AL123

I agree options to make laptops more usable without a mouse are sorely missed. Although I most miss the physical left, middle and right buttons for working on CAD it’s almost essential so without a mouse I find laptops unusable now as far as naming Latitude = Dell Pro (can be Pro, Pro Plus or Pro Premium) XPS= Dell Premium Precision = Dell Pro Max (old 3000 series) Dell Pro Max Premium (old 5000 series) and Dell Pro Max Plus (old 7000 series) inspiron = Dell, Dell Plus no idea what happened to Vostro I guess that is just forgotten

The videos and photos of the new Dell Pro Max laptops in the press release are the equivalent of the old 3490 and 3590/3591 entry level laptop workstations Linus tech tips commented the new Dell Pro Max 14 was one of the best keyboards he has used in years so I guess your eyes are not deceiving you it is a conscious decision from dell! About 8 mins into the below video (can’t link to specific time on my mobile) hopefully we will see similar on the new Pro Max Plus ( replacements for the 7680 and 7780)

Nice overview of Arrow Lake Mobile here still reserving judgement until we see reviews but it seems like the efficiency improvements will make a big difference in the new workstation laptops

I can’t remember about announcements in previous years but it’s usually summer before we see the high end workstations become available so maybe those leaks of the Pro Max 16 & 18 Plus were just really early. Hoping now Hp have announced their 18 inch workstation laptop we will hear more from dell

Linus tech tips did a good job of explaining the brand changes and somehow go hold of a Pro Max 14 (replaces precision 3490) and Pro Max 16 Premium (replaces Precision 5690) although that one wasn’t finalised specifically wise the lack of being able to tell which generation is which without referring to an obscure model number is an big downside for me. atleast with apple it’s M1, M2, M3,M4 etc

Yeh it’s not just us many of the articles I believe are wrong having presumably watched the briefing! For workstations atleast you know it has to have Max in the name. the Premium does seem to be about materials but yeh I thought it was the slim laptops too! interesting HP beat Dell in confirming they are launching an 18,inch laptop with 3 fans and 200W TDP sound Familiar? Maybe some of the many Dell staff affected by layoffs got hired by HP Theirs says spring but often they seem to launch things but you can’t actually buy them. https://www.hp.com/us-en/newsroom/press-releases/2025/future-of-work.html

These new Pro models are not equivalent of XPS, they are what was Latitude for business use. Anything with Pro in the name is the Latitude business/office range. The Replacement for the XPS will be known as Dell Premium but aren’t due until summer until then the current XPS will be sold

We have started to see them at the lower end for HP atleast, I think it a mix of AMD having less established solutions for enterprises including. Features like V-Pro management, ECC support, plus i always have suspicions Intel try whatever they can to ensure these big brands stick with them. with AMD winning in data centres a lot more enterprise customers are becoming comfortable with AMD so I have hope. However I appreciate its significant Extra work from development to support like drivers to add a second CPU vendor.

Unlikely due to complexity and space constraints inside the laptop but it would be a nice design if the “bulge” only lifted the laptop at the rear when in use and when turned off tucked back into the laptop chassis! I agree it looks large from those pictures but will have to wait for more angles to be sure how much of an issue it is. less USB ports is also a shame but atleast it sound like only one port will be used by the docking station vs 2 by the current WD19 DCS docking station.

Ah good spot would be disappointing if it isn’t better than the Alienware M18 layout. Hope they are going away from the old 7000 series layout where the heat was concentrated at the top left. Even if it was performing fine users would complain about that/ get worried the system was overheating

All very interesting based on previous releases I’m doubting we will actually by able to buy these before mid year but who knows with a leak this early. It would fit with the prediction for high end next gen mobile graphics cards from NVIDIA also. Also very curious about the 3 fan layout, I’ve only really seen it on Alienware systems where IIRC the third fan was significantly smaller. I’m hoping for more innovation here from the ex Precision R&D team

Single thread performance regressed for first gen ultra H series CPUs vs 13th gen core CPUs if you can I would wait, expect to see things announced at CES in January and available not that long after if history is a guide.

