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

[AL123]

22 hours ago, Easa said:

 

 

 

 

As usual, Dell completely screws up the display choices - they should look at the possibilities HP is offering. The DreamColor panels on the Fury series are amazing. I must say that the current offering on the Pro Max Plus 18" is something that I am absolutely fine with, as the 2560x1600 is my go-to resolution in laptops, but I get your feeling. And as for the flagship model, yes. I do not like the aesthetics and I am an avid hater of the naming scheme, but otherwise, it is the first Dell laptop since M6800 that has caught my attention.

 

Oh, and I also have to mention that I just received a price offerings from both Lenovo and Dell. Funny thing, the Pro Max Plus 18" configured with RTX4000 (other specs are the same) has the same price as P16 Gen3 configured with RTX3000 + of course the significantly reduced power budget.  

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. 

[Easa]

I have receivIed a price offer from my sales rep, specced exactly as I have requested:

The OEM drives I do not care for, taking the Gen5 1TB as a base for the OS (for 100% compatibility and firmware updates) other than that I will fill the remaining slots with Samsung 990 PRO´s. I dont know about prices elsewhere in EU when going through sales rep, but this is priced roughly at €3900 (non-VAT), which seems like a very good price, considering that for this money you can usually get something with RTX3000, no WWAN, basic battery and Gen4 drive. 

 

Also, Lenovo is asking me €4400 for the same configuration of P16 Gen3, and that is with 4k60 screen, which I would swap for 2560x1600 165Hz afterwards (adding more cost). Plus, their machine has a 100W lesser power budget as was mentioned previously. Have to mention that I am buying a single unit, so no bulk company purchase etc. What do you say? I guess that I am sold at this point.

[win32asmguy]

7 hours ago, Easa said:

The OEM drives I do not care for, taking the Gen5 1TB as a base for the OS (for 100% compatibility and firmware updates) other than that I will fill the remaining slots with Samsung 990 PRO´s. I dont know about prices elsewhere in EU when going through sales rep, but this is priced roughly at €3900 (non-VAT), which seems like a very good price, considering that for this money you can usually get something with RTX3000, no WWAN, basic battery and Gen4 drive. 

 

Also, Lenovo is asking me €4400 for the same configuration of P16 Gen3, and that is with 4k60 screen, which I would swap for 2560x1600 165Hz afterwards (adding more cost). Plus, their machine has a 100W lesser power budget as was mentioned previously. Have to mention that I am buying a single unit, so no bulk company purchase etc. What do you say? I guess that I am sold at this point.

 

That a pretty good price for the config. Mine is 285HX, 1x16GB CSODIMM, 500GB Gen4 SSD, RTX 5000 Blackwell, QHD+ with 8MP camera, 3year Prosupport. It was about 5100USD before taxes. I upgraded to 2x24GB 6400 CSODIMMs and will likely get a 4TB SN8100 as a boot drive soon.

 

I will note this machine does not support regular DDR5 SODIMMs - fails to boot with an incompatible memory error. Going forward CSODIMMs should be better but right now we only have them with JEDEC timings which are not quite as good as the Kingston Fury 5600 / 6400 XMP kits.

[AL123]

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 ! 

[Tom1939]

On 9/25/2025 at 9:08 PM, Easa said:

I have receivIed a price offer from my sales rep, specced exactly as I have requested:

The OEM drives I do not care for, taking the Gen5 1TB as a base for the OS (for 100% compatibility and firmware updates) other than that I will fill the remaining slots with Samsung 990 PRO´s. I dont know about prices elsewhere in EU when going through sales rep, but this is priced roughly at €3900 (non-VAT), which seems like a very good price, considering that for this money you can usually get something with RTX3000, no WWAN, basic battery and Gen4 drive. 

 

Also, Lenovo is asking me €4400 for the same configuration of P16 Gen3, and that is with 4k60 screen, which I would swap for 2560x1600 165Hz afterwards (adding more cost). Plus, their machine has a 100W lesser power budget as was mentioned previously. Have to mention that I am buying a single unit, so no bulk company purchase etc. What do you say? I guess that I am sold at this point.

