Dell’s PC Reset Unveiled at CES 2026 - Six Five Connected with Diana Blass

AI won’t restart the PC market on its own. Better design & experiences will.
‍

On this episode of Six Five Connected, host Diana Blass is joined by Dell Technologies leaders and Six Five analysts to examine what Dell’s CES 2026 announcements signal for the next phase of PC growth. Bringing together perspectives from Jeff Clarke, Kevin Terwilliger, Amanda McKnight, Eduardo Goyanes, Mike Turner, and Travis North of Dell Technologies, alongside industry analysis from Ryan Shrout.

After a stalled upgrade cycle, the focus shifts to what actually brings buyers back in 2026: longer battery life, quieter systems, better thermals, sharper displays, and more thoughtful design—not AI positioning alone.

With the return of XPS, a refreshed Alienware lineup, desk-side AI systems, and next-gen displays, Dell is signaling a reset around the user experience—with enterprise adoption following where expectations lead.
‍

Key Takeaways Include:

🔹Experience First: PC growth in 2026 will be driven by fundamentals, not AI hype. Consumers are prioritizing real improvements in battery life, noise, thermals, and design over abstract AI promises.

🔹Renewed Consumer Focus: The return of XPS serves as a design and performance anchor, emphasizing premium experiences without compromising portability or efficiency.

🔹Challenges with Power and Cooling: Real constraints remain for AI PCs. Until those challenges are addressed, AI alone will not redefine the PC experience.

🔹Growth from Gaming: Alienware’s expansion into OLED displays, higher refresh rates, and broader price points reflects continued market momentum.

🔹Productivity Multipliers: Large-format, ultra-wide, and QD-OLED monitors are redefining how users work and create, and Dell Pro Precision platforms demonstrate how liquid-cooled systems can quietly support large AI models.

‍

Learn more at Dell.

And subscribe to our YouTube channel, so you never miss an episode.
‍

Listen to the audio here:

Disclaimer: Six Five Connected is for information and entertainment purposes only. Over the course of this webcast, we may talk about companies that are publicly traded, and we may even reference that fact and their equity share price, but please do not take anything that we say as a recommendation about what you should do with your investment dollars. We are not investment advisors, and we ask that you do not treat us as such.

‍

Diana Blass:

For Dell, CES 2026 isn’t just about new devices. It’s about a comeback.

Jeff Clarke:

We’re going to retire the name XPS. Today, we’re announcing a simplified portfolio that unifies our PC brand under the Dell name. I’m here to tell you it’s back.

Diana Blass:

A bold move aimed at getting consumers excited about PCs again, a segment that slowed after a tough 2025, as buyers held off on upgrades caught between tariffs, supply chain pressures, and even… this unmet promise of AI and the expectation of AI driving end user demand.

Kevin Terwilliger:

We’ve been more focused in premium, but you’re going to see us bring products into more accessible price points.

Diana Blass:

The return of XPS is Dell’s way of refocusing on the consumer, a buyer the company believes holds the key to the next wave of PC growth. Because when consumers start upgrading again, the expectations they set around battery life, performance, and experience don’t stop at home. They quickly become the standard in the workplace too.

Jeff Clarke:

So starting in January, XPS will feature our best devices ever.

Amanda McKnight:

You’re going to get 27 hours battery life with the 2K LCD. We brought the mechanical function keys back, so no more touch function row.

Diana Blass:

And XPS is just the beginning. Let’s head to Ryan Strout, who is on the show floor, getting a look at all the demos.

Ryan Shrout:

Hi, Diana. At CES for Dell, it’s all about innovation and scale. We’re here today to look at new AI-ready PCs, great new gaming options, and massive new displays. Let’s go take a look. One of the flagship kind of premium products that we saw is the new XPS 14 and XPS 16.

Kevin Terwilliger:

Yeah, so the comeback story of XPS, they’re there to deliver ultra portability, but in this way that it’s balanced with just right performance.

