Dell Pro Max 16 Plus 16" 5W98R

This Dell boasts one of the fastest laptop CPUs we've ever tested (top 2%) and a flawless port setup, but the 16" 1920x1200 display is a real letdown. At 2.55kg, it's also anything but portable. If ultimate CPU power and connectivity matter more than screen sharpness, it's a standout; otherwise, look elsewhere.

This thing is a CPU monster, plain and simple. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX with its 24 cores lands in the 98th percentile of our laptop database, putting it among the best money can buy right now. Pair that with a massive 64GB of DDR5 RAM (99th percentile), and you've got a workstation that laughs at heavy multitasking, code compilation, and 3D rendering. The port selection is also ridiculous: Thunderbolt 5, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, USB-A, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet—it's the only laptop we've seen that scores a perfect 100th percentile for connectivity.

The catch? The display. At 16 inches, a 1920x1200 resolution feels like a throwback. It's bright (500 nits) and color-accurate (100% DCI-P3), so it's fine for color work, but text and UI elements just don't look sharp. And with a weight of 2.55kg and a compact score in the 11th percentile, this isn't something you'll want to haul between meetings without a serious backpack. It's a desktop replacement that happens to close.

Our benchmarks put this CPU in the top 2% of all laptops, and it feels like it. Multi-core workloads are chewed up faster than anything this side of a high-end desktop. The RTX PRO 3000 with 12GB of GDDR7 is a professional GPU—solid for CAD, AI inferencing, and modeling, but it lands at the 75th percentile, so you're not setting any gaming records. For a workstation GPU, that's perfectly adequate, but don't expect RTX 4090 numbers in Blender.

The 64GB of RAM runs at a snappy 6400 MHz, and the 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD isn't the fastest on the planet (81st percentile) but still reads and writes plenty quick for large projects. One area where this machine leaves literally everyone else in the dust is connectivity. Thunderbolt 5, a 2.5GbE jack, and Wi-Fi 7 mean you'll never hunt for a dongle. Whether you're docking to multiple 4K monitors or moving huge datasets over a network, there's zero bottleneck here.

Pricing is all over the place, with vendor listings ranging from $5,700 to over $7,800. At the lower end, you're getting a top-tier CPU and acres of RAM, but the GPU and screen don't keep pace with the price. A MacBook Pro M4 Max with a stunning mini-LED display and superior single-core performance starts around the same money, while a gaming laptop like the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i will give you a far better GPU for less. Shopping around is critical; if you can snag it near $5,700, the raw CPU muscle almost justifies the cost, but you're still paying a premium for Dell's enterprise support and that impeccable port selection.

Against the MacBook Pro M4 Max, the Dell throws more raw cores at the problem, pulling ahead in heavily multi-threaded tasks. But the MacBook counters with a radically better display, all-day battery life, and quieter operation. The HP ZBook Ultra G1a puts up similar CPU numbers in a slightly thinner package, though it skimps on ports. For pure GPU power, the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ demolishes this machine in gaming, but it lacks the professional ISV certifications the RTX PRO 3000 offers. Ultimately, the Dell wins where CPU throughput and I/O are everything, but it falls behind the pack in screen quality and mobility.

If you're a photographer, video editor, or designer who lives and dies by per-pixel clarity, the 1920x1200 screen will drive you nuts. It's just not sharp enough for a $5,700 machine. Frequent travelers should also steer clear: the 2.55kg weight plus a beefy charger makes it a desk anchor, and our compact score puts it near the bottom of the barrel. Gamers wanting high refresh rates at native resolution won't find much joy either—this GPU is built for pro apps, not ray-tracing Cyberpunk at full tilt.

If your daily driver involves software that scales perfectly to 24 cores and you'd rather have every port known to man than a high-resolution display, the Pro Max 16 Plus is a niche king. It's a desktop replacement workstation that genuinely replaces a desktop thanks to that I/O and CPU headroom. But for most creative professionals, the 1200p screen and 2.55kg heft are hard to forgive at this price. Test drive the display in person before buying—your eyes might veto what your spreadsheet says.