Last year, during CES, Dell made an interesting announcement. The company revealed that it was killing the XPS series and rebranding its whole PC lineup. Dell went with a more “unified” approach that led to the Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max. It was a move that made Dell’s computers sound more like iPhones on paper, and one that ultimately seems to have confused some people. However, almost a year later, it appears the change hasn’t quite worked out for the company, with Dell receiving backlash online from many for dropping its iconic naming convention. It seems Dell has been listening all this while, as the brand has now announced the return of its XPS branding with two new laptops — a 14-inch and a 16-inch variant.
For years, the XPS label was arguably as synonymous with premium laptops as Lenovo’s ThinkPad branding was. However, without it, some argue that Dell’s branding just became a bit of a mess. That said, other models like Inspiron and Latitude aren’t making a comeback. Additionally, it appears the return of the XPS line has also pushed Dell to revisit how its premium laptops look, with the new models reportedly sporting much thinner and more streamlined designs compared to last year’s laptops.
AI is still there, but Dell says it realized something important
Perhaps the other most exciting thing about the latest launches from Dell, though, is the fact that the company doesn’t appear to be going as ham about pushing AI on its users as some other companies have been, with one report from PC Gamer even praising Dell for having “the most pleasingly un-AI briefing” in years. Of course, the company is still pushing AI. Unfortunately, there’s zero chance that AI ever vanishes from our products now, especially with OpenAI and other companies continuing to improve and update tools like ChatGPT and even reimagine the internet. However, Dell says it realized an important thing — customers don’t buy a new laptop for its AI features.
For a few years now, all the craze around the marketing of these new computers has been “AI this” and “AI that.” While Dell still plans to offer its AI services and NPUs in every device it makes, the company says it wants to focus its marketing on what the customer actually cares about. Apparently, part of that is bringing back the old XPS name, which so many have come to recognize. Whether or not it’ll actually make a difference in the long run remains to be seen, and it’s unclear whether these new laptops will find themselves affected by the expected PC price surges thanks to AI driving memory prices up. But at least Dell fans can rest easy knowing that XPS is back, and it’s back with style.
