Dell Pro Max 16 (2025)  Laptop Review

The Dell Pro Max 16 laptop is only available in the Magnetite (gray) colorway. See the bottom of the laptop.

The Dell Pro Max 16 laptop's build quality is very good. The chassis is a mix of metal and plastic; it feels quite sturdy overall, exhibiting only a small amount of flex on the lid and keyboard deck. There's also some flex when manipulating the display, but not enough to be of concern. As for the finish, while it picks up fingerprints and smudges with regular use, its dark gray color hides them well. It scratches pretty easily, though. There are no complaints about the feet; they feel solid and stick firmly to the bottom.

The hinge is decent. It's very stable, exhibiting little to no wobble when adjusting the screen or typing heavily. It has a lot of resistance, though, making it impossible to open the laptop with one hand.

Accessing the internals is very easy; you only need to remove nine Philips screws and release the bottom panel's clips with a prying tool. The RAM slots support SODIMM or CSODIMM modules, while the storage slot supports M.2 2230 or 2280 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs. The '4CVR2' slot is for the WWAN module (cellular connectivity); installing one means you can only put an M.2 2230 SSD in the SSD1 slot.

See the owner's manual on Dell's support page.

• 100W USB-C power adapter
• Documentation

Note: Models with a QHD+ and/or an NVIDIA discrete GPU come with a 130W power adapter.

The Dell Pro Max 16 is available with the following displays:

• 16" IPS 1920 x 1200 60Hz (matte)
• 16" IPS 1920 x 1200 60Hz (touchscreen, matte)
• 16" IPS 2560 x 1600 120Hz (matte)

The two FHD+ displays are visually identical—the only difference is touch input support. In terms of sharpness, while a FHD+ resolution isn't inherently bad, it's on the low side for a 16-inch display, making individual pixels visible up close. The QHD+ panel will deliver the best viewing experience, as it has a higher pixel density of 188 PPI.

The Dell Pro Max 16 is available with a 60Hz or 120Hz display. The 60Hz display's response time is slow, resulting in visible ghosting behind fast-moving objects. You can expect the same performance on the touch-sensitive FHD+ panel. The 120Hz will provide smoother motion and better input responsiveness, but we don't know what its response time is like.

The non-touch display's contrast ratio is decent and within the typical range of most IPS panels. However, it's pretty low compared to other display technologies like OLED and Mini LED. This contrast level makes blacks look gray in dim settings. The QHD+ and touch-sensitive FHD+ have the same advertised contrast ratio.

The display gets decently bright, exceeding the advertised 300 cd/m² brightness, albeit only slightly. This is bright enough for use in most indoor settings, but you may still have some visibility issues in well-lit or sunny environments, especially when viewing dark color content. The QHD+ and touch-sensitive FHD+ panels have the same advertised brightness.

The display's matte finish handles reflections relatively well. Viewing light-color content isn't a problem for the most part, but dark-color content will be hard to see if bright lights shine directly on the screen.

The display's white balance is pretty good overall; however, many colors are inaccurate due to the panel's narrow color gamut, and the gamma is wildly off, making most scenes too dark while over-brightening bright scenes. The QHD+ panel is likely more accurate since it has full sRGB coverage.

The Dell Pro Max 16's display has a poor color gamut. It doesn't even have full coverage of the commonly used sRGB color space, making most content look washed out. This panel isn't suitable for any type of color work, like photo and video editing. The touch-sensitive FHD+ display has the same advertised color gamut, while the QHD+ panel has full sRGB coverage.

There isn't anything particularly weird about the Dell Pro Max 16's keyboard layout, but like most laptops with a numpad, it might take some time to get used to the off-center position. The keys could be a little more spaced out, considering the size of the deck. Key stability is good—only the larger keys, like the spacebar and shifts, exhibit a small amount of wobble. This keyboard feels reasonably comfortable to type on; the keys have a good amount of travel, require little force to actuate, and provide relatively satisfying tactile feedback. Backlighting is an optional feature, so make sure to check the specifications if it's something you care about.

The Dell Pro Max 16 has a great touchpad. Except for the left and right edges, where the tracking seems inconsistent, the touchpad is generally very responsive to all movements and gestures. Palm rejection works as intended, and there are no issues with actions like dragging and dropping or zooming in and out of images. Size-wise, the touchpad is reasonably large but could be a little bigger considering the amount of space available on the deck. You can only click in the bottom half of the touchpad. Unfortunately, the clicking mechanism feels mushy, providing very little tactile feedback.

