AL123

the 17.3 inch 7780 was 1920x1080 the Pro Max 18 is 18inch 16:10 2560x1600 so a decent upgrade in my eyes, I’m never too convinced by 4k on laptops as already with the pro max 18 we have to set the scaling to 125-150% to make text/ icons easy to read sat at a regular desk with monitors to each side, but certainly agree dell aren’t going great on screen choice and there should be options for those who value them . why no QHD on the Pro Max 16 Plus for instance?! we don’t have many of the Pro Max 16 Plus as most users seem to be opting for the 18 inch model but when we tested them both the CPU and GPU power limits were higher and with the newer CPUs being more efficient/ powerful heavy multi threaded tasks like CFD were I think ~ 15-20% faster even vs the 7780. Similarly for GPU compute like rendering we saw a decent uplift in performance, though most of that may be the newer Blackwell architecture as the Pro Max 16 power limit was significantly lower than the 18 IIRC ~130W vs 175W for the 18. SSD wise both models have the same as 2023 models, 3 In the 16 inch (same as 7680 performance chassis) and 4 in the Pro max 18. The big benefit is you can opt for a quick access base now so it’s easy for users to do their own upgrades without the need for an ifixit kit just or get into the laptop! The Core Ultra CPUs are also much more efficient had some comments abiut much about battery life while most the time they are on mains power when doing light office tasks, go into a meeting without worrying about the charger. we haven’t looked at Alienware as need ISV certification for various engineering software and with hundreds of users messing with any swapping of graphics isn’t likely!

I’m seeing some crazy low prices on 7680 and 7780 on our dell portal, must have a fair few to shift. they are definately a solid machine , but I will say cooling on the Pro Max 16/ 18 is another level particularly for heavy GPU workloads.

I’ve only tested with the power supply connected and 1x usb-c connector from wd19dcs , this seems to work ok as a solution to not buy the new thunderbolt 5 dock but still not ideal as you have to remembered to take the 280W usb c power supply with you everywhere.

Indeed massive improvement in the cooling/ chassis temperatures. The old 7780 got particularly hot at the top left by the 2 fans fans which worried users, nothing concerning in my use so far for me despite the higher power limits.

I did wonder that, I can’t see anything in them manual and I don’t have the technical guidebooks for these new models where I would usually check. I guess something like HW info might tell us I can’t check on the system I have with me as it’s not approved software but I will try and remember to have a look when I have access to some test units that aren’t on our domain next week,

Full YouTube review is up with comparisons to HP Zbook 18 G1i looks like the Dell is the best option if you can go for it. HP is still no slouch but Dell just did a better job on the cooling this generation. Again seems pretty similar to my real world testing results for CAD, Simulation and rendering which is reassuring I that the test laptops I had were representative of the performance !

Yep it’s worse on the base Pro Max 14 and 16 they use the same 1920x1200 45% NTSC 300 Nit screens as the Dell Pro/ Pro Plus, ludicrous for a professional system let alone a Workstation these are worse than consumer grade laptop screens from 10 years ago, colours out of the box were woeful even those using regular office applications noticed. you have to upgrade to either a touch or QHD to get even passable colours but still only 300 Nits compared to 400 on the old Precision 3000 series all cost cutting nonsense but it seems like they are listening to feedback and better will come. I get offering one cheap display option to meet a minimum price point vs HP/Lenovo but not offering good options is inexcusable. On the Fury 16/18 I only saw 16 inch FHD and 18 Inch QHD so far from HP and they seemed pretty comparable to Dell but there are some great high brightness options I’d like to try and they offer far more choice including QHD options across the range. I think someone thought oh well they wil upgrade to the Pro Max Premiun or Plus, for me there is more risk we will look to switch manufacturers hence we tried HPs latest range also. Dell won out on performance but silly decisions like this push even big customers to consider alternatives and there are some models in the HP line up such as the ZBook X G1i I was impressed by just not our core use case and so not going to start switching hundreds of users.

No worries if it helps I tried both and went for the Pro Max 18. I move between office and home office/ meetings and almost never need to use on trains etc I’d just use my phone for emails. If I neeed more portability I might have gone for the 16 but the 18 inch screen is so impressive, bright, QHD is perfect balance and for me Matte screen is best

Storage review have now tested both the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus and HP Z Book Fury G1i their findings seem similar to my test units https://www.storagereview.com/review/dell-pro-max-18-plus-blackwell-rtx-pro-5000-performance-to-go?amp The new Dell cooling design is innovative, taking risks but clears most of the rear of the laptops for cooling so 3 bigger fans and massive vapour chamber. Plus the third fan is primarily drawing cool air from remote vents as the vent directly above it is blocked off and it is sealed off from from the sides/ other fans by foam. I credit this with keeping the chassis much cooler vs previous gen The vents at the back are also huge, with a big gap between screen and keyboard, and a large foot to raise it off the surface it can really move some air!

Yeh it just seems to be a very brief moment then the cooking kicks in, always sounds worrying but it’s within the Intel specs and we haven’t had widespread issues with the previous generation and they generally seemed to run much hotter. I suspect it is just getting harder and harder to cool these tiny chips, small area lots of heat, I think the GPUs are bigger dies which might explain why they can sustain higher power limits but not 100%

I tested both and the OLED definately has better colours, however i am sensitive to reflections and found the glossy screen too much, but then we have a lot of glass and overhead LED lighting in our offices. I’m also not convinced by 4k on such a small screen windows apps still don’t seem to be perfect at scaling the 1920x1200 500 Nit is impressively bright and a nice matte finished which I preferred, would be nice if it were QHD like the Pro Max 18 but being slightly smaller still looks sharp enough to my eyes

I’ve been using it a bit today just installing software and in office environment I haven’t really noticed the fans, this is with it set to balanced power plan with best performance under settings I did note on the base pro max 16 the fans kicked in a lot more often when set to best performance under power settings but not noticed that on the pro max 18 so far. my only annoyance with the Pro Max 18 fans is on boot it spools up quite fast and cuts out abruptly. when joining via intune and installing updates it did this several times and made me think it was failing to boot a few times but used all my patience and waited all was fine just misleading noises! Not great for user experience I can imagine some users will be panicking and holding the power button when nothing wrong!

I think on all of these it’s pretty rediculous peaks at 105 intel limit for very short time then comes back down to more resonable levels. Seems like the fans should spool up quicker or maybe for the tiny surface area it’s just hard to cool! I can’t test on the system I have here as it’s on our domain which means only approved applications are allowed for cyber security standard compliance

I didn’t spend long enough using it to see if they ramped up and down sensibly in day to day work but certainly if you do any heavy multi threaded CPU or intense GPU workload it gets loud! The sort of loud where all your colleagues turn their heads!

On the Pro Max 18 Plus I ran Cinebench 2024 10 Min multithreaded CPU test at the same time as a real 100% GPU compute workload (rendering) as a bit of a torture test. the Ultra 9 285HX CPU hovered around 60-65W and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell around 140-150W overall system power was around 250-260W with brief spike to over 300W really impressive although it would be nice to be able to fine tune the CPU dynamic PL1 in BIOS/ Dell software, but this seems like Dell struck a decent a balance for such an intense workload. The GPUs can take more power than the CPUs without overheating it seems Fan noise remained tolerable for me and the chassis of the laptop remained remarkably cool compared to previous generations.