I got a new computer! I’ve finally left the Dell XPS line! This is my first time getting a laptop that already has Linux on it. And, I’m excited to have a little larger screen now. (Actually, I’m a bit slow. I’ve had it almost 7 months now, so I can comment a little better on things I like and don’t like.)
Here’s the basic specs: i7 processor, 32G of RAM, 1T Hard drive. The one thing that I didn’t think about was that it came with the LTS version of Ubuntu rather than the latest version. So, we are at Ubuntu 20.04.
The thing I was interested in was the Nvidia card. I did order it with a graphics card, and so I was eager to see what driver they installed. It came with the Nvidia metapackage 510 driver.
The Nvidia settings app has a little more information:
Of course, there are updates to install. I found a firmware update in the software center, too. I wish it would prompt for these, or give a notification. I only found it because I had the software center open.
Battery
The biggest thing I like about the new laptop is the battery. I wasn’t expecting that. In the past, I did good to get 2 hours our of the battery. Now, I can get over 6 hours from this battery.
The one really cool think that I like and had expected is that it is solely powered through the USB C port. I can accept 135W through that port. It has 2 USB C ports, and you can use either one. The big advantage is that you can use a dock without having to also have the power cord also plugged in.
The charger is a beefy 135W USB plug. It’s worth noting that 135W is not standard. Any dock you find is only going to provide 100W to the laptop at the most. That seems to be the max for Bluetooth.
Ctrl Key
One of the biggest things I don’t like about the new laptop is the left Ctrl key. I’m used to it being on the far left and the outside. Instead the Fn key is there. So, when I go to copy something, I’m constantly hitting Fn+C. Then, I go to paste it, and I can’t because it didn’t actually copy.