The Dell Pro Max 16's bottom-firing speakers get very loud with minimal compression at high volume levels. They sound clear but unnatural and hollow, with very little instrument separation and almost no bass.

The Dell Pro Max 16 has a decent webcam. The image looks reasonably sharp; however, there's a lot of noise obscuring the finer details, and the colors look slightly washed out. As for the audio, voices sound a tad muffled but still clear enough that others likely won't have much trouble understanding what you're saying, and thankfully, there's little to no static or background noise. A facial recognition IR camera is available as an optional feature.

The Dell Pro Max 16 has an excellent port selection. Both USB-As support USB 3.2 Gen 1 data transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps. The USB-A on the right (next to the Ethernet port) supports PowerShare, meaning you can use it to charge an external mobile device even when the laptop is off or in sleep mode. Both USB-Cs support Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gbps data transfer speed), Power Delivery, and DisplayPort 2.1. Regarding the HDMI port, Dell advertises HDMI 2.1 support; however, we consider it an HDMI 2.0 port because it can only output at a maximum resolution of 4k @ 60Hz. A quick speed test of the MicroSD card slot shows a max transfer rate of ~260MB/s, though this will vary slightly depending on the MicroSD card. The Ethernet port has an advertised speed of 1Gbps.

The Dell Pro Max 16 laptop’s wireless adapter is an Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211NGW. You can also configure the laptop with an Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE201 adapter. Cellular connectivity is available (everywhere except China) as an optional feature; the WWAN module is a MediaTek T700 (DW5933e).

The Dell Pro Max 16 is available with the following CPUs:

• Intel Core Ultra 5 235H vPro (14 cores/14 threads, up to 5.0GHz, 18MB cache)
• Intel Core Ultra 7 255H (16 cores/16 threads, up to 5.10GHz, 24MB cache)
• Intel Core Ultra 7 265H vPro (16 cores/16 threads, up to 5.30GHz, 24MB cache)
• Intel Core Ultra 9 285H vPro (16 cores/16 threads, up to 5.40GHz, 24MB cache)

All four CPUs are high-performance mobile chips (from the Arrow Lake family) designed for general productivity, as well as demanding tasks like simulations, virtual machines, and data analysis. Following their Meteor Lake predecessors, they have the same core composition comprising performance, efficiency, and low-power efficiency cores, with the Core Ultra 5 235H sporting four, eight, and two (4P+8E+2LP-E), respectively, and the Core Ultra 7s and 9 boasting six, eight, and two (6P+8E+2LP-E). Regarding AI capability, while these chips can handle AI tasks using the CPU cores, their NPUs (Neural Processing Units) are relatively weak at a rated performance of 13 TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second), falling short of the 40 TOPS required for Microsoft's CoPilot+.

Performance-wise, the Core Ultra 9 is naturally the fastest of the gang, running at the fastest clock speeds. The Core Ultra 7s are only slightly slower, while the Core Ultra 5 is noticeably slower, as it has two fewer performance cores.

See more information about the Arrow Lake CPUs in Intel's product brief.

The Dell Pro Max 16 is available with the following GPUs:

• Intel Arc 140T (integrated)
• NVIDIA RTX PRO 500 6GB GDDR7 (discrete, unknown TGP)
• NVIDIA RTX PRO 1000 8GB GDDR7 (discrete, 65W TGP)
• NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 8GB GDDR7 (discrete, unknown TGP)

Based on the Xe+ architecture, the Arc 140T is an improvement over previous generations of iGPUs from Intel, but it's an integrated GPU nonetheless, sharing system memory with the CPU. It's only suitable for general productivity tasks and light, entry-level gaming at 1080p with low settings. As for the NVIDIA GPUs, they're discrete mobile graphics processors (Blackwell family) designed for professional workloads. All three can handle tasks like 3D modeling, AI development, LLMs, and video production, so the choice comes down to your budget and the complexity of your work. While AAA gaming is possible on models with an NVIDIA discrete GPU, remember that these GPUs don't always get the best game drivers, so performance will vary. Dell hasn't disclosed the TGPs (Total Graphics Power). A user has confirmed the RTX PRO 1000's wattage as 65W, so it's likely that the others are in the same ballpark as well.