Amanda McKnight:

So we’re offering the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors. Memory is fully scalable, 16 up to 64 gigs, and then up to 4 terabytes on the SSD as well.

Kevin Terwilliger:

We actually enabled the XPS 14 to be a smaller footprint than the MacBook Air 13.

Amanda McKnight:

The 14-inch is right at 3 pounds, and then the 16-inch is right at 3.6 pounds, and they’re both a little more than 14 millimeters thin.

Kevin Terwilliger:

Think of that. More display for less footprint.

Ryan Shrout:

And there were two key things that stood out there. One of them is on the display technology. One of them is new partner in your Area 51 side. I wonder if you can tell me some more about that.

Kevin Terwilliger:

Some big announcements. So we’re bringing OLED into our notebook portfolio.

Eduardo Goyanes:

We’re so excited about it because it’s a fast display, 15 times faster than our previous LCD on a laptop. We also brought a brand new anti-glare technology. In the past, one of the pain points of OLED has been that reflective quality that it has. We’ve taken care of that with the anti-glare film, and it sits on top of this very incredibly built laptop. It’s so well built that this lid itself, 20,000 times you could open it and close it, and it’s got the deepest blacks on any laptop we’ve ever had.

Kevin Terwilliger:

And then you alluded to, we’re also enhancing our Area 51 desktop as well.

Jeff Clarke:

It’s an 80 liter full tower chassis designed for enthusiasts who demand unwavering performance and the ability to make serious upgrades for years to come, with ATX compatibility.

Eduardo Goyanes:

In November of 25, we debuted the AMD Ryzen 7 and 9 processors on the Area 51. In 2026, we’ll continue that cadence with new CPUs from AMD as well.

Mike Turner:

Voila. It’s one big piece of glass. Now, we got to see this massive new monitor.

Kevin Terwilliger:

Once you see him, you’re gonna have display envy.

Mike Turner:

I’ve got this here mounted on an arm. It’s only 13 kilos.

Kevin Terwilliger:

As we were going out and engaging with our customers, there were a couple of specific use cases around engineering, trading, where they were just trying to engage with so much data, they were doing it with multiple different displays. That really inspired us to go bring this first 52-inch ultra-wide curve monitor for these use cases, where they really value having full access to all that data and the crispness of that data at 6K.

Diana Blass:

Now, even though AI wasn’t front and center in every announcement here, behind the scenes, it remains a powerful driver of innovation. Bigger GPUs, more performance, more power, all pushing what’s possible at the desktop. This shift towards local AI unlocks faster insights and greater autonomy. It also introduces new challenges, though, around power, heat, and scalability. Ryan got a look at how Dell is addressing those challenges head-on, extending the Dell Pro Precision platform with liquid-cooled designs built to support the next generation of high-performance GPUs.

Travis North:

The intention of this product is basically plug and play. It is completely liquid cooled. All those tubes are basically been engineered to manage pressure drop. This pressure drop from a system allows us to be completely closed loop. There’s no service. You don’t have to do anything with it. Inside the system, it uses like a mixture of water and EG35, so it has a very low freeze point, so you can ship it on airplane, boat, wherever you want. And so it gives us that capability to really drop it off. It’s a plug and play solution. One of the other core features is the thermal interface material is a new material that we’re bringing to market. It’s called Element 49. It’s a mixture of gallium, indium, and a third component, which is a secret component. And it really gives it a high thermal conductivity because what you find is cooling these components, we have optimized almost everything. Now it’s really at that interface between the silicon and the cold plate is really driving where all the future innovation is going to be.

Diana Blass:

Taken together, Dell’s CES announcements point to a simple truth. PC growth starts with the consumer. And what consumers want right now is real-world value. Longer battery life, smarter design, and better experiences. At Dell’s CES Showcase, we saw all that in action. So I hope you feel connected to the news from CES. Till next time, I’m Diana Blass.

‍

‍