64 ms·
Dell will no longer make XPS computers
- Oxodao 2y agoI'm not sure if it's just me or a common feeling, but XPS laptops from the last few years (at least 2020 onward) felt really poor quality for "professional" computers. Especially regarding their main competitors (mbp & thinkpads). All the XPS we had at work had issues and particularly bad battery life even before the one year mark.. For those who didn't have their battery swollen. I wouldn't have thought that such a recognizable brand as the XPS line would fade for "AI PC" BS but heh
- geodel 2y agoSeems they had good opportunity while renaming XPS to Dell Poor, Dell Poor+ and Dell Poor Premium
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoXPS always felt like an unloved brand. I’ve owned some and they never felt like they fit into either the powerhouse segment or the everyday user segment. And the strange revisions to keyboards and things over time made it less and less attractive to power users. Dell has far too many models and it’s hard for anyone to understand what the reason is to buy any of them. It’s certainly not for the everyday user either - in every single way it is worse than the cheapest Apple laptop. As for AI PC - unfortunately Microsoft has forced this on everyone. They used their influence and power to force Intel to agree to this branding and the conditions for it to be met (things like having a Microsoft specific “Copilot” button). And all the OEMs have to come along or face repercussions for these partnerships. It’s just another example of big tech having too much market share, capital, etc.
- pjmlp 2y agoAlternative would be like Apple, with vertical integration. OEMs have had 30 years to sell Windows alternatives based on GNU/Linux or BSD, after the monopoly lawsuit, they caved in quickly after XP license became grátis, and nowadays rather sell Chromebooks and Android tablets than proper Windows alternatives.
- ksec 2y ago>Especially regarding their main competitors (mbp & thinkpads) I dont think XPS is a business / professional line? But I think I have heard similar complains from Thinkpad user as well. The only good PC hardware surprisingly came from Microsoft their Surface line. But most business dont use it.
- legitster 2y agoXPS was never their professional product line. Latitudes were their workplace fleet devices that mostly went head to head with ThinkPads. This is probably good evidence that they needed to simplify their branding. Having their halo consumer product compete for market mindshare against their professional products is counterproductive. Especially when everyone wants to cross shop against MacBooks. In contrast, ThinkPad's X1 shares almost nothing with the rest of the Thinkpad's professional line, but it sits there adding prestige to the brand.
- soared 2y agoIm generally a fan of the Latitudes I’ve had for the past few years. They don’t do anything special or great but generally just work. The body gets scratched pretty easily and the power button behavior is annoying, but other than that I’ve had no issues. Even got a lucky BSOD 2 years ago that nuked windows and somehow got me admin access!
- legitster 2y agoMy work went from Thinkpads to Latitudes. The Latitudes are pretty sturdy, and I'm told are pretty competitive on price/performance. But nothing beat the ThinkPad on durability/repairability/tactile feel/etc. When I quit the job, I immediately bought an identical ThinkPad. It's nearly 8 years old but I still use it regularly use it as a pub trivia host as it can take a beating and have beers poured on it and still run like a trooper.
- razakel 2y agoInspiron is their consumer line, Latitude their business line, Precision their pro line, Alienware their gaming line, so what exactly was XPS meant to be? Their fashion line?
- jsheard 2y agoXPS pre-dates them acquiring Alienware, it made more sense at the time. That was their premium consumer/gaming line. Dell bought Alienware in 2006 though so they took their sweet time before cleaning up the product lines.
- AmVess 2y agoI had a 2021 model. It was pretty poor in all aspects. Slow, laggy on the desktop just clicking around. Loud when doing anything resembling work. Very poor audio. Bad keyboard. 4 hour battery. I switched to a new M1 MacBook Air and it was like going from a Cessna 150 to an F-15. Everything on the M1 MBA was decades ahead of the XPS. Everyone and their brother now sells a much better product than XPS, and often for nearly half the cash. I picked up an Asus Vivo last year. Very nice product, half the cost of the XPS they had on offer, but with the same specs and screen. It feels like it was engineered as a unit, much like the MBA. The XPS in comparison is a parts bin special.
- dkwr 2y agoI can agree with that. I still use my XPS from 2022 on a daily basis, but I regret it alot. Battery life and cooling are unbelievably bad, it's a shame when you start thinking about the price.
