[CES 2025] This obsession with Pro and Max has to stop

desiibond

desiibond

Keymaster
When I saw Dell's announcement and killing of XPS, I was furious. XPS has been an iconic brand for a long time and it still is a status symbol. What makes this so foolish is that each branding has sub branding (Base, Plus, Premium). Then comes the desktop. Apparently, one variant of Dell SFF PC will have this as name: Dell Pro Max Premium Micro. (Micro as in micro form factor). WTF!!!!

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Source: Dell

Then I saw what AMD did. Max and Pro branding in CPUs as well.

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Source: Linus Tech Tips, red lining done by myself.

This is the kind of stuff that make one say '**** it, I will just get a MacBook Air or Pro'.

Explain this: Dell 16 Pro Max premium powered by AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395. Isn't it better if its just "Dell XPS 15 powered by AMD Ryzen 9 AI 395"
 
About Dell, I was never into their laptops, so from my perspective it's a welcoming change.

I never touched an Apple, still, I easily understand its whole laptop, phone pipeline. If I have to get myself a laptop from Apple, I know exactly which one to get. I can't say the same thing about Dell, HP, Asus, Acer etc. From my view, those names didn't have any meaning, and they were picking some random words out of the dictionary to confuse people.
 
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desiibond said:
Dell Pro Max Premium Micro
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:laughing::laughing::laughing:

God, that is so bad lol
But same as other posters, never really saw Dell as a viable option. If I had to pick a laptop, I'd probably go Lenovo Chromebook, Apple MBA (probably last gen), or Lenovo IdeaPad.

I'm still in the old ways of liking a desktop more for daily usage and work, so laptop is more for light usage, so anything should be fine, really.

If it's work, I get a laptop from work, so that's not a choice I'd make anyway haha
 
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This reminds me of a story from past.

When I newly entered 6th grade in school, the class teacher chose a class monitor. One of his duty was to note down the names and deeds of misbehaving students. Which he would then pass to the teacher.

This is what he handed to class teacher on the second day: Vinek: SUPER ULTRA ULTIMATE GAALI.
 
I don't give a shit about those companies and their naming their babies.
I have used 2 dell XPS 9560 & 9310. Both are a beaut and splendind to use. Their Web cams are useless and I have to carry a decent webcam with USB C to A adapter to use alongwith. I don't have heads turned when I use them at a public space. When I first saw a Mac Air 2 in airport, just a few days after launch and in Midnight color, I saw atleast a handful staring at it, that was enriching.
XPS Brand or any other dell brands are not printed on the laptop, its just easily recognisable. When one uses Alienware, Legion, XPS one identifies it as such and this is by people who knows about it and others don't.
For Apple its easy, their bitten apple logo is a dead giveaway for everyone on this planet, they identify that it is an apple product even if they don't know its sub class.

Sure the nomenclature is a bit confusing at first, but for people who spend their hard earned money, will probably decide what is their worth before purchase. They have to be careful as the e-com sites provide half v-omitted information to confuse sane people. I agree the names of processors, gfx cards are confusing and deliberately so with their functions and perfomance.
This is another area where I adore Apple policies. They have a palmful products that they concentrate well. But others like Dell has nine main class of products, as above with various processors (Amd, Intel & SD) and features in each cateogary and not to mention Alienware and its sibling G15 which I am not sure where it fits.

Even worse are policies of Lenovo and ASUS. Maybe its a start to consolidating their product portfolio like Apple.

Looking forward for the XPS Successors with Upgraded Webcam, Ventiva Solid state fans instead of old fan, huge battery life and more ports.
 
I saw linus's video on it and it looks a bit more intuitive than before? But it's still a bit confusing. I know both these statements are contradictory but in the long run this seems to be better.
 
?dOuBtFiRe? said:
I don't give a shit about those companies and their naming their babies.
I have used 2 dell XPS 9560 & 9310. Both are a beaut and splendind to use. Their Web cams are useless and I have to carry a decent webcam with USB C to A adapter to use alongwith. I don't have heads turned when I use them at a public space. When I first saw a Mac Air 2 in airport, just a few days after launch and in Midnight color, I saw atleast a handful staring at it, that was enriching.
XPS Brand or any other dell brands are not printed on the laptop, its just easily recognisable. When one uses Alienware, Legion, XPS one identifies it as such and this is by people who knows about it and others don't.
For Apple its easy, their bitten apple logo is a dead giveaway for everyone on this planet, they identify that it is an apple product even if they don't know its sub class.

Sure the nomenclature is a bit confusing at first, but for people who spend their hard earned money, will probably decide what is their worth before purchase. They have to be careful as the e-com sites provide half v-omitted information to confuse sane people. I agree the names of processors, gfx cards are confusing and deliberately so with their functions and perfomance.
This is another area where I adore Apple policies. They have a palmful products that they concentrate well. But others like Dell has nine main class of products, as above with various processors (Amd, Intel & SD) and features in each cateogary and not to mention Alienware and its sibling G15 which I am not sure where it fits.

Even worse are policies of Lenovo and ASUS. Maybe its a start to consolidating their product portfolio like Apple.

Looking forward for the XPS Successors with Upgraded Webcam, Ventiva Solid state fans instead of old fan, huge battery life and more ports.
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PC manufacturers sell their products based on the variations and multiple launches. They don't have the stickiness of Apple, so a reduced portfolio isn't going to fly with people who buy these commodity PCs based on specs.
 
In the end it all depends on their data on how these models are selling. They have all the data based on sales as per the models. For example looking at Bajaj pulsar bikes, they have 12 models named as pulsar. Many of these bikes look alike with small differences but they are introducing more and more models cause they just sell in their individual area.
 
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Emperor said:
Confuse buyer with FANCY model names that are hard to remember but give some Premium Feeling, the more you confuse them, higher chance they will fall in your trap & buy ... EASY!!!
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^ Ultimately it boils down to this. Push out 10 different Ultra/ Pro/ Note/ Max models and confuse everyone including techies and profit. Plus push YT channels to market/push the crappy products and earn even more. Anything for the bottom line.
 
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