CRN is live at Dell EMC World 2017 in Las Vegas. Get all of our coverage of the event, as well content from the Dell EMC World 2017 special issue of CRN, here.

Dell EMC World News

Dell EMC Bringing Mission-Critical Cloud Power Virtustream Into Channel Program The Virtustream Enterprise Cloud's move into the Dell EMC partner program is effective immediately and was announced today at the Dell EMC World conference in Las Vegas. Pat Gelsinger: VMware Opens Up Tech Partners To Expand Cloud Capabilities VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said new partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Google, and other parts of the Dell EMC business will make it easier for customers to run applications and manage IoT over private, hybrid, and public clouds. Virtustream Extends Mission-Critical Cloud Tech To Complex Health Care Applications Virtustream, known mainly for its public cloud infrastructure for mission-critical apps like SAP, is now providing the ability to run Epic and other health care apps in a HIPAA-compliant cloud. Michael Dell To Partners: 'Enormous Cross-Selling Opportunities For You' Dell EMC CEO Michael Dell tells partners that the complexity inherent in enterprise digital transformations opens up more opportunities for partners to sell across Dell EMC's broad portfolio. Dell EMC's David Goulden: Modern, Automated Infrastructure Provides The First Step For Cloud Migration A big focus of this week's Dell EMC World is the ability of Dell EMC to provide the modern infrastructure that lets customers look at the cloud and other ways to add flexibility to their applications. Dell EMC Rolls Out 'Flexible Consumption' Rebate For Partners Channel Chief John Byrne hit the Dell EMC World conference stage in Las Vegas to talk about the vendor's new consumption-based rebate model for partners selling cloud and hyper-converged resources. Dell EMC Takes Aim At Cisco With New Open Networking Push Dell EMC is putting the pressure on Cisco and other networking market leaders, unveiling a slew of new open networking products at this week's Dell EMC World.

Dell North America Sales Chief: 'Winning In Both Consumer And Commercial PCs' Is Key David Schmoock, who took over as North America sales head at Dell EMC in early April after the departure of 18-year sales veteran Bill Rodriguez, made the case at Dell EMC World for keeping the competitive pressure on in the PC arena. Dell EMC World: Michael Dell's 7 Keys To The Future Of Dell Technologies And The IT Industry In a keynote at the Dell EMC World conference in Las Vegas, Dell laid out the company's broad product portfolio for the more than 13,000 in attendance and gave insights into how that portfolio is positioned for the future of global business. Dell EMC World: Enterprise Sales Chief Scannell Says Partners Are Booting Competitors, Winning Big Deals Amid Huge Market Opportunity Scannell says the market opportunity for Dell EMC now is bigger than he's seen in more than three decades. Michael Dell To Partners: 'Enormous Cross-Selling Opportunities For You' Dell is contributing its Project FUSE source code to the EdgeX Foundry initiative, a project aiming to create a standard to align market leaders around a common Internet of Things framework. Partner Marketing Push: Dell EMC Arms Partners With New MDF Resources Dell EMC is simplifying its MDF strategy with its Partner Marketing Institute, an online portal that enables partners to seamlessly make their marketing efforts an extension of Dell EMC's. Dell EMC Gives Partners The Nod On Commercial PCs With Extension Of Partner-Led Strategy Dell EMC moves closer to launching its sales strategy for servers, storage and networking lines, establishing a "line of sight" for partners to make money. Dell EMC Launches All-Flash Storage Barrage Dell EMC debuts its VMAX 950X all-flash enterprise storage array and second-generation XtremIO all-flash block storage platform at Dell EMC World. 15 Hot Products Unleashed At Dell EMC World 2017 Whether you made it to Las Vegas for Dell EMC World or not, CRN was there.

Dell EMC World Special Issue

Dell EMC World: Transformation Titans Map Out Dell EMC's Path To Growth
With the right pieces now in place, Dell EMC's complete-portfolio call to action is being heard loud and clear across the partner ecosystem.

Marius Haas On Why There's 'Zero Debate' About The Value Of Dell EMC's End-To-End Portfolio
Marius Haas believes that when it comes to determining which vendor partner is going to provide you with long-term value creation opportunities, there's no debate that it's Dell EMC.

John Byrne On Partners Pivoting Away From Cisco, HPE, Lenovo, And Selling The Entire Dell EMC Portfolio
John Byrne says that Dell EMC partners are rapidly moving away from competing vendors and aggressively pushing new business opportunities across the entire combined portfolio.

Dell EMC's Cheryl Cook On The Combined Partner Marketing Perspective
Dell EMC's global channel marketing chief Cheryl Cook talks to CRN about the importance of communication when combining the marketing efforts of two massive partner programs.

Chad Sakac On Dell EMC's Push To Turn Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Into A Utility
Dell EMC is putting the 'pedal to the medal' when it comes to hyper-converged infrastructure and is tasking Chad Sakac and his team with making customer transformation as simple as possible for partners.

