Dell is doing something very interesting with their new Pro 3/5/7 laptops, going modular. SemiAccurate has heard this cry before and rarely does it ever pan out for real products.
The new laptops are the Dell Pro line that comes in 3, 5, and 7 versions sporting Intel and AMD CPUs for the moment, presumably Qualcomm and Nvidia following later on. So far this is just a new chassis launch for a new CPU line, nothing to see here right? Well yes unless you take them apart and look at the mobos, there you will see the cool stuff Dell did under the skin.
New Pro board on top, Old Pro on bottom
What you see here is the mobos for the old and new Dell Pro 5 laptop, new on top, old on the bottom. They look like standard laptop boards if you don’t know what you are looking at but the connectors on the bottom left tell a very different story, as does the size of the fan cutout. There are a lot of details here, so lets dive in.
The bridge that makes it all possible
The big bang on these boards is the modularity, a feature made possible by those two connectors on the bottom of the fan cutout. The board on the left is the I/O board and it is common to all flavors of the Pro regardless of CPU type. The connector looks to be a passive item that should likewise be common to all CPU boards.
That brings us to the CPU board itself, either Intel or AMD with Intel being currently available, AMD strongly suggested to be coming in the near future. Given what SemiAccurate knows about Dell, we suspect Qualcomm and Nvidia should follow in due time. The key point here is that the placement of things on the CPU board are common. CPU location for the heat pipe, DRAM/CAMM2, USB, power, and all the rest are in the same place for all boards.
This placement obviously limits some choices for mobo designers but it means that Dell can swap out any CPU board in any chassis for any other CPU board. There is only one physical chassis to design, stock, and make assembly lines for. One set of heat sink/fan combos, one battery type, and so on, the cost savings here are immense, that lost board design flexibility is a rounding error.
The new fan is visibly larger
Then we come to that fan cutout, larger in the new Pros, but also thinner. The larger area allows the same or better cooling capacity with thinner blades meaning the laptop itself can be thinner. Dell says the fans are 32% larger and 16% thinner for a total of 50% greater airflow and laptops as thin as 16.35mm. This number, while not hitting the 16.32mm(1) everyone was hoping for, is 18% less than the last version. Similarly the battery is a high density material that is 10% thinner but has 20% higher capacity. These materials are undoubtedly more expensive but probably worth it.
Replaceable USB ports are a good thing!
Two other bits to mention, first is that LPCAMM2 memory module. It is expensive, hard to find on the open market but since it replaces soldered down DRAM, I will swallow my objections and take the win. Second is the USB-C ports on the far right just below the hinges. Note the screws on several of them, they are replaceable, the older Pro below is not as repairable. Yes we know Lenovo does this too for some models but their MWC showcase was impossible to get information from, a model name and QR codes makes us walk away in frustration. That said Dell did really right here so they get the credit, everyone should do this, it just makes sense. And a tip of the hat for a real RJ-45 port on the I/O board.
In the end Dell really seems to have nailed the modularity bit and it should pay them back handsomely. They need one chassis design, one I/O board, one set of heatsink/fans, and one battery to have a very comprehensive laptop lineup. A few I/O boards for 5G, Wi-Fi variants, Ethernet, and the like will add up to a combinatorial explosion of models for a very low cost. It looks like Dell has done the right engineering thing for the right reasons on the new Pro 3/5/7 laptops.S|A
(1) This is a joke, did you really need us to say it explicitly?
Charlie Demerjian
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