Should be able to. While I’m not ruling out the existence of one, I haven’t heard of a laptop designed that the m.2 slot was dedicated for Optane only in BIOS and couldn’t do a normal SSD.

You’d want Gen3. Anything that came with Optane should have been prior to Gen4’s release.

I do amazon finds because I’m lazy and it’s easy.

So, this one kinda shocked me for the pretty decent specs and downright low price:https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Convertible-Laptop-Touchscreen-Fingerprint/dp/B0CMR4B33S/ref=sr_1_1

If you’re into really high res screen:https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Flex-Touchscreen-Laptop-2-2K/dp/B0CB64RZQ5/ref=sr_1_3

If you wanted a little more future-proofness with the amount of ram:https://www.amazon.com/HP-Touchscreen-Processor-Keyboard-Included/dp/B0BHC7VRLY/ref=sr\_1\_1

No. Generally the reason they downspec these machines is because they use cheaper motherboards that don’t have enough layers to have traces of high enough quality to carry the proper signals. So even if you put a port that supported the higher spec on the board, the traces that are embedded in the board to carry the signal where it needs to go are still of insufficient quality.

Well, budget friendly for Elon Musk is different than budget friendly for me. So giving a general idea of your actual budget you have to work with would help a great deal.

Some, yes. Some, no.

Well, with this new list, I’d take the MSI. I prefer 14" over 15" (I HATE +10 keypads on laptops), all 3 had 16GB ram (bravo!!), and the 7530U is more performant than the 5500U.

Throw out the the Rzyen 5 3500U immediately, it’s a massively inferior CPU to teh rest.

Throw out the 1235U’s if you need to work on battery. Alder Lake is HIGHLY inefficient.

Between the 1195G7 and the 5500U, 5500U is a higher performance CPU with better efficiency. Although the 1195G7 does have a slightly better iGP. Ultimately though, the fact that the 5500U comes with 16GB ram instead of 8GB gives it the easy nod, IMO.

So, IMO, easy winner:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BWSFZV1L

Yes, pretty much every laptop in existence uses an external power supply.

Ok, and what do you need help with? Opinions?

Not a bad machine for the price. I like that it comes with a usable amount of ram. The 7520u is a really weak CPU, being only 4 Zen2++ cores (2 generation old), but for light work it’s totally adequate still. Good thing you don’t need it to be adequate at gaming, as the 2 core RDNA2 GPU in it is good for multimedia consumption, but very bad for gaming.

Depends on the model and CPU’s. All versions of the T14 Gen2 should be able to hit 6 hours of usage if the brightness is kept to a reasonable level and it’s not set for performance on battery.

As to the ram, there will be 1 soldered ram (8 or 16GB) with 1 slot for upgrading (up to 32GB SODIMM).

$200? Not a chance. You can get T480 for less, and it’s basically double the CPU performance.

MOST Inspirons, yes, you can replace the drive with a larger one.

One of the magnetic right angle adapters or a normal one? Because I KNOW the magnetic ones aren’t officially supported, and they supposedly can’t handle the wattage.

If a normal right angle adapter, I would THINK it should be well enough built to handle it, but I’m not absolutely certain of that, so wait to see if someone knows for certain.

What about the Alienware m16 Gaming Laptop?

RAM - go with 16GB. Not only is 16GB just better, but it’s ALSO all going to be dual-channel, which means there will be some (extremely minor) performance improvements going from 12GB to 16GB.

Storage - The 1 TB NVMe would be the simplest and fastest choice. Even for storage on laptops, hard drives aren’t (IMO) ideal anymore. If an option, I’d rather get like the 512GB NVMe and then buy a 1TB SATA SSD for storage. WAY faster, less heat, and no moving parts in it to die if you drop the laptop a couple inches.

Neither network choice is ideal. Realtek has garbage performance. MediaTek 7921 works well, but lacks some features (160 MHz channels) that mean that it has max performance only 1/2 that of most other Wifi6 adapters. Of course, being able to use that features is dependent upon having a setup that supports it to connect to. Overall, just the poor performance of the Realtek would make me go MediaTek, and if it’s slotted, I’d probably put either a 7922/RZ616 to replace it, AX210, or QCNFA765 depending on prices I found for each.

Ryzen will have superior CPU performance

Ryzen will have superior GPU performance

Ryzen will be a little more efficient, since they have the same battery, that will mean it will get a little better battery life.

The Ryzen due to being a 14" instead of 16" will not have a +10 keypad.

I’d get the Ryzen since it doesn’t have the +10 keypad. I REALLY hate those things on laptops.

Yes…ish.

Using the Thunderbolt port you can add an eGPU.

The 7520U is a REALLY poorly marketed CPU. It really should be marketed as a Ryzen 3, not a Ryzen 5. It’s a very low end CPU, Zen2++ cores, and only 4 of them. 2 RDNA cores for graphics. So extremely low end. The only advantage it would have in as much of an apples to apples comparison as you can get is that it has 16GB ram vs. 8GB. But in all other ways, it has inferior hardware to the m1 air.

At one of my old jobs, we could sign up for an account on the vendors website, and we would get “partner” discounts on their refurbished equipment. If you have a HR page for employee discounts I’d see if your company offers something like that.

Doesn’t SOUND scammy to me.