I have a Dell Precision m6800, and i love it. however, its seriously showing its age. compatible spare parts are getting harder to find and more expensive. its finally time to retire my M6800.
ive been looking around online, and i cannot seem to find any laptop that is an actual upgrade from the m6800. literally every single laptop ive seen on the market is objectively a downgrade from it. losing a feature that i regularly use, thus making my workflow more difficult, is objectively a downgrade. i want an upgrade.
bare minimums; i will not consider any laptop that is missing any of these, as it would be a downgrade from the precision m6800:
replaceable sata optical drive
LTE(A) cellular modem w sim card slot
docking support
Full size sdcard slot
AP mode wlan
bluetooth
trackpoint (aka nipple mouse)
full keyboard
socketed, replaceable CPU (or apu)
repair manual
RJ-45 ethernet
full IOMMU support
3.5mm audio jack(s)
multiple internal storage slots (sata or nvme)
no hybrid CPUs of any kind (not willing to deal with e-p core nonsense)
would be nice; things i can live without, but i would really like a potential new laptop to have:
10gb/s (or faster) RJ45 ethernet
NVMe
NR cellular
USB-C
TRRS
SmartCard reader
fingerprint sensor
802.11ad
im hoping somebody here is aware of a laptop model that would actually count as an upgrade from the m6800. i care about features, computational horsepower is not a concern.
Universal to the big brands: REALLY CRAPPY (yes, also dell laptops) (or dangerous) software preinstalled. Install your own OS before use!
HP - Crap keyboards
Dell - Meh keyboards, THE MOST INSANE GARBAGE RESTRICTIONS ON WHAT RAM YOU CAN INSTALL (this caught me off-guard. shitty ass "no, you can not install identically specked RAM so have 2 yellow 4 white blinks F YOU! NO BOOT FOR YOU )
Lenovo - Buy used or do not buy at all
Acer, Asus, Gigabyte, Msi - I wouldnāt, but can only be better than the above 3 shit-tier companies
Yes. Current state of technology is trash tier.
What I would consider (no hands on experience, I have just been burned by the ādefault brandsā too many times):
Rare to impossible to find (a ādying featureā in a 2022 article: Best laptops with an optical drive 2022 | Windows Central ), at least without getting a USB to 5.25" bay enclosure or USB to slim optical enclosure. One example:
This requirement puts you almost exclusively into Lenovo laptops at this point, as it is a very uncommon feature with anyone elseās machines.
These havenāt been a thing since at least the intel 7000 series chips for laptops, theyāre all soldered from there forwards. Ditto on the AMD side.
The only way to get this is via a USB breakout or dock, itās very rare to even find ethernet ports on modern laptops.
I could keep going, but I agree that itās very difficult to find laptops that arenāt intentionally built to be disposable trash in the last 10 years or so. Even the āgoodā business class ones. And a lot of the features could be done via USB docks and enclosure breakouts, butā¦ yeah.
Frameworkās probably the closest, but no trackpoint would make it a nonstarter for your requirements. Itās also potentially thin on additional storage slots, depending on how you feel about the USB modules (and/or the tradeoff youād be making about expandability:
Anywho, watching this as Iām more or less in the same boat as far as what Iād be looking for. I just havenāt found it yet, and given the hype about what repairability we āget backā in a Framework Iām really not hopeful about finding it.
Good catch, thatās what I get for posting late at night Though it seems like with their current lineup one is trading modern socketable CPUs for non-MXM socketed GPUs, there isnāt a model that does socketed for both that isnāt something like LGA1200? Might be missing something, websiteās a bit of a mess. Prices are deep into āare you sure you donāt just want a desktop?ā though, even at base spec.
im starting to think my best option is to stick my head in the sand and just maximize the potential of the m6800. since it appears literally nobody has made an objectively better (more features) laptop since.
my only limitations with my m6800 are the fact that the CPU throttles down under insignificant load, regardless of OS scheduling and frequency scaling settings (this is a known bios bug), the fact that the cellular connectivity of the m6800 is not capable of 5G, and the awful battery life. 10Gb/s Ethernet on this laptop would also make my life much easier.
if a company literally just retrofitted an m6800 with 5G/NR cellular, a bug-free bios, a bigger battery, and 10Gb/s rj-45, iād have a very happy workflow for the foreseeable future.
Laptops donāt have disc drives because most people donāt want them (including me).
You are going to have to compromise, if you want your old laptop with bad battery life, then just get a second hand m6800 if this one dies.
There are not that many laptops now with 10gb, most of them come with 2,5gb, i wonder if your m6800 even has a ssd/drive fast enough for 10gb?
Replacable cpuās are only in the big laptops that are essentially just shrunk computers, bad battery life, loud and heavy.
its not about price, its a matter of feature completeness. id remortgage my house if it meant i got a laptop thatās actually an upgrade from what ive got.
my m6800 has an exprsscard 2.0 54mm slot. if i could fine a thunderbolt controller for expresscard, it might solve alot of my issues.
expresscard can apparently go 5gb/s, so if i could find a expresscard-to-thunderbolt card, then just get a thunderbolt PCIe enclosure, i should be able to seriously add to my connectivity.
)
Though it seems like with their current lineup one is trading modern socketable CPUs for non-MXM socketed GPUs, there isnāt a model that does socketed for both that isnāt something like LGA1200? Might be missing something, websiteās a bit of a mess. Prices are deep into āare you sure you donāt just want a desktop?ā though, even at base spec.