Dell 15 Laptop 15.6" LD15260-5618BLK-PUS Carbon Black

A boring laptop in the best way possible: 16GB RAM, a current-gen Intel chip, and a price tag that won't make you wince. Just don't try to game on it.

The Core Ultra 5 225U sits in the 32nd percentile for CPUs in our database, which sounds rough until you remember this thing costs under $700. For everyday multitasking it's snappy, and the 16GB of RAM means you won't hit a wall with 20 Chrome tabs open. The integrated Intel Graphics are fine for video playback and light photo editing, but the 15.7/100 gaming score tells you everything: don't expect to run anything more demanding than Minesweeper at a decent frame rate. The 512GB SSD is middle of the pack, fast enough for boot times under 10 seconds but you'll be reaching for an external drive if you hoard media.

Stack this against the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition and you'll see the trade-off immediately: the Surface has a better screen and build quality but costs significantly more and skimps on ports. The Lenovo Legion 5i is a completely different animal, built for gaming with a discrete GPU, but it's heavier and pricier. The MacBook Pro M5 is in another universe entirely, both in performance and price. For pure value in the Windows world, this Dell undercuts all of them while still offering 16GB of RAM and a current-gen Intel chip.

At $685 USD, this is a solid deal for a student or office worker who needs a dependable machine without frills. The 16GB of RAM alone puts it ahead of most laptops in this price bracket, which typically ship with 8GB. You're not paying for a fancy GPU or a 4K display, and that's exactly the point. If you can find it on sale, even better.

This is Dell's no-nonsense answer to the question nobody asked: what if a laptop just did the basics and didn't annoy you? The Core Ultra 5 225U with 16GB of DDR5 and a 512GB NVMe drive is a genuinely capable daily driver for schoolwork, spreadsheets, and way too many browser tabs. The 300-nit IPS panel won't win any color accuracy awards, but it's bright enough for a coffee shop and the narrow bezels make it look less budget than it is. The real story here is the AI Copilot hotkey, which feels like Dell betting you'll actually use Microsoft's assistant. We'll see how that ages.

If you're looking for a gaming laptop or anything with real graphics horsepower, this isn't it. Go grab a Lenovo Legion 5i or an ASUS ROG Zephyrus instead. If you need a color-accurate screen for photo or video work, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition is the better pick, though you'll pay for it.

Buy this if you need a reliable, no-drama laptop for school, office work, or general browsing and you don't want to spend more than $700. The 16GB of RAM and Core Ultra 5 are the stars here, giving you enough headroom for years of software updates and multitasking. Skip it if you have any gaming ambitions or need a color-accurate display for creative work.