Dell Pro 16 Plus 16" PB16250 2025

The Dell Pro 16 Plus PB16250 is a 16-inch business laptop with a great keyboard, tons of ports, and a mediocre display. It's fine for office work and web browsing, but the weak integrated graphics make it useless for gaming. Buy it only if you find it under $1,200 and you absolutely need a big screen with a numpad.

The Core Ultra 5 235U is a solid mid-range processor. In our database, it lands in the 57th percentile for CPU performance, which puts it right in the middle of the pack. For everyday office tasks, web browsing, and video calls, it's more than capable. The 16GB of DDR5 RAM helps with multitasking, and the 512GB SSD delivers decent read and write speeds, though it's nothing special at the 54th percentile. You won't feel held back in Excel or Chrome, even with a couple dozen tabs open.

Gaming is a different story. The integrated Intel Graphics score a 17.1 out of 100 in our gaming benchmarks, which is frankly terrible. This thing can handle Solitaire and maybe some light indie games, but anything 3D from the last five years will struggle. The 60Hz display doesn't help either. If you're looking for a laptop that can game even casually, this isn't it. For productivity and media consumption, though, the performance is exactly what you'd expect from a modern Ultra 5 chip.

The Dell Pro 16 Plus sits in an awkward spot. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 absolutely destroys it in performance and display quality, but that's a gaming laptop with a smaller 14-inch screen. If you need a big display for work and don't care about gaming, the Dell makes more sense. The MSI Prestige 13 Evo is a closer competitor, offering similar business-focused features in a more compact and lighter package, though you sacrifice the numpad and some ports.

The HP OmniBook X Flip 14 is another alternative if you want a touchscreen and 2-in-1 flexibility, but again, it's a smaller screen. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is in a completely different league for performance and price, so it's not a direct competitor. For pure office work, the Dell holds its own against the MSI Prestige, but the MSI's better display and lighter weight make it the smarter buy for most people.

Pricing on the Dell Pro 16 Plus is all over the place. We've seen it listed anywhere from $1,000 to over $2,200 depending on the vendor. At the low end, it's a reasonable deal for a 16-inch business laptop with a solid port selection and a comfortable keyboard. At the high end, it's a complete rip-off. If you can find it around $1,000, it's worth considering. Newegg currently has the best price we've seen, and their shipping and customer service are reliable. Just don't pay more than $1,200 for this configuration.

The Dell Pro 16 Plus PB16250 is a business laptop that tries to do a little bit of everything. It's built around Intel's new Core Ultra 5 235U, a 12-core chip that includes a dedicated NPU for AI tasks. You get 16GB of DDR5 RAM, a 512GB NVMe SSD, and a 16-inch 1920x1200 IPS display. It's clearly aimed at office workers and students who need a big screen for spreadsheets and documents, not gamers or creative pros. The aluminum top cover and palm rest give it a more premium feel than you'd expect at this price point, and the port selection is genuinely impressive.

Dell is pitching this as an AI-ready machine thanks to that Intel AI Boost NPU, which delivers up to 12 TOPS. In practice, that means Windows Studio Effects for video calls and some local AI processing, but don't expect it to run large language models locally. The real selling points here are the 16:10 aspect ratio display, the comfortable backlit keyboard, and the sheer number of ports. If you've been searching for a 16-inch laptop under $1,500 that can handle office work and light multitasking, this one deserves a look.

But there are trade-offs. The 300-nit, 45% NTSC display is fine for indoor use but looks washed out next to anything with better color coverage. And at 1.84kg, it's not exactly light for a machine with integrated graphics. The 55Wh battery is smaller than we'd like in a 16-inch chassis, though Dell claims 12.6 hours of runtime. We'll dig into how that holds up in the real world.

Skip the Dell Pro 16 Plus if you care about display quality, gaming, or portability. The 45% NTSC screen is a dealbreaker for anyone doing creative work, and the integrated graphics can't handle even casual gaming. If you travel often, the 1.84kg weight and chunky chassis will annoy you. Look at the MSI Prestige 13 Evo for a lighter business laptop with a better screen, or the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 if you want real performance in a portable package.

The Dell Pro 16 Plus PB16250 is a competent office laptop with a great keyboard and fantastic port selection. It's built for spreadsheets, emails, and video calls, and it handles those tasks without breaking a sweat. The 16:10 display is nice for productivity, even if the color accuracy and brightness are mediocre. If you can snag it for around $1,000, it's a solid value for a business machine with Windows 11 Pro and vPro support.

But the weak display, poor gaming performance, and below-average reliability scores give us pause. There are better options in this price range if you're willing to sacrifice screen size or port variety. This laptop makes sense for a specific person: someone who needs a big screen, a numpad, and every port imaginable, and who will use it almost exclusively indoors. For everyone else, the MSI Prestige 13 Evo or even a refurbished MacBook Air will serve you better.