Dell Launches Linux-Loaded Precision 3540 Laptop Starting At ~$700 USD

[caligula]

I paid around 1000€ for a 13.3" FullHD IPS Clevo W230SS with SSD, 8 GiB RAM. i7 47XXMQ and NVIDIA 860M. 4 years ago.
Can't they do the same thing for 700€ 4 years later?

If you're happy with Intel iGPU, you can indeed find 1080p/SSD/8GB laptops for 700 euros. I don't know how the shipping and taxes work though. Unless you want an ultrabook, according to this site, the prices start from 269 euros: https://geizhals.de/?cat=nb&xf=11609...=p#productlist

[Jabberwocky]

I wish they could launch an XPS with AMD APUs. I know, pipe dream, but in the meantime I'm stuck with HP Elitebook 755/745/725 series.

+1 I have a Dell Latitude 5495 w/ Ryzen 2500U Vega 8, 1920x1080 IPS screen, 8GB RAM, and 250GB NVMe drive. Got it for ~$950 USD in South Africa (Tax, customs, and shipping incl). Works great except for trackpad that needs custom kernel module for now https://github.com/Syniurge/i2c-amd-mp2/issues/8 Supplier was kind enough to upgrade the RAM to 16GB for ~$90 USD. Battery life is great, 4-6 hours depending on workload. My typical power draw is 16-22W.

I would not mind an XPS or HP Envy with the same APU as my current laptop, but I could not get my hands on one (where I live).

[tuxd3v]

I wish they could launch an XPS with AMD APUs. I know, pipe dream, but in the meantime I'm stuck with HP Elitebook 755/745/725 series.

Well, not only you..
Tones more like you( me included.. ).

AMD APUs have the best balance between Power Consumption/Processing Power/Embedded Graphics/OpenCL Compute, in the entire market..
Its like "60 oz of CPU plus 40 oz of Graphics", nice!

Even Certified by Canonical, they can put there "10 Xeons", and keep it for themselves..

[r1348]

I've exclusively used Dell and Thinkpads for the most part but I scored an HP Elitebook 725 G4 on eBay recently because (at the time anyways) Lenovo only gave you one (single-channel) RAM/DIMM slot in their AMD-powered Thinkpads... Not bad HP! Unlike my (Intel-packing) Thinkpad X280 there's a physical Ethernet port (why was this removed??), dual-channel memory, and it's still small yet serviceable with basic hand tools. Like Lenovo, HP provides a hardware service manual as well. It got me under the hood easily to upgrade the NVMe and add in a "WWAN" 4G LTE card I still haven't actually tried

I own a 755 G2, had to tweak it a bit (replaced HDD with SDD, wifi card was Broadcom, put in an Atheros one, added 1 extra DIMM to have 16GB of RAM...) but it has been my main laptop for a good 5 years now. Unfortunately Kaveri APU support on linux is a bit iffy, with it being stuck with the older radeon driver. If I force amdgpu, GDM never starts.
I'm now eyeing a 755 G5, it has a nice Raven Ridge APU, Intel wifi chipset and 512GB of NVMe SSD. Still 8GB of RAM but one free DIMM slot. Unless there's some sudden release of newer AMD APU laptops in the premium "ultrabook" category, I'm going for that one. It's 1000€ but I plan to use it for at least 5 years.

[r1348]

+1 I have a Dell Latitude 5495 w/ Ryzen 2500U Vega 8, 1920x1080 IPS screen, 8GB RAM, and 250GB NVMe drive. Got it for ~$950 USD in South Africa (Tax, customs, and shipping incl). Works great except for trackpad that needs custom kernel module for now https://github.com/Syniurge/i2c-amd-mp2/issues/8 Supplier was kind enough to upgrade the RAM to 16GB for ~$90 USD. Battery life is great, 4-6 hours depending on workload. My typical power draw is 16-22W.

I would not mind an XPS or HP Envy with the same APU as my current laptop, but I could not get my hands on one (where I live).

That's a nice machine but I'm still going to get an Elitebook 755 G5, it has a 2700U APU and 512GB NVMe drive, and a 15" screen which I personally prefer. Also, the screen overally quality seems to be better in the HP one: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-L....415887.0.html

[tuxd3v]

They sucked due to the wrong tech. SoC technology means we have far more capacity potential in a low cost motherboard. This is one reason why I would love to see a high performance ARM based machine to replace the high cost X 86 processors. Put together a motherboard with RAM for $100 add a $100 LCD and you have $200 left over for the case and profit. Yeah I know simplified but £200 is about $400 dollars. If you did Intel for the same performance you would be talking $550 to $600.

That would indeed be a good choice for a Laptop, with a powerful ARM cpu!

Sadly that doesn't exist..
In the meantime, a AMD apu is more real, but even then, ...seems almost a pipe dream..

[moriel5]

Looking at the bare value only, I'd value this laptop at 450$ at most, definitely not 700$.
You can get Dell Vostros for cheaper, and with pretty much the same specs (no dedicated touchpad buttons, for example).

As for GPU compatibility, I'd probably say that there are two motherboard models, one for NVidia and one for AMD (this is based upon leaked laptop motherboard schematics for different models of different companies that I had seen in the past).

[speculatrix]

I'm hoping that the PineBookPro will come on sale soon, and be the hoped-for bargain price of under $250 with 1080p IPS display.

At least this precision latop has three proper mouse buttons unlike the dell XPS. And since it doesn't try and be so slim, there's a network socket (matters to me, I work places where wifi isn't allowed, and cabled network is the only choice). Hopefully, thermal throttling won't be such as issue as the chassis isn't stupidly thin.

[ecly]

Looking at the bare value only, I'd value this laptop at 450$ at most, definitely not 700$.
You can get Dell Vostros for cheaper, and with pretty much the same specs (no dedicated touchpad buttons, for example).

As for GPU compatibility, I'd probably say that there are two motherboard models, one for NVidia and one for AMD (this is based upon leaked laptop motherboard schematics for different models of different companies that I had seen in the past).

The CPU alone is worth $297.00, so $450 seems a bit low for the while laptop : https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...-4-10-ghz.html

[bobbie424242]

Come on people !

It is the Precision line, the flagship workstation line of laptops from Dell.
These laptops are designed to be sturdy, modular, repairable and come with 3 year on-site warranty by default (in EU).
It is not your el cheapo Chromebook, netbook nor consumer hardware.
To lower the price you can order with with just a HDD and add a SSD yourself.
You can as well order it with the lowest RAM as possible and add RAM.

So stop comparing apples to oranges. If you really want to compare, compare them to Lenovo Thinpad P models and HP ZBook.