Dell’s business laptops and desktops expand to home with clever designs

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.

Dell’s new “Ultra” models of its OptiPlex turn the desktop PCs into smartly designed, upgradeable all-in-ones with a proprietary module that slips into a monitor stand or attaches to the back of the display for wall and arm mounts. They don’t work with all Dell monitors, but are compatible with specific models of the UltraSharps (including the new Ultrasharp monitors announced at CES this year) up to 40 inches, P and E series models.

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There are two models: the 3090 Ultra and 7090 Ultra. The 3090 is a lower-end configuration with an 11th-gen Core i3 and 4GB RAM, intended to hit an education-friendly starting price of $659 compared to the 7090’s start at $769. The 7090 can be configured with up to a Core i7-1185G7 (and a vPro secure chipset), up to 64GB memory and a 1TB SSD (or 2TB HDD), including self-encrypting SSD. 

They’re both available this month.

On the laptop side, Dell’s expanding its offerings with new models in the Latitude 9000 and 5000 series (the 9420 and 5420) and the Precision 3560 mobile workstation. In addition to the usual processor and configuration refreshes, this year’s models debut Dell’s SafeShutter webcam, which opens and closes the webcam-blocker automatically when you launch or exit a relevant application. There’s also a “camera mute” button on the keyboard.

The Latitude 9420, which comes in both a traditional clamshell and two-in-one design, continues Dell’s move to 16:10 aspect ratio screens in its notebooks, which allows manufacturers to eke out a hair more screen area over 16:9. The 9420 will also be configurable with 5G.

• Latitude 9000 series, starting price TBD, available in March 
• Latitude 5000 series, starting price TBD, available in January
• Latitude 7000 series, starting at $999, available in March
• Precision 3560, starting at $1,189, available in January