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

[SvenC]

With light work the machine stays totally cool. With 65% battery and about 30% brightness Windows claims that it will last another 4 hours 40 minutes. Idling it goes up to 6h. Pretty nice.

[Johhny23]

Hi @AL123, @SvenC, or anyone else,

Which RAM or NVMe SSD brand did you guys get with the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus? Also, what do you think about the screen, considering it’s not OLED or 4K?

 

I’m thinking about buying this laptop with a 1TB SSD, Intel Ultra 7, and NVIDIA RTX Pro 1000 Blackwell (8GB GDDR7). I’d mainly use it for mild gaming, web development, and general tasks.

[SvenC]

I took the smallest RAM (CSoDimm) and SSD option to upgrade that myself. It came with hynix RAM and SSD.

 

Screen is great - I would have chosen 1920x1200 even on 18" to have a better scaling fit with my external displays. So 2560x1600 is enough for me.

[Aaron44126]

5 hours ago, Johhny23 said:

Which RAM or NVMe SSD brand did you guys get with the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus?

 

Can't go wrong with Samsung SSD, either 9100 Pro (PCIe5) or 990 Pro (PCIe4, and a little bit cheaper). Don't get the heatsink version, it won't fit.

[SvenC]

I have one Kingston skc3000 4TB and one Adata SX8200 2TB - both without troubles.

 

Kingston is of course faster due to PCIe 4: CrytalDiskMark 6800 MB/s read and 6200 MB/s write sequential and 540 read 490 write random.

[Mambucho]

I live in Russia and we won't have DELL Pro Max Plus anytime soon. 😭

[capitainealbator]

Why @Mambucho ? 🤔

[Mambucho]

On 9/7/2025 at 5:42 PM, capitainealbator said:

Why @Mambucho ? 🤔

Sanctions, Dell escape from Russia

[capitainealbator]

These sanctions are really nonsense 😞 😞 😞 

[win32asmguy]

57 minutes ago, capitainealbator said:

These sanctions are really nonsense 😞 😞 😞 

 

Even in the USA getting an order to go through is a pain. I have had two quoted orders cancelled for no explaination. It seems they do not want to sell a machine without a preinstalled OS. So hopefully this time around it will go through.

 

There is now a video unboxing / review of this model as well. I have not completely watched it but so far looks good. We might finally have a workstation that can stay decently close to the current median similar gaming tier results.

 

 

[AL123]

On 9/2/2025 at 8:47 AM, woffe said:

Hi, I am interested in an Pro Max 16 Plus. Can someone explain how the noise is in comparison to an Precision 7670 or 7680? 

The fans on my 7680 are not that loud but the fan management isn't that good. The fans turn often on and off, when the fans turn on the rpm is very high for a short time and that's a loud "whoosh" sound. After the fans have started, they are relatively quiet. 

 

The second question is, does it use a haptic Touchpad?

 

Tested a Pro Max 16 today with Ultra 9 and RTX PRO 4000, I would say fans kick in a bit quicker.  also a bit louder than the Pro Max 18 but both laptops have a reasonable pitch, it’s not too distracting in my opinion. 
 

CPU performance on the Pro Max 16 for real world stuff was pretty similar to the 18, did notice the Power drop a bit below the 95W PL1 under heavy multithreaded load to a slightly lower dynamic PL1, where as the Pro max 18 stayed around its 98W PL1. Just the smaller chassis/ fans I think. 

 

GPU power was around 130W sustained when running a render around 15% slower than the Pro max 18 running at 175W, didn’t get a chance to do combined test but I’d say the 170W combined claim seems about right it’s definitely no quite as capable as the 18 but significantly smaller/ lighter