The Dell Pro Max 16 Plus is a little brother to the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus I previously reviewed. It trades a bit of screen real estate for a higher-quality display and the ability to be tucked away in a backpack for on-the-go use. While it may not fit in the tighter laptop bags, it will fit in larger, more robust backpacks.

The Pro Max 16 Plus delivers powerful performance, featuring an Intel Core Ultra 9 chip, an NVIDIA RTX Pro 5000 Blackwell GPU, and up to 128GB of RAM. Simply put, this is one of the best mobile workstations of its class.

The two Thunderbolt 5 ports showcase the drive for speed, power, and forward thinking for the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus. Dell knows that at this price point and with this power, not everyone can swap them out as quickly as cheaper laptops. So, they have made sure to future-proof this one as much as possible.

The Dell team also found a way to pack in an SD Card, a Smart Card reader, an RJ45 port, and a 280W power adapter to power up this beast of a machine. It's a compelling option for developers, engineers, data professionals, and generalists who need a single machine that serves as their all-in-one tool to handle all their workloads without breaking a sweat.

Dell Pro Max 16 Plus: Price and availability

The Dell Pro Max 16 Plus has a base price of around $4000, available from both the Dell US and Dell UK websites. I'm also seeing it available from some online retailers.

As ever with Dell laptops, there are a huge number of configurations available, so prices will vary. In this review, I'm testing a model with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (16 Cores, 24 Threads, 5.5 GHz Turbo, 55W), 128GB RAM, an NVIDIA RTX Pro 5000 Blackwell GPU, and 2TB SSD. All alongside the 16-inch OLED 3860x2400 with 500 nits max.

Dell Pro Max 16 Plus: Unboxing and First Impressions

After just reviewing the Dell | Pro Max 18 Plus, I knew this 16-inch model was going to be very similar. It's essentially 98% as good as the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus in a smaller shell, with an upgraded Tandem OLED 120Hz Display.

Unboxing, I realized that while the 2-inch difference, of course, makes a difference for screen size, the heft of this machine is still very prevalent. This is not an Ultrabook, it’s not a thin machine you toss in your bag and forget about.

And Dell isn’t ashamed of that at all. It proudly packs an insane amount of power into this unit, all while making it look pretty good and having superb usability in day-to-day operations.

Plus, with the ability to take in 280W, I want to be able to take that charger with me everywhere, but the sheer size of this brick is wild.

Dell Pro Max 16 Plus: Design & Build Quality

This is a hefty computer. There’s no denying that. But at the same time, it is light enough and portable enough to take around. Unlike the larger 18-inch brother, which pretty much means yes, you can carry it. Still, only to and from a workspace, the 16-inch laptop is more portable and easier to toss in a backpack, take with you out of your workspace, and experience the power of portability.

While the Dell Pro 14 Premium is hyper portable and designed to be lightweight, and the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus is designed to be an entire barrage of horsepower crammed into one machine that can technically be called portable, the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus fits between the two, while still favoring the hefty side. I wouldn’t want to walk around holding this with one hand while typing with the other, but I wouldn’t mind closing this, heading to where I am going, and then popping this back open again on a table, desk, or even my lap.

In fact, comparing laptops, this one feels more like a more powerful Precision 5690. Naturally, the Precision runs on older architecture, but it’s the same size screen, a similar keyboard, and fills a similar amount of space dimension-wise on everything except thickness.

The Pro Max 16 Plus can fit in my beloved Nomatic Backpack, but is too large for sleeker backpacks like the Bellroy Transit, primarily due to the thickness on top of the 16-inch display. But then again, there are some mid-sized bags, like a few from Troubadour, that this fits in, so it really comes down to the design of the laptop pouch.

Dell has done a fantastic job at keeping ports where users want them. I’ve seen some laptops, specifically workstation-class ones, that place ports on the back of the computer, with the idea of having this machine pretty much just docked.

Thankfully, Dell takes portability seriously, even with this tier of powerhouse. Because of this, the ports are on the left and right of the machine: the RJ45, HDMI, 2x TB5, SD card, and smart card ports on the left, and the 2x USB-A, TB, and headphone jack on the right. For my testing and my use case, this layout is fantastic and has had no issues so far.

While Thunderbolt 5 is still pretty new, putting it in this kind of machine is a wise, future-forward move by Dell, putting the faster, newer, and more powerful ports in their top-of-the-line machines, knowing that people grabbing these are not swapping them out every few months or even years. Still, they have been running them hard for a while.

The last thing I’ll mention regarding design is the display. I understood the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus, as people aren’t really going to use that machine for display-first tasks. They’re not buying that kind of machine to have a great display. This one, though, has a beautiful 3860x2400 Tandem OLED with 120Hz refresh rates, though it’s limited to 500 nits.

