Dell slims down business laptops, fattens up cooling and battery life
Pro line gets new naming convention and some serious upgrades
Dell's upcoming 2026 commercial laptops won't leave recent buyers kicking themselves - but they do bring meaningful upgrades, including a thinner Pro 7, larger batteries, and improved thermals.
The laptop line is changing its branding slightly this year and that's probably a good thing because the 2025 naming scheme had you choosing between a Dell Pro, a Dell Pro Plus, or a Dell Pro Essential. Now the brand decoder ring is a little bit easier to figure out.
The Dell Pro 14 Premium is the best for execs because it's a lot like the company's XPS line, but with business in mind. The 2026 Dell Pro 14 Premium's all-magnesium chassis tips the scales at 2.54 pounds (1.15 kg) and is 7 percent thinner than last year's equivalent, with a maximum thickness of just 0.66 inches (16.78 mm). The 2026 model is powered by Intel Series 3 Core Ultra CPUs with up to 64 GB of LPDDR5X and up to 2TB of SSD storage.
After the Dell Pro Premium, the Pro line is divided into Dell Pro 7, 5, and 3 series with higher numbers signifying better build quality and higher prices. The Dell Pro 7 is, we're told, the most premium of these and is 18 percent thinner than the Dell Pro Plus from last year, the direct predecessor to both the Pro 7 and Pro 5.
That makes it just 0.64 inches (16.35 mm) thick. Available in 13 and 14-inch models in both clamshell and 2-in-1 form factors, the Dell Pro 7 starts at 2.62 pounds (1.19 kg) and is all-aluminum. One way it achieves this thinness is by using thinner fans and higher-capacity batteries that are the same thickness as those used in last year's units. It's powered by Intel Series 3 Core Ultra processors or AMD Ryzen Series 400 chips.
The Dell Pro 5 is the "workhorse" series of the line because it's supposed to offer the best balance between price and performance, along with the most options for panels, processors, and other components. In an upgrade over last year's Dell Pro Plus line, the Pro 5 now has an all-aluminum chassis. It weighs 2.96 pounds (1.34 kg) and is a modest 0.71 inches (18.1 mm) thick with up to 50 percent better airflow and 31 percent quieter fans, Dell claims. It features Intel Series 3 Core Ultra or AMD Series 400 Ryzen processors. You can get it with 14 or 16-inch panels.
The Dell Pro 3 is the value play designed for businesses that need some enterprise-friendly features without breaking the bank. It's available in both 14 and 16-inch form factors and in a choice of AMD Ryzen AI 400 or Series 3 Intel Core processors. The 14-inch model is the lightest it has been, tipping the scales at 2.89 pounds (1.31 kg), and features a touchpad that is 17 percent bigger than last year's equivalent.
For mobile workstations, Dell has its Dell Pro Precision 5 and 7 models. These feature professional discrete graphics such as Nvidia RTX Pro 500 on the Pro Precision 5's 14 and 16-inch models, up to an RTX Pro 2000 card on the Pro Precision 14, and up to an RTX Pro 3000 on the Pro Precision 7 16.
The most noteworthy of the Pro Precision models are the Dell Precision Pro 5S 14 and Precision Pro 5S 16. These mobile workstations use Intel's H-class processors with Intel Arc Pro integrated graphics or AMD Ryzen AI 400 CPUs with Radeon PRO graphics. Yet this all-aluminum workhorse weighs just 3.1 pounds (1.4 kg). Despite their lack of discrete graphics, Dell claims these are good for CAD and that the Intel version can give you about 70 percent of the performance of an Nvidia RTX Pro 500 card. ®
