Apple’s new affordable MacBook should have the Windows world rethinking things.
The president applauded Michael and Susan Dell for their $6.25 billion contribution that the White House says will help fund tax-advantaged savings accounts for children. The contribution is set to fund an extra $250 in the first 25 million accounts for children in ZIP codes with median incomes under $150,000.
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Dell reversed course on its confusing naming scheme from 2025, but some of it’s intact — with new tweaks. The returning XPS laptops are still joined by entry-level vanilla “Dell” models. Enterprise-focused Dell Pro laptops are now topped by Dell Pro Precision models instead of the Apple-y sounding Pro Max.
Perfect? No. Better? Much.
Remember when Dell made the baffling decision last January to ditch its awesome XPS brand for the utterly milquetoast “Dell Pro” and “Dell Pro Max” instead? After just one year, VideoCardz’ sources report, XPS laptops are coming back. Dell will reportedly announce them at CES 2026 next week.
I asked Jeff Clarke how Dell is navigating the ongoing memory shortage and he said the company is, “Advocating that we should get the parts we asked for.”
Sure.
What if the three companies that make RAM don’t play ball, or alter their deals? Micron is already abandoning consumers and SK Hynix is sold out into the new year.
Along with pro-AI, pro-pollution, and pro-surveillance plans, the spending bill signed in July introduced investment accounts for children with $1,000 contributed for US citizens born from 2025 through 2028. Today, Michael and Susan Dell announced they would also contribute:
Through our charitable funds, we are thrilled to be contributing $6.25 billion to seed 25 million additional accounts with $250 each. These deposits will reach the accounts of most children age 10 and under who were born prior to the qualifying date for the federal newborn contribution. Children older than 10 may benefit, too, if funds remain available after initial sign-ups.
There was some concern that Trump’s tariffs would impact the attractive price that Dell announced for its Alienware 27 280Hz QD-OLED gaming monitor earlier this year, but it’s now launched unscathed. A smaller 25-inch 320Hz monitor is also available for $249 if you don’t mind switching the OLED panel for an IPS display.
Dell is putting Qualcomm Cloud AI 100 chips into its high-end Pro Max Plus laptops, capable of up to 350 TOPS. That’s about nine times more TOPS than a consumer-grade Copilot Plus PC, reserved for professionals who need to run hefty AI models locally.
There’s no pricing, availability, or full configuration specs yet, but they’ll have Intel Arrow Lake CPUs, up to 256GB of RAM, and likely very lofty prices.
4
Verge Score
A capable Lunar Lake chipset and great screen would have made this a killer laptop, if it weren’t for several unforced errors on Dell’s part.
Dell just killed off XPS, but its new “Pro” laptops pull a neat trick: most USB-C ports and batteries are now officially user-replaceable.
“This is the first time that we’ve had a screwed-on, non-soldered modular USB-C port,” Dell PM Katie Green tells us. She says Dell also plans to bring this to consumers “when it makes sense.” No word on Framework-like modularity yet.
*While streaming Netflix at 1080p with an FHD+ screen at just 150 nits of brightness.
Still, that’s eight hours more than its last-gen laptop in the same test, even with the same battery size and display. The only thing on the spec sheet that’s changed is the processor — to Intel Lunar Lake.
It now offers a five-year warranty on Intel’s problematic 13th and 14th Gen CPUs, just like its closest competitors.
We also got a vague new statement from Dell/Alienware that suggests it might extend its own parts warranty, but doesn’t promise to do so.
The company’s restructure mostly affects sales and managerial staff. Some outlets have reported, based on sources, that the layoffs will cut more than 10,000 jobs, but an analyst told SiliconAngle a number that high seems unlikely.
Dell isn’t the only tech company handing out pink-slips; Intel announced last week it’s laying off over 15,000 employees.
The new 14-inch XPS has the redesigned chassis, touchbar, and invisible trackpad of the XPS 13 Plus, but better thermals and twice the battery life. And yet.
Dell has confirmed to The Verge that its new Arm-powered XPS 13 features a tandem pOLED display. It’s the first to market with such a display in a laptop, after Apple introduced tandem OLED on its latest iPad Pro. Dell’s new XPS 13 is part of a collection of Copilot Plus PCs that are launching on June 18th with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite processors inside.
