Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Best Dell laptop deals: Cheap laptops starting at $280

Being one of the best laptop brands in the world, it’s probably not a surprise that it has a huge amount of laptops and configurations you can pick from, and that’s certainly also helped by the fact that Dell owns Alienware. That means you can not only find some great budget laptops but also some pretty incredibly gaming laptops at a pretty reasonable price. That said, we know that not everybody is looking for the best laptops on the market when it comes to performance or overall build, which is what makes picking a good Dell laptop so difficult.

Having so many options can be a bit overwhelming for somebody unfamiliar with Dell or the laptop market, so we scoured the Dell website and other retailers for our favorite picks and listed them below. This list has a lot of crossover with the best Dell XPS deals, student laptop deals and gaming laptop deals, so make sure to check out some of those other great laptop deals as well.

Dell Inspiron 15 — $280, was $330

Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Laptop on a white background displaying a colourful scene.
Dell

If you just need a basic laptop for simple tasks like browsing the internet and watching streaming shows, the affordable Dell Inspiron 15 will be enough with its Intel Core i3-1215U, Intel Xe Graphics, and 8GB of RAM. Images and videos will be bright and colorful on the laptop’s 15.6-inch screen with Full HD resolution, and you’ll have plenty of space to save your files on its 256GB SSD, which comes with Windows 11 Home pre-installed.

Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 — $850, was $1,150

The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 laptop in tent mode.
Dell

The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor 155H processor and 16GB of RAM. This will give you good day-to-day performance, but the reason that you’d want to buy the device is because it’s a 2-in-1 laptop under the convertible category, according to our laptop buying guide. You can quickly switch between laptop mode and tablet mode with the help of the 360-degree hinges that are attached to its 16-inch 1920 x 1200 resolution touchscreen. The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 ships with Windows 11 Home pre-loaded in its 1TB  SSD.

Dell XPS 14 — $1,060, was $1,560

Dell XPS 15 9530 front angled view showing display and keyboard deck.
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The Dell XPS 14 is Dell’s answer to the MacBook Air, and while it may not have the same level of performance in some configurations, it does come pretty close. This version comes with an upper-range Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor that will handle most tasks you throw at it. You also actually get a solid 16GB of RAM, more than you can get on some MacBook Airs, which is great if you do a lot of programming or CAD work. You also get Intel Arc graphics thrown in, and while you won’t really be able to play any of the latest games, you will be able to handle some indie and casual games.

Dell Latitude 5550 — $1,179, was $1,249

Overhead view of the Dell Latitude 5540 laptop against a white background.
Dell

The Dell Latitude 5540 is one of the best laptops made for business-related work, mostly due to the fact that it comes not only with a card reader but also a fingerprint reader, making it perfect for any sensitive work that requires tough security. Otherwise, the Lattitude 5540 is relatively normal, with a mid-range Intel Core Ultra 5 125U processor and a very reasonable 16GB of RAM, both of which should provide for smooth day-to-day usage. On the other hand, storage is a bit low at just 256GB, so you may want to supplement that with one of these external hard drive deals.

Alienware m16 R2 — $1,600, was $1,950

The Alienware m16 R2 on a white desk.
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

You need a gaming laptop if you want a device that’s designed to play the best PC games, and you can’t go wrong with the Alienware m16 R2. It’s powered by the 13th-generation Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, and 32GB of RAM, and you’ll be able to enjoy its capabilities on the gaming laptop’s 16-inch display with QHD+ resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate. You’ll be able to install multiple titles in the Alienware m16 R2’s 1TB SSD, and you can start doing so right after booting up because Windows 11 Pro is pre-loaded.

Dell G15 Gaming — $1,300, was $1,700

Dell 15 Gaming Laptop front view showing display and keyboard deck.
Dell

If you’re looking for a good budget-friendly gaming laptop, you’ll be happy to know that Dell has a great option for that, too, in the form of the Dell G15. It comes with an RTX 4060, a solid 1080p GPU that should let you hit 100fps on medium graphical settings with ease, although the screen can hit 360Hz. As for the CPU, you get yourself an Intel Core i9-13900HX, which is a higher-end CPU that should easily handle most games you throw at it, including simulation and strategy games. On the other hand, it only comes with a 1TB SSD for storage, which is low for gaming, so you may want to supplement it with one of these external hard drive deals.

Alienware m18 R2 — $2,400, was $2,500

The Alienware m18 R2 gaming laptop with Baldur's Gate 3 on the screen.
Dell

It’s not every day that you run into a massive 18-inch laptop, and if you’re the type of person who loves a bigger screen, the Alienware m18 R2 is one of the very few options you’ll find on the market. Under the hood, it runs a powerful RTX 4070, which should easily handle the 2K screen resolution, although it may struggle to hit a solid 165Hz refresh rate, at least without some graphical compromises. Besides that, the Intel Core i9-14900HX is one of the most powerful processors on the market, while the whopping 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage should be more than enough for pretty much anybody.

