Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 (2023) Laptop Review

The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 is only available in the Dark River Blue color. See the bottom of the laptop here.

The build quality is outstanding. Its aluminum chassis feels very sturdy, with no gaps or obvious flaws in the construction. There's only a small amount of flex on the keyboard deck and almost none on the lid or the display. The finish is fairly scratch-resistant but easily picks up fingerprints and smudges. The feet feel solid and stick firmly to the bottom of the laptop.

The hinge is good. Since this is a 2-in-1 convertible, you can flip the screen around and use it as a tablet. It feels smooth when opening and closing the lid and is very stable, exhibiting almost no wobble. Unfortunately, you can't open the laptop with one hand as the hinge has too much resistance, and the base is too light.

The Dell Inspiron 16 is relatively thin and light, but ultimately, it's still a 16-inch laptop, so it might not fit in some smaller bags. The power adapter is compact and lightweight.

The internals are easy to access; you only need to remove nine Philips screws and undo the clips holding the bottom panel. The clips are pretty snug, so having a prying tool is best. Unfortunately, the memory isn't replaceable, and there's only one storage slot.

You can see the user's manual here.

• Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 laptop
• 65W USB-C power adapter and cord
• Documentation

The FHD+ resolution looks decently sharp on a 16-inch display. You can see individual pixels if you're close to the screen, but this isn't a problem at normal viewing distances. There's enough room to work comfortably with two windows placed side by side, though you may still need to scroll a little to the left or right to see all the content on some web pages. Its 16:10 aspect ratio is slightly taller than a standard 16:9 screen, which is great for productivity, as the increased vertical space lets you see more information when reading a document or website, reducing the need to scroll. If you want a 16-inch 2-in-1 laptop with a sharper screen, check out the Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 (2023).

The Dell Inspiron 16 is only available with a 60Hz display. Its slow response time causes noticeable ghosting, which isn't a problem for general productivity but is not ideal for viewing fast-moving content or gaming.

The display's contrast ratio is decent and within the typical range for most IPS panels; however, it's still relatively low compared to other display technologies like VA and OLED. This level of contrast makes blacks look gray in dim settings. If you want a similar laptop with an OLED display, check out the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 (2024).

The Dell Inspiron 16's display gets bright enough for use in most indoor settings but not in sunny environments or outdoors in broad daylight. It gets very dim at the lowest brightness setting, which is great for dark room viewing as it causes less eye strain.

The display's reflection handling is okay. Its glossy finish doesn't do much to reduce the intensity of bright reflections, so it's best to avoid having light sources directly behind you, as the reflections are visible, even with the screen at maximum brightness. On the upside, it doesn't cause a halo effect in other areas of the screen like matte finishes typically do.

The display's horizontal viewing angle is okay. The image dims and washes out relatively quickly as you move to the side, so you need to be more or less directly in front of the screen to see an accurate image.

The vertical viewing angle is decent. Like the horizontal viewing angle, the image looks dimmer and more washed out from above or below. You need to look at the screen more or less straight on if you need perfect accuracy, which can be challenging in tight spaces with very little room to tilt the screen, like on a bus or airplane.

The Dell Inspiron 16's display accuracy is poor out of the box. The white balance is off, as there's a noticeable yellowish tint, in part due to the warm color temperature. Most colors are inaccurate, fine for general productivity and media consumption, but not ideal for color-critical work like photo editing. The gamma roughly follows the sRGB curve; most scenes look too dark, particularly very dark and very bright scenes.

The display's color gamut is excellent. It has full sRGB coverage, which is great for general use, as most content is in that color space. It has excellent DCI P3 and Adobe RGB coverage but not enough for professional photo editing or for producing HDR content.

The Dell Inspiron 16 laptop has a good keyboard. The layout feels spacious and is easy to get used to. The keys have a lot of travel and don't require much force to actuate; however, they feel slightly mushy, and key stability isn't uniform across the keyboard. Typing noise is low and isn't bothersome in quiet settings. You can adjust between two backlight brightness levels (Low or High) or turn it off completely using the F6 hotkey.

The touchpad is excellent. It's large and feels smooth. It tracks all movements and gestures well, and there are no issues with palm rejection or actions like dragging and dropping. You can only click in the bottom half of the touchpad, though, and the click mechanism feels a tad mushy.

The Dell Inspiron 16's up-firing speakers get very loud with minimal compression artifacts at max volume. They deliver speech and vocals clearly; however, they're a tad sibilant, and some instruments sound unnatural. There's some bass, but not enough for a good music-listening or movie-watching experience.

The webcam's video quality is good. The image looks detailed, but the exposure is too low, and there's an unnatural hue. As for the audio, while voices sound clear, the microphone's gain is too high, and there's some static noise in the background. There's a physical privacy cover; closing it also disables the webcam at the software level. If you want a 2-in-1 convertible with a better webcam, check out the HP ENVY x360 15 (2023).

The port selection is outstanding. The USB-A ports support USB 3.2 Gen. 1 data transfer speed (up to 5Gbps). The USB-Cs support USB 3.2 Gen. 2 data transfer speed (up to 10Gbps), DisplayPort 1.4, and Power Delivery. The latter allows for fast charging of the laptop and other PD-compatible devices connected to the port. The HDMI port's maximum output is 1080p at 60Hz; you need to use the USB-C port to output at a higher resolution.