 

 

That is very nice! About the same I would get. Did you reach this sales rep from dell page or is this a country specific rep? I would order from Hungary (saw the shipping docs language 🙂 ).

[Easa]

8 hours ago, Tom1939 said:

 

 

That is very nice! About the same I would get. Did you reach this sales rep from dell page or is this a country specific rep? I would order from Hungary (saw the shipping docs language 🙂 ).

 

About the same price, or about the same config? 🙃 

 

This is a Dell AD that I have long term relationship with, ever since I bought my Precision M4800 back in 2014. Would you be ordering as a company with VAT ID? 

 

Oh and guys, I cannot find any document regarding the M.2 config on this laptop. Is it gen 5/4/4/4 or 5/5/4/4? 

[AL123]

4 hours ago, Easa said:

 

Oh and guys, I cannot find any document regarding the M.2 config on this laptop. Is it gen 5/4/4/4 or 5/5/4/4? 

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, 

[Tom1939]

2 hours ago, Easa said:

 

About the same price, or about the same config? 🙃 

 

This is a Dell AD that I have long term relationship with, ever since I bought my Precision M4800 back in 2014. Would you be ordering as a company with VAT ID? 

 

Oh and guys, I cannot find any document regarding the M.2 config on this laptop. Is it gen 5/4/4/4 or 5/5/4/4? 

Same config 🙂 Same price would be nice... No I would order as a private person (somehow I like these worsktations, I had M6600, now I have precision 7740). Is it possibe to order from him/her not being a company order? Here in Hungary normaly you would get them from a notebook store, but the configurations are very limited (we have the 3000 Gpu, no choice it that, and no mobile internet modem).

[Aaron44126]

1 hour ago, Tom1939 said:

Is it possibe to order from him/her not being a company order?

 

You can only buy these workstations from the Dell "business" store, but you can order as an individual without a problem, you don't have to be a business. I always have used a small business sales rep to order, not the web site, you can almost always get a better deal that way even if you are just buying a single system.

[Tom1939]

22 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

You can only buy these workstations from the Dell "business" store, but you can order as an individual without a problem, you don't have to be a business. I always have used a small business sales rep to order, not the web site, you can almost always get a better deal that way even if you are just buying a single system.

Thx! In (East) Europe too? You do have support here as next day on site repairs do work here at least since 2011 (my first precision).

[Easa]

1 hour ago, Tom1939 said:

Same config 🙂 Same price would be nice... No I would order as a private person (somehow I like these worsktations, I had M6600, now I have precision 7740). Is it possibe to order from him/her not being a company order? Here in Hungary normaly you would get them from a notebook store, but the configurations are very limited (we have the 3000 Gpu, no choice it that, and no mobile internet modem).

 

Same here in CZ/SK, the pre-configured models are probably identical across our region. Anyways, its not a problem to order even for a private person, but you would have to pay the VAT of course. Send me a PM with the config you would like and I can forward it to them, they will make an informational, non binding price offer with the same discount as I got. 

[Tom1939]

29 minutes ago, Easa said:

 

Same here in CZ/SK, the pre-configured models are probably identical across our region. Anyways, its not a problem to order even for a private person, but you would have to pay the VAT of course. Send me a PM with the config you would like and I can forward it to them, they will make an informational, non binding price offer with the same discount as I got. 

Thx a lot, sent a PM.

[capitainealbator]

Hello 🙂

Just a little question: please could you confirm the smart dock is SD25TB5 for Dell Pro Max plus 16 and also 18 ?

 

Many thanks. 😉

[win32asmguy]

@Easa yes the surface of the palm rest is a smooth plastic. There is a mag alloy rib case to give it rigidity. It's a similar design to the p16 g2.

 

Also I believe only SSD slot 1 is gen5. SSD slot 2 is gen4 but also CPU pcie lanes so it's the best place for a scratch drive. Slots 3 and 4 are connected to the PCH. Tb5 uses pcie lanes bifurcated from the GPU. Hence why the GPU is 8x instead of 16x.

 

Sorry for moving it but I wanted to try and keep non-performance discussion out of that thread. It has been fun benching the pro Max 18 plus over the weekend. Oh, and SREP does work to modify a few performance parameters.

