Over the past 30 year , Dell ’s XPS blade has grown into one of the most respected and well - known in the industriousness — often home to some of thebest laptopsyou could purchase . In its late loop , it was a name that represent top - of - the - line of descent Windows laptops thatcould go toe to toe with MacBooks . But now , the XPS brand is gone . Or , at least , it will be very soon .
I look an issue for diarist ahead ofCES 2025to hear Dell announce the high-minded design of its rebrand . It was such a self-aggrandizing deal , in fact , that Michael Dell himself took the stage to insert the idea . The ship’s company is shoot for a dim-witted sword across its entire ecosystem of products that slant on the Dell name and unifies every product in its huge batting order under it .
But the question stay on : Will the rebrand actually aid potential buyer screen through Dell ’s catalogue of products ? Or is this alteration just another instance chasing the latest trends in attempts to stay relevant ?
Dell is the brand
I wo n’t bury the lede any further . Dell has announced that the XPS brand — and nigh every other sub - brand of Dell — is getting jettisoned . XPS ? Out . Latitude ? Nope . Inspiron ? preciseness ? Optiplex ? G - serial ? All go . In name , they ’re all being replace throughout 2025 .
Instead , the company ’s next merchandise business will be part into just three bucket : Dell , Dell Pro , and Dell Pro Max . And yes , that should sound spookily conversant .
It ’s hard not to see the Apple of it all , sure . Apple get down adopt terms like Pro , Plus , and Max in its iPhones , as well as in its Apple Silicon naming . But it ’s not just Apple using those terms , and it certainly was n’t the first to . They seem to be everywhere these days , and to be fair , Dell is using them in a unlike elbow room than other companies . “ Pro ” does not mean exchange premium or surplus carrying into action , and “ Plus ” and “ Max ” do n’t mean physically larger . You ’ll take to throw out all those naming conventions to see what Dell is doing here .
Consumer PCs , which were antecedently divided into torpedo - brand like XPS and Inspiron , will now all fall under just the Dell name . commercial-grade PC , meanwhile , will be in the Dell Pro family . And at last , the Dell Pro Max is for workstation , with the “ Max ” referring to public presentation . In theory , that mean that no , the Dell Pro should not be considered a competitor to the MacBook Pro .
That voice fairly straightforward , but here ’s the thing : The company is n’t dial back the sheer quantity of laptop , desktops , monitors , and other products in its ecosystem . Except that as you might have guessed , match every Dell mathematical product into one of those three brands is n’t potential without any extra designation .
That ’s why under each brand , there are three more tier of products public figure : Base , Plus , and Premium . These not only represent a exfoliation up in term of performance but also high - end features , material , design , and terms . To put it as simply as I can , it ’ll look a morsel like this once it ’s all roll out :
Dell has n’t adumbrate out how all of these will work yet , nor has it point just where each brand had antecedently primed . And , of course , within each of those labels , whether it ’s Dell Plus or Dell Pro Max Premium ( sigh , I lie with ) , there will be multiple size options , configurations , and upgrade options . It ’s going to get messy .
We do know , however , that what used to be XPS , will now be Dell Premium . So , theXPS 13 , 14 , and 16 , will be renamed the Dell 13 Premium , Dell 14 Premium , and Dell 16 Premium . To show the direction it was heading , Dell had some very conversant XPS laptops to show with the new Dell logotype on the lid , even though these devices wo n’t really be refresh ( and rename ) until later in 2025 .
Meanwhile , XPS laptop computer will still be sell over the next few month under its current name until the Dell Premium refresh take place . But soon enough , they will be the Dell 13 , 14 , and 16 Premium .
I have also received ratification that the XPS intent ethos and the team itself is n’t changing either . This wo n’t be a year where the XPS laptop get a major redesign , since that happened just last year . So for 2025 , it ’s really just a new name . The only alteration is that now , they will all outfit somewhere under these three bearing .
The alteration feels drastic , and yes , it strikes me as a bit generic . One thing I do like , however , is that it puts the “ XPS ” design more in the enter of the batting order , no longer feeling kick downstairs as a side task under the XPS banner . It ’s just the Dell 14 Premium . I also appreciate move from the Dell Plus to the Dell Premium no longer feel like alone switch stigma — and establish on what we see , some of that XPS DNA might be carry over further down the sight .
Meet the Dell Plus and Dell Pro Premium
While XPS replacement is still a means out , Dell is startle its initiative in the consumer space with a substitute of the Inspiron Plus , now known as just Dell Plus . The Dell 14 Plus and Dell 16 2 - in-1 Plus are the two raw laptop in the batting order , refinements over last year ’s models .
