Dell Pro Max 16/18 Plus (2025 model) pre-release discussion — MB16250, MB18250

[win32asmguy]

11 hours ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

it also appears that not all 4 SSD slot are made equal,
its 3 x M.2 2280 SSD and 1 x M.2 2230 SSD 

 

All slots support a 2280 sized drive or optionally 2230 which uses a plastic bracket that makes the shorter drive a 2280 length.

 

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/dell-pro-max-mb18250-laptop/dell-pro-max-18-plus-mb18250-owners-manual/removing-the-m.2-2230-ssd?guid=guid-eef383a5-e6cb-4327-9d89-29d50997c6d1&lang=en-us

 

Funny thing about the configurator too, they now do not let you choose a 2230 drive (class 35) with RTX 2000 or higher GPUs.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

@win32asmguy interesting!
so it converts back to 2280 from 2230

[David55]

The manual and the marketing/advertising material for the Pro Max 16 Plus list an easy access/sliding bottom cover. However, there is no option to select this on the ordering page. Can anyone share whether you believe the Pro Max 16 Plus does or does not ship with the easy access/sliding bottom cover? By the way, as regards the 16, Dells new naming seems confusing: there is a Pro Max 16 Plus, as Pro Max 16, a Pro 16 Plus, and I think also a Pro 16, a 16 Premium, and a Pro Max 16 Premium). It seems that the differences between these are not a single spec such as processor series, but rather seem to involve different keyboards, case materials, and SSD slots. How is this naming a good idea? - I sincerely cannot tell.

[Aaron44126]

8 minutes ago, David55 said:

Two questions

 

...I also cannot find an option for the bottom cover on the order page, but I am pretty sure that I saw it on the 18" system page before? You should contact a sales rep. Not only can they generally get you a better price than you can get on the web site, but they sometimes have access to system configuration options that you can't get on the web site either.

 

The naming convention is truly a mess, superlative soup that does not make sense. You are right that each differently named system is a completely different system, not just an internal spec swap. I am sure that someone at Dell had a "logic" for setting it up the way that they did, but us regular people will have a hard time making sense of it. They aren't even internally consistent. Looking at the order page for the 16" system, it says "New Dell Pro Max 16 Plus" in the header at the top of the page, but the page title (that you see in the tab bar for example) says "Dell Pro Max Plus 16". Do you put the number before or after the "Plus" ...?

[AL123]

On 7/29/2025 at 11:18 PM, Aaron44126 said:

 

...I also cannot find an option for the bottom cover on the order page, but I am pretty sure that I saw it on the 18" system page before? You should contact a sales rep. Not only can they generally get you a better price than you can get on the web site, but they sometimes have access to system configuration options that you can't get on the web site either.

 

The naming convention is truly a mess, superlative soup that does not make sense. You are right that each differently named system is a completely different system, not just an internal spec swap. I am sure that someone at Dell had a "logic" for setting it up the way that they did, but us regular people will have a hard time making sense of it. They aren't even internally consistent. Looking at the order page for the 16" system, it says "New Dell Pro Max 16 Plus" in the header at the top of the page, but the page title (that you see in the tab bar for example) says "Dell Pro Max Plus 16". Do you put the number before or after the "Plus" ...?

Odd the option for the bottom cover doesn’t seem to be on the USA configurator but is on the UK under

“Chassis Options”

 

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops-2-in-1-pcs/dell-pro-max-18-plus-laptop/spd/dell-pro-max-mb18250-laptop/xcto_mb18250_emea?redirectTo=SOC
 

Before I noticed that the quotes I had just said “bottom door” as the chassis option which could easily be misinterpreted as having this quick access feature when in fact it did not. 
 

An extra £12 for it does increase max height slightly but only reason I can think not to have it is maybe some people don’t want easy access to drives for security.

 

but still if you have physical access to the device the security is not great! 

