Dell 15.6" Dell15 Carbon Black 2023

The Dell 15 is a budget business laptop with a standout 1.5TB of storage and a touchscreen, but it's held back by weak integrated graphics and a mediocre display. The 10-core i7-1355U handles everyday tasks fine, but gaming is basically off the table with an 8.9/100 score. At 28,550 MXN, it's a decent buy for office drones who need space and don't care about visuals. Everyone else should look elsewhere.

The Core i7-1355U is a 10-core, 12-thread chip that can boost up to 5GHz, and in short bursts it feels snappy. Opening apps, switching between browser tabs, and running Office 365 all happen without much drama. But this CPU sits in the 43rd percentile of our database, which means it's solidly middle of the pack. It's not going to blow anyone away, and sustained workloads will cause it to throttle back. The 16GB of DDR4 RAM is fine for multitasking, though DDR4 in 2025 feels a bit like finding a CD player in a new car. It works, but you know there's better out there.

The real bottleneck is the integrated Intel UHD Graphics. This is not a gaming laptop, not even close. Our gaming score for this machine is 8.9 out of 100, which is one of the worst we've seen. You can play Solitaire and maybe some very old titles, but anything modern will chug. Even casual gaming is a stretch. The 15.6-inch FHD touchscreen is also a letdown, landing in the 21st percentile for screen quality. It's a basic 1080p panel with no standout brightness or color accuracy. Fine for documents, rough for anything visual.

Stacked against the competition, the Dell 15 is in a weird spot. The Apple MacBook Pro M5 Max absolutely destroys it in performance, screen quality, and battery life, but it also costs several times more. That's not a fair fight. The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 is a more realistic rival, offering a better screen, lighter build, and similar productivity chops, though you'll likely pay more for it. The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 3 is a different beast entirely, aimed at workstation users who need serious GPU power, something this Dell simply doesn't have.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus and MSI Raider are gaming laptops, and comparing them to this Dell is almost comical. They have dedicated GPUs, high-refresh displays, and cooling systems built for sustained load. The Dell 15 would get laughed out of the room in that company. But again, those machines cost significantly more and serve a completely different purpose. The real takeaway is that the Dell 15 competes on storage and price, not on raw performance or display quality. If you need a cheap machine with tons of space and a touchscreen, it's worth a look. If you need anything else, look elsewhere.

Pricing here is tricky because we only have one listing at 28,550 MXN, and that's a very specific market. Without more data points across currencies, it's hard to say definitively whether this is a good deal. What we can say is that the storage alone is a standout feature. Getting 1.5TB of SSD space in a budget business laptop is rare, and that 89th percentile storage ranking backs it up. If you're someone who hoards files, downloads lots of media, or works with large datasets, that's a genuine selling point.

But the rest of the package doesn't scream value. The CPU is average, the GPU is weak, the screen is below average, and the port selection is thin. You're essentially paying for storage and a touchscreen. If those two things matter to you, this could be a decent buy. If you care about performance, display quality, or future-proofing, you can probably find better options at a similar price point, especially if you're willing to sacrifice some storage.

The Dell 15 is one of those laptops that looks great on a spec sheet until you squint at the details. You get a 10-core Intel Core i7-1355U, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a touchscreen, and a frankly absurd 1.5TB of total storage split across two SSDs. On paper, that's a solid productivity machine for office work, school, or general life admin. And for a lot of people, it will be exactly that. But the deeper you dig, the more you realize this is a parts-bin special, a machine built around a decent CPU but held back by some very dated choices elsewhere.

The target buyer here is pretty clear. This is for someone who needs a reliable daily driver for spreadsheets, email, video calls, and maybe some light photo editing. The touchscreen and numeric keypad suggest Dell is aiming this at office workers and students who want a bit of flexibility without spending MacBook money. The inclusion of Windows 11 Home and AI Copilot is fine, but let's be real, Copilot is not going to transform this into a powerhouse. It's a checkbox feature.

What makes this interesting is the storage situation. A 1TB SSD plus a 512GB SSD docking set is unusual for a budget business laptop. That's a lot of room for files, and the storage performance lands in the 89th percentile of our database, which is genuinely impressive. But the rest of the machine doesn't quite keep up. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics is a weak spot, the screen is mediocre, and the port selection is underwhelming. So you end up with a laptop that's great at storing your stuff but just okay at everything else.

If you're a gamer, a video editor, a 3D artist, or anyone who needs real graphics performance, skip this laptop entirely. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics is a dead end, and no amount of CPU power can make up for it. You'd be much better off with something like the ASUS ROG Zephyrus or MSI Raider, both of which have dedicated GPUs and displays that don't make your eyes sad.

Also skip this if you care about portability or screen quality. At 2.09kg, it's not exactly a featherweight, and the 21st percentile screen is a constant reminder that corners were cut. If you want a better display and a lighter build, the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 is a stronger choice, though you'll pay more for it. And if you need serious CPU and GPU power for professional work, the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 3 is in a completely different league.

For office workers and students who live in spreadsheets, email, and video calls, the Dell 15 is a perfectly serviceable machine. The 10-core i7-1355U keeps things moving, 16GB of RAM handles multitasking, and the 1.5TB of storage means you'll never have to delete anything. The touchscreen and numeric keypad are nice touches for productivity. If that's your world, this laptop will do the job without complaint.

But for anyone who wants to game, edit video, or do any kind of creative work, this is a hard pass. The integrated graphics are a dead end, the screen is mediocre, and the port selection is frustratingly limited. You'd be better off saving up for something with a dedicated GPU or at least a better display. The Dell 15 is a one-trick pony, and that trick is storage. If you need a file cabinet with a keyboard, this is your machine. If you need anything more, keep looking.