Note: This feature was first published on 7 January 2025.
Dell, what do we have here? Dell announces its massive rebrand for CES 2025. Photo: HWZ.
To usher in a new age of AI computing in both professional and consumer arenas, Dell has announced a massive rebrand that kills all its eight computing categories to crown a new generation of Dell systems at CES 2025.
You read that correctly. Your favourite Dell XPS, Dell Inspiron, and even Dell Latitude devices are now last year’s news. 2025 marked the death knell (the d-ell?) of its old names.
In their place, Dell is now simplifying its massive computing lineup into three categories: Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max.
Hi Sir, would you like to buy a Dell Plus or a Dell Pro Max Premium?
After much nudging from media all over the world, Dell has put out its simplified infographic to understand its new product branding categorisation and tiers. Image: Dell.
The new branding sees Dell position its desktop and notebook in three broad categories for three user profiles.
- The Dell series is designed for work, school, and play
- The Dell Pro series is for profession-grade productivity (think graphic design, or real-time monitoring)
- The Dell Pro Max series is for “maximum performance” and is more suited for highly intense workloads like 3D animation and financial analytics
Base, Plus, and Premium tiering
Each category has three tiers of outfitting. The base tier is the category’s name (e.g., a base Dell is just called Dell). The middle tier, which offers more performance, adds a Plus (hence, Dell Plus), while the high-end variant is called Premium (hence, Dell Premium).
This results in all eight lineups going by different names, forgoing their established sub-brands in favour of a simplified, easy-to-follow sequence.
- Dell: formerly your Inspiron devices
- Dell Plus: formerly your Inspiron Plus devices
- Dell Premium: formerly your Dell XPS high-end consumer laptops
- Dell Pro (base, Plus, and Premium): formerly your Dell Latitude notebooks and workstations
- Dell Pro Max (base, Plus, and Premium: formerly your Dell Precision workstations and laptops
As a result, Dell fans looking for the next generation of Dell XPS notebooks should instead look for the Dell Premium. Users who regularly deal with highly processing-heavy workloads, such as animating entire films or crunching mountains of niche data, would no longer be served by a highest-end Dell Precision; instead, they would interface with a Dell Pro Max Premium.
This also means eliminating Dell’s less popular notebook and desktop lineups and their many SKUs, as they all have to fit into these three Dell tiers.
Dell expects to transition away from the old names in at least 18 months, as old inventory makes way for the new Dells.
Alienware's Area 51 is back, baby. Photo: HWZ.
Dell will continue selling gaming consumer products under the Alienware brand name. They even launched new Area 51 series laptops, just to make sure you know it didn't get Dell-ed or Pro-Maxed.
What about choosing between different screen sizes or CPU silicons? My Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, how?
Dell is working with all three CPU platform providers (Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm) for its new rebranded devices and will continue to offer various sizes of each model, such as 14-inch and 16-inch laptops.
To Dell them apart (note: we promise that's the last pun), users can refer to the laptop’s SKU model number. According to Dell, the laptop's rebranded SKUs contain the display size, the year it was launched, and the silicon of choice (Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm), among other information like RAM and storage.
Hence, the new Dell purchasing journey will look like this: A user decides which category and form factor best suits their needs. After choosing one (for example, a Dell Plus 2-in-1 convertible notebook), they will pick the SKU and model number closest to their hard-specification preferences: their preferred display size, the year it was made, and their preferred CPU brand.
So, what’s in the new lineup right now?
The 14-inch Dell Plus (left) and the 16-inch Dell Plus 2-in-1. Image: Dell.
The new Dell Plus, Pro, and Pro Max laptops will launch Dell’s rebrand and headline its CES 2025 announcements. Below are what's slated to launch.
Dell Plus is available in 14-inch and 16-inch versions. They also come in a 2-in-1 convertible form factor.
13-inch and 14-inch Dell Pro laptops. Image: Dell.
Dell Pro will have all three sub-categories available. You get the Dell Pro base versions (14-inch and 16-inch), Dell Pro Plus variants (13-, 14-, and 16-inch), and Dell Pro Premium (13-, 14-inch).
The 14-inch Dell Pro Max. Image: Dell.
Also joining us is the Dell Pro Max, available only in the base version for now, with 14-inch and 16-inch variants.
AMD options are available in Dell’s Dell Pro and Dell’s Dell Pro Max laptops.
We will update with local availability when it's out.
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