Dell Pro Max 18 Plus review: 18-inch workstation powered by USB-C

[Redaktion]

Like the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus, the Dell Pro Max 18 Plus is packed full of unique features and some of the fast mobile processors from Intel and Nvidia. The lack of display options, however, is a notable sticking point.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Pro-Max-18-Plus-review-18-inch-workstation-powered-by-USB-C.1163836.0.html

[Eric]

CCT: 2584 K

Are we sure about the color temperature of the screen? It is warmer than an incandescent bulb.

[M2025]

"The three internal fans are almost always active and so the system is never truly silent..."

Oh well, do not go DELL. Sorry, but for 6000 I want to see something else!

[Eric]

"The three internal fans are almost always active and so the system is never truly silent..."

Oh well, do not go DELL. Sorry, but for 6000 I want to see something else!

For $6000, I would build a desktop PC and buy a trolley to carry it everywhere. 🤣

[Dave10]

@M2025

HP: "Take my beer. My ZBook Fury is 8000 USD"  \(> w <)/

[RobertJasiek]

Loud under GPU load, tiny arrow keys, fused keys and power button in the keyboard (if the keyboard fails, even powering on can fail) are unacceptable at any price.

[trashly slow display]

120 Hz

Nonetheless, features like HDR support and response times can't hold a candle to current OLED offerings.

Indeed, with pixel response times of 39.9 ms and 29.4 ms, this really is a 1/0.0339 = 29 Hz and 1/0.0294 = 34 Hz display. Unbelievable what trash DELL offers for 6000 bucks.

[Phil995511]

- The selling price is outrageous.

- The proprietary CAMM2 RAM on this machine disqualifies it. I will never buy a machine equipped with proprietary RAM !!

- There are no options with AMD CPUs (I no longer buy Intel).

- 17-inch laptops died a long time ago, people don't want them and now Dell is releasing 18-inch models !?

[not proprietary]

- The proprietary CAMM2 RAM on this machine disqualifies it. I will never buy a machine equipped with proprietary RAM !!
[..]

While Dell were the first, I don't think CAMM2 is proprietary (it's a standard that supports higher MT/s), but if 6400 MT/s is all that this laptop provides and CAMM2 RAM is rare, maybe they shouldn't have used it?

Even in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAMM_(memory_module):

10 "Dell's DDR5 CAMM Appears in More Detail, Comes in Several Shapes, Won't be Proprietary". TechPowerUp. April 26, 2022. Retrieved August 19, 2024.

[..]
- 17-inch laptops died a long time ago, people don't want them and now Dell is releasing 18-inch models !?

They probably see some market there, but yes, laptop is for portability and who wants to carry this 18", 7.95 pounds + 1.58 pounds (power supply), those things kinda exclude themself. There always will be people that buy this instead of getting a desktop PC for a fraction of the price (with the same amount of RAM) in the hope that one time they would need the portability, which won't come.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAMM_(memory_module):

Compared to SO-DIMM, CAMM provides lower thickness, enables faster speeds above 6400 MT/s (hence higher bandwidth), [..]

Except Dell fails and still offers only DDR5-6400 and not faster (128 GB RAM would kinda profit from having, say, 8000 MT/s (AMD Strix Point/Halo) or 9600 MT/s (Apple M5)). With 128 GB RAM Dell should have just switched at least to LPDDR5X-8000 (yes, soldered, but it's 128 GB so it fine).

No AMD is gg indeed.

[Phil995511]

@ not proprietary

While Dell were the first, I don't think CAMM2 is proprietary (it's a standard that supports higher MT/s), but if 6400 MT/s is all that this laptop provides and CAMM2 RAM is rare, maybe they shouldn't have used it?

"Initially a Dell proprietary design"

"Dell's investment and willingness to share their design royalty-free with the JEDEC standards body is a testament to their commitment to standardisation"

Reference Kingston memory.

There appears to have been a change of strategy along the way.

In any case, the rarity of this type of memory must make it more expensive...

You're certainly right about the bandwidth. Compared to the other manufacturers you mentioned, Dell doesn't measure up.

They probably see some market there

Yes, we suspected as much.

As for this machine, it will almost certainly be a commercial failure.

[eastcoastpete]

Certainly an overall capable mobile workstation (at that price point and with those specs, I wouldn't call it a laptop anymore). @Allen: Is that Low Power CAMM ECC, and if not, is that available?  Some engineering applications require ECC RAM and VRAM, or they will refuse to load or run.
Beyond that: it really is a shame that Dell won't sell this with a 4K OLED or mini QLED Display; otherwise, it would make for a great mobile video editing PC.  Without a display that is HDR capable, can be fully calibrated and is able to cover Adobe RGB in full, one would still need an external monitor to edit videos, which defeats the idea of having a portable editing station. 
Lastly, the cooling solution (fans, air flow) could (and for that money really should) be better.  While Arrow Lakes tend to run a bit warm, going pretty consistently above 100 °C is a bit much even for an AL.  The fact that the SSD was also getting too hot indicates that the cooling wasn't designed (or tested in the prototype stage) to be fully up to the task.  And for that kind of money, one would expect it to be. 
Those deficiencies really are too bad, because Dell got so close, but it's still no cigar.

["Pro" but no ECC RAM?]

Is that Low Power CAMM ECC, and if not, is that available?

Asking the real question. Even my ASUS B650 AM5 has ECC UDIMMs confirmed working with error correction reporting tested by tightening the timings and running stress-ng' memory stresstest. (the memory controller supports ECC on most AMD AM5 CPUs, but only ASUS supports ECC officially on their motherboards (obv. this is mobile INTEL platform, so idk))