Dell has announced it’s rebranding literally its entire product line, so mainstays like XPS, Latitude, and Inspiron are going away. They’re replacing all of these old brands with Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max, and within each of these, there will be three tiers: Base, Plus, and Premium. Of course, the reason is “AI”.
The AI PC market is quickly evolving. Silicon innovation is at its strongest and everyone from IT decision makers to professionals and everyday users are looking at on-device AI to help drive productivity and creativity. To make finding the right AI PC easy for customers, we’ve introduced three simple product categories to focus on core customer needs – Dell (designed for play, school and work), Dell Pro (designed for professional-grade productivity) and Dell Pro Max (designed for maximum performance).
We’ve also made it easy to distinguish products within each of the new product categories. We have a consistent approach to tiering that lets customers pinpoint the exact device for their specific needs. Above and beyond the starting point (Base), there’s a Plus tier that offers the most scalable performance and a Premium tier that delivers the ultimate in mobility and design.
↫ Kevin Terwilliger on Dell’s blog
Setting aside the nonsensical reasoning behind the rebrand, I do actually kind of dig the simplicity here. This is a simple, straightforward set of brand names and tiers that pretty much anyone can understand. That being said, the issue with Dell in particular is that once you go to their website to actually buy one of their machines, the clarity abruptly ends and it gets confusing fast. I hope these new brand names and tiers will untangle some of that mess to make it easier to find what you need, but I’m skeptical.
My XPS 13 from 2017 is really starting to show its age, and considering how happy I’ve been with it over the years its current Dell equivalent would be a top contender (assuming I had the finances to do so). I wonder if the Linux support on current Dell laptops has improved since my XPS 13 was new?
After a few decades, Dell discovers what Apple has known for a very long time. Having a simple product line-up is helpful.
Apple’s product naming is a meme in itself it’s such a joke.
> My XPS 13 from 2017 is really starting to show its age, and considering how happy I’ve been with it over the years its current Dell equivalent would be a top contender (assuming I had the finances to do so). I wonder if the Linux support on current Dell laptops has improved since my XPS 13 was new?
No clue, but you should look at the Frameworks 😉 Typing this on my FW16 and loving it. Not the cheapest, but also not wacky expensive as far as some things go. And I look forward to, in a couple of years, popping in a new mainboard and getting a CPU upgrade. And being able to use that mainboard for other things.
Would love to, but I spoiled myself with a 4K screen in my XPS 13, so anything less is not an option. That makes something as expensive as a new laptop even more expensive.
No 4K but native Linux here : https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Linux-Hardware/Linux-Notebooks/Alle.tuxedo#1275,1319
Hm. Yeah, until someone (probably Framework) do a higher resolution screen, then yeah, you’re limited. The 2.8K on the FW 13 should be pretty nice, and the display on the FW 16 is really great in every way, although perhaps higher resolution option would be nice. But it’s bright, sharp, wide gamut, and VRR/FreeSync 165 Hz. AND it’s 16:10!
It sounds like a step backwards and they’re trying to emulate some awful naming scheme based off of Apple’s awful naming scheme.
What is their nonsensical reason other than simplicity?
The naming scheme seems straight-forward enough as long as you agree with their choices? As a non-business user, am I going to find the Dell Premium line more attractive than one of the Pro models ( meant for business ). Maybe not.
Enterprise buyers already knew what Dell lines mapped to their needs but this does seem to make it easier. Dell Pro for most employees and Dell Pro Max for those doing something that actually pushes the hardware.
For what it is worth, I have been given Dell machines for work for many years now and I have always found that Linux runs on them flawlessly. Durability has not always been as flawless.
For a long time I was anti-Dell, but in recent years that stance has softened off the back of several good XPS laptop purchase experiences, not sure where this change leaves me, a bit cold.
We do have a single XPS Workstation that persists on Win 10, but it’s i7 – 32Gb – 2TB SSD RAID – Nvidia hardware is now deemed by MS to be Windows 11 incompatible, such is life!
I suppose, in hindsight, the XPS tag really doesn’t mean anything, there is no standard or exclusive feature or performance level I can think of to associate with it.
The XPS line has been Dell’s high end consumer line, and it’s had a weird history because of that.
Originally, it was an Ultrabook stuffed with higher end features and based on the Inspiron line. Then it switched to being based on the Precision laptop chassis, so it turned into a consumer version of workstation hardware.
In general, it’s roughly equivalent to the Thinkpad X1 Carbon.
Actually, on Inspiron(Ultrabook), I still have a 15″ 7000 series i7 sitting here that is tagged as Ultrabook that is surprisingly capable at the cost of horrendous battery life.
The era in-between those Inspirons and the very recent XPS laptops left a lot to be desired. Stuff turned plastic, tinny, unreliable, flaky and relatively poor performance. It’s like they couldn’t decide what they want, so they set sail in a ship without a rudder.
Yeah, they were never the most desirable things. The Precision based ones were interesting considering the premium full Precisions command, but there were always better options in the Dell lineup.
They did come pre-installed with Ubuntu, if that was your thing, before other big OEMs got in on that.
I’m a Thinkpad fan, so if I was going to spend the money, it would be on a Thinkpad. I found them more desirable, not that Lenovo doesn’t have their own problems.
Weirdly, the Latitude and Precision lines were better for Linux support then the Dell dev laptop.
Dell is really good about supporting Linux. Thinkpad, Precision, and Latitude are the laptops which have the best Linux support from the big OEMs.
For now. LOL Wait, there will be Dell Pro Max MAX Plus Special Edition Developer Edition 7000 7103 soon enough.
They could simplify even more and just use the md5 hash of what ever they were going to name it. Dell d759de7188e8d0e366a354718a8774ac, or Dell d759de for short, has a nice ring to it and it would be just as descriptive.
I’m not too upset about this. I bought a XPS last time, its great, but the name has always been silly. The new names: equally as silly, of course but that doesn’t mean I miss the old ones.
@Thom Holwerda
Do you consider Framework (https://frame.work) instead of Dell?
IBM had it sorted ages ago.
Our first home computer was an Aptiva. But “Aptiva” didn’t matter. It was an IBM 2134. The monitor was an IBM 2238. My old IntelliStation POWER was an IBM 9111. Done.
Of course, you could get a Pentium 60, 66, 75, 100 or a POWER5 at 1.9 or 2.1 GHz, but that’s a purchase order option, not a model change.
And done. Once you get a model-as-platform, give it a model number. People will know that if they want 8 RAM slots and 2 sockets of AMD, they will get a Dell XXXX. If they want a SFF Intel desktop with 1 PCIe slot, they will get Dell YYYY. If they want a Ryzen laptop with NVIDIA graphics, they will get Dell ZZZZ.
If new AMD CPU comes out and Dell XXXX socket does not support it, release Dell XXXX+1 and retire Dell XXXX.