Dell 16 Premium 60 W GeForce RTX 5070 is both amazing and disappointing

The latest Dell 16 Premium ships with GPU options ranging from only integrated up to the discrete GeForce RTX 5050, RTX 5060, or RTX 5070. It also happens to be one of the few laptops to ship with Blackwell RTX GPUs targeting a relatively low TGP of just 60 W compared to 80 W or greater on most other laptops with the same graphics options. Naturally, this has some benefits and drawbacks.

The benefits of a lower TGP are immediately noticeable. The Dell 16 Premium is one of the thinnest 16-inch laptops to offer RTX 5070 graphics and it's also one of the only Core Ultra H and RTX models to ship with a super-compact 130 W USB-C adapter. In comparison, other 16-inch laptops with similar CPU and GPU options are often thicker and heavier with chunkier power bricks reaching 180 W or greater. Frequent travelers can certainly appreciate the size and weight savings in this regard.

The drawbacks, however, become apparent through testing and benchmarks. Expect the RTX 5070 in the Dell 16 Premium to run up to 20 percent slower than the average RTX 5070 laptop when gaming or 10 percent slower when rendering or rigging models. The gaming experience is therefore closer to a gaming laptop powered by RTX 5060 graphics which is still great considering the compact size of the Dell, but it can nonetheless be disappointing for performance hunters.

Users willing to make the performance tradeoff for a noticeably lighter and more portable design may therefore find a lot to like about the new XPS 16 replacement.