Dell's expansive lineup of laptops includes the Inspiron brand, a more affordable alternative to the expensive XPS brand made for consumers. While there was at one time a more noticeable gap between the Inspiron and XPS laptops, Dell has done a fantastic job of buffing the more cost-effective laptops.
There are plenty of Inspiron models available, but one, in particular, stands out for college students and creators who are looking to land a great deal on a powerful PC. It's never a bad idea to study smarter while spending less, and this is a budget-friendly laptop deal that you cannot miss. I'm talking about the Inspiron 16 Plus (7630), a laptop we reviewed and loved so much that we gave it a Windows Central Recommended Award.
Dell is currently clearing out Inspiron 16 Plus models, and it's a great time to save a ton of money on a unit with a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H processor (CPU), 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 16-inch display with 2.5K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD), and integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics. Regularly priced at $1,300, it's now $470 off for a total of just $830 at Dell.
✅Perfect for: College students, creators, and productivity masters who need a high-res 16-inch display, strong performance, and long battery life.
❌Avoid it if: You want to focus primarily on gaming or you need a laptop that's as compact as possible.
A great laptop for college students and creators
Buying the best laptop as a college student can be difficult. You need something with performance hardware that can keep up with a varied workload, you need respectable battery life to get you through a day of lectures, and you need something with a display large enough to handle multitasking. These attributes also cross over into the creator realm, which was the focus of our review of the Inspiron 16 Plus.
Windows Central Editor Rebecca Spear has this to say in our review:
"Anyone looking for a powerful laptop that can handle a mixture of day-to-day office work, more intensive rendering programs, and even some gaming will benefit from the Inspiron 16 Plus. Depending on the configuration, it can be a bit costly, but it's also well-priced, given the impressive performance of the hardware. The large 16-inch display's 120Hz refresh rate only adds to the laptop's smooth experience. Of course, having such good battery life also makes this an excellent option for people who travel or are constantly on the go."
Indeed, the laptop's 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H CPU puts up strong numbers, as you can see in the benchmark result graphs below.
The CPU, combined with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, will cut through multitasking with ease, and the 1TB of M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD storage is speedy and has plenty of capacity for images and documents. Perhaps the best attribute for college students is the laptop's battery life.
Rebecca saw roughly 12 hours of runtime from a charge when going about basic office tasks, and that was with a model containing the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU upgrade (more on that below). If you're pushing the system with a discrete GPU, that number will come down, but you should still expect to get through a workday or a day of lectures on a charge.
Rounding things out is a sizable 16-inch display that has enough room for multiple windows without needing an external display. In our testing, we got back 100% sRGB, 78% AdobeRGB, and 78% DCI-P3 color reproduction, and it was able to hit 315 nits brightness at peak. A 120Hz refresh rate is a great trait, especially at the reduced price, and it makes the screen easier on the eyes.
One of Rebecca's main critiques was the laptop's price, but that's been handled by this massive discount at Dell's website.
More Inspiron 16 Plus configurations on sale at Dell
The discounted $830 model I highlighted above should be great for most people, but those who want some extra power from a discrete NVIDIA RTX 4050 Laptop GPU are also in luck. It'll better handle some light gaming, and it can also be used for some extra power in graphics-intensive applications.
Dell's Inspiron 16 Plus with Core i7-13620H CPU, 16GB of RAM, upgraded 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, and RTX 4050 Laptop GPU is $550 off the regular price, bringing it down to $1,000. Yes, that's with the 2.5K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate for the display.
