Best Dell and Alienware Laptops

From basic, entry-level laptops to powerful gaming rigs, Dell offers more laptop variety than anyone else. For instance, college students can opt for an affordable Chromebook for everyday use, while an extra durable Dell Latitude is ideal for a busy office. Want a tablet and laptop in one? You’ll find an ultraportable with a touch display you can flip into slate mode for less than $500. There’s also Dell’s Alienware brand, which produces some of the finest gaming notebooks around. Here are our favorite Dell and Alienware laptops for work, play and everything in-between.

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For those on a budget who mostly need to get online, a Chromebook like the Dell Chromebook 11 is an excellent choice. Students will appreciate its sleek design, comfortable keyboard and touchpad, as well as the booming speakers. The 14.5 hours of battery life is also a major selling point. The $299 price tag is steeper than some Chromebooks, but overall this is a winner.

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You won’t find a more versatile convertible for the money in Dell’s lineup. Starting at $399 ($479 as reviewed), the Inspiron 11 3000 sports a vibrant touch screen that you can easily flip into tent or tablet mode. We also like the comfortable keyboard and fairly loud speakers. The Pentium CPU provides decent performance, while the 500GB hard drive gives you plenty of storage. We just wish the touchpad were less stiff.

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Gamers will slobber all over themselves at the prospect of owning this rig. The Alienware 17 combines a sexy chassis and colorful 1080p display with customizable lighting and big and rich audio. But it’s the sheer power of this laptop that will keep you coming back for more, which is due to the state-of-the-art Nvidia GeForce GTX 880M GPU and 8GB of video memory and blazing 2.9-GHz Intel Core i7 CPU with 16GB of RAM.

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The 2014 Dell XPS 13 is a sight to behold. We love the aluminum lid, as well as the soft-touch finish around the keyboard, which makes it very comfortable for typing. Even better is the full HD touch-screen display, which is much brighter than Dell’s nearest competitors. Plus, the 11 hours and 26 minutes of battery life makes this one of the longest-running Ultrabooks around.

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Built for business, the attractive and comfortable Dell Latitude 7440 is one of our favorite work-minded notebooks around. This 14-inch laptop’s Tri-Metal chassis makes the machine tough enough to handle the rigors of the road. Another plus: the soft-touch deck kept our wrists cozy through long hours of typing. The Latitude 7440 is equally impressive on the inside, with a fast Core i5 CPU and a bright and colorful full HD touch display.

A Tri-metal chassis, carbon-fiber backed display and Gorilla Glass touch screen make this business laptop tough. Watch Dell’s durability test of the Latitutde 7000 series vs. the Lenovo X1 Carbon on YouTube.

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Want a premium-looking notebook for a less than premium price? The Dell Inspiron 14 7000 fills that need, sporting a luxurious all-aluminum build with a starting price under $1000. This 14-inch laptop has a striking 1920 x 1080 Gorilla Glass touch screen and a 4th-gen Intel Core i5 processor, all wrapped in a thin and attractive design you’ll want to take everywhere. The keyboard is on the mushy side but otherwise this Inspiron looks as good as it performs.

The Inspiron 14 7000’s aluminum body, chamfered edges around the deck and colorful touchscreen add up to one of the most striking notebooks at this price.

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The 2013 edition of Dell’s XPS 15 packs a powerful 4th-gen Intel Core processor, discrete Nvidia GeForce graphics, and a stunning 3200 x 1800 display, which is the sharpest we’ve seen yet on a 15-incher. This Windows 8.1 notebook can last most of the workday on a single charge, and its soft-touch palmrest will keep you comfortable whether you’re composing spreadsheets or casually gaming.

With a higher-than-HD, 3200 x 1800 display, the XPS 15 provides crisp, compelling images. Whether you’re watching movies or doing detailed photo editing,  this  sharp screen makes everything look better, while supplying a ton of desktop real estate for multitasking. 

A devout gamer and tech enthusiast, Mike Andronico joined the Laptop team in July 2013. With a B.A. in Journalism from Purchase College and experience at GameNGuide, Examiner and 2D-X, Mike tackles everything from iPhone rumors to in-depth hardware reviews.

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