I’m going with this Dell and returning my Lenovo Slim 7 Pro. In my previous thread saying I switched to Windows I read that Dells offer great compatibility. I ordered this Dell XPS 13 and plan on going with Pop OS. Thoughts on this? Good choice?
Edit: Apparently it’s certified with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. I assume I should go with This particular Ubuntu version then?
I’ve been using XPS 13 as my “daily driver” for about 4-ish years now (I think the 9300 model came out in late 2019? Maybe 2020. I can’t remeber tbh). It’s been running Debian and I’ve never really had any problems with it. I didn’t order the Developer Model as I wasn’t going to run Ubuntu and I don’t really need Linux preinstalled (and as added bonus, it comes with Windows OEM license, which you can use in your QEMU).
It has a shit battery time, but so does every Linux laptop. I don’t want biometrics on my devices, so I’ve never used the facescanning or figerprint sensors, no idea if they work, I’d assume they do.
I’ve connected it to a USB-C hub with dual 1080p screens, webcam, microphone, external USB etc in the office. Works perfectly. I travel quite a lot, it’s light and easy carry, I bought a small USB-C travel charger. Trackpad palm detection in Linux is bad, so I normally carry a small travel mouse with me and disable the trackpad if I need to do some writing.
It’s got a SD-micro card slot, which is very useful, I can store my disk encryption keys on it and take it with me when I need to leave the laptop in hotel rooms etc.
Never had a problem connecting it to any presentation display at customers. I miss ThinkPad keyboard layout, but it is what it is. Not a dealbreaker.
Overall, it’s served me well over these years - and there’s not much signs of wear and tear on it. Solid build quality.
I got great battery life improvements with TLP.
I also found that AMD laptops do a lot better on idle power draw. Getting 12 hours of video playback out of my Asus Zenbook 14 compared to 10 hours on windows.