The 16 - inch positive model comes with an kick upstairs screen option — a sheeny , 600 - nit mini - LED panel with a 90Hz refresh charge per unit and QHD resolve . It also comes in a new dark color option that depend quite silky . The 14 - in good example starts with a more canonical 1920 x 1200 IPS panel , but can at least be elevate to a 2560 x 1600 declaration .
unluckily , as of now there ’s no longer a discrete GPU option in this line though , which is a bummer , because the previousInspiron 16 Plushad options for an RTX 4050 and 4060 . The handsome modification for the positive , however , is in portability . Both the 14 - inch and 16 - inch size , however , are quite a bit tenuous than they were before , down to just 0.67 inches from the 0.75 inch of last yr ’s model . That brings it a little closer to the MacBook Pro in thickness .
Then again , these are n’t the XPS laptop computer we all point to high - endMacBook Pro alternative . They be more in the mid - grade , though they for certain are n’t bad - attend laptop computer .
We ’ll have to await and see until we get them in for test when they launch on February 18 . Both size of it of the 2 - in-1 models take up at $ 999 , while the clamshell Dell 14 Plus starts at $ 1,099 and the 16 - inch model get at $ 1,150 . Both models start with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage , however . That intend the Dell 14 Plus is $ 200 tacky than theM3 MacBook Airwhen similarly configured .
Dell also had some Dell Pro laptop to show , but recall , Dell is n’t using the “ Pro ” terminal figure in the way the relief of the industry does , as jell by products like the MacBook Pro . Here , the “ Pro ” in the name refers just to business laptop . In this case , as replacement for the Latitude marque .
That means the radix Dell Pro laptop computer are low-priced business laptops , while the Dell Pro Premium single look to be top - of - the - line commercial-grade laptops for executive , lark about features like an 8 - megapixel webcam and an option for a tandem OLED display — and the Dell Pro 14 Plus sit down in between . So , although the Premium ones calculate decent , you ’re likely only going to get one of these if they ’re issued by your party ’s IT section .
unluckily , we ’re still not seeing any distinct GPUs being offered outside of the Dell Pro Max line of work . These are the chunky fellas entail to substitute the Precision workstation . They bear on performance above all else , but use commercial section . It ’s not something the average consumer really needs to even come to themselves with . But that means for now , Dell wo n’t have a compelling choice for creators in the line world , perhaps for those who would favor a MacBook Pro as their work auto anyways .
Does it work?
But the bounteous head is about whether this whole rebrand was a practiced idea . It might fathom simple to say the Dell 14 Premium rather of the Dell XPS 14 , but things quickly get a little ludicrous the further you get away from these mainline product . One product being declare , for example , is the Dell Pro Max Micro , which is a belittled , commercial desktop , but man , that is the opposite of lucidness .
The “ Pro Max ” in the name refers to commercial-grade personal computer with extra performance , and the “ Micro ” pertain to the size of the tower , but yeah , bear the Holy Writ “ Max ” and “ Micro ” next to each other in a product name is … kind of insane . Because recall : seek to reduce the complexity of buy Dell intersection is the stated end of this redesign , and when you end up with product name calling like that , I opine that ’s a sign you may have taken things a step too far .
That one is a honorable object lesson , too , because this rebrand does apply to all of Dell ’s product , even to desktop PC and monitors . Although — one of the only sub - brands that is stick around is UltraSharp on the proctor side — outside of Alienware , of grade .
I ’m not saying companies like Apple or Samsung are any less egregious with these nonsensical figure , and bet , no one owns the words “ Pro , ” “ Plus , ” or “ Max . ” No one pay back to define what they intend in a product . But settle to use those terms and redefine them for Dell ’s own intention may stop up confound buyers more than helping them . I ’m just glad they did n’t wangle to bosom “ Ultra ” into the equation somewhere .
One other affair to cite is that Dell is actually not the first PC brand to do this lately . Last year , HP announced its own rebranding , ditching Spectre , Envy , and Pavilion in favour of the fresh “ Omni ” brand . HP did n’t take it as far as Dell , though , keeping around the EliteBook descent to secern its commercial-grade business .
And let ’s not forget Intel ’s move aside from Core i5 and i7 to Core Ultra . There ’s no question that this is the guidance the entire industry is actuate . I ’ll need to await and see how this affects the actual ware in the batting order .
For now , let ’s pour one out for XPS — a brand that grew into a darling good through its over 30 years of business . That ’ll cause some sadness , no doubt . But here ’s the dubiousness : Did you even know what the acronym put up for ? If not , peradventure Dell has a gunpoint .
