Dell G16 (7630) gaming laptop review: Bargain price with class-leading performance

There are many options available for laptop gamers looking for the most bang for their buck. When it comes to the best gaming laptops under $1,000, the Dell G16 (7630) makes a strong case with a fast Core i7 processor, a GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, and a 2560 x 1600 display refreshing at 240 Hz.

That’s a lot of kit for just $999, but that’s not everything. The laptop includes several USB Type-A ports, a Thunderbolt 4 port, Gigabit Ethernet, and, impressively for the price, a Cherry MX mechanical keyboard with RGB lightning. At least on paper, the Dell G16 looks like a slam dunk in the entry-level gaming class, but read on to see how it fares against the competition.

Design of the Dell G16 (7630)

The G16 is a big laptop, and I don’t just mean in weight (6.3 pounds), but also in terms of pure size. It’s a big and thick machine – I measured it at 1-inch thick at its thinnest point (front) with the lid closed, and 1.25 inches thick at the rear. The thick and wide chassis not only allows Dell to put in a large 16-inch display, but there’s ample room to put in enough cooling for the 13th Gen “Raptor Lake” processor and the 140-watt GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU.

A mostly-plastic chassis is par for the course in laptops in the sub-$1,000 price range. You’ll also find that trend with the G16, with thick plastic used for the primary chassis and plenty of cutouts for ventilation. However, Dell tries to class things up with an aluminum lid with its logo emblazoned in the center.

The G16 looks good with its angular motif, projecting a bit of style that we’d expect in a laptop costing hundreds more. However, I will say that the angular design did irritate me in one way; The way the keyboard is positioned, the front-ridge edge of the deck dug into my palm when using the arrow keys, which was annoying.

There are two USB 3.2 Type-A ports on the right side of the chassis; while moving to the left side, you’ll see a Gigabit Ethernet port (with a drop-jaw hinge), a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and an LED status light for the battery. On the rear panel you will find a proprietary power port that accepts the 330-watt adapter with a barrel-style plug, another USB 3.2 Type-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a Thunderbolt 4 port.

Between the G16’s heavy weight and sizable footprint, It’s not a device I’d feel comfortable lugging around frequently. For comparison, the Lenovo LOQ 15ARP9 measures 14.17 x 10.19 x 0.94 inches and weighs 5.12 pounds, while the MSI Katana 15 is 14.13 x 10.20 x 0.98 inches and 4.96 pounds. The Acer Nitro 16 is the next-portliest laptop in this group at 5.95 pounds, with dimensions of 14.8 x 11.02 x 1.1 inches.

Dell G16 (7630) Specifications

Gaming Performance on the Dell G16 (7630)

Our Dell G16 review unit is configured with an Intel Core i7-13650HX processor, 16GB of DDR5-4800 memory, and a GeForce RTX 4060 GPU (140W TDP). That’s a definite step up regarding its graphics performance ceiling compared to laptops using the same GPU with a 115W TDP. Dell ships the G16 with a 16-inch QHD+ (2560 x 1600) display with a heady 240 Hz refresh rate.

The assembled competitors are the Lenovo LOQ 15ARP9 (Ryzen 7 7435HS, 115W RTX 4060), Acer Nitro 16 (Ryzen 5 7640HS, 140W RTX 4050), and the MSI Katana 15 (Core i7-13620H, 105W RTX 4050).

I’ve been playing more of Forespoken in recent months and decided to take the game for a spin on the G16. Running the game at the laptop’s native resolution of 2560 x 1600 resulted in a dismal 20 fps with Ultra-High settings enabled. Dialing things back a bit to the Standard graphical setting saw those frame rates climb to the high 40s, and sometimes even in the mid-50s if there wasn’t a lot of action on the screen.

I next shifted focus to our standard game benchmark suite, consisting of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Borderlands 3. Starting with Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest setting), the G16 led all competitors with 98 fps at 1080p resolution, but it only bested the next-fastest LOQ by 2 fps. When running at its native resolution of 1600p, performance dropped to 57 fps.

Cyberpunk 2077 (Very High settings) is one of our newer gaming benchmarks, so we only have results for the G16 and the LOQ. With that said, the G16 managed 33 fps at 1080p, which was once again 2 fps faster than the LOQ. When shifting the resolution to 1600p, the system could only muster 19 fps.

Far Cry 6 (Ultra settings) saw the G16 again take the lead at 1080p resolution at 85 fps, placing it 4 fps ahead of the Katana 15 and 6 fps ahead of the LOQ. Performance didn’t suffer as much as the two previous games when selecting 1600p, as we measured 61 fps.

We saw a tight grouping for top honors in Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium settings), with the G16 eking out the win at 1080p, but by just 1 frame over the LOQ and Nitro 16. 1600p performance dropped to 39 fps on the G16.

