I also recommend Lenovo, including their Chromebooks. Yes, for development, on Linux. This surprised me too, I can open my IDE which runs on Linux and have my Android and ChromeOS apps.

Yes, only 8Gb of RAM but they are offering Chromebooks with twice that amount, which is enough for anyone, right?!?

I do not need sound but the audio on my Lenovo "Flex 5" is awesome. No complaints about the keyboard, trackpad or screen.

Fantastic that my Chromebook is, it is only with an 11th gen CPU, and a mere i5. I have only discovered it is good for development out of laziness, the Chromebook is in the front room and not in the study. I start researching something whilst taking a break and, with that terminal window so close by, I give things a go.

I have another recommendation - Huawei. The trick is to buy from their website and not via a retailer. This is because there will be a deal where you might get a monitor or other accessory bundled in.

I have the Huawei ultrabook from 2020 (Matebook X) and that has a low power CPU and is not my development machine. It is my official 'research' machine. I have this directly connected with a Thunderbolt cable to a Huawei Matebook 16s 2022 edition. This has the 12th gen i7 with many cores and plenty of performance for running whatever you want.

The thunderbolt networking and Barrier/Synergy means that I have access to my files and screens from either machine at speeds that make wifi feel like dial up networking. There is much to recommend about this arrangement, particularly since the high speed network drops down to wifi if the cable is unplugged. I also have the DNS rigged so that both machines 'resolve' globally, with my files available on whatever network is available.

Regarding the Huawei Matebook 16s, it has a 16" 3:2 display with 2520 pixels across. This means I can run 1:1 pixels with no scaling and still be able to work with my IDE effectively. As mentioned, I have my 'research' machine (Matebook X) to do browsing and testing, with magic keyboard/mouse sharing thanks to Barrier. Even though I am using the 'development' machine for commpilation, running DBs and the IDE, the sleeker Matebook X is the device I am physically using.

Sometimes reviewers place importance on features that do not matter to the developer. All laptops are a design compromise and you take your choices. I don't play games or wish to be tempted by gaming. Right now I don't do anything in 3D so I needed a GPU as much as a fish needs a bicycle. I also did not want the i9 version which wants 135W of USB-C power. The single core speed was not 'better'. Plus throttling could happen.

Anyway, the Huawei Matebook 16s has a gorgeous screen for programming, but the gamer or content creator might complain about the refresh/latency/colours. I don't care, I just want pixels that are abundant. The aluminium case is not Dell creaky plastic with a rocket engine roaring away. The keyboard/trackpad are great but the speakers are not. I am happy with that because I really did not buy the machine for games/Netflix/video editing or anything else where I 'need' something as good as Lenovo's MaxxAudio(r).

YMMV, I have been given many XPS machines over the years, none of which I have 'bonded with'. Although Lenovo is my goto brand, for absolute quality, bang per buck and a nice change, I can't recommend Huawei highly enough. Ubuntu worked perfectly out the box on the Matebook X and on the 12th gen 16s I had to disable suspend, because it wasn't waking up. Actually I did not want the machine going to sleep anyway, so I have not investigated further.

A lot of shade has been thrown Huawei's way over the years. I just want to write my best code and I chuckle at the thought of those senile politicians trying to tell me what phone/computer I have.