 

 

[win32asmguy]

If you are comparison shopping HP has the configurations up for their Zbook Fury G1i 16 and 18:

 

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/ConfigureView?langId=-1&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&catEntryId=3074457345622038819&urlLangId=&quantity=1&pStoreID=hpepp

 

The 18 can be equipped with a 330W barrel charger, and notably still continues to use a tradition trackpad with buttons. Sodimms may run slower in it though as without a camm 2-dimm interposer it is limited to 4400mt per intel spec this generation without overclocking.

 

[AL123]

16 hours ago, win32asmguy said:

If you are comparison shopping HP has the configurations up for their Zbook Fury G1i 16 and 18:

 

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/ConfigureView?langId=-1&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&catEntryId=3074457345622038819&urlLangId=&quantity=1&pStoreID=hpepp

 

The 18 can be equipped with a 330W barrel charger, and notably still continues to use a tradition trackpad with buttons. Sodimms may run slower in it though as without a camm 2-dimm interposer it is limited to 4400mt per intel spec this generation without overclocking.

 

Interesting that the rated TDP is the same- 16 inch 170W and 18 inch 200W but the HP Zbook Fury 18 has a 330W charger vs 280W on the Pro Max 18. Both 16 inch models seem to have the same 280W power supply 

 

i suppose if your workload hammered The CPU, GPU, multiple SSD’S 280W might be a bottleneck but would be prettt niche.

 

cooling system is also more similar to what I’ve seen in other 3 fan laptops with a much smaller third fan at the bottom I presume to cool RAM/SSD/ skin of laptop

 

the Dell innovative cooling design/ packaging does look to have allowed the 18 inch model to be considerably smaller/ lighter than the Zbook Fury 18 G1i

 

Looking forward to testing out the Dells to see how they perform 

[capitainealbator]

Hello!

 

I wanted to buy a Dell Precision 7680, but it's end-of-life 😞 .
I'm thinking of buying a Dell Pro Max 16 Plus, but do you think the RTX 5090 card could be ordered instead of the RTX PRO 5000?
I need a 16-inch chassis with a numeric keypad, 128GB of RAM (8 VMs to run), and I also would like to play last games while I'm at the hotel...

 

Thanks for your answers 😉 

[Mike]

I can not find any official documentation about the 170W/200W TDP rating. Where did you find it ?

[Aaron44126]

4 hours ago, capitainealbator said:

Hello!

 

I wanted to buy a Dell Precision 7680, but it's end-of-life 😞 .
I'm thinking of buying a Dell Pro Max 16 Plus, but do you think the RTX 5090 card could be ordered instead of the RTX PRO 5000?
I need a 16-inch chassis with a numeric keypad, 128GB of RAM (8 VMs to run), and I also would like to play last games while I'm at the hotel...

 

Thanks for your answers 😉 

If it is like the previous generations, you can order the system with a GeForce GPU, but only by going through a sales rep. It will not perform faster than RTX Pro 5000 but it might be slightly cheaper. (I gamed on a Precision mobile workstation with a “Pro” GPU for about a decade, there’s no issue with that.)

[capitainealbator]

Thanks for you reply @Aaron44126.

I thought RTX PRO cards were less powerful for gaming than their "regular" RTX counterparts, so this seems like good news. 🙂

 

[AL123]

2 hours ago, capitainealbator said:

Thanks for you reply @Aaron44126.

I thought RTX PRO cards were less powerful for gaming than their "regular" RTX counterparts, so this seems like good news. 🙂

 

Worth looking at some RTX 5080 vs 5090 mobile reviews I think most have said the 5090 wasn’t worth the extra money so you might be better off with the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell 16GB which I think is equivalent to the 5080 mobile.

 

From what I have heard there won’t be any GeForce options on Pro Max Laptops, weirdly they added them to Pro Max Desktops though. For me it would be clearer if gaming cards were only in consumer/Alienware systems but I guess more choice isn’t bad so long as you know what you are choosing! 

[Aaron44126]

Indeed, I have not seen confirmation that a GeForce GPU is actually available as a choice, I'm was just making an assumption based on what they've done with the last few generations.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

9 hours ago, capitainealbator said:

do you think the RTX 5090 card could be ordered instead of the RTX PRO 5000

It cannot. I had our sales rep look into this, and the maximum GPU that fits under the hood is the 4090. I was planning to order it with the 13950HX—despite it being two and a half a generation behind, I would’ve been happy with that setup.
But it wasn’t meant to be—the last 4090 unit was ordered just before I could place mine.
 