See NVIDIA's comparison sheet for more details about the Blackwell GPUs.

You can configure this laptop with 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of RAM. The 32GB option is available with DDR5 5600MHz or 6400MHz modules, while the 64GB option is only available with 6400MHz modules. The memory is user-replaceable; the slots support SODIMM or CSODIMM modules.

You can get this laptop with 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage. The storage is user-replaceable; the slots support M.2 2230 or 2280 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs.

The Dell Pro Max 16's Intel Core Ultra 9 285H performs well in the Geekbench 5 benchmarks. It'll have no problem handling common productivity tasks. That said, its overall performance is a little underwhelming compared to other current-gen chips on the market, falling noticeably behind Apple's base M4 Pro SoC with 12 CPU cores in single- and multi-threaded workloads. The Core Ultra 5 and 7s are also adequate for general productivity tasks; just remember that the Core Ultra 5 will be noticeably slower in heavier workloads.

As for the GPU, while the Intel Arc 140T's performance is impressive for integrated graphics, it still lags behind discrete GPUs, even when compared to older generation processors like NVIDIA's 30-series GPUs. For GPU-intensive tasks, you're better off getting a configuration with an NVIDIA discrete GPU.

The Dell Pro Max 16's Intel Core Ultra 9 285H scores remarkably well in Cinebench R23. This level of performance is suitable for rendering, heavy multitasking, and other intensive, multi-threaded, sustained workloads. Again, the Core Ultra 5 is noticeably slower because it has two fewer performance cores, so it's best to get a Core Ultra 7 or Ultra 9 configuration if you have an intensive workload.

While the Dell Pro Max 16 laptop's CPU performs decently well in Blender, getting a configuration with a dedicated GPU is best, as you'll get much faster rendering times and a smoother experience overall.

The Intel Arc 140T is an integrated GPU designed for productivity. You can play some simple, puzzle-like games or older titles at 1080p, but you'll have to play at a lower resolution or with low graphics settings to get playable frame rates. The NVIDIA discrete GPUs will perform better and deliver smoother gameplay, but remember that they're designed for professional workloads, which don't always get the best game drivers, so performance will vary depending on the game.

The 64Whr battery only applies to models with an FHD+ display and integrated graphics. Models with a QHD+ panel and/or discrete graphics come with a 96Whr battery.

Borderlands runs poorly on the Dell Pro Max 16 laptop with integrated graphics. Although you can get over 60 fps at 1080p with low settings, you'll still experience relatively frequent stutters due to frame drops. Configurations with an NVIDIA discrete GPU will provide a much smoother experience, pushing well over 60 fps with minimal tweaks in the settings.

Even with integrated graphics, Civilization VI runs very smoothly with just a few tweaks in the graphical settings. You likely won't have any trouble playing other similar titles, as these types of strategy games typically don't require a lot of GPU processing power. Configurations with an NVIDIA discrete GPU will have no problem running this and other similar games.

Counter-Strike 2 runs pretty well on the Dell Pro Max 16 laptop with just a few tweaks in the graphical settings. You'll likely encounter occasional stutters, but not enough to make the game unplayable. Configurations with an NVIDIA discrete GPU will have no problem pushing high frame rates in this and other similar games.

While you may experience some stutters in busy scenes, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is playable on the Dell Pro Max 16 at 1080p. Lowering the resolution to 720p will result in much smoother gameplay. Configurations with an NVIDIA discrete GPU can easily handle this and other similar games, pushing well over 60 fps with minimal tweaks in the graphical settings.

The keyboard only gets mildly warm under load, and the hot spot is at the top of the deck, away from where most people rest their hands. The bottom of the laptop gets warmer, reaching 44.7 °C (112.46 °F), so you may experience some discomfort when using the device on your lap. Unfortunately, the fans are pretty loud with thermal management set to Ultra Performance—you can change the setting in the Dell Optimizer app to reduce heat and fan noise, albeit at the cost of some performance loss.

The posted results apply only to models with integrated graphics.

The Dell Pro Max 16 laptop has many pre-installed applications; see this video for the full list. When purchasing directly from Dell, you can choose between Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, or Ubuntu Linux 22.04 LTS 64-bit.

You can get this laptop with an optional fingerprint sensor or facial recognition camera.