Dell went to 165W over a single USB C for the 5680 and 5690 which sorted that issue, and for everything else they have done 130W over USB-C for many years well before the new USB 4 /PD3.1 standard than allows 240W. Nothing to say Dell won’t push it beyond 240W over a single USB-C connector 😉

Intel have only announced 14th generation HX CPUs which lack professional features such as VPro Enterprise and support for ECC memory. Read into that what you will…. https://www.anandtech.com/show/21213/intel-unveils-14th-gen-core-hx-series-processors-raptor-lake-mobile-refresh-with-thunderbolt-5#

Unfortunately not I have a 5680 with RTX 3500 I believe the vapour chamber is reserved for the RTX 5000 only. Performance for a GPU compute task using NVIDIA iRay was about 10% less than in the Precision 7680 with the same card so not too bad for the smaller chassis. No difference for me with the WD19DCS

Good find! if we went with the manual sizes it would be pretty much the same as the 7680 sim model albeit a bit lighter. I also note they don’t quote the weight with the 99.x whr battery only the smaller one which isn’t available at launch. I suspect the 5680 will be more like 2kg with the larger battery still an appreciable amount lighter than the 7680 which would be a bigger thing for us, the 7680 is already pretty compact but quite hefty.

Odd indeed I think when I’ve queried in the past there are some differences between how measurements are reported in different territories but not noticed a difference in owners manual vs spec sheet before. hoping to have my hands on a unit in the next couple of weeks and compare to 7680

Yeh should be tomorrow 🙂 looking forward to testing out a 5680 atleast although it is soldered ram which puts some off but we will just max it out from factory to avoid regrets In future, easier to justify that for a company vs an individual. Think it will be a good option for our marketing team who want a mix of power for adobe suite and portability, will be interesting to compare to the 7680, it’s always hard until you physically hold a decide to really appreciate the size/ weight difference.

It got pushed to the same day as the Precision 5680 launch- 18th of may. you may be able to get a quote on the 5480 from a sales rep now but not on the 5680 last I checked

Unsure whether to post this here or in Tech News section for best visibility https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2023/04/07/msi_cyberattack_bios/ says to beware of third party firmware sources etc due to theft of source code/ tools I don’t use MSI kit but spotted the article on the register which I read daily

+1 for the QHD plus unfortunately still too many bits of software where the experience for 4K is not good particularly at high scaling levels needed for such a small display. 16:10 is spot on for me, my first Precision laptops were the M90/M6300 with 16:10 (17.6 inch?) screen I’ve used a few 4k laptops for a couple of on and off weeks at a time and still not convinced of the benefit at typical viewing distances where as QHD I think is a great balance.

Indeed there is surely space with the size of the 7770/7780 bezels compared to the 7670/7680 screen bezels. I give our team a choice when it comes to replacement time and vast majority still prefer the 17.3 inch form factor pretty sure they wouldn’t turn down a bigger screen! Few more takers for the smaller 7000 series after the switch to 16inch form factor with an improvement in relative performance and screen real estate, but the ratio is more than 9:1 in favour of 17.3 inch form factor! I hope they do keep the larger form factor given HP and Lenovo both dropped it. 16 inch makes more sense for the more portable options like the new 5680, 17.0 perhaps took the size an weight a little beyond that category

Ah yes you are right! Only 2 I must have been thinking 3 inclusive when actually it’s just 2 then we usually get a new chassis on the 7000 series. Given we have purchased every mobile workstation dell have ever had you would think I’d remember! So yeh I’d predict new dock to go alongside the 7690/7790 then we just need to start guessing what the generation after will be named 🙂

Indeed a bit overdue an update for the wd19DC/S would also like to see it able to deliver the full 240W, although this would need a bigger power supply in the input of course. hopefully we won’t have to wait for the refresh of the 7000 series chassis, usually 3 generations so whatever comes after the 7690/7790 (new naming scheme? 🙂 ) The WD19DC/S have been pretty reliable for us after the pain of the TB16 and TB18, I hope that continues with whatever replaces it! we standardised on these despite having a mix of power requirements in Precision 3000, 5000, 7000 + a few latitudes thrown in. Just means anyone can use any desk/meeting room by plugging in 1/2 cables. Nobody has ever complained about performance and combined 100% CPU/GPU loads are rare but would be nice to have the full 240W to know we are getting the best performance.

Hi I was told by my contacts ECC ram was a post launch item with a May timeframe for availability? long term I’m hoping for price parity between CAMM and So-DIMM and ultimately ECC CAMM modules to make the choice easier. For CAE workloads ECC is recommended but then we are limited to 64GB since 7770 generation with SO-DIMM