4050-4060

If you don't need graphics support, you can just run a Linux VM on top of macOS.

And yes, you can run x86 binaries on an ARM64 Linux VM, providing the host is a Mac, as Apple provides Rosetta 2 interface for Linux VMs. When you execute an x86 or x86_64 executable, it gets parsed by the kernel, then the text section being sent to Rosetta 2 for translation, the translated text section is then loaded by the kernel and gets executed. The Linux kernel is smart enough to also handle dynamically generated code with Rosetta 2, so you can run x86 versions of JS, C#, Java, and other VM-based languages too.

Rosetta 2 and M-chips are an incredible combo. You will be amazed by the efficiency of this binary translation system.

HP Zbook Ultra G1a is a quiet beast. Switched from a Lenovo Carbon X1 gen10 and I only hear the fans when I'm compiling some big project, otherwise nothing. It has a unified memory architecture, similar to to Macs. I'm running Debian 13 on it, and I can run ollama with RoCM in a docker/podman container.

(webcam doesn't work yet with most Linux distros, it will be supported in mainline Linux 6.18.. everything else works out of the box, including fingerprint reader, amd gpu driver, etc.. webcam is not a deal breaker for me.. if it is for someone, then Ubuntu with OEM kernel supports it)

Check Asahi Linux compatibility list

Intel Lunar Lake laptops.

Just run VMWare Fusion on your MBP. It's free.

Seriously, you're not going to find anything comparable to Apple silicon, as painful as that is to say.

Also, curious what instability you've seen on MacOS? Been running Beta for months now and only ever seen minor visual quirks, everything else has been rock solid.

No this is most likely usb c bios .... look for 256 chip thats the main bios

I’m gonna say not right one..

Because i bricked the bios, i need to flash with CH341A programmer.

Lenovo X1 Extreme and Lenovo P1 are both pretty similar

but you never get RTX 2070 / 2080 in XPS or P1 :)

btw here is the review including some display measurements https://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-GS65-Stealth-9SG-i7-9750H-RTX-2080-Max-Q-Laptop-Review.423050.0.html

I dont know much about it yet, let me see what my contact at Razer will tell me and what I can google. Ill let you know.

Razer Blade stealth is decent. Or a Balde in general.

MSI GS65 / P65

Already available with 9th gen intel and much more powerful gpus for the same price,

Pros: better cooling/performance, 240hz display, ethernet port

Cons: less solid chassis

look at GS65 9SF

https://www.pcworld.com/video/95448/lenovos-thinkpad-x1-extreme-gets-gtx-1650-and-core-i9

The Lenovo X1 Extreme Gen 2 is coming out soon and its the XPS 15 7590 equivalent. This is a comparison video between X1Gen1 and 9570 I thought was pretty useful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6yjORBjCvg

It would have helped if you took a picture with the marking oriented correctly, but anyway. The chip is the MP8690 which is obsolete (and can’t find a datasheet for it). Keep in mind that just replacing it will likely not fix the issue. It seems like there was a power surge. Also, you will have surely trouble desoldering it because it looks pike the pcb is badly damaged. Depending on your soldering skills, this may be impossible to perfectly doable. You need to remove the chip, fix the pcb, diagnose the issue and then replace it once the issue is fixed

It looks like a step-down converter by Monolithic Power, MP86903.

photo

https://media.monolithicpower.com/cms_document/product_literature/SelectorGuide_Q2_2018.pdf (page 4)

There is a pinout for the MP86901A/B/C on page 27:

https://edit.wpgdadawant.com/uploads/news_file/blog/2021/3903/tech_files/sv-1619175790.pdf

the marking is still visible and readable.

It's a Power MOSFET, but by the looks of the picture it's burnt through the layers of the board.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually welded itself to the board.

Even if you could get it unsoldered, replacing it isn't going to fix it because the board is too far gone.

I Google it it's available on Amazon

Framework laptop. Just wish they sold a 2-in-1 version.

New MacBook Pro

The new thinkpad z series machines look cool and seem more geared to take-on the xps 13. They're also packing AMD's new Ryzen 6 processors which seems pretty cool. But I guess it's best to wait for reviews to come out for these ones.

I’ve been seriously considering an HP envy 15. Very much on the fence though

Dell latitude

Doesn't have the Glitz of an XPS but something like a 7320 is comparable to an XPS 9305 with a better keyboard

I agree with you XPS16 is a joke in front of XPS17

I also own a XPS17 9710 with 32GB RAM and RTX3060 but don't see any imminent urge to upgrade, if anything I'd take a XPS17 9730 with RTX4080 (roughly double the performance of the 70W RTX3060)

the new keyboard design with flat keys is the real bummer for me, I bought a similar keyboard from rapoo a few years ago and know it doesn't work well

9730, give yourself a couple more years, then wait it out.

Framework 16 is coming out soon.

you can take the current xps 17 or the lenovo thinkpad p1 or the dell precision 5680

For basic tasks like web browsing or document editing, the Ryzen 3 7320U is AMD's direct competitor. If extreme low power is critical (e.g., fanless tablets), the N150 has no identical AMD counterpart yet.

The Twin Lake N150 is Intel's latest Atom line of CPUs, from the current Gracemont microarchitecture.

AMD's equivalent competitor was the Geode LX architecture, which they end development in 2009, abandoned altogether 2016.

In 2023 AMD "pitched" an economy/budget version of the FP7 Phoenix 7440U. Unfortunately akin to the 7440U itself, there was no PC industry interest.

That would be things in the Athlon family. The R3 7320U is about as low-end as it gets for AMD's recent lineup, though that's closer to an N300 competitor.

Short answer = yes and no

The N150 fills a unique niche. While there are AMD processors on the mobile end of things that compare or beat the N150 with raw power/core/threads, at this price point, Intel's N150 has a lock on video processing/transcoding. Just about any modern processor is as good or better than an N150 in non-video processing tasks, including casual gaming.

The Alder Lake Intel CPU line (esp the N95, N97, N100, and N150) is a sweet spot for specific video processing tasks. Ex: an N150 can handle multiple 4k to 1080p transcode streams as a media server, which even high end AMD chips can struggle to do without a discreet GPU.

AMD Ryzen U processors are more generally capable of other tasks.

AMD does have equivalents. Both in target market and in TDP, but they dont overlap very well.

The AMD 3050e (2c/4t Zen1) is 6w and has similar performance integrated graphics (worse media decode) but much slower CPU performance.

The Athlon Gold 7220u is very similar in terms of both CPU performance and GPU performance but doesn't scale down to 6w.

There are 5000u series (Zen 2 and 3) that vastly outperform the N150 but are somewhat more expensive and again don't scale to 6w.

I made a new comparison and added two XPS 13 models and de MacBook Pro 16: https://imgur.com/5ZY3duK

Can you make one compared the MacBook Pro 16?

Thank you for doing this in metric. Down with the garbo imperial system!

FYI the XPS 13 is almost exactly 200x300mm.

I'm mainly thinking about how the 9700 is 2.5kg.

My last laptop that weighed that much was an Inspiron and compared to my current XPS (2kg) the difference might not be huge but it feels when you use the laptop on your lap.

Although, what else was I expecting from a bigger laptop hah...at least I hope it performs well.

This is very helpful, thank you!