If you’ve found yourself confused by Dell’s enormous lineup of laptops in the past, I've got good news. The brand is finally doing something about it.
Announced ahead of this year’s CES in Las Vegas, Dell is overhauling and streamlining its core product portfolio. Previously, the company would split its offering out across eight different sub-brands. Going forward, it’ll use just three: Dell, Dell Pro and Dell Pro Max.
The standard Dell laptops are those designed for consumers, students and everyday users. The Dell Pro ups the ante for the enterprise crowd and then the Dell Pro Max promises to end the conversation for power users looking to go as high-spec as possible.
Within each of these lines, there will be three variants on offer: Base, Plus and Premium. Each of those will then come in the usual 13, 14 and 16-inch sizes. Dell seems determined to offer just as many options as it has in the past, but in a way that's a little easier for everyday consumers to parse.
At this stage, Dell isn’t ready to dish out the details when it comes to the specs of each of the individual models involved. However, at a briefing event in New York, it did show off some of what you can expect when it comes to the design identity and features that will be found across its next generation of PCs. For instance, the new Dell Pro Premium comes with a unique tandem OLED screen that’s both lighter and brighter than its predecessors and a reworked thermal design that Dell claims will make it one of the quietest enterprise machines on the market.
Another highlight here is the new modular USB-C port found across the range. This input is now secured to the motherboard with screws instead of solder, making for a port that’s both more durable and much easier to replace.
While the simplification of the lineup here is sure to break the hearts of XPS fans worldwide, Dell was quick to insist that this consolidation would not leave consumers with fewer options overall.
Specifically and when it comes to its next generation of so-called AI PCs, the company isn’t ready to throw its lot in with any one chipmaker just yet. The Dell, Dell Pro and Dell Pro Max will ship with Intel initially but AMD and Qualcomm variants of each are intended to arrive at a later date.
As for the G-series, it's set to be discontinued in favor of a new more affordable line of Alienware laptops. In any case, the future of Dell looks a little bit less like the Inspiron 4540 and a little more like the MacBook Air.
Asked whether the brand was simply copying Apple’s own approach to product marketing, Dell’s president for client solutions Sam Burd pushed back on the idea that any one brand has a monopoly on the language that the company’s latest and its biggest competition share.
2 min read
