Dell is ditching the Inspiron, Latitude and XPS, in a sensible but confusing rebranding

Gone are the days of Dell Inspiron, Latitude, Optiplex, XPS, and more Dale It gave up a lot in favor of a new, greatly simplified naming system. From now on, all its products fall under only three main categories: Dell, Dell Pro and Dell Pro Max.

As a maker of some of the best gaming PCs and Best laptop for gamingaround, Dale It is one of the biggest names in computers. However, its products have long had a confusing mass of product names. It’s this legacy that the company is looking to shed, but while the new naming convention seems pleasantly simple and straightforward at first, the company has made this a bit confusing in some ways, at least based on the reaction of the media and other conference attendees. . Company announcement.

The company revealed the changes in conjunction with the CES trade show, which is being held this week in Las Vegas. While the likes of AMD and Nvidia are gearing up to launch new GPU lines at the show, Dell has taken the opportunity to reveal a few new products but is mainly pushing to unveil its new naming scheme.

The basic idea is that Dell will now be the go-to name for most standard products. It will effectively replace entry level and consumer products such as might go under the Inspiron desktop and laptop name. Then there will be Dell Pro products, which are those aimed at business users, so Latitude and Optiplex laptops and workstations may fall under this new name. Finally, there’s the Dell Pro Max, which is for peak-performance products that are a bit vaguely defined.

So far so good, except that Dell added an extra layer of complexity to the system that makes the logic less clear. Specifically, for each category, you’ll be able to get the entry-level model that will simply be called Dell or Dell Pro, for example, but then there will also be Plus and Premium versions that improve the build quality and premium feel. So, you can get a Dell Premium that is more expensive and more premium than a Dell Pro Plus or Dell Pro Max.

Several journalists at the launch asked Dell to provide further clarification of the classification, but the company was not fully able to clarify the situation.

For example, we asked how the hugely popular Dell XPS laptop lineup — which has traditionally been the industry leader in build quality and design across all laptop sizes — would fit into the new scheme. Dell has clarified that smaller 13-inch models will go under the Dell Premium name, since they don’t have “maximum” performance, but larger 14-16-inch models with more powerful CPUs and discrete GPUs will go under the Dell name. . The Pro Max Premium system, though current larger XPS laptops aren’t marketed as such to professional users.

Some examples of the new models include the aforementioned laptops that represent the 14- and 16-inch versions of the new Dell Pro Max range. These are clearly business-focused devices but with Nvidia GPUs for maximum performance. Likewise, below are the Dell Pro Max desktop range.

We also asked how Dell would actually differentiate between the models given the overly simplistic model names, and they explained that, at least for laptops, each new product will have a unique seven-digit identification code. Its format is the first letter is the class, the second letter is the layer, the next two numbers are the screen size, then the two numbers for the year of production, then the numbers that indicate the “architecture”.

So you might have a PA14241 laptop, which will be P for Pro, A for Premium, which is a 14-inch laptop built in 2024 with the No. 1 architecture. These numbers will be buried in most hardware marketing but will be referenced somewhere What so users can go to the exact models.

To add a final point of confusion, Dell is not getting rid of all of its current product ID names. For example, Dell UltraSharp will continue to be used for certain monitor classes, such as the new Dell UltraSharp 27 4K and Dell UltraSharp 32 4K. Meanwhile, other similar smart-looking business displays, like the new Dell Plus 32 4K QD-OLED, won’t use the UltraSharp name.

Fortunately, the Alienware sub-brand is not incorporated into this mod, so their product names remain completely independent. The company has announced a range of new products, including its own amazing new product Alienware AW2725Q 27-inch 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor and the new, easily upgradeable Alienware Area 51 desktop.

Ultimately, we’ll have to see how these new categories and this new naming system play out as Dell releases more and more new devices. To get a first idea of ​​what’s to come, check out the new trailer Dell Ultra Sharp 27/32 4K Screens that use a new type of LCD called IPS Black, which allows for an amazing contrast of 3000:1.