During last year’s CES, Dell killed the brand behind the very first laptop I ever owned, ditching its beloved XPS branding alongside other classic names like Inspiron and Precision. In its place, the company said all of its future (non-gaming) computers would now be known simply as “Dell,” either being Dell, Dell Pro, or Dell Pro Max devices. In addition to these, other monikers like Dell Plus and Dell Premium were also tossed into the mix—and with all those similar-sounding adjectives floating around, it was just a mess to know what you were actually buying. If you can tell me the difference between a Dell 14 Plus, a Dell 14 Premium, and a Dell 14 Pro Premium without looking at spec sheets, then all respect to you.
Now, it seems, the company’s realized its mistake. At CES 2026, Dell revealed that it’s bringing the XPS brand back and massively simplifying everything else. Laptops simply branded as “Dell” won’t be going away, but from now on, consumers will only have to make three choices when buying a Dell laptop.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
How Dell’s new laptop categories will work
More lightweight laptops for everyday consumers will continue to be called simply Dell, but all premium options will now be renamed to XPS, while all gaming computers will now fall under the Alienware brand that was previously limited to more powerful models. The Dell Pro name will technically continue to exist, but only for enterprise customers, and Dell made no mention of Dell Pro Max, Dell Plus, or Dell Premium at this CES.
“We’ve been a bit off course,” Dell Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said in a meeting with journalists. “I owe you an apology. We didn’t listen to you. You were right…we can be humble, and we can correct decisions that we’ve made in the past.”
All of this should come as a relief to confused buyers who might have been thrown off not just by the naming scheme, but by how many configuration options each of those Premium, Plus, and Pro models had on the Dell website at checkout. As someone who had to review and recommend these things, even I had trouble knowing whether a high-end Dell Plus was better than a low-end Dell Pro. But aside from naming, Dell also promised to bring back some favorite XPS design features alongside the brand next year.
Old Dell XPS design
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
Shortly before it got rid of the XPS name, Dell made a couple of design overhauls to XPS that I was vocally opposed to, and these persisted into some of its post-XPS computers. They included using a touch bar for the function row rather than physical keys, much like Apple tried on some MacBook Pros between 2016 and 2020, and a touchpad that was flush with the computer, meaning you couldn’t easily see where it began and ended. It was flashy, but as my colleague Alan Bradley pointed out in a review, it was more “form over function.”
New Dell XPS design
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
Now, the new XPS laptops for this year are back to using physical keys for the function row and have subtle etching on the sides of the touchpad so you know where it begins and ends. There are even a few new, but purely cosmetic premium touches, like a CNC-machined aluminum body. The new XPS machines are also a bit thinner and lighter, and the company promises “the XPS 14 is now more compact than the MacBook Air 13, taking up less desk space while giving you more screen space.”
What do you think so far?
Overall, the theme for next year seems to be “return to form,” and Dell’s even going so far as to replace the Dell logo on the lid of its new XPS laptops with the XPS logo for the first time. 2025 was the first year where I didn’t put a non-gaming Dell laptop on my best laptops of the year list, so I’m excited to see what the company’s reinvestment in its history looks like when it comes out.
New Dell XPS 14 (left) and Dell XPS 16 (right)
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
Dell’s new XPS 14 and XPS 16 will launch with limited configurations starting Jan. 6, while an XPS 13 that’s thinner than 13mm is set for sometime later this year. Launch configurations will have options for both LCD and OLED screens, although there are no builds with discrete graphics cards included at the moment.
Pricing for the XPS 14 will begin at $1,650, while the XPS 16 will start at $1,850.
