This is from 2019, does not appear useful at all.
I didn't see any other alternatives last year vs what he's discussing. I would love to hear if there are new competitive linux-friendly laptops out there now
Anyway, as someone without even the remotest business or personal connections to China, if someone is spying on me I hope it's them, rather than someone who can actually impact my life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfish
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9072424 ("Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers")
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9074110 ("Extracting the SuperFish certificate")
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9524536 ("Class action lawsuit filed against Lenovo over Superfish")
etc.
Incidentally, the OP is troll account with -3 Karma so I think he was just trolling anyway, I didn't notice that when I first replied.
I have a 2020 model, and would concur with this post - good screen, build, thermals, lots of ram, no having to fight with drivers. Even firmware updates "just work" (apply as snaps).
I did find this review more helpful when making the purchase decision - https://www.engineering.com/story/dell-precision-5550-review...
I was amazed at how well they kept up, and even how they were faster than my 2018-2019 work laptop (an 8th gen i5u-something) when comparing Rust build times.
Then I got a new one with a Zen 3 (5650u) in December. Man, it feels sooo smooth and snappy when compared to the older computers. And I'm running Linux/i3, so nothing that requires fancy graphics or anything. What's shocking, is that the other computers never felt slow, laggy or struggling.
However, this laptop is an absolute steaming PoS on multiple other aspects (chief amongst which a broken BIOS and absurdly bad screen), so I would absolutely not recommend it.
> However, this laptop is an absolute steaming PoS on multiple other aspects (chief amongst which a broken BIOS and absurdly bad screen), so I would absolutely not recommend it.
I think you meant to argue that new hardware can be good, but that's really not the conclusion I walked away with.
This particular new laptop is a "business" series, so it tries to look fancy, but it's just cheap crap sold at a high markup. I have older models at work, and they have all failed in various ways. They're barely moved outside the office, too, so it's not like I beat on them all day every day. It's a line I would never recommend to anyone under any circumstance, be it new or old. But it is fast.
My general opinion, though, is that instead of buying cheap models often, it's usually much better to buy nicer, "higher-end" models less often, at least as far as perception is concerned, especially if you don't have anything (new) to compare it to. This can afford better "peripherals", such as a screen, keyboard, silence, etc., which cheaper models tend to never have.