Best Dell laptop deals: Cheap laptops starting at $280

Dell is easily one of the best laptop brands on the market, which is a good sign that if you grab a laptop from it, then you’re likely to get something pretty excellent. In fact, Dell even owns Alienware, so whether you’re looking for a great gaming laptop or budget laptop, then Dell likely has something for you. Dell also has the XPS lineup, which is not only one of the best laptops on the market but competes with the likes of the MacBook Air in terms of size, price, and specs.

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

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 G15 Gaming — $900, was $1,200

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 i7-13650HX, 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.

Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 — $1,050, was $1,350

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 Latitude 5550 — $1,129, was $1,339

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 512GB, so you may want to supplement that with one of these external hard drive deals.

Dell XPS 14 — $1,450, was $2,000

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 an RTX 4050 thrown in, and while you won’t really be able to play all the latest games, you will be able to handle some indie and casual games.

Alienware m16 R2 — $1,600, was $1,950

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.

Alienware m18 R2 — $2,800, was $3,100

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 4080, 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 2TB of storage should be more than enough for pretty much anybody.

Alienware x16 R2 — $2,445, was $2,945

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 FHD+ laptop, even when aiming for 100+ framerate, which is great since it has a 16-inch monitor that runs a whopping 480Hz 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.