If you’re looking for the best Dell laptops that 2025 has to offer, you’re in the right place. Dell is, of course, one of the most respected brands in the computing industry and has years of experience creating Windows machines for all kinds of budgets and purposes.
There are so many options now, whether you’re looking for something for everyday use, for gaming and streaming, or perhaps you’re after a hybrid of laptop and tablet? Whatever you need, there’s a Dell laptop for it! We love that Dell offers some of the best laptops on the market, we're talking big and small, as well as some of the best gaming laptops and best student laptops, so all your needs are covered.
We've kept our leash short for this list, bringing you just the very best options and no filler – including some of the most recent Dell launches (meaning after it ditched brand names like XPS and Inspiron to go cleaner).
T3's Top Picks
Best for most people
If you want a top performer without breaking the bank, the Dell XPS 13 Plus is the one to get. With a beautiful 4K screen and some impressive hardware under the hood wrapped up in a portable and stylish package.
Best premium Dell
With an all-new naming structure, the Dell 14 Premium has its high-end specs right there in the name – and it is indeed an excellent machine that can flex to take care of even power-hungry tasks (and some decent gaming, too).
Best budget Dell
If you don't want to break the bank but still want a capable laptop the Inspiron 15 is the best budget Dell. You don't have to compromise however as the 15.6-inch screen is a delight, making this great for Netflix fans. Not one for gamers, however.
Update 23 October 2025: We've rationalised this guide to make it more incisive and helpful for readers, cutting things down to our three top choices and including the latest Dell laptop we've reviewed, too.
The best Dell laptops we recommend
Best Dell laptop overall
The Dell XPS 13 series has consistently wowed us here at T3, and while the '9315' version of that laptop is super, it's the newer, longer-lasting and all-around better XPS Plus that now takes our top spot in this best-of list.
As with any XPS, the Plus is powerful, supremely well-built, and compact, so just about everything you could possibly want in your search for the best Dell laptop around at the moment.
With great Intel processors installed and up to 32GB of RAM if you spec it, this is a portable computer that's going to be able to handle everything that you want to throw at it. From late-night Netflix to early-morning report writing, you'll find the Dell XPS 13 Plus a highly capable and competent laptop.
It's that 13.4-inch display with the super-thin bezels that really makes this laptop stand out though: you can go from Full HD through to 3.5K or greater-than-4K options, the choice is yours (as is the expense!). Whichever you choose for your needs, though, you won't be disappointed by this stellar laptop. It's the best Dell for most people.
Best premium Dell laptop
Dell completely ripped up its self-imposed rulebook in 2025 when it announced that almost all of its established laptop subbrands were effectively dead moving forward, including XPS. Now, they have simpler names that might take a little bit of time to learn.
The first of these that we got our hands on was the Dell 14 Premium, and it continues the XPS legacy nicely, not least with a super 3.2K OLED display that makes almost anything look amazing. You can kit this laptop out with high-end components to ensure that it can power through extremely demanding tasks without breaking a sweat, meanwhile.
All of these options can drive the cost up pretty aggressively, of course, but that comes with the territory. As you can read in our full review of the Dell 14 Premium, this is a super capable high-end laptop to compete with the best MacBooks.
Best budget Dell laptop
Besides the premium, flagship laptops that Dell puts out, there are plenty of value-for-money models as well – the selection on Dell's website is so huge that you're bound to find something that fits your financial situation. The Inspiron line is a good place to start looking, and the Dell Inspiron 15 is particularly tempting.
The main highlight is an expansive 15.6-inch screen – large screens aren't always a given at lower price points, but the display attached to this particular Dell laptop gives your video streaming apps and your web browsers and anything else you want to run plenty of space to move around in.
You get some very decent specs to go alongside that screen, with SSD hard drives and AMD or Intel chipsets on offer to keep things moving along nicely. Shopping for the best Dell laptop at this end of the market means you'll have to forget about hardcore gaming or video editing, but for a good-looking computer that will take care of the everyday basics, this is ideal.
How to choose
Choosing the best Dell laptop works the same way as it does for any other laptop: decide where your own particular sweet spot is in terms of price and power, and make your choice accordingly. Paying more will usually get you better performance and more longevity of course.
There's a balance to be struck between power vs portability that's worth considering – not only are more powerful laptops more expensive, they're more difficult to lug around, and if you want the top-tier laptop components, you'll also need a bigger laptop fit them all into.
The Dell badge gives you a certain guarantee in terms of quality, so whichever laptop you opt for it's going to serve you well – you just need to decide the sort of specs you need, the price you can afford, and the amount of effort you want to put into carrying it around.
It's worth browsing our Dell discount codes to get a saving on your new laptop.
How we test
Testing Dell laptops is just like testing any other brand of laptops, for which T3 has a multiple stage testing process.
Firstly we evaluate the system from a design point of view. We're looking for how well-built it is, how big the bezels on its screen are, what sort of keyboard and trackpad it comes with, how many ports it has and more. If the case feels cheap and plastic we'll find out, as too if its keyboard is spongy and not good for typing.
Once the system is booted up we then specifically test the Dell laptop's screen. We're finding out its core specs, such as resolution and refresh rate, but also how it performs in terms of colour accuracy, viewing angles, response rate and brightness and contrast. If a laptop has a washed out, not very bright screen, we will find out.
From this point we test the system's core functionality and hardware in a mixture of benchmarks and real world usage tests. If the system is fast, intuitive and easy to use, with applications like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop running smoothly then we'll tell you. As too, if it has gaming credentials, what sort of score it gets in 3DMark, as well as how it runs modern AAA games like Cyberpunk 2077.
Penultimately, we test the system's battery life. We lean towards real-world battery testing here at T3 as we feel it gives the most accurate results, so we use a laptop to undertake our normal computing routine for a few days on end and see how far the battery stretches. If a system's battery has us running to a wall socket after only 6 hours we will let you know.
Finally, we sum up the whole system and compare it to other systems on the market that offer the same sort of performance or cost the same sort of money. We then bestow a star score on the Dell laptop (out of 5, with 5 being the best) and if it scores well we then consider it for our best Dell laptops buying guide.
Reviewer panel
Richard has been reviewing PCs for decades, and has covered dozens for T3 over the years, including a wide range of Dell laptops and 2-in-1s. This has given him a peerless understanding of which machines are best for different people.
Alex is a freelance tech reviewer who has handled and tested a whole heap of laptops in his time writing for a range of respected publications including T3 but also TechRadar, Tom's Hardware and more.