[Easa]

5 minutes ago, win32asmguy said:

Sorry for moving it but I wanted to try and keep non-performance discussion out of that thread. It has been fun benching the pro Max 18 plus over the weekend. Oh, and SREP does work to modify a few performance parameters.

 

TBH I was just about telling you that the performance measurements should be moved either here, or to a new, dedicated Pro Max Plus owners thread 😄 And as we are long past release, this thread should be renamed. 

 

I am fine with the 8x PCIE, the mobile (and almost all of the current) GPUs cannot saturate it anyways - waste of lanes to go x16 in a laptop. I have a desktop 5090 running at x8, and I am still competitive in 3DMark with it. 

 

However, the plastic palmrest is kind of disappointing to me, to be honest. I fear that it will smooth off and then wear out very fast, just like the common Dell plastic surfaces on Latitudes. Is it at least feeling sturdy?

 

Is there any kind of tutorial / manual for the SREP tool? What exactly can it do? First time hearing of that. 

 

 

[win32asmguy]

2 hours ago, Easa said:

TBH I was just about telling you that the performance measurements should be moved either here, or to a new, dedicated Pro Max Plus owners thread 😄 And as we are long past release, this thread should be renamed. 

 

I am fine with the 8x PCIE, the mobile (and almost all of the current) GPUs cannot saturate it anyways - waste of lanes to go x16 in a laptop. I have a desktop 5090 running at x8, and I am still competitive in 3DMark with it. 

 

However, the plastic palmrest is kind of disappointing to me, to be honest. I fear that it will smooth off and then wear out very fast, just like the common Dell plastic surfaces on Latitudes. Is it at least feeling sturdy?

 

Is there any kind of tutorial / manual for the SREP tool? What exactly can it do? First time hearing of that.

 

I like discussing performance and comparing it against others. I agree an owners louge is about due.

 

Well its possible I was wrong on the palm rest material. I was going back through the docs and everything says its supposed to be Magnetite, which is a metal. It may be injection molded plastic bonded to the metal, but hard to say from the photos of the palm rest compared to holding one in hand.

 

SREP is a tool that patches the bios at runtime to show all configuration options available. In the case of the Pro Max 18 Plus bios it appears that Overclocking is not compiled in, so still unavailable. However, memory overclocking is there so I did a quick test disabling SAGV and setting tREFI to 16k both of which worked. SAGV is probably something you would want to keep enabled as it can reduce battery power consumption. You can also set TccOffset so the CPU throttles before 105C if desired. Unfortunately we cannot adjust D2D (21x) or NGU (26x) clocks and sadly the 285HX is not a higher bin on those than the 275HX. These are the parameters Intel calls "200S Boost" on desktop along with activating XMP.

 

Right now I am trying to figure out what the threshold is where battery drain occurs. It appears that 200W in Ultra Performance mode is enough, but 170W in Optimized mode does not. It seems like the "Adaptive C-states for Discrete Graphics" also causes it to drain the battery more agressively so it may be best to disable if you care about battery health.

 

My machine needs a repaste job as it thermal throttles at 200W but the CPU PL1 is being set to 58W in combined loads so in theory it can pull more power.

[Easa]

And of course I love when I can look at some comparison data, its just that it would be nice to have it in one room 🙂

 

About the case material, well, I do not have the laptop yet, but from all the videos, spreadsheets and also from the 3D rendering of the internals on Dell site, it really appears to be bonded from two different materials, main body + some reinforcements here and there:

 

 

But the official PDF only mentions Magnetite, and magnesium in the chassis:

 

 

Magnetite is not really suitable for laptop bodies, it is essentially a common iron ore. If the thing feels like plastic - not having the common "cold" touch, it will probably be an Elektron or other, similar alloy, with some additional magnesium cage underneath it. 

 

Does ThrottleStop or XTU, or other similar utility works, at least for undervolting / limiting the ratios or power limits? Also, this tool, you have to run it on each POST/BOOT for it to be active, or you set it once and its done?

[win32asmguy]

45 minutes ago, Easa said:

Magnetite is not really suitable for laptop bodies, it is essentially a common iron ore. If the thing feels like plastic - not having the common "cold" touch, it will probably be an Elektron or other, similar alloy, with some additional magnesium cage underneath it. 