- InvisibleUp 2y agoI feel like the headline is burying the lede here: every Dell sub-brand is going away expecting for the new “Pro” and “Pro Max”. Reminds me a lot of how Apple in the late 90s got rid of their Performa/Centris/Quadra/etc. for more obvious, matter-of-fact names.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- crooked-v 2y agoI find it funny how much they've just completely ceded branding standards to Apple in that move.
- Spivak 2y agoWhen your competition is Apple you want to make it as easy as possible to compare like-for-like. What laptop are they positioning as an alternative to the MacBook Pro? The Dell Pro.
- zitterbewegung 2y agoOn branding it seems like everyone starts to copy Apple at this point or makes branding as complex as Intel.
- 0x457 2y agoBecause it's just simple and makes sense. Mostly, the only confusing apple product is iPad Air because it doesn't match what Air means in MacBooks.
- pjmlp 2y agoOn a tangent, I was never able to acquire XPS with Linux, the online store for various European countries always showed it as non available.
- chrislongss 2y agoI was able to buy it once ~15 years ago (UK).
- Lio 2y agoI got an XPS 13 Developer Edition around 2019 I think. I still have it. It was a good machine. Most things worked correctly out of the box but occasionally WIFI didn't wake from sleep properly and the battery life was always a bit rubbish compared to any MacBook Pro. I think that Dell have had too many models forever. Simplifying their line up is a good idea.
- jhickok 2y agoI had one with I think a 7th gen Intel processor, and while it ran Linux pretty well the coil whine was enough to drive me absolutely batty. I made it about a year before I traded it in.
- legitster 2y agoI really appreciate when brands just name things like they are. Nothing is less fun than cross-shopping products and there are a bunch of arbitrary brand differences. "Precisions are their portable workstations. Latitudes are their ultrabooks. Duh! XPS is their premium consumer laptop!". Marketing departments tend to get addicted to the smell of their own farts. But I don't think consumers care about particular sub-brand names. We already saw this a decade ago in the automotive space where manufacturers ditched their unnecessary marquees (Pontiac, Mercury, Oldsmobile, Saturn). And I think we will see this trend continue into more industries (like hotel chains).
- xnx 2y agoApple has its share of naming problems but not attempting to artificially split their laptop product line between consumer and "enterprise" is something they should get credit for.
- pc86 2y agoI mean they do have "Air" and "Pro" monikers for the laptops, as well as a page dedicated to helping you choose which one to get - https://www.apple.com/mac/best-mac/ https://www.apple.com/mac/best-mac/ - so they're not using "consumer" or "enterprise" but it's still there.
- ghaff 2y agoWell, except it's thinnest and bigger (with probably more ports though probably still not enough).
- chrislongss 2y agoWith one caveat - Air is very popular in the enterprise world. It's just so much lighter! And powerful enough to handle the vast majority of non-eng tasks.
- xnx 2y agoRight, but Apple's naming does seem to differentiate between real hardware differences vs. artificial software ones (e.g. how much crapware is preloaded).
- vel0city 2y agoI always felt like a lot of these computer sub brand names were rather confusing. Inspiron? Presario? Precision? XPS? ProBook? EliteBook? zBook? Envy? What are the real cross comparisons here? Personally, I'm OK with these computer manufacturers cleaning up their product line.
- legitster 2y agoIt also doesn't change the fact that within each product line there is going to be a billion different configuration options anyway.
- vel0city 2y agoYeah, that's my next hope that they generally reduce the total SKU counts. It can be challenging to find exact replacement parts when there's a dozen different varieties for say a "Latitude 5450" or whatever.
- Spivak 2y agoIt's a shame they went with Apple because their server naming is so good. It's super easy to compare across models and it feels very Dell.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- archero 2y agoI once heard a repair tech say that XPS stands for “eXpensive Piece of Sh*t” and now that always comes to mind, although it never totally made sense to me as I didn’t think they were particularly expensive. I have an XPS and I did replace the battery at one point, but other than that I think it performed fairly well for my simple needs. I think I paid $499 for it around 2018.
- officeplant 2y ago>I think I paid $499 for it around 2018. The base model XPS laptop was ~$999 at the time (vs $1299 for a 2023 model). Which sadly doesn't feel all that expensive today even though I would absolutely still call a $1000 laptop expensive.
