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I always found the build quality for Lenovo Thinkpads to be better than any of the top tier Dell laptops. Most of the laptops I had in circulation were Dells and the always gave me problems. The Thinkpads just worked.
I never got the allure of Lenovo. the Chinese spyware left a bad taste in my mouth.
I had an X1 years ago bit I’ll take my 9360 over that any day.
The prestige behind the thinkpad brand specifically predates lenovo. They bought it from IBM in '05. AFAIK they’ve always been seen as reliable, well built laptops, albeit a bit pricier.
As far as spyware, with win11 being what it is your options are install Linux or live with it no matter which manufacturer you go with.
As far as spyware, with win11 being what it is your options are install Linux or live with it no matter which manufacturer you go with.
I wasn’t aware that there were other options outside of Linux.
Learn something new everyday 🤣 /s
I will say, at the time the X1 was probably the most stable laptop/Linux combo I had available. then several Intel vulnerabilities happened, were patched, and performance took a shit.
that’s when I bought my first XPS and haven’t looked back until now. since they’re dropping the line I’ll have to look for a new product in the future.
I’m pretty sure IBM sold the branding to them since they were already doing the manufacturing. They still do the warranty/maintenance work, though based on the last two call outs I’ve had with their “techs” I might opt for depot repairs or taking it to the local Micro Center for warranty work.
Why the fuck did it even take them that long? Alienware acquisition was in 2006.
In the future, it means we can also expect product names like Dell Pro Max Plus.
oh I can’t wait for 2030 to get my new Dell Pro Max Plus Most Biz VIP Tip Top Rizz
The base model or the AI Max Pro Plus model?
by 2030 it’ll all be AI
Something I think is a lot more interesting than them changing names of product lines is that almost all Dells ship with an OEM version of windows which reaches EoL faster, like 5 years sooner, and is more expensive to get a replacement disk image.
I had a tower about 10 years ago that I converted into a dinky little Linux Server, it worked really well all things considered.
My late-aughts XPS is a gem - milled aluminum, edge-to-edge glass, and the best laptop keyboard ever since Ye Olde Thinkpads. The glory days of chasing Apple with a Windows box and almost getting there. *pours 40*
That said, their QE went to shit, they pulled that bullshit RTO to soft-layoff everyone, laid off everyone else directly, and spent a ton to hire non-US replacements who aren’t up to speed so they can leverage the exciting benefits of AI (lol).
I’ll never understand why they didn’t put huge effort into backing linux when micro$oft started making hardware. Well - I know why they didn’t. Because they make poor managerial decisions. C’est ça.
so honestly, who would you use now? I’d never buy HP, Acer, Lenovo. total crap machines. what other brands of laptop are any good going into 2025/2026? The XPS was always my go-to but now what options are remaining?
Dell XPS and Lenovo X1 Carbon are the best laptops for running Linux. I currently have an AMD Framework and, while it’s nice that it’s repairable, Linux support is crap compared to the XPS and X1. I was actually looking into selling this junk Framework laptop and buying an X1 Carbon.
What don’t you like about your Framework? I haven’t noticed anything wrong with mine, but haven’t had it long.
I love my framework, though it’s not as small and battery efficient as my previous xps 13
As I work with HP and HPE at work:
Just don’t buy anything below ProBook and EliteBook. They are trash.In fact, don’t buy anything you see at an electronic retailer without looking and inspecting the product very intensely.
And buy the business-line. They are usually better than consumer product lines.At this point I build my desktops and I’ll buy Framework laptops.
I honestly still like Thinkpad. Using a T14s currently.
I guess it streamlines the naming a little bit, but it sounds like the mapping of the hardware to the names is still a mess. I’ve used XPS laptops for years, but had already decided my next would be a Framework. This just reinforces that decision.
I still remember when XPS was the premiere gaming brand Dell released to compete with the likes of Alienware, only for them to buy Alienware and relegate XPS to a higher budget multimedia catalog.
The names outstayed their welcome, but I cannot applaud them copying Apple’s homework.
I was going to joke Dell killed XPS a long, long time ago already.
But which of these new models will have AI?!
AMD now has “Max” chips and Dell now has “Pro” and “Max” laptops.
Everyone copying Apple.
AMD has the worst naming schemes in the industry, I miss the simple old i3, i5, i7… for each generation.
Well AMD just blatantly copied Nvidia’s naming scheme for their new GPUs so maybe they’ll copy Intel for their CPUs. I mean, they kind of already did, since the Ryzen 9 is basically i9, and the Ryzen 7 is basically i7 etc. It’s mostly AMDs mobile CPUs that have horrendous names, but Intel really isn’t much better in that department.
I can’t say Intel CPU naming is better though. The i3, i5, i7, i9 is misleading and the full names are even more confusing than AMD’s.
For a little bit there with 12th and 13th gen laptops it seemed like it could have made sense.
U was the low power “normal” chip
P was the higher power chip
H was the highest power chips
Then i3-9 for the stack.
But then 100 and 200 series ditched that and the P series kinda merged with the H series and you have no idea what you’re getting.
Same as it ever was
I wish there was a Company that inspired the Design/Build Quality of the Thinkpad for their Laptop rather then Apple.
