Dell Pro Max 16: Real Users Weigh In on the Precision Successor

that naming scheme is just terrible

Thanks for the in-depth review. Dell's pricing is insane and I absolutely despise the XPS rebranding to Dell Premium. Interested to see battery life results.

I had some of the same OLED issue, half my coworkers said I'm crazy and too nit picky. But yeah it's between a nice IPS but it's low resolution or a OLED with its own faults. Think I will stick to the OLED.

Dell is losing its identity with its poor naming system, a poor imitation of Apple.

From what I have been able to gather the naming scheme maps: Dell = Inspiron, Dell Pro Max = Precision Mobile Workstation. This is by no means an official list, it's just what I've been able to glean from comparing some models of each on the website.

Use an external keyboard. Number pads on laptops with off-center trackpads are horrible.

Everyone, keep in mind that the Pro Max Premium and Pro Max Plus designation equivalents are flipped. Dell Pro Max Premium = Dell Precision 5000 series, Dell Pro Max Plus = Dell Precision 7000 series.

I do not like the updated naming. It's awful. I have been buying 7680's for a while and have no idea what their updated replacement is called.

This is really stupid. Next, Optiplexes are going to be renamed to 'Dell Desktop'.

You were absolutely right, the original Cinebench 2024 score was from tests run in Optimized mode. After switching to Ultra Performance mode, I re-ran the benchmark and achieved a score of 1078. I also ran 3DMark Time Spy, and the system scored 8150.

Yeah, the offset keyboard kills me. I've had three of those — two through work years ago and one an outlet purchase — and I've never been able to adapt to the shifted layout.

I love my almost fully equipped DPM16P.

It's not you, Dell's new naming convention is extremely ill considered. They claim the nomenclature is industry norm. It's not. Especially the -/plus/premium and Max. And if you think about it, it's actually Apple that started using the term Max.

Deployed our first batch over the last 3 weeks. Initial reactions are that it's bulky but the performance and battery life seems to be far outweighing the form factor. Time will tell on reliability but they seem to be well engineered. Price was only slightly higher than our old Precisions which is better than I expected.

We got in a batch today. They are very chunky, and I can already hear the user complaints before I've even deployed them. Hopefully the performance justifies the heft.

I miss the XPS name. I've purchased only XPS desktops when I buy Dell and now anytime I browse their desktop options, nothing seems to fit it.

This laptop literally has Premium in the name. Whoever came up with the rebranding should be tossed out.

Pro Max systems have better thermal management and cooling allowing the units to tolerate higher peak performance vs Pro Plus. For example, for AMD based procs you can have the exact same proc on Pro Max vs Pro Plus, the performance delta is up to +20% in Procyon Office productivity benchmarks.

Please don't get a graphic card for the sake of having it. I have a same use case, senior developer. No use for graphic card. It will unnecessarily heat up and throttle/bottleneck the system, you will get lesser battery backup, and this will come with Nvidia utility bloatware and need additional drivers.

Pro Max Premium finally launched today without announcement. More than double the price of the previous XPS. Also $900 more than equivalent MacBook Pro.

The fans are very quiet. I don't hear them during regular use. Even when running benchmarks, they take some time to ramp up, and at full load they do not make much noise. In comparison, my XPS 17 becomes very loud when running benchmarks.

I also have the pro max 16 premium (ultra 9 285H, RTX3000, 64gb ram and tandem oled and 2tb ssd). I gotta say I didn't like using it with windows because for some reason it was super loud, even on desktop/webbrowsing. Switching to Linux made it quiet and now I quite like it. I LOVE the tandem oled.

The battery test results are pretty underwhelming. 5 hours is brutal for light workflow. Nearly as much as I get with a new battery on an XPS 9500 with the i7 10750H and the IPS display. For the money you're spending on the Dell Premium lineup, you could buy a better product if you don't mind switching to Apple.

It's nice and performs well. I'm a Mac user but this is required for work. I don't like the giant pad but am going to start using a mouse and keyboard.

On Dell TB4 docks, it does not like going into screen off or sleep. It will not wake via dock connected keyboard input like all other dells before it do just fine.

I've had issues using with a dock too (though the new TB5 one), semi-frequently just disconnects and reconnects when in use.

I received my laptop yesterday and I'm quite pleased with it. It also has a Samsung SDC4202 panel. It looks fine on mine. I haven't noticed the grainy look on dark grey images or maybe I'm not that sensitive to it.

First of all, it's a tank, ridiculously thick and heavy for a machine with no discrete GPU and a power efficient CPU in the Ryzen 9 HX 370. I could see needing such a beefy chassis in power hungry Intel + Nvidia setups, but for my configuration it's just overkill, extra weight and space consumption for no reason.

We just switched FROM the Latitude to the Pro Max and it has made everything so much better in terms of using the laptop. The Latitudes overheat too easily and have memory issues, everything is snappy on the Pro Max.

We did get a couple of the 16" Pro Max's and good grief, they're HUGE. Definitely not good for our users.

As a Dell 16 Pro Max owner, I fully agree that "quad" speakers with two woofers and two tweeters are tinny sounding and terrible for the price quality. The laptop fans run 24x7 with constant hiss even when you are reading a notepad file and nothing else. Battery life is 3-4 hours max.

I have the 64GB AI 9 HX Pro 370 version, it's very good I use a lot of programs at the same time with a lot of Chrome open and it never slows down. Coming from an Intel 10th gen 4c/8t it's like going from stock Honda Civic to Kona 2023 N-Line.

What language do you work in? Multithreaded build performance is going to be WAY higher on the Pro Max 16 (50% base difference in the processor, plus better thermals). For a compiled language that can take advantage of that (Java, C++, C#) it's a no brainer.

Based on my experience (Dell Pro Max 16 intel core 135H with RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell) it does not heat up the laptop. GPU does not go beyond 60º in intense AI tasks for 1-2h. The laptop is quite capable.

I have the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus, with the RTX Pro 4000 but have a heavy use case for the GPU.

They tend to run very hot. Also, Dell seems to have a host of quality control problems. If you plan to keep it mostly stationary, might as well just buy a regular PC and an ultrabook/macbook.

Dell drives the GPU at 170w in those units where as a comparable Thinkpad only supplies 110w for the GPU and a comparable Legion gaming model supplies 140w. We got some of those Dell units in at the plant where I work and they're absolute beasts. They feel really solid in the hand too, sturdy.

The Precision (now called the Dell Pro Max) is neither lighter nor thinner. I have experience using both the XPS 16 and the Precision 5680, yet the latter is certainly superior in terms of performance.

I was also a little disappointed to see that the GPU was not removable and that it only comes with the RTX Pro 3000, but hey, I'd rather buy the Precision 5690 with the RTX A5000.

The RAM is not upgradable / changeable on the new Dell Pro models (Max / Plus / Premium) right?

Mine is i9, 64GB, 3500, 4K — but battery life is extremely poor. Even on the battery efficient settings, I will be lucky if I get 3 hours of browsing.

That thickness and weight is part of what makes it so physically robust in the first place. These are designed to be the replacements for the 7000-Series Precisions not the fake, rebadged XPS 5000-Series units.