Laptop recommendations?
Laptop recommendations?
I'm in the market for a new laptop. I'm currently considering the Framework 16 but I'm wondering if there's anything else I should look at. The System 76 Adder WS seems like a better value, but I'm hesitant to buy Nvidia.
I don't need anything super portable, just looking for a decently powerful laptop for some gaming and other basic tasks. I use openSUSE TW but even with the Nvidia repo I've had issues with Nvidia graphics.
I have been using a Framework 13 (12th gen intel) since April and I love it. The only complaint is the battery life (5-8 hours of software development with JetBrains IDEs), but in terms of hardware performance, it's fantastic.
22jetbrains ides are very heavy, 5-8 hours is pretty good
14The 61W battery helps a bit. If I'm compiling binaries locally all day, it certainly tanks.
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I also have a framework 13. It has been great! I run the latest fedora and everything works great out of the box.
My only annoyance is fedora disable hibernate by default and now that s2idle is the default instead of s3, too much battery is used while sleeping. That said, it isn’t difficult to enable s3 and hibernate.
5Did they finally fix the phantom drain from the expansion cards during sleep? I had one of the original batch and wound up trading it in because I couldn't actually use it effectively untethered.
4I think the fix for the phantom drain came with the newest refresh (gen 3); I don't notice a rapid drain when I sleep mine, though because I use the 'deep sleep' workaround.
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For computers I typically look at Lenovo, there's a wide range of choices, and they can have some pretty sweet deals at times.
9Framework 16 is on preorder, take that in consideration if you need a laptop asap.
Otherwise highly recommend it for the dedicated graphics and future upgradability.
9Gonna have to vouch for Thinkpads, wonderful compatibility. If you use a Libre distro, Intel wireless cards are gonna be your Achilles heel.
8The new ones not so much. I've had a terrible Linux experience with the ThinkPad P16s AMD Gen 1 AMD
3what issues? I am considering either an Asus Zenbook or a Thinkpad or a Macbook and recently I've heard bad things about modern thinkpads.
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There are a few manufacturers you can look at. Other than Framework and System76, which you already know of, there’s Tuxedo, Starlabs, Slimbook etc.
Other than that, The Linux Experiment is my go-to channel for Linux-related news. He has a playlist for Linux hardware. You can find some good reviews for different products in there.
Specifically, the reviews for the Tuxedo Stellaris 17 and System76 Pangolin might be of interest. Both have AMD.
7Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/playlist?list=PLqmbcbI8U55Fq-rkb_N9xxHQ66GfLq5gE&
https://piped.video/PK3fdDtSwjM?si=-a5UoQYGkKlv-gsI
https://piped.video/VPIeUw3Zyds?si=olbbiSi9iJC79Dct
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
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Dell XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition comes with Ubuntu. I have the non-developer edition which I run OpenSUSE with no problem.
6To add to this, get the i5 version. The i7 is a power hog and overheats the laptop.
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My personal experience with AMD GPU is way better than NVIDIA, even without proprietary driver
5I've got a thinkbook (that makes sense , Lenovo) that I picked up for like <500 which has run Linux since day one. Price/performance is killer. Though, I'd probably go with a framework if I was shopping today. Modular + serviceability wins it for me.
Linux will run on p much anything; hardware modularity and repair resulting in longevity are my main considerations these days.
4If you want a laptop for Linux then the obvious choices are Tuxedo and System76. Framework looks cool, but I haven't heard much about it's Linux support.
3They officially support Ubuntu and Fedora, and it looks like