 

Does ThrottleStop or XTU, or other similar utility works, at least for undervolting / limiting the ratios or power limits? Also, this tool, you have to run it on each POST/BOOT for it to be active, or you set it once and its done?

 

Yeah I found magnetite in the promotional materials and I guess the keycaps are the same material? The palm rest looked like plastic from first glance at this image:

 

 

The magnesium alloy cage is around the bottom area of the palm rest, as you can see here:

 

 

Throttlestop and XTU do not allow adjustment of undervolting or most multipliers. That all falls under the overclocking umbrella which cannot be enabled. PL1 can in theory be overridden but may interfere with Nvidia power limits.

[Aaron44126]

So they made it look like a MacBook Pro ......... (The color & shape of the palmrest area / lower chassis strongly evokes "MacBook Pro" to me, including that "notch" in front of the touchpad which is there to allow you to open the lid. I had to do a double-take the first time that I saw it.)

 

But I guess actually using aluminum for the palmrest just costs too much ...?

And if I am understanding right, it is also not the "soft" / "rubber"-like texture that Precision 7XXX and M6XXX series used on the palmrest? It's just ... plastic, with a silver "metal-looking" paint/finish?

[Easa]

Brass nuts molded in, thats definitely plastic. On the other hand, the black ribbed material to the left and right will definitely be metal. If you search for Precision 7770 palmrest, its more or less the same thing, but without the rubber. Lets see how the paint will hold up. 

[win32asmguy]

56 minutes ago, Easa said:

Brass nuts molded in, thats definitely plastic. On the other hand, the black ribbed material to the left and right will definitely be metal. If you search for Precision 7770 palmrest, its more or less the same thing, but without the rubber. Lets see how the paint will hold up. 

 

Ah that makes sense. I don't mind the plastic surface. It's higher quality than the latitude palm rest. All that matters to me is surface temps not be scalding. I do believe they are better than the precision 7780 was.

[AL123]

6 hours ago, win32asmguy said:

 

Ah that makes sense. I don't mind the plastic surface. It's higher quality than the latitude palm rest. All that matters to me is surface temps not be scalding. I do believe they are better than the precision 7780 was.

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. 

[Easa]

9 hours ago, win32asmguy said:

 

Ah that makes sense. I don't mind the plastic surface. It's higher quality than the latitude palm rest. All that matters to me is surface temps not be scalding. I do believe they are better than the precision 7780 was.

 

I am now looking at the comparison between the PMP18 and 7770 side by side, and the new model has way more reinforcements / underlay on some places. Particularly above the keyboard (between the hinges) and in the battery area + the additional magnesium cage there. If the keyboard baseplate is some sheet metal, I do not know, but that would also help + the gargantuan heatsink screwed into the motherboard, running across the entire back will do its part. I repeat, I have no first hand experience with this model (yet), but from the looks of it, the palmrest should be very stable, rock solid almost. Definitely the most heavy-duty palmrest design since 7720 era. Does it feel that way when you pick up the laptop by the side? What about bending under pressure, some squeaks, etc? Sorry for being so curious 😄

 

Anyways, the plastic surface might be better for me after all. Liked it a lot on the P16. The metallic palmrests of the Zbook series always collide with the clasp of my watch, resulting in scratches on both. 

 

 

3 hours ago, AL123 said:

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. 

 

That is great to hear. Any notable issues, freezes, hangs or similar, so far?

[win32asmguy]

I spent a couple of hours using the laptop last night at full load and at some point it went into a throttled CPU mode where frequency was being clipped to under 3ghz due to psysPL2 according to hwinfo. After checking a few things unplugging and replugging the USBC charger got the CPU up to full performance again.

 

Also of interesting note the display appears to support advanced Optimus. However only VRR in regular Optimus mode.

[capitainealbator]

On 9/29/2025 at 1:40 PM, capitainealbator said:

Hello 🙂

Just a little question: please could you confirm the smart dock is SD25TB5 for Dell Pro Max plus 16 and also 18 ?

 

Many thanks. 😉

Hello, any idea about my question?  😉  🙂