My laptop only runs Office 365 for email, calendar, and the occasional word doc. It also runs Slack and a browser for zoom meetings as access to Jira/Bugzilla web interface.

Oh, and RDP into XFCE on Ubuntu on the desktop that runs as a server.

Plus the server is cabled up to development platforms (serial ports, remote power, GPIO, JTAG, USB). So it cannot move, and even if it were a laptop, it could not move.

I don't require the laptop to be upgradeable or powerful, it is just the UI into the rest of the system.

It currently sits here with the lid closed cabled to a 27 inch display.

In the Windows land the only hope seems to be AMD while Apple has me hoping for the A14 performance.

Ideally Apple would push out a 2in1 with touch but they are set on pushing iOS for touch - which is just too limited for all intents and purposes. I would gladly buy a premium Lenovo 2in1 or some Ryzen 5xxx series ultra portable windows laptop (they are much better on thermals from what I've seen) but I still need a OSX client from time to time unfortunately. There's just no flexibility with Apple ecosystem - you either fit into their intended use cases or you're stuck with suboptimal tradeoffs.

I'd like to be more client-server these days too, using whatever device is convenient at the time but storing my data centrally so all my devices can access it, it's all systematically secured and backed up, I can also access it remotely via VPN, etc.

The key thing, though, is that I want it to be my server, not someone else's that I don't control and have to keep paying for.

Check out iStat, it gives you the ability to set a fan curve and that has helped quite a bit with my laptops Thermals. I found the highest rpm I could run without hearing the fans and set the two lowest points in the curve to keep it at/under that point and I almost never hear my fans anymore. Only time I really hear them now is when something is compiling and even then it's much more bearable since I keep the highest rpm limited to 80/85%.