Alienware x16 R2 — $2,000, was $2,700

Screen on the Alienware x16.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends / Digital Trends

If you need a lot of power under the hood of your gaming laptop, then you may want to consider the Dell Alienware x16, especially since it runs a mobile version of the RTX 4070, which is roughly at the same performance level as a desktop RTX 4060. That means that it’s a solid QHD+ laptop, even when aiming for 100+ framerate, which is great since it has a 16-inch monitor that runs a whopping 240Hz refresh rate. While the GPU may not be able to hit both the max resolution and refresh rate with the highest graphical settings, it will get pretty close.

How we chose the best Dell deals

These deals made the list because they constitute some of the best and steepest discounts that we could find using our tracking tools and experience in historical pricing. It can be hard to pick a specific deal to put on the list, given how expansive Dell’s catalog of laptops is. Still, we do our best to be fully aware of all the various configurations and lineups that are generally available and how much they cost. On top of that, we compare the value of any individual deal against similar laptops from other brands with a similar configuration so we aren’t just adding deals to the list in a vacuum.

Altogether, that means that whenever you see a deal on this list, we’re picking something that will give you the best bang for your buck so that you can be sure anything you buy is of high quality at a reasonable price. We’re committed to leveraging our decades of expertise in both commerce and product reviews to help you decide what the best product deal for you is.

Albert Bassili
Deals Writer
Albert’s been a tech and gaming writer for over a decade, writing for websites such as CNET, PopSci, and How-To-Geek, and…
Best laptop deals: Save on the Dell XPS 14, MacBook Pro 16 and more
The Dell XPS 14 on a white table with the screen open.

If you're thinking of grabbing a new laptop, then you'll be happy to know that there are a ton of excellent laptop deals you can snag these days from the best laptop brands. Even better, since laptops have gotten much cheaper and more powerful, you can buy some really interesting things, from ultra-light 2-in-1 laptops to high-end gaming laptops. That said, you don't need the best laptops on the market to get something solid unless you want to compete with desktop computers, of course.
That's why we've gone out and collected these deals from the best brands; you'll find HP laptop deals, Dell laptop deals, Acer laptop deals, Lenovo laptop deals, and more. They run the gamut from Chromebook deals and 2-in-1 laptop deals to powerful gaming laptop deals and everything in between.

HP Chromebook 14a -- $230, was $320

Read more
To make the most of NVIDIA RTX AI PCs, opt for GIGABYTE’s latest laptops
GIGABYTE Gaming on G6X gaming laptop with NVIDIA

You may or may not already know this, but NVIDIA's latest GPUs, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series, are built to enhance compatibility and performance in the era of AI. More specifically, NVIDIA's industry-leading GPU architecture with specialized AI Tensor Cores, can deliver up to 1,300 AI TOPS of processing power. TOPS or Tera Operations per Second are used to measure the performance of the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for AI applications. In this case, NVIDIA's GPUs offer some impressive TOPS numbers which go a long way towards improving performance, experiences, and beyond.

Over 500 AI-enabled applications and games are accelerated by the technology, improving your potential as an end user. We'll get into more of what that offers you in a bit. But if you're interested in working with this bleeding-edge tech, one of the best ways to do it or prep is with GIGABYTE's newest laptops -- like the GIGABYTE G6X. Combined with NVIDIA's top-notch GPUs, the G6X and GIGABYTE's comparable laptops are ready for this new area of AI-enabled solutions. Imagine tapping into AI-accelerated performance while you game through NVIDIA DLSS 3, or seeing optimized power through NVIDIA Max-Q tech, with high responsiveness through NVIDIA Reflex low-latency support. Or, using AI-enhanced voice and video for your streaming broadcasts. It's all possible and GIGABYTE's G6X and similarly-powered laptops are your way in.

Read more
This Alienware gaming laptop with RTX 4090 has a $600 discount today
The Alienware m18 R2 gaming laptop with Baldur's Gate 3 on the screen.

The Alienware m18 R2 with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, which is one of the most powerful gaming laptops that you can buy right now, is on sale from Dell with a $600 discount that brings its price down from $3,600 to $3,000. It's still far from being a budget-friendly device, but that's actually a steal for this machine. Gamers who can afford it will not regret making this purchase, but you're going to have to hurry because there's no telling how much time is remaining before this deal expires.

Why you should buy the Alienware m18 R2 gaming laptop
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 is in our roundup of the best graphics cards as the fastest GPU money can buy. However, there are reports that Nvidia is discontinuing the RTX 4090 to make way for the RTX 50-series graphics cards, which could be why the Alienware m18 R2 with the RTX 4090 is getting a price cut. That's a welcome sight for gamers though, as this gaming laptop, which is also equipped with the 14th-generation Intel Core i9 processor and 32GB of RAM, is one of the most powerful options in the market right now. It's ready to play the best PC games at their highest settings, and it's prepared for the upcoming PC games for the next few years.

Read more