Ideally, we’d see the 285 and 5090 offered in the final generation platform.
But of course, if they gave us that, nobody would touch the new 16/18" “Max Crap Pro on a Plate.”

 

9 hours ago, capitainealbator said:

128GB of RAM (8 VMs to run)

FYI: The Precision line can easily support 128GB—just use 2×64GB SoDIMMs.
There’s no need for CAMM modules, which—even with 4-channel config—are still outperformed by good old SoDIMMs. Not to mention the price: just get the base 8GB config from Dell, and grab 2×64GB or even 2×128GB from a third-party vendor for half the cost (if not better).

 

5 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

there’s no issue with that

that is correct, the issue isn’t compatibility—it’s update frequency and spesific gaming/title support.
For newer titles that rely on frequent driver updates or patch support, the consumer RTX line is better suited. The RTX Pro GPUs are designed more for CAD workloads (which the OP hasn’t indicated he uses).
If the priority is running VMs, then GPU type won’t make much difference. You can game on the Pro cards—just manage expectations when it comes to driver support for the latest games and features.

 

42 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

I have not seen confirmation that a GeForce GPU is actually available as a choice

It’s not published yet, but it is available.
Our sales rep confirmed it’s visible in their backend system.
This entire new line feels rushed—and it shows.

 

[win32asmguy]

17 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

It’s not published yet, but it is available.
Our sales rep confirmed it’s visible in their backend system.
This entire new line feels rushed—and it shows.

 

That is disappointing to hear. When I spoke to my sales rep he said the 5090 would not be coming to the Pro Max 16/18 Plus. I did not see 5090 listed on the GPU driver either so I assumed that was accurate.

[capitainealbator]

So will the RTX 5090 be available or...not on the DELL PRO MAX 16? 🤔🤔

According to @MyPC8MyBrain, it will be (?)

[AL123]

46 minutes ago, win32asmguy said:

 

That is disappointing to hear. When I spoke to my sales rep he said the 5090 would not be coming to the Pro Max 16/18 Plus. I did not see 5090 listed on the GPU driver either so I assumed that was accurate.

Yeh our account manager said no GeForce this time but could be wrong, makes sense as the line up looks pretty similar in terms of specs for RTX PRO mobile and GeForce mobile at the high end but still could be proved wrong! &nbsp
 

leas gap in price between consumer and pro cards now also 

[MyPC8MyBrain]

26 minutes ago, capitainealbator said:

So will the RTX 5090 be available or...not on the DELL PRO MAX 16

judging from past CTO builds these components usually are shared across platform models,
although going off contradicting sales rep feedback atm i am questioning the info i received,
in the past we could still see all available components in the manual,
which atm is just incomplete and missing many options.

[Aaron44126]

I think "no" is a fair assumption at this point. It should have been available at launch. The support site should list it as a supported component for the GPU driver.

 

It's possible they planned to have this available and then plans changed before launch (which could explain @MyPC8MyBrain's rep being able to "see" it in the system). It is always possible that they will add it later... But since it is already an "under the table" option (only available through a rep), probably we won't know until if/when they decide to add it, and even then someone will have to find out through a rep because it is not like it will just pop up on the web site.

[AL123]

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

I think "no" is a fair assumption at this point. It should have been available at launch. The support site should list it as a supported component for the GPU driver.

 

It's possible they planned to have this available and then plans changed before launch (which could explain @MyPC8MyBrain's rep being able to "see" it in the system). It is always possible that they will add it later... But since it is already an "under the table" option (only available through a rep), probably we won't know until if/when they decide to add it, and even then someone will have to find out through a rep because it is not like it will just pop up on the web site.

I guess the new stacked cooling design complicates things also, easier to only offer the RTX Pro cards even if the physical design is the same, I suspect they would be cautious of adding a card with different vbios, drivers, support etc