Finally, Borderlands 3 (Badass settings), put the G16 in the familiar spot at the top of the rankings with 82 fps at 1080p resolution. This put it just ahead of the LOQ and well clear of the Nitro 16 (63 fps) and Katana 15 (68 fps). The G16 managed 54 fps at native resolution (1600p).

Metro Exodus (RTX, 1080p settings) is our go-to benchmark for stress-testing gaming laptops. We run the test 10 times back-to-back and measure the average CPU and GPU clocks and temperatures. The CPU performance cores averaged 3.62 GHz, the efficiency cores averaged 2.96 GHz, and the CPU averaged 74.4 degrees Celsius (165.92 degrees Fahrenheit). The GPU averaged 2.2 GHz at a temperature of 59.2 C (138.56 F).

Productivity Performance on the Dell G16 (7630)

The Dell G16 features a Core i7-13650HX processor, 16GB of DDR5-4800 memory (1x 16GB), and a 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD (WD SN750).

Kicking things off with the Geekbench 6 synthetic CPU benchmark, the G16 split the top of the ticket with the Katana 15. The G16 took top honors in the single-core benchmark (2,553 versus 2,394), but the Katana 15 emerged victorious in the multi-core test (12,727 versus 11,209).

Moving to our file transfer test, which involves copying 25GB of mixed files on the SSD, the G16 bested the competition by a large margin, with a speed of 1,718.8 Mbps. The next-closest competitor was the Katana 15 at 1,045.33 Mbps.

Our Handbrake test, during which we transcoded a 4K video file to 1080p, was also a strong showing for the G16. It completed the task in 4 minutes and 21 seconds, putting it 6 seconds ahead of the second-place Katana 15. The Nitro 16 was the group’s laggard, taking 5 minutes and 48 seconds to finish.

Display on the Dell G16 (7630)

The 16-inch, 2560 x 1600 display on the G16 is large and exceptionally bright, particularly when typing this review with a white background in Microsoft Word.

Our instrumented tests showed that the G16’s IPS panel hit 310 nits, tying for second place with the LOQ, and well behind the Nitro 16 (371 nits). But trust me, you won’t be left wanting for additional brightness from this display.

Color tests showed 169% coverage of sRGB and 114 percent of DCI-P3, which is quite good for a display in a budget gaming laptop. The next-closest competitor was the Nitro 16, while the Katana 15 was in the rear of the pack, disappointing in the color tests and in overall brightness.

Delivering excellent numbers on paper is one thing, but how it fares in the real world is equally, if not more important. In this case, the display proved to be responsive in every game I threw at it, although the games that I typically play don’t come close to taxing the 240 Hz refresh rate maximum that the G16 supports.

Colors in the lush environments of Forespoken looked beautiful and well-saturated. As far as I could tell, colors looked accurate, brightness was ample even in well (or overly lit) environments, and black levels were reasonable for an IPS display.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Dell G16 (7630)

The G16 features a Cherry MX mechanical keyboard with single-zone RGB backlighting. Key presses are firm and responsive with no hint of wobble as I typed furiously. The WASD keys are outlined in white, highlighting that this is a gaming machine.

One curious decision is to include A, B, C, D, and E keys in the function row. They are programmable using the Alienware Command Center app and can be used as hotkeys for functions. As a result, the volume, mute, and microphone keys are relegated to a vertical row above the left arrow key on the right side of the keyboard. I still haven’t gotten used to this positioning and would prefer audio controls to be on the function row. For example, I would reach to hit the Backspace key and instead hit the microphone mute key.

I did have a minor annoyance with the sharp, right-front edge of the chassis digging into my palm when using the arrow keys. With that said, I used Keyhero.com to measure my typing speed and came away with 89 words per minute with 94.09 percent accuracy.

The touchpad isn’t anything to write home about. It’s on the smaller side for such a large laptop, measuring 4.1 inches x 2.5 inches. It has a nice, smooth surface with minimal friction, which is my preference. It also has a satisfying click, although I sometimes had to press twice to register a click. There was no rhyme or reason to when this would occur, but it happened enough for me to make a mental note of it.

Audio on the Dell G16 (7630)

Dell equipped the G16 with dual 2.5-watt speakers. They are branded or have any special branded tuning (like AKG or B&O) involved, and they sound OK. In other words, they are about what you’d expect for a laptop priced at $1,000. As usual, bass was lacking and music sounded mostly flat. The speakers are placed in the front corners of the chassis and fire downward.

I played “I Drive Alone” by Esthero, and was unimpressed with how muddled the vocals were, and the total lack of “oomph” from the background drums. Games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Far Cry 6 were no better regarding sound reproduction. Explosions and gunfire rang hollow, and character voices sounded as if they were belted out from a long and narrow hallway.

Upgradeability of the Dell G16 (7630)

There are ten Phillips head screws positioned around the perimeter of the bottom panel on the laptop. Once removed, the bottom panel quickly popped off using my fingernail as a guide.

