[Oxodao]

I'm not sure if it's just me or a common feeling, but XPS laptops from the last few years (at least 2020 onward) felt really poor quality for "professional" computers. Especially regarding their main competitors (mbp & thinkpads). All the XPS we had at work had issues and particularly bad battery life even before the one year mark.. For those who didn't have their battery swollen.

I wouldn't have thought that such a recognizable brand as the XPS line would fade for "AI PC" BS but heh

[legitster]

XPS was never their professional product line. Latitudes were their workplace fleet devices that mostly went head to head with ThinkPads.

This is probably good evidence that they needed to simplify their branding. Having their halo consumer product compete for market mindshare against their professional products is counterproductive. Especially when everyone wants to cross shop against MacBooks.

In contrast, ThinkPad's X1 shares almost nothing with the rest of the Thinkpad's professional line, but it sits there adding prestige to the brand.

[razakel]

Inspiron is their consumer line, Latitude their business line, Precision their pro line, Alienware their gaming line, so what exactly was XPS meant to be? Their fashion line?

[jsheard]

XPS pre-dates them acquiring Alienware, it made more sense at the time. That was their premium consumer/gaming line.

Dell bought Alienware in 2006 though so they took their sweet time before cleaning up the product lines.

[diffeomorphism]

Their consumer fashion line.

[DaiPlusPlus]

My Dell Dimension XPS P166s from 1996 sure was fashionable in all that beige

[soared]

Im generally a fan of the Latitudes I’ve had for the past few years. They don’t do anything special or great but generally just work. The body gets scratched pretty easily and the power button behavior is annoying, but other than that I’ve had no issues.

Even got a lucky BSOD 2 years ago that nuked windows and somehow got me admin access!

[legitster]

My work went from Thinkpads to Latitudes. The Latitudes are pretty sturdy, and I'm told are pretty competitive on price/performance. But nothing beat the ThinkPad on durability/repairability/tactile feel/etc.

When I quit the job, I immediately bought an identical ThinkPad. It's nearly 8 years old but I still use it regularly use it as a pub trivia host as it can take a beating and have beers poured on it and still run like a trooper.

[AmVess]

I had a 2021 model. It was pretty poor in all aspects. Slow, laggy on the desktop just clicking around. Loud when doing anything resembling work. Very poor audio. Bad keyboard. 4 hour battery.

I switched to a new M1 MacBook Air and it was like going from a Cessna 150 to an F-15. Everything on the M1 MBA was decades ahead of the XPS.

Everyone and their brother now sells a much better product than XPS, and often for nearly half the cash. I picked up an Asus Vivo last year. Very nice product, half the cost of the XPS they had on offer, but with the same specs and screen.

It feels like it was engineered as a unit, much like the MBA. The XPS in comparison is a parts bin special.

[dkwr]

I can agree with that. I still use my XPS from 2022 on a daily basis, but I regret it alot. Battery life and cooling are unbelievably bad, it's a shame when you start thinking about the price.

[ksec]

>Especially regarding their main competitors (mbp & thinkpads)

I dont think XPS is a business / professional line? But I think I have heard similar complains from Thinkpad user as well. The only good PC hardware surprisingly came from Microsoft their Surface line. But most business dont use it.

[blackeyeblitzar]

XPS always felt like an unloved brand. I’ve owned some and they never felt like they fit into either the powerhouse segment or the everyday user segment. And the strange revisions to keyboards and things over time made it less and less attractive to power users. Dell has far too many models and it’s hard for anyone to understand what the reason is to buy any of them. It’s certainly not for the everyday user either - in every single way it is worse than the cheapest Apple laptop.

As for AI PC - unfortunately Microsoft has forced this on everyone. They used their influence and power to force Intel to agree to this branding and the conditions for it to be met (things like having a Microsoft specific “Copilot” button). And all the OEMs have to come along or face repercussions for these partnerships. It’s just another example of big tech having too much market share, capital, etc.

[pjmlp]

Alternative would be like Apple, with vertical integration.

OEMs have had 30 years to sell Windows alternatives based on GNU/Linux or BSD, after the monopoly lawsuit, they caved in quickly after XP license became grátis, and nowadays rather sell Chromebooks and Android tablets than proper Windows alternatives.

[geodel]

Seems they had good opportunity while renaming XPS to Dell Poor, Dell Poor+ and Dell Poor Premium