If it matters to you, Michael Dell is pro-genocide:
Well that sucks. I haven’t bought an XPS since the Dell XPS 15z like over a decade ago, but still, the idea that I could buy an XPS Developer Edition laptop and have it be Linux compatible without having to think about it was nice. Now I’m limited to ThinkPads and System76 plus whatever other compatible Clevos there are or maybe a Framework, which I guess is fine since I do own multiple ThinkPads.
Still, really weird decision.
Asus ROG series to MSI seems interesting this CES, personally don’t see much problem with compatibility through Pop!_OS
They’re not actually getting rid of the XPS line, they’re just changing the naming convention.
Any of the new Dell models with ‘Premium’ in the name are going to be the same as the Dell XPS line.
Weird, isn’t that the only Dell brand people view as worth having?
As an IT guy, recent (past five years) XPS laptops we gave to execs were pretty bad. Smaller, yes, but I found the Latitudes were better in terms of build quality. It is a small sample size though as most execs preferred MacBooks.
Latitude is superior to the XPS line for business.
And man did they have a bad run of XPS’s there for a while with their batteries swelling up.
Latitude 7490 had a string of bad batteries too. Our XPS units kept having things disconnect internally (even after a motherboard swap with warranty). The latitude 7420 onwards have been super solid!
I worked in IT and those latitudes were no exception in my experience. Earlier models were good but we had to replace so many e7000 series batteries bulging out the bottom.
They should replace the XPS name with the Longitude. And then the Altitude.
Ha!
Used to be a field repair tech for several oems. The XPS usually suffered hinge issues. They decided it was a good idea to use press fitted standoffs in plastic to anchor the screen hinges…and the plastic is not very thick.
Imo this kind of shows the basic problem with the xps line. As I understand it it was basically the premium consumer line, not something meant for business use. Meaning it had the nice specs on paper, but not the durability you’d need in a setting with extensive use and where downtime means serious money. But as you demonstrate this distinction was too blurry.
We’ve been flirting with Lenovo legion. In my business we need strong video cards. Shipping white boxes and monitors to people is a real issue with work from home.
We were solely running XPS for years.
The legion aren’t bad, The worst of it is the power brick is a barrel connector. No running off of USB power delivery.
One of the units had a failed fan. I tore it apart and found the part number, I was actually pretty pissed off because you couldn’t buy just the fan you had to buy the whole heat distribution block with both fans and the heat pipes and everything. But then I found the part was only about 50 bucks. Dell wouldn’t even sell me parts without me being certified. So I bought the Lenovo heat block and it showed up with pre-compounded processor, GPU, and VRM pads. It was super impressive and for 50 bucks honestly it was a steal.
I own a Lenovo legion and the main issue is that it sucks on battery, it’s heavy, and the power brick is huge and expensive (I think close to 300€). Other than that it’s a beast. But if you have legions for business, you’ll struggle in meetings were people don’t want to bother with power cables and supplies.
Good point!
We’re mostly wfh, If we still had sufficient physical meetings, It wouldn’t break the bank to stuff a few bricks in every room.
The battery life is also significantly better if you’re doing normal meeting stuff.
Some companies prefer Dell as an American held company; for security reasons. Dell’s Precision line supports high-end needs such as 3d modeling, theoretical testing for real world applications, statistical analysis of large datasets, etc.
That is where Dell fits. And yes, they have consumer models. I don’t care for the latter.
I have a precision and an XPS,
Chassis is the same, keyboard, touch screen, pad are the same. Processor, disk, Wi-Fi and memory options are the same. Warranty and on premises technician same.
Prices are not the same, and sometimes precision has more GPU options. And I think a 17 inch screen, but these are a different line under the same brand name.
But one has official Linux support and the other doesn’t. But since all hardware is the same, surprise, it just works.
Pretty happy with the G series, but only because the XPS series for replaced by it in terms of bang for buck. And honestly, the G series we got are pretty good.
I have a 2018 XPS 15. I really like the machine but have also had more problems than any other laptop I’ve owned. The chassis fell apart spontaneously because an internal screw mount snapped. 1 month repair. Had to redo the CPU thermal paste to resolve overheating issues. Had driver issues with audio coming back from sleep that took me a year to figure out. Had to turn off Thunderbolt to get USB-C back functioning. Memory card reader keeps unmounting itself. Doesn’t have TPU, so I had to jump through hoops to get W11, which I need for some work stuff. Just a lot of drama. The screen is still wonderful to this day, and it has a nice keyboard, weight, and performance with 32 gb ram and faster SSD, but I don’t think I’ll get a new Dell. If I’m going to spend so much time tinkering with the laptop, I’d rather have a Framework that’s fully designed for tinkering
I believe the precision series kind of took over. They are high-end models but not really built for gaming. At this point, the XPS wasn’t built for gaming either, so I guess having 2 high-end lines just didn’t make sense?
Edit: I should have read the article first! I guess all the names are going away. I don’t care for the new names either, but both were pretty bad. The only difference is we got used to what it is now despite how little sense it made.
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the top level names are fine I guess, but all the sub tier names are too much.
What would be the Dell option for a conservatively styled laptop that has a GeForce RTX GPU?
Seems that Dell is pushing to their Alienware line but their laptops are just ugly
Wait, “Dell Pro max” isn’t a joke? Or at least not an intentional one?
Just wait til you hear about “Dell Pro Max Plus”.
Is that the extra absorbent one?