Jeremy Burton On How Partners Can Take Advantage Of A Combined Dell, EMC
Ahead of Dell EMC World 2017, Jeremy Burton dug into the blockbuster acquisition and how it primes partners to take advantage of the new combined company.

Dell EMC's David Goulden On What It Means To Be The Biggest Player In Storage
Ahead of Dell EMC World 2017, David Goulden talks to CRN about the new combined storage powerhouse and why you won't heard anyone referred to as 'ex-Dell' or 'ex-EMC.'

Dell EMC is waging an all-out assault on the storage market, investing $2 billion in the effort, hiring 1,200 new storage sales certified and offering new, robust, storage compensation incentives for its partners. A trio of executives leading the charge - Scott Millard, Joyce Mullen and Marius Haas - talked to CRN about how Dell EMC is putting the pieces in place to help its partners win big in storage.

'Refuse To Lose': Dell EMC Primes Its Partners For A Storage Revolution
Driving the company's storage sales offensive are new robust storage compensation incentives for solution providers and an influx of Dell EMC sales reps working side by side with those partners.

Dell EMC President Marius Haas On The Company's 'Refuse To Lose Approach' To The Storage Market
Dell EMC's Marius Haas on the Dell EMC's storage push and how channel partners are vital to Dell EMC's success.

Storage Boost: Dell Hires 1,200 Sales certified To Drive Partner-Led Selling
By hiring 1,200 new storage sales specialists, Dell boosts its storage team by upward of 25 percent with an eye on skyrocketing storage revenue through its partners in 2018.

10 Hot Dell EMC Storage Products
CRN looks at 10 key products in the Dell EMC storage lineup, one that offers the broad capabilities to match the company's position as the world’s largest storage vendor.

Tech Tour: Behind The Scenes At Dell EMC's Storage Manufacturing Facility
CRN recently toured Dell EMC's storage manufacturing facility in Massachusetts which assembles, tests and ships converged and hyper-converged products throughout North America.

CRN Interview: Dell EMC Channel Chief Joyce Mullen On Driving More Storage Sales Through Partners And Her Channel Vision For 2018
Joyce Mullen, an 18-year Dell veteran who is now president of global channels, OEM and IoT Solutions, spoke with CRN about enabling partners to drive more storage sales, the potential integration of VMware into the Dell EMC Partner Program, and her channel vision for 2018.

Dell EMC Doubles Down On Storage Services, Unifying Portfolio
Dell EMC executives are making sure partners have the competencies they need to sell the Dell EMC portfolio as well as their own services.

Fistfuls Of Growth: Dell EMC's Expanded Product Portfolio Paves New Paths For Partners
Michael Dell has emphasized that customers want cutting-edge hybrid cloud tech and they want to buy it from fewer vendors. Here's how three solution providers backed up Dell's assertion with skyrocketing sales across Dell EMC's broad portfolio in 2017.

If you're shopping for a laptop in 2023, you have almost too many options to choose from, be it a thin mobile companion or a hefty, rugged notebook, with a vast range of options in between. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to narrow down your options based on what you know. Sometimes, that's a brand you've long used and trusted.

If you're familiar with Dell, you probably have some opinion regarding how reliable the company's products are, how its customer service works, and the general quality of the user experience that those products and services deliver. If you're brand-loyal, it's a reasonable way to whittle down your options, while still helping you zero in on an excellent product. Picking a brand you trust does half the deciding for you.

Whether you're after a fast laptop for crunching numbers at work or a laptop for staying productive at home or on the go, it's likely that Dell has a model you've considered buying. The company has reliable machines at all levels of the market. Read on for a breakdown of our picks for the best Dell laptops for 2023 for a variety of users, followed by a guide to Dell's various laptop lines.

Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks

Buying Guide: The Best Dell Laptops for 2023

When you're looking at Dell's laptop product line, you'll want to concentrate on which of its six main families of laptop best meets your needs. The ones to familiarize yourself with are Inspiron, XPS, Alienware, G Series, Latitude, and Precision. You'll find both clamshell and 2-in-1 convertible entries in all of these families apart from the two gaming-oriented ones.

Stay tuned for a number of new gaming laptops from Dell, particularly the Alienware x16 and Alienware m18 mobile gaming machines, later in 2023. Dell's also working on new upgrades and additions to its high-end XPS line in 2023. Naturally, we intend to review each one.

Inspiron: The Mainstream Choice

For use in the home or school, Dell's Inspiron brand comprises consumer laptops of every stripe: power machines, inexpensive "just enough" machines, big displays, and ultra-compacts. Whether you're editing photos or managing your home finances, Inspiron's copious options fit both screen-size and budget needs for most buyers. These machines are mostly Windows models; if you want something a little less expensive for simple tasks and browsing online, consider Dell's Chromebooks, which put basic functionality into an affordable package that works great for kids and students.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

Dell breaks its Inspiron line into three gradations or levels: 3000, 5000, and 7000 series. As you go up that stack, you tend to see more premium features, and higher relative pricing. The number between the word "Inspiron" and the series number is typically the screen size of the laptop; an Inspiron 13 5000, for example, would be a 13-inch-screened laptop with middle-field characteristics.

