CES is always full of fun surprises, and Dell’s CES 2025 is no different — well, at least the surprise part. Announced today, Dell is completely rebranding its suite of laptops, doing away with its XPS, Inspiron, Latitude, or Precision lines and replacing them with the new Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max monikers, each offering three models: Base, Plus, and Premium.
Dell’s attempt to simplify its branding is reminiscent of Apple's MacBook in its naming convention. However, Kevin Terwilliger, Vice President of PC Product Management at Dell, tells Laptop Mag that any similarities between the two are simply drawn from their use of "descriptive industry words." In practice, Dell's new catalog differs significantly from Apple's approach to tiering.
I can’t say whether the rebranding will actually simplify your understanding of the Dell catalog, but I can say that breaking down what each system provides for you almost broke me.
Here it goes: Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max explained.
Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max: Specs
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Dell | Dell Pro | Dell Pro Max |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Base (TBD) / Plus ($999 starting) / Premium (TBD) | TBD | TBD |
| Release | Base (TBD) / Plus (Feb. 18) / Premium (TBD) | Base (March-April) / Plus (Jan-April) / Premium (Feb. 18) | TBD |
| CPU | Base (TBD) / Plus (up to Intel Core Ultra 9) / Premium (TBD) | Base (up to Intel Core Ultra 7 265U) / Plus (up to Intel Core Ultra 7 268V) / Premium (up to Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2 V) | up to Intel Core Ultra 9 |
| GPU | Base (TBD) / Plus (up to Intel Arc 140V) / Premium (TBD) | Base (Intel Graphics) / Plus (up to Intel Arc 140V) / Premium (up to Intel Arc 140V) | up to Nvidia RTX 500/RTX 2000 |
| RAM | Base (TBD) / Plus (up to 32GB) / Premium (TBD) | Base (up to 64GB) / Plus (up to 64GB) / Premium (up to 32GB) | TBD |
| Storage | Base (TBD) / Plus (up to 2TB) / Premium (TBD) | up to 2TB | up to 2TB/4TB |
| Display | Base (TBD) / Plus (14-inch, 14-inch 2-in-1, 16-inch, 16-inch 2-in-1) / Premium (TBD) | Base (14-inch, 16-inch) / Plus (13-inch, 14-inch, 16-inch) / Premium (13-inch, 14-inch) | 14-inch, 16-inch |
Dell, Dell, Dell
For those familiar with the Dell branding, the best way to view this rebranding is as follows: Inspiron is replaced by "Dell," Inspiron Plus is replaced by "Dell Plus," and XPS is replaced by "Dell Premium."
Meanwhile, Latitude is replaced by Dell Pro (base, Plus, and Premium) and Precision is replaced by Dell Pro Max (base, Plus, and Premium). So while you may be tempted to compare Apples to Dells, don’t.
Unlike MacBooks, the tiers aren’t necessarily determined by performance. Well, jumping from Dell to Dell Pro Max certainly is. However, Dell Pro is the outlier here. Latitudes (Dell Pro) aren’t necessarily stronger than XPS (Dell), or the rest of them. The big difference is its security and durability features. So the average consumer might assume that a Dell Pro is better than a Dell, but they’d be wrong.
If you take a step back, Dell is for the average consumer, Dell Pro is for business users (Pro is used literally in this case), and Dell Pro Max is for the power user (workstation-level performance).
When pointing out similarities to the MacBook branding, Dell's Kevin Terwilliger tells Laptop Mag, "Pro was an industry term long before Apple started using it. Pro has been used by Microsoft with Windows, AMD with Ryzen, Intel with vPro"
"When we use Pro, it will consistently mean professional-grade productivity." Well, considering how intense Apple's marketing is, I'm not sure consumers will get that, especially because the cited examples aren't something most people will consider.
Terwilliger admits "consistency isn’t always there from our competitors," and goes on to say, "We will make this clear throughout the customer purchasing/researching experience.” I'm sure Dell will make it clear on its site, but what about other online retailers? And especially in-store? I guess we'll find out.
Meanwhile, its Base, Plus, and Premium options scale in performance and mobility. You'll occasionally see better performance from Plus and more mobility from Premium models. That’s where your budget will come into play.
As far as pricing and availability go, you’d think there’d be nine products from what I described. Well, there are actually several per variation. For example, there are four Dell Plus models, which will launch on February 18, starting at $999. Two Dell Pro models will launch sometime between March and April at a TBD price, three Dell Pro Plus models will launch across January to April at a TBD price, and two Dell Pro Premium models will launch today (January 6) at a TBD price.
Dell, Dell Premium, and all Dell Pro Max models are still TBD.
Without a full look at all of the Dell models, we cannot concretely tell you all of the differences. But the cheat sheet above should be enough to give you an idea. Still, we’re excited to get our hands on the new Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max products when they launch throughout the year.
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