Dell Precision 7560 & Precision 7760 pre-release discussion

This is why I'm a big fan of an actual hardware switch, directly connected to the power... and not software programmed(be it a switch or button). I once knew of a guy who had his machine hacked, his mouse cursor was moving autonomously before him, the software airplane mode FN button would not work, he resorted to unplugging the machine(it was some AIO). However, with batteries being more integrated(either soldered, glued, or now with the Dell Precision's they are screwed in there and require disassembly), while in the past it was as easy as pulling back a latch and removing the battery on the fly, in seconds.

 

That's probably it ... Didn't realize that they had a whole separate driver just for that button.

Eh, even the M6700 physical switch is software-controlled, it doesn't physically disconnect power on the card or anything. It just signals to the OS that it is time to turn airplane mode on, and Windows handles actually shutting off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth access. Pretty sure that Microsoft has it as part of the OEM requirements as of Windows 8 that a physical Wi-Fi switch needs to leverage the Windows airplane mode feature and not bypass it further up. I'm not aware of any modern laptop that has a switch like you describe :\

Though even though yanking the battery out is hard these days, holding down the power button for five seconds will always power off the machine (no matter what Windows is set to do with the power button).

 

That's a bummer regarding the switch, didn't know, I do "validate" it by seeing my connection via my router to see if it properly disconnects(though I can't say it's doing it every time I switch it as I don't check every time), and it seems rather prompt, my iphone on the other hand seems to linger for some time even though I switch it off on the device. Librem brags about having a hardware switch as I described, but I can't validate it. True, there is the power switch, however, with vpro tools being leaked via "vault 7", theoretically(again, can't validate actual attacks, though they are discreet in nature) can run in the background.

I also recall some thinkpad users validating on certain recent models with the switch before they took it away... and recall hearing that the switch did not respect the command at times(still remained connected in the background, as well as the webcam).

 

Asus has released that they're going to announce their Tiger Lake H45 gaming system on 5/11

They can't do that if the processors in those machines are still under embargo from Intel, right? So presumably that means we should have processor announcements in the next 2 1/2 weeks. Dell tends to do an early announcement of the new XPS and Precision models as soon as they can talk about the processors openly, so *fingers crossed*

 

Just looking at some news from today... I suspect that Intel will do a proper reveal on May 11 and then, as often happens with this sort of thing, their announcement will be immediately followed by many OEMs releasing details on their Tiger Lake H45 systems. Dell is usually prompt with things like this so we may well see systems announced like Alienware or larger XPS systems with Tiger Lake H45. (Also eagerly awaiting Precision news but that might lag by a few days/weeks... I can't remember a time when the high-end Precision workstations were announced simultaneously with a major CPU announcement... and they won't be able to ship at the same time as these other systems anyway, at least because Xeon CPUs are unlikely to be available right at first.)

(I wonder if Asus was supposed to blow the lid on this date? Maybe it's fine, and other OEMs just avoid pre-announcements because then they're basically asking people not to purchase any new systems in the meantime.)

 

This wasn't the case with my 7540 when it got hopelessly stuck trying to update the BIOS. No amount of holding the button would kill it that particular time. Had to open the case and pull the battery cable. Opening the case is pretty hard as you need to carefully lever the plastic all around once you've undone the screws.

 

It starts (on May 11 as expected) ...
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/i...ger-lake-h-processors-more-power-lower-clocks

New XPS systems announced as well.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/11/...17-refresh-update-intel-chips-10nm-nvidia-gpu

...And Alienware.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/alienware-m15-r6-x-series-price-specs

 

And Precision:
https://www.notebookcheck.com/Dell-...n-RTX-und-vier-SSDs-vorgestellt.538918.0.html

No Ryzen for the third year running; no 16:10 either. Pretty much the same as 7530 to 7540: chassis stays the same, CPU and GPU options updated.

 

Good find...
Just located this so there is some new promo material out there.
https://www.delltechnologies.com/en...ell_Precision_Workstation_Family_Brochure.pdf

Trying to see if I can find anything more substantial. At a glance it looks like the typical same-chassis refresh — new CPU and GPU options (and Wi-Fi 6E) but otherwise largely the same as the prior generation. (Really curious about the GPU power limits... Looks like it still has a gigabit Ethernet port.)

[Edit]
Another one ...
https://www.xda-developers.com/dell-xps-15-xps-17-come-with-11th-gen-processors-rtx-30-graphics/

NVIDIA mentions them specifically in their new post ...
https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/05/11/geforce-rtx-studio-laptops-3050-ti/

 

@Dell-Mano_G
Are you available for questions regarding the newly announced Precision mobile workstations?