Given the large footprint of the G16, there’s plenty of room to stick in a relatively large battery. In this case, we have an 86 WHr battery that is replenished via a 330W power adapter (which uses a proprietary, barrel-style plug).

You’ll find two M.2 slots, one of which houses the WD SN750 M.2 2230 SSD. The other slot is empty, and both slots accept full-length 2280 SSDs. There are two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots, one of which is occupied with a single 16GB DDR5-4800 module. I would have preferred two 8GB modules for a dual-channel configuration, but the overall performance of the G16 didn’t seem to suffer in our tests. The Wi-Fi module is also accessible, allowing you to upgrade to a newer Wi-Fi 7 unit if you desire.

Battery Life on the Dell G16 (7630)

Given the large footprint of the G16, there’s plenty of room to stick in a relatively large battery. In this case, we have an 86 WHr battery that is replenished via a 330W power adapter (which uses a proprietary, barrel-style plug).

Our battery life test relies on web browsing, video streaming, and OpenGL graphics tests with the screen brightness set to 150 nits. In this group of laptops, the G16 came in second place with a time of 5 hours and 3 minutes. However, this performance was overshadowed by the Nitro 16, which lasted an impressive 8 hours and 24 minutes. The Katana 15 was the straggler in the test, mustering just 2 hours and 39 minutes.

Heat on the Dell G16 (7630)

While running the Metro Exodus benchmark, we measured 35.8 C (96.5 F) between the G and H keys on the keyboard, while the touchpad was relatively cool at 25.2 C (77.5 F). The bottom of the chassis averaged abound 38 (100.5 F), but the hottest part of the laptop by far was near the rear-middle of the bottom chassis, which registered 41.7 C (107 F).

The G16 got a bit toasty when I saw it on my lap. Even when I wasn’t playing games, my legs quickly became warm while typing this review in Microsoft Word. However, things became a bit more uncomfortable when I started gaming. After a few minutes of Red Dead Redemption 2, I was ready to take the G16 off my lap and place it on the desk to escape the rising heat levels. (In general, we recommend gaming on a desk or table for this reason.

Fan noise wasn’t an issue when loafing around in Windows 11, or using standard desktop apps like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. However, starting a game caused the dual fans to audibly whir, although not enough to become a huge annoyance while gaming. With that said, you can always pick up one the best gaming headsets if you’re overly sensitive to increased fan noise.

Webcam on the Dell G16 (7630)

Dell scraped the bottom of the barrel with the webcam. Perhaps it had a warehouse of 720p units that it needed to get rid of, which is potentially why we’re stuck with one on the G16. Most of the competition in this price-sensitive segment has moved to 1080p or better webcams, which makes Dell’s decision a bit puzzling.

The picture was grainy, my facial features/frown lines/wrinkles were erased, and the blue in my shirt looked splotchy. There was no fine detail to be found anywhere in images or video. If you don’t care about how you look on video conference calls, then you might be served just fine by the G16’s webcam. However, it’s better to just opt for one of the best webcams.

Software and Warranty on the Gigabyte G6X

Compared to some companies, Dell plays it relatively safe with bloatware. Our review unit came with My Dell installed, which gives you access to information like your Service Tag for support, along with some quick links to change battery and multimedia settings. The Alienware Command Center is also included, which allows you to control keyboard hotkeys and macros, change the color of the RGB keyboard (and the light patterns), and gives you access to system vitals (clock speeds, memory usage, etc.). Dell Digital Delivery lets you manage software packages that you purchased with your system. In this case, McAfee Security was included to handle antivirus and malware protection on the G16.

That’s about it for extra apps that were installed on this system. You’ll find the usual shortcuts for TikTok, Dropbox, and Spotify, but that’s standard-issue for any Windows 11 PC.

The G16 comes with a one-year manufacturer warranty.

Dell G16 (7630) Configurations

Our review unit is the middle SKU in the G16 (7630) product range. It is equipped with an Intel Core i7-13650HX processor, 16GB of DDR5-4800 memory, a 1TB SSD, a GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, and a 16-inch 240Hz QHD+ display for $999. You can opt for an RTX 4050, which lops $100 off the price tag.

Opting for a Core i9-13900HX and an RTX 4070 takes the price up to $1,299.99.

Bottom Line

Dell has managed to pack a lot into a gaming laptop that just barely squeezes in under $1,000. Not only do you get a fast Raptor Lake-based processor (Core i7-13650HX), but you get a 140W GeForce RTX 4060 processor that helped our review unit ace all the gaming and productivity tests – it was nearly a clean sweep, save for it Geekbench 6 performance.

Throw in a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 IPS panel with a 240 Hz refresh rate, a Cherry MX mechanical keyboard, and plenty of ports for your peripherals, and it’s hard to find fault with the G16. My nits are a 720p webcam that has no place in any modern laptop these days and a general heft that makes the G16 feel more like a desktop replacement. But those are relatively minor knocks against a device that knocks it out of the park for performance per dollar.

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