While this is still not a machine that the average video editor would grab as their first choice, nor a pro-gamer or photographer, this can be a machine used by someone who either cares about having a high resolution display for the real estate on their screen, fitting more content, crisper, or it could be someone who is a bit of a generalist-specialist. I see this being perfect for engineers who also work in graphic design or UI design, or heavy CAD users, who want to make sure they see everything clearly.

Dell Pro Max 16 Plus: In use

I’ve had this laptop in my rotation of machines for a whopping 113 days at the time of writing this paragraph. I’ve run some heavy workloads on it, I’ve used it for a few days in my real day-to-day world, I’ve used it for odds and ends, and I’ve run benchmarks all to see if this machine is what it says it is. So far, it has held up wonderfully to everything I have thrown at it.

Proving its might as one of the best laptops for programming, it’s blasted through local dev environments I have run on it, it doesn’t sweat at DBeaver repos, or pulling up large codebases in VS Code, it doesn’t even flinch. I dabbled in some local LLMs to try it, and I haven’t even been able to make the Intel Core i9 even sweat.

I pulled up large building schematics as CAD Files, I opened every productivity app I could think of and ran an absurd number of draining Chrome tabs, I was processing files, converting videos, transferring on and off of drives, and still, it’s great.

Don’t get me wrong, this won't be the best business laptop for every professional, due to its heft and power consumption, but for those who cannot or will not compromise on power and still want the option to bring their primary machine with them everywhere they may go, this might be the way to do it.

Compared to the Dell Pro 14 Premium, the Dell Pro 14 Premium focuses much more on battery life and portability than the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus. Still, you’re also getting true desktop-class power, now with a spectacular display too.

My model has an Intel Core i9-285HX with 16 cores, 24 threads, and 5.5 GHz turbo. It’s an absolute animal of a chip. Paired with the NVIDIA RTX 5000 Blackwell with 24GB, 128GB of RAM, and 2TB of SSD Storage, with the option of going up to 16TB on the device, which is truly absurd. I know of desktops drooling at these specs for productivity and performance. To get some numbers, I ran some 3DMark benchmark tests. For the CPU Profile Benchmark Tests, my max-threads test scored 11,717 points.

In everyday use, this machine has handled everything I have thrown at it, with room to spare. It’s got insane power for even the professional user, and gives power into the hands of the nomads without sacrifices.

The 16-inch size is great, offering excellent screen real estate without being too cumbersome, unlike the 18-inch counterpart.

Dell Pro Max 16 Plus: Final verdict

Few laptops offer this level of power while still fitting within a portable form factor. The Dell Pro Max 16 Plus is designed for the everything-fractional-developer who has to be able to do anything and everything at a moment's notice. It's designed for the generalist who dabbles in multiple high-demand areas of computing power.

The mobile workstation is designed to handle your day-to-day tasks without requiring you to hand off processing power to another companion device or even a dongle. It's self-sufficient for most tasks.

For those who need this class of workhorse, few are rating better than this one right now. Yes, it's not perfect, but it's a phenomenal option for those looking.

Dell has been in the game for quite some time for the business professional, so when I got word of their newest 18-inch flagship, I knew I’d have to get my hands on it. Most of the high-powered laptops that get the flashy marketing are focused on video and photos.

But there is an entirely different type of power needed for coders, developers, engineers, QA teams, and those who have to be able to bounce in and out of all of this as a hands-on PM to make sure everything that needs to get done gets done. Not everyone lives in a wonderful world where they can have dedicated machines for everything they need to manage; some only get a single machine.

Still, there are others who prefer the single machine that can do it all method, myself included, as then anything I need to do at any given time is accessible with a few keystrokes.

That’s where the best mobile workstations like the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus come into play. One machine with remarkable power that can dive into whatever, whenever, wherever. It’s designed very clearly for business professionals working in the engineering and development space, but could be used by people with similar needs. Just know that this is not the laptop for everyone, but it is the perfect laptop for those that need sort of desktop performance in a portable frame.

Dell Pro Max 18 Plus: Price and availability

As with most computers, the pricing varies drastically between base or entry model laptops and higher configurations. The base model of the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus starts at around $3500, and jumps up to over triple that. It's available from Dell US and Dell UK.

My model specifically is priced at $9,245, boasting an Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor, 128GB of RAM, a NVIDIA RTX Pro 5000 Blackwell with 24GB, 2TB of Storage, the 18-inch QHD+ 2560x1600 Display, and Wi-Fi 7, all with 96Whr battery life. It’s a tank.

If desired, you can upgrade even beyond what I have, with options to expand storage up to 16TB and 5G. I have pretty much every other feature in this setup, though.