- _fat_santa 2y agoI've had a number of Dell's in the past and IMO their "consumer" and "professional" lines might as well be different brands that happen to share the "Dell" name. Their consumer laptops are all garbage IMO, mainly cause I find they try to max out specs so it looks good on paper and skimp on really basic things like the hinges, batteries, etc. Their professional laptops are much better, my parents just got rid of a Dell Latitude that I passed down to them after college, and when I bought it for college it was already 5-6 years old so all in all it had a service life of more than a decade. Specs might be down compared to the consumer line but everything else IMO is much better built (chassis, battery, hinges, etc)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- xnx 2y agoI got a refurb XPS from the Dell store on eBay. Its problems are numerous, but not fatal. I do appreciate that it has a 17" display. I'm not sure anyone(?) does large screens on laptops anymore.
- kwanbix 2y ago"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." I am a Lenovo guy myself, however I like what they are trying to do. If they actually do a good separation, that would be great. If they only do 9 level of computers, that would be a good change. Kinda ThinkPad T, X, P. But more clear. And again, I only use ThinkPads T, P, or Xs.
- rs999gti 2y ago> I am a Lenovo guy myself Hell yeah, Lenovo ThinkPad for life.
- mgaunard 2y agoClickbait, they're just renaming their models.
- kibwen 2y agoThe first computer I ever owned was the original XPS laptop, circa 2004. It weighed as much as a corgi, was as thick as a Chicago deep dish pizza and gave out first-degree burns if your shorts rode up too high. The top outer panel was a beautifully garish noise pattern of deep green and purple ribbons, and the screen was so heavy that the hinges shattered within a year and the screen was ever after held up by two duct-tape suspenders, which thankfully didn't impede the keyboard much since the thing was as wide as a city block.
- registeredcorn 2y agoIf it makes easier to describe which are the low end, and which are the high end, that's fine, I guess? I just hate when terms get shoved together like that..."pro max"? What's the next flagship going to be? "Pro Max Ultra"? Then the "Pro Max Ultra+"? Then the "Platinum Pro Max Ultra+ Plus"? Then the ELITE SERIES Platinum Pro-Maximus Ultronic+ Plus Performance"? It's all just smushing a bunch of words for "really good" together and pretending like it means something different or unique. If something is maximum, it is the maximum - A maximum grade exceeds a "professional grade" the way an "enterprise subscription" is larger than "team subscription". In an ideal scenario, it would simply be: "Basic, Advanced, and Maximum". I get the issue though. Sales want to be able to move products, and its an issue if people don't want to feel poor by buying the "basic" one, but can't afford the higher models. Fine! If the want to use more market-y terms, why not something like: "Quality, Premium, and Luxury"? I would also presume that that would be specific to consumer grade. A business-grade line would be much easier. Keep the model names clear and obvious for Purchasing & Logistics people: "Basic, Performance, Executive". Basic is for grunt work who need internet access for a WebApp, but not much else. Performance is for finance, or whoever deals with a lot of wear and tear. Executive is thinner and fancier looking, but about as weak as basic model but can open Excel and PowerPoint.
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoYou need an additional 'Elite' tier for sales people or they are going to start whining about needing Macbooks.
- daft_pink 2y agoSounds like just Dell products will be absolute garbage.
- AdmiralAsshat 2y agoWell I guess I won't be getting a new XPS with Linux when this 9343 finally dies, then...
