Aaron44126

Yeah, these are all examples of things I dealt with when first switching... Some require getting used to the "Apple way" of doing things, and some require third-party apps to work around. Closing programs? It's just Command+Q. It works everywhere, even from the Command+Tab task switcher. (Well, if anyone is to blame for mucking this up, it is Chrome and Edge which try to override this behavior by default. I don't have either of these browsers installed anymore, though.) Window snapping? Disable macOS's native window snapping, and install Rectangle (free & open source). Done. It has tons of options, too. Finder? Actually I haven't had a huge problem with it, but it also took some getting used to. I would prefer something more robust like Directory Opus, but Finder does seem to be in line with the capabilities of typical Linux file managers (Nautilus, Nemo, etc.).

My understanding is that (for now) the only 18" system will be the Pro Max Plus. ...If they released an 18" 'Premium' system with an OLED panel at UHD+ resolution, but they couldn't get that resolution in the 18" Pro Max Plus, that would be really disappointing...

This is true on iOS (...unless you live in Europe...), but macOS is an open platform, Apple is not making rules about what apps can or cannot be distributed or run. All major browsers have full versions on par with the Windows and Linux versions. (For sure, Apple does have some limitations / restrictions scattered around macOS, but setting up a full walled garden app ecosystem is not one of them.)

Pro Max Plus will be the “top” machine (by specs), replacing the Precision 7000 series.

I'm just going off of the leaked image (see first post in this thread). If there was a barrel connector, it would be in the back-left corner of the laptop (either on the left edge or back edge). You can see that part of the laptop, along with the right edge, and the barrel connector is not present. I mean, they could have moved it to the back-right which can't be seen in that image, but that would go against their designs from the past 10+ years... The leaked image does line up with what we can see in the promo images/renderings released by Dell. They are showing the left edge (no barrel connector) but I haven't seen a shot of the rear. It's also not beyond Dell to push the limits of the USB-C spec. When the Precision 5510 systems were new, USB-C capped out at 100w under the spec, but Dell was pushing 130w through there. Now, I think the spec limit of USB-C is 240w. Dell could push a little higher than that, or, they could just have the system draw from battery power when it is "overloaded". Finally... We have EU rules coming down soon which require USB-C power delivery to be supported as a full option for most laptops. No surprise if most manufacturers just make it the only option.

LCD power draw is pretty much fixed (just varying based on your backlight setting). OLED power draw changes based on what is being displayed. Dark images use less power than light images. If you spend most of your time in "dark mode" applications then you will probably use less power than an LCD panel, but the opposite is true if you work with bright images/apps. Eh, get ready for USB-C power being the only option...

Cool... I was already expecting Blackwell GPUs, I think NVIDIA has had enough time to get those prepped. (What the cost or inventory will be like, who knows...) 120 Hz OLED is really cool, but no indication on if dynamic refresh rate is supported, and also, the lack of full 4K resolution on the 18" system is killer. And they're not even offering a non-OLED option if you would prefer the high resolution? On the subject, is image retention / burn-in not a thing we are worried about with OLED panels anymore? I know on TVs, if you're using one for a "monitor", they will still move the whole TV image around a bit to keep fixed UI elements from getting stuck on there. Is that 256GB CAMM on a single module? I mean, it would make sense that it is, since SODIMM modules have also doubled in capacity since 2022 when the Precision 7X70 first introduced CAMM. It does look like the "thick rear fan grills" is not actually a concern after all, just a weird illusion from that original leaked photo. (Still wondering what the 3-fan setup looks like internally.) If I were in the market for one of these systems, the low screen resolution of the 18" system would put me off from buying one, despite how cool it would be to have an 18" OLED panel.

Yes, the easiest/cheapest would just to be to get a USB 3 NVMe enclosure, stick the drive in it, and hook it up to your new laptop. (Thunderbolt ones are faster but also more expensive, probably not needed for a one-time transfer.) Plenty of choices...https://www.amazon.com/s?k=usb nvme enclosure

Yep, that's what I'm talking about.

To switch to SODIMM, you need to replace the pressure plate thing in addition to picking up the SODIMM interposer. The interposer uses a different version than the one that they use with the CAMM modules (different thickness). Sorry, I don't know part numbers for anything.

We have some P16 Gen2's at work. I haven't used one as a daily driver myself, but the feedback I would give from what I've seen is: They are on the bulky side, in line with Precision 7000 series, notably thicker than an XPS that you'd be coming from. They are also on the slightly noisy side, pretty quick to ramp up the fans while you're doing relatively light work. Really solid build though, and the Thunderbolt dock works fine if you need that. (Everyone is complaining about the position of the Fn and Ctrl keys on the keyboard, but there is an option in the BIOS setup to swap them.)

Might not just be the screw mount positions, you should check things like the number of heat pipes or the type and size of the cooler on the GPU side. I think in Precision 7770 and 7780, they use a more skimpy cooler for systems with the lower-powered GPUs.

BIOS will be fine. You will possibly need to replace the heatsink in addition to the GPU card, though.

You don't have to physically access the CMOS battery. If you can't access the BIOS setup to do the reset from there, hold the power button down for a long time (30-60 seconds?) without the AC adapter connected, and that should reset the BIOS to default settings. I did it once on my Precision 7770. I've seen that dock message pop up before too. "Fixed" by just unplugging and replugging the dock cable until it was happy. The docks seem so finicky on these things to me, I've stopped using one at all with my Precision 7560.

Dell Pro Max 18 Plus won't be released until probably summer time. It hasn't even been officially announced... we just have a decent leak.