Want to make sure you're saving the most cash possible, even on a Dell laptop? Check out our article with 15 money-saving tips for buying laptops.

XPS: The Power-User Class

The various guises of the Dell XPS 13 have been our "near-perfect" mainstream and power laptops for some time now. Refresh after refresh, Dell keeps tuning to keep this hardy machine on top. XPS signifies, on both the desktop and laptop side of the fence, a premium-design, fully decked-out machine that bridges demanding consumers and business users. It's Dell's line of power tools that are equally at home in a home office, a coffee shop, a conference room, or a high-stakes business meeting.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

XPS-class laptops also sometimes serve as guinea pigs for introducing futuristic features, such as the XPS 13 Plus, which ditches a physical touchpad in favor of a haptic feedback mechanism integrated into the palm rest. These experiments aside, you won't find a lot of variety in the XPS laptop line in terms of screen size or stratification, just configurable versions of the 13-inch-screened XPS 13 and 15-inch XPS 15 as both clamshells and swiveling-screen 2-in-1s. The XPS 17, the biggest model, has a 17-inch screen and is only available in a clamshell form factor.

Alienware and G Series: Full-Spectrum Gaming

If gaming is more your style, Dell's Alienware brand delivers, if you're on the market for a serious, blinged-out gaming cruiser. The latest components combine with premium construction and design, earning Alienware a well-deserved reputation as an aspirational brand among PC gamers. The Alienware machines tend to be big, brawny models with heavy graphics firepower and prices to match, though the brand known for its classic Area-51m bruiser has made forays into some leaner machines with its m15 and m17 series models and the even leaner Alienware X-Series.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Dell also sells gaming laptops under its G Series brand, introduced in 2018. Before this new sub-brand's introduction, this aggressively priced, lower-end line was part of the Inspiron family. Dell split it out as its own animal, and now the G Series is aimed at mainstream and budget-constrained gamers, with more modest designs than the Alienwares and component loadouts that are humbler but still workable for the latest games.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

The G Series models hover above and below the $1,000 mark, while the Alienwares start north of that. Models in the G Series are gradated like the Inspirons, into G3, G5, and G7 classes, with the higher numbers indicating higher-grade builds and feature sets.

Latitude: The Umbrella for Business Machines

Then there's business. Dell's Latitude brand is the mainstay for its business laptops, competing with options from Lenovo (the ThinkPad T series) and HP (the various EliteBook lines). Latitude offers options for workers in the office or in the field, with a mix of thin-yet-powerful laptops and durable systems that can take a beating.

Like the Inspirons and the G Series, the Latitudes make use of the same 3000, 5000, and 7000 nomenclature, with the addition of a top-of-the-line 9000 series. The second number in the four-digit model number signifies the screen size. So a Dell Latitude 7390 is in the second-from-the-top of the four lines, with a 13.3-inch screen; a Latitude 9500 would be a top-grade machine with a 15.6-inch screen.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Beyond the "simply" durable units, the Latitude line is also home to a few costly, highly ruggedized models that are designed to be used in hostile environments: doused in water, clipped onto an ATV, exposed to cold and wind, and the like. These are branded under the Latitude Rugged Extreme moniker.

Precision: Workstation Laptops for Demanding Professionals

Mobile workstations are a breed of machines that share some traits with business models, but they stand apart for their Independent Software Vendor (ISV) certifications and, in some cases, specialized CPU and GPU options and support for highly precise error-correcting-code (ECC) memory. ISV certifications provide users of demanding professional business apps (in areas such as scientific computing, architecture, and engineering) assurances that the workstation will run up to snuff with a given application. Companies such as Adobe, Autodesk, Avid, Dassault Systemés, and Siemens tend to be the ISVs involved.  

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Dell's line of mobile workstations is its Precision line, which comprises both laptop and desktop models. On the laptop side, Precision makes use of the same 3000, 5000, and 7000 series lingo as the other lines, with the screen size indicated within the model number.

A workstation might make use of consumer- or business-grade Intel CPUs, but the mark of a high-end workstation is the presence of a mobile Intel Xeon CPU and a dedicated workstation-grade graphics processor from Nvidia (RTX A-series, formerly Quadro) or AMD (Radeon Pro, much less common). The latter are in contrast to their consumer-GPU counterparts (GeForce GTX/RTX and Radeon RX, respectively) and are designed specifically for the kind of heavy-duty calculations that ISV-class applications require. Dell also offers a few 2-in-1 models in the Precision line; convertible workstations are far less common than their consumer counterparts.

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So, What Is the Best Dell Laptop to Buy?

There are plenty of solid Dell systems to choose from, but don't be overwhelmed by the options. We've combed through our many reviews and singled out the best Dell systems in multiple categories. For more (Dell and non-Dell) options, check out our favorite laptops overall (updated constantly), as well as our lists of the best Chromebooks, the best budget laptops, and the best gaming laptops.

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