- LeftHandPath 2y agoTo be replaced with "Dell," "Dell Pro", and "Dell Pro Max"... Those tiers seem oddly familiar. They also throw away what I thought, as a proud long-time Dell Precision owner, was decent branding of their different lines for various market segments. But maybe it's a good thing - most major brands seem to offer too many laptop choices. Shopping for a laptop recently has left me, ironically, running for Mac. The experience on most windows laptop vendor sites is awful: - Dell's sales page focuses on proprietary names like "ExpressCharge TM", "Stealth Mode", "ComfortView TM", "Cryo-Tech TM", etc, that mean nothing to me [0]. It also gave me a pop-up when I went to a specific laptop's page. - HP has way too many categories on the landing page [1]. I mistook "Elitebook Ultra" for their top-of-the-line, but then discovered they're $3000 lightweight notebooks with Snapdragon chips and Qualcomm GPUs. The first and second laptops shown appear to have identical specs, but differ in price by $2000 [2]. Trying my luck elsewhere, going to "ProBook" gives me no less than 53 options to read and sort through [3]. - Lenovo is actually decent [4]! The product lines are named well and properly explained. The UI isn't as pretty as HP's, but it's a lot more functional. - Asus overall [5] isn't great (more proprietary names like "SmartHinge" and aesthetic-focused product descriptions). However, the Asus ProArt site is done fairly well [6]. Almost every windows laptop feels like it's trying to sell me on everything that isn't specs. "SmartHinge". "Stealth Mode". "Youthful" aesthetics. Weird proprietary bloatware and extended warranties. And, even on the sites that don't give me confusing marketing, I'm left to figure out whether I need Windows "Pro" or "Home", what the hell Copilot+ is (a $20/mo upsell [7] that I'm guessing the laptop will forever beg me to add, like OneDrive used to), and if I a guide to get rid of spyware, bloatware, ads, auto-installed candycrush, and other anti-consumer jabs once I actually buy the thing (like I did with Windows 10 when it first released). And then fight every month or two when it inexplicably can't find the license for Office I pay monthly, for and locks me out of all of my documents. With a Macbook, contrarily, I know I can actually research the silicon, figure out the specs, and actually get what I ordered / expected. I also know I won't have to fight the OS nearly as much, even if Apple has its own upsell attempts, anti-consumer warranty/repair problems, etc. I never would've expected to feel that way. Especially not 10-15 years ago. But maybe Dell's rebrand helps them move back in that direction a little. [0]: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/scr/laptops https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/scr/laptops [1]: https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/cat/laptops https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/cat/laptops [2]: https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/mdp/hp-elitebook-ultra-3074457345617968668--1/hp-elitebook-ultra-3074457345617968669--1 https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/mdp/hp-elitebook-ultra-3074457... [3]: https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/vwa/laptops/brand=ProBook https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/vwa/laptops/brand=ProBook [4]: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ [6]: https://www.asus.com/us/proart/laptops-home/ https://www.asus.com/us/proart/laptops-home/ [7]: https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/what-is-microsoft-copilot https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/what-is-microsoft-copilot
- arjie 2y agoHaha, what an end to an era on the brand. Some 16 years ago, my parents bought me the only XPS laptop I'd own: an XPS M1330 [0]. I've still got in a closet here, but I used it for eight years or so. Six years after purchase, it looks like it was still a pretty good machine[1] and had near perfect Linux compatibility. The real wonder for me was that the bootloaders for the Power button on that laptop and the MediaDirect button were separate, so I actually had it set up so that if I hit the MediaDirect button it would go to Ubuntu and the Power button would send it to Windows! Pretty neat trick. The only thing is that something about the way the video framebuffer was set up when you hit the MediaDirect button made the GRUB interface laggy. After that, the kernel resets everything and all is well! This particular laptop was part of the infamous batch of bad G84 series of Nvidia graphics chips. The BGA soldering on the GPUs would crack under thermal stress, but you could reflow it with a heat gun or using the oven (crazy for a semi-plastic device!). In my case, it happened early enough that XPS support replaced my motherboard a few times. They actually met me wherever I was with the part to replace the board and the tech would do it for me at home. Overall, that was the finest customer support experience I ever had. I'm a fickle guy, though. It wasn't enough to keep me with the brand and I eventually ended up with a Macbook. It's funny. After posting this I googled my name and XPS M1330 and found a post where I was trying to boot off the SD card. I was fascinated by this idea back then that I could just carry my OS on an SD card and then people couldn't see any of my stuff unless they had that specific SD card: https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/laptops-general-locked-topics/xps-m1330-mediadirect-partition-boot-from-card-reader/647e9990f4ccf8a8de23835d https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/laptops-gene... . Sadly the XPS M1330 didn't work for that, but I think I did it with a USB stick (which is unfortunately more noticeable - back then they were bulky!). 0: https://web.archive.org/web/20150811070526/https://arjie.com/2008/04/18/xps-dellivered/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150811070526/https://arjie.com... 1: https://web.archive.org/web/20150811065240/https://arjie.com/2014/04/17/happy-birthday-laptop/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150811065240/https://arjie.com...
- hiharryhere 2y agoDell as the name of the laptop itself makes no sense. Like Apple replacing ‘MacBook’ with ‘Apple’.
- chad1n 2y agoSo when I buy a Dell laptop now (won't happen), I need to ask for Dell Pro Premium package and make sure that the seller doesn't mistake it for Plus version or Base. Why would you go for "easier" names and go for 3 subcategories with the same name within 3 other categories. Just sell Dell/Dell Pro/Dell Pro Max (even the names are copied from Apple) with different specs, why give them subcategories
- rbanffy 2y agoPro and Pro Max? Really? No Ultra?