Dell Pro Max 18 Plus: Unboxing and First Impressions

No matter how you slice it, 18 inches in a laptop is not a small machine. With most portable laptops measuring around 13 inches and the standard “large laptop” at 16 inches, this machine feels massive even next to my fleet of other workstations I have in for review.

The laptop, aside from its monstrous proportions, has a comfortable keyboard, a full-size numpad, a fingerprint reader, a robust port selection, and a full and helpful function row. The touchpad is responsive and easy to use, and the screen is sharp enough for all of the work I do.

The port layout is great as well. The Thunderbolt 5 ports are on the left, along with the RJ45, the HDMI, the Smart Card, and the SD Card slot. On the right, there is a Kensington Lock (not shocking with how valuable this laptop can be, not only in retail price but value of content being created and managed on the device), both USB-A’s, the other Thunderbolt Port and the Headphone Jack.

Personally, I really like how Dell doesn’t put any of their ports on the back of their machines, even their workstations. Making it easy to grab and go whenever needed.

The last thing I’ll mention is that it’s nice to see a physical camera shutter, which is always a mark of the best business laptops. In a world where I am getting increasingly paranoid, it’s nice to have a physical way to block that eye staring at me at all times.

All in all, the aesthetic is clean, professional, and business first. It’s a powerhouse but it looks like any other laptop at a quick glance. No RGB, no flashy or gaudy badging, no loud branding. Just a sleek machine that means business, and one you won’t be ashamed to bring to the board meeting.

Dell Pro Max 18 Plus: Design & Build Quality

The 18-inch display is the first thing that needs to be discussed with the Pro Max 18 Plus. It’s 18 inches for crying out loud. That’s not just a version number, that’s how big this thing is. It’s so big that it barely fits in my Nomatic Backpack. Meaning, that you’ll have to keep things like that in mind, most bags are designed to fit 16-inch laptops, not 18-inches.

However, with that added screen real estate, the odds of needing a portable monitor to bring with you probably drops, depending on what you do of course. Granted, you may still have a docking station at your main workstation with a monitor, but working on the go gets a lot easier with a screen like this always with you.

While this screen is good, even really good, it’s not great for photo editing or video editing. But, it’s not supposed to be. So, instead of Dell wasting engineering dollars and materials on making a nice screen for something this machine will most likely not be used for, they used those funds for making a more powerful, efficient, and power-hungry machine.

Perhaps that’s where they got the audacity to add not just one but two Thunderbolt 5 ports. And for that, I thank Dell. This display is more than enough for coding, project management, writing, database management, development, and related tasks. It’s spectacular for multitasking, and it’s snappy, really snappy.

Dell Pro Max 18 Plus: In use

The Dell Pro Max 18 Plus is not a laptop you casually use. It’s not one you “toss” in your bag or gingerly bring with you around the house. You can, but just as people are complaining that the 12.9-inch iPad, one of the thinnest technological advances in our computing history, is too large, cumbersome, and not portable enough, there is no way this computer will be considered ultra-portable. Portable, yes. But ultra portable or pleasant to carry around all day? Absolutely not. This is the kind of machine you bring to a place, and park it.

In real-world use, running large repos on GitHub, pulling up records in DBeaver, running projects in VS Code, working in Notion, responding to Slack, having an embarrassing amount of Chrome Tabs, PM’ing in Jira, Asana, Basecamp, and Trello, and taking virtual meetings all in sequence have not even made the fans spin up.

This machine is a beast. An absolute powerhouse. It’s got enough headroom that I don’t even think or wait for things to load anymore.

In my day-to-day, I wear many hats at the same time. In a given hour, I am working alongside four companies at a high level. I could be in a virtual meeting for one company, managing their data, responding to messages from a second, and physically talking to a third. All while loading data or a project for a fourth.

The Dell Pro 18 Plus is the kind of machine that can not only take on a massive project but also several at a time if needed. Again, I wouldn’t pick this as my laptop to carry around one-handed while walking between in-person meetings, but having a machine this powerful that could be brought out if needed is still mind-boggling to me sometimes.

Dell Pro Max 18 Plus: Final verdict

If you are the kind of person who needs a machine that can handle whatever codebase you’re working in, and you want it to be semi-portable, this is your machine. If you want a laptop that can tackle whatever project you throw at it, no matter how many projects at a time, this is your laptop.

If you are a graphics person, a video editor, a photo editor, or a 3D modeler, this machine could do it, but there are probably better options. If you are a commuter, I can say right now this machine is perhaps not one you want to tote around more than necessary, for many reasons.

But if you want high-powered desktop-level power in a laptop, then step right up and swipe that card.

For more models, we've tested the best Dell laptops.