivity tools I use daily performed well on the Dell 16 Plus. Lunar Lake solutions function well when used on desktops in the real world. To get a sense of the overall performance of the system, we first run PCMark 10. The Dell 16 Plus had a good total PCMark 10 score of 7,229, which was marginally lower than that of computers with faster CPUs.
Cinebench R20 is then used. This benchmark, which emphasizes total CPU performance, is substantially multithreaded. CPUs with more cores have a significant advantage because it is massively multithreaded. Here, we saw that systems using Lunar Lake CPUs trailed behind. Regretfully, compared to the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus with its Meteor Lake CPU from the previous year, this has significantly less multithreaded performance.
We also use Handbrake to run an encode. Although it runs for a long time, this benchmark is also significantly multithreaded. Under load, many laptops choke and slow down, requiring the cooling system to kick in. That might have been the case in this instance; the encoding procedure took 1,773 seconds, or almost 30 minutes, to finish. It performs worse than other Lunar Lake-powered systems that we have evaluated.
Battery life
For a 16-inch laptop, the Dell 16 Plus’s 64-watt-hour battery is a little on the tiny side. However, given its power-efficient Lunar Lake chipset, we anticipate a significant amount of battery life from this device.
We repeatedly play a 4K version of Tears of Steel on Windows 11 with airplane mode turned on until the laptop suspends itself in order to test the battery life. For battery benchmarks, we adjusted the screen brightness to 250 nits. Since local video playback is so effective and real battery life in daily usage will always be less than this, this is the best-case situation for any laptop.
The Dell 16 Plus ran for just over 14 hours, or 856 minutes. That’s on the lower end of the spectrum for a Lunar Lake-powered device, although it’s difficult to say if a smaller battery and possibly a display that uses more power are to blame. A 16-inch laptop weighing more than four pounds feels like it was made to be used at a desk most of the time, so even while you’ll get a shorter battery life in the real world, I don’t think this is a major problem. A lot of time can be spent away from an outlet.
Conclusion
I like the Dell 16 Plus. However, pricing plays a significant role in value: I’m much less thrilled at $1,149 retail than I am at the current pricing of $799 or less! It goes beyond the internals: Dell is going above and above what is necessary at this pricing point, as evidenced by choices like adding both an IR camera and a fingerprint reader.
I wasn’t as excited as I had hoped after looking at the benchmarks because, although Lunar Lake is all about battery life enhancements, the standard Dell 16 Plus exploits that efficiency boost to reduce battery size. I evaluated the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus with Meteor Lake last year, which had a larger 90-watt-hour battery and offered better multithreaded performance in addition to a longer battery life. (Of course, the new Lunar Lake-powered system has higher graphics performance, and the one from last year is heavier.)
Although Microsoft hasn’t yet deemed the NPU for Copilot+ PC AI functions a must-have upgrade, this system does indeed have them. I wish Lunar Lake from Intel were a more obvious boost.