The wireless adapter is a MediaTek Wi-Fi 6E MT7922. You can also get the laptop with a MediaTek Wi-Fi 6 MT7921 wireless adapter. Wi-Fi 6E gives access to the 6GHz band, providing faster speeds, lower latency, and less signal interference than previous Wi-Fi standards. However, you need a router that supports Wi-Fi 6E to benefit from these features.

The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 is available with the following CPUs:

• AMD Ryzen 5 7530U (6 cores/12 threads, up to 4.5GHz, 19MB cache)
• AMD Ryzen 7 7730U (8 cores/16 threads, up to 4.5GHz, 20MB cache)

Both CPUs are designed for light to moderately demanding productivity tasks, like text processing, web browsing, spreadsheets, and video playback. The Ryzen 5 7530U and Ryzen 7 7730U are refreshed versions of the older Ryzen 5 5625U and the Ryzen 7 5825U, respectively, but with faster clock speeds. The Ryzen 7 7730U has more cores and threads, making it a better option for heavy multitaskers or more intensive applications.

The Dell Inspiron 16 laptop is only available with AMD Radeon graphics. This integrated GPU can only handle light productivity tasks, not demanding workloads like video editing or gaming. The Ryzen 7's GPU is faster than the Ryzen 5's, but the performance difference is small and isn't noticeable.

You can configure this laptop with 8GB or 16GB of RAM. The memory modules aren't user-replaceable.

You can configure this laptop with 512GB or 1TB of storage. The SSD is user-replaceable; the slot supports an M.2 2230 or 2280 SSD. The KIOXIA SSD is a PCIe Gen. 4 drive, but the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U and Ryzen 7 7730U only support PCIe Gen. 3, so even if you replace it with a faster PCIe Gen. 4 SSD, it'll operate at PCIe Gen. 3 speeds.

The Dell Inspiron 16's overall score in Geekbench 5 is great. The AMD Ryzen 5 7530U performs well in single- and multi-threaded workloads, making it suitable for light to moderately demanding workloads. If you're a heavy multitasker or use more intensive programs, it's best to upgrade to the AMD Ryzen 7730U, as it has more cores and threads to ensure a smoother experience. As for GPU computing tasks, the CPU's integrated Radeon GPU performs poorly. If your workload needs a lot of GPU processing power, a laptop with a discrete GPU or an Apple MacBook Pro with an Apple ARM-based SoC is best.

You can use the Dell Inspiron 16 for 3D graphics rendering and other related workloads but know that you may experience some slowdowns and stutters in extremely complex work. If you want the smoothest experience and the fastest render times, it's best to get a laptop with a better cooling system and a more powerful H-series CPU, like the Intel Core i9-12900HX in the MSI Raider GE67 HX (2022).

The Dell Inspiron 16 with an AMD Ryzen 5 7530U CPU performs well in Blender; however, it isn't as fast as rendering with a discrete GPU. Even an entry-level GPU, like an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, can render images much faster.

The Dell Inspiron 16 performs poorly in the Basemark GPU benchmark. The AMD Ryzen processor's integrated GPU can't handle graphically demanding games. You can play some lighter puzzle-like or older titles, but you'll have to play at a lower resolution or with low settings to get playable frame rates.

The storage drive performance is outstanding. It's on the slower side for a PCIe Gen. 4 SSD since it's operating at PCIe Gen. 3 speeds, but it's still plenty fast for a general productivity laptop. The system boots up, launches apps, and transfers files quickly. The 1TB SSD is likely faster, as larger capacity drives typically perform better.

This laptop is also available with an 86Wh battery, which will give you a few more hours of light use.

Borderlands 3 isn't playable at 1080p. The game is too choppy, even with the lowest graphical settings. The AMD Ryzen CPU's integrated graphics can't handle this and other similarly demanding games.

Civilization VI and other similar strategy games are playable on the Dell Inspiron 16 laptop, but you need to play with low graphical settings to get smooth gameplay. The average turn time is decent and within the expected range for a low-power ultraportable CPU like the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U. Upgrading to the AMD Ryzen 7 7730U won't improve the turn time significantly.

The performance in CS:GO is okay. The average frame rate is good; however, there are frequent stutters due to frame drops, which isn't ideal for an FPS game. The gameplay is smoother with low settings, but occasional stutters still exist.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is unplayable at 1080p with high graphical settings, as the average frame rate is too low. You can get close to 30 fps with low settings, but the game will still feel choppy, which isn't great in a game that requires some aiming. You can expect the same performance in other similar AAA titles.

The keyboard is cool when idle and only gets mildly warm under load. The fan is very quiet at full speed and easily gets drowned out by ambient noise.

The Dell Inspiron 16 has many pre-installed applications, including:

• Alexa: Amazon's digital assistant.
• AMD Bug Report Tool: Lets you report system issues to AMD.
• AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition: Lets you tweak the performance and power settings, check for updates, change the display's color profile, create hotkeys, monitor system status, and view system information.
• Dell Digital Delivery: Lets you purchase and download software applications from Dell.
• Dell Update: Helps keep the firmware and drivers up to date.
• MyDell: Contains additional information about the laptop and lets you access power profiles to improve performance.
• SmartByte: Optimizes network performance.
• Solitaire and casual games: Solitaire, FreeCell, Spider, Mahjong, Sudoku, and other casual games.
• Spotify: App for the music streaming service.

There's a fingerprint sensor built into the power button. You can use it to log into Windows, authorize Windows Store purchases, and auto-fill saved passwords on supported websites.