Electronics › Laptops
XPS 16 (9640)
16-inch laptop with dedicated graphics
Mid-range · middle third of laptops
Should you buy it??
Trust it — mostly
based on 3 of 6 signals
Quick take
In short: what each side says
AI · critics · buyers · brand claims · press — each opened up in full further down ↓
perplexity ranks this product at #3.0 on average
Owners praise the XPS 16's premium build, performance, and restored design features, but the keyboard's ergonomic compromises for aesthetics remain a divisive weak point.
All sides land high — a confident buy, with the caveats below.
The verdict
What the panel makes of it.
The Dell XPS 16 is a laptop computer. Dell made it. It shipped in 2024. Engineers designed it in America. The machine holds a sixteen-inch display. Professionals buy it. They need power for video work and code. They solve the problem of portability without sacrifice. Shopping assistants track its queries weekly across multiple platforms.
Act one
What the machines think.
Several AI models read the category and place this product — model by model, list by list, over time.
Model by model?
How each AI sees it.
perplexity ranks this product at #3.0 on average Averaging across the AI panel, XPS 16 (9640) sits around #3.0 this snapshot.
Gemini
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Didn’t rank XPS 16 (9640) this snapshot.
GPT
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Didn’t rank XPS 16 (9640) this snapshot.
AI Mode
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Didn’t rank XPS 16 (9640) this snapshot.
Claude
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Didn’t rank XPS 16 (9640) this snapshot.
Rank trajectory?
Weeks of movement.
Act two · ★ new
What the people say.
The same product, judged by the owners who bought and filmed it — what they praise, what they knock, who it's for.
What buyers say?
What Google knows about it.
Beyond the video critics, Google pools 108 buyer ratings of the XPS 16 (9640) from across retailers — a far wider, if blunter, jury. Here’s the shape of that opinion.
108 ratings · 2 written
across 1 retailer
What owners single out
The keyboard's poor ergonomics due to aesthetic design choices is the aspect buyers rate lowest, matching video reviewers' concerns about functionality sacrificed for looks.
In their words
“I've proudly used many Dell XPS models over the past couple of decades. I loved the premium look, power and reliability in both laptop and desktop models. Because of some design choices in recent years -- ie., no function row keys -- I strayed to other Windows laptops from Lenovo, HP and Asus. Now, however, I'm back in the XPS fold. This newly redesigned and, happily, renamed XPS is everything I w”
Picky Laptop Buyer · verified purchase · dell.com
“Overall, this laptop is a great laptop that will my daily laptop for a while. But there are a couple of misses on this line up. The first major miss is the keyboard. This is a B- keyboard at best. They chose aesthetic design over functionality here. These key cap designs to minimize gap between keys results in a slightly imbalanced key. Pressing on the edge of one will sometimes allow the key to p”
Steven · verified purchase · dell.com
as of June 29 · 108 buyer ratings?
Frequent rivals?
What it competes against.
- EliteBook 840 G11HPDell leads 1–0 · 1 sharedRead
- ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13LenovoDell leads 1–0 · 1 sharedRead
- Legion 7iLenovoDell leads 1–0 · 1 sharedRead
- Inspiron 14 PlusDellXPS 16 (9640) leads 1–0 · 1 sharedRead
- Yoga Pro 9i Gen 9LenovoDell leads 1–0 · 1 sharedRead
- Blade 16RazerDell leads 1–0 · 1 sharedRead
- ZBook Firefly 14 G11HPDell leads 1–0 · 1 sharedRead
Alternatives by price · Same field?
Same money, different answer.
The recap
Where it stands today.
- PositionBest rank #3 across 1 intent tracked (climbed 4 this week).
- FootprintStrongest in Best Laptops for Programming (#3).
- TraitsMost often described as “build”.
- Closest rivalEliteBook 840 G11 (1–0 across 1 shared intent).
- MakerBy Dell — see how it ranks across other intents on its brand profile.
browse XPS 16 (9640) in these categories