This release is everything I have been waiting for to make the switch from Macbook to Thinkpad + Linux.
I plan to max out everything except the SSD space I don't need and I can be confident I have a computer that won't be obsolete in a few years.
Before with the 10th gen Intel CPUs and 16GB RAM max, it just wasn't a future-proof enough machine
I have a pre-M1 2020 Air and while the keyboard, trackpad, and screen are great, the upgrade to Big Sur has been such a pain and left a bad taste in my mouth, waiting on XCode updates just to be able to compile and install things. I can't wait to have native Docker either.
Have you seen xps 15 7590? It's almost slightly larger at 15" and Intel 9th gen. Otherwise you can max it out pretty much to the same specs. The only other major difference is mobile nvidia rather than just Intel. But it's been out for quite a while and you can even catch some outlet offers.
yes - personally I just don't want a 15". I would probably get a ThinkPad Nano to size down to 13" if I could get more RAM in it.
and I'm more comfortable with the quality reputation of ThinkPads over the Dell XPS. I've just heard more anecdotes about quality control and overheating issues with the XPS line.
16GB RAM limit on a few years old portable machine is came from LPDDR3's max capacity. Intel CPU only supports LPDDR3 as low power memory until Ice Lake supports LPDDR4. Apple previously adopted LPDDR3 for MBP15 but they finally changed to DDR4 to increase capacity with sacrifying battery life a bit.
Ah you might be right I'm probably thinking of the current gen Nano I was looking at. Either way, the shitty GPU you mentioned was definitely a reason to wait as well.
I plan to max out everything except the SSD space I don't need and I can be confident I have a computer that won't be obsolete in a few years.
Before with the 10th gen Intel CPUs and 16GB RAM max, it just wasn't a future-proof enough machine
I have a pre-M1 2020 Air and while the keyboard, trackpad, and screen are great, the upgrade to Big Sur has been such a pain and left a bad taste in my mouth, waiting on XCode updates just to be able to compile and install things. I can't wait to have native Docker either.