Dell Admits It Made a Mistake When It Abandoned XPS

Summary

“It was obvious we needed to change,“ Jeff Clarke, Dell’s chief operating officer, told a gaggle of smirking, self-satisfied tech reporters. After a year in the grave, XPS is back as Dell’s “premium consumer” brand of laptops. Mea culpas aside, the next XPS laptop goes back to basics but still tries to keep some of the laptop’s more outlandish elements. At last year’s CES, Dell made the eyebrow-raising decision to ax all its legacy laptop brand names and instead opt for Apple-like conventions. Instead of XPS, we were forced to comprehend the differences between a “Dell,” a “Dell Pro,” a “Dell Premium,” and a “Dell Pro Max.” “This complicated brand we called Dell last year… was trying to cover this very large consumer space with lots of similar products,” Clarke said. Now those non-XPS products are mostly dedicated to the base consumer and entry-level laptops, “no pluses, minuses, squares, or whatever the hell else we called them.” The old logo is back as well. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo “We won’t chase every competitor down every rabbit hole,” he added. What that means is we probably won’t see any kind of handheld PC from Alienware, like that age-old UFO design showed off back in 2020. Just as well, Dell isn’t remodeling its entire laptop lineup for a second time in two years. The company isn’t bringing back brand names like Inspiron (which became mere “Dells) or Latitude (which transformed into “Dell Pro). According to Clarke, Dell Pro “still tests well.” Whether or not you’re happy with your Dell Pro Premium Plus Max Crunchwrap Supreme, the XPS line now includes 14- and 16-inch models sporting up to an Intel Core Ultra X7 or X9 chip for more GPU capabilities. The revised XPS also includes the brand name stenciled on the laptop lid. Otherwise, the notebook is getting back to basics. The 14-inch model starts at 3 pounds in weight and is barely more than 0.5 inches thick. Plus, it contains a 2.8K OLED screen as an option. The new Dell XPS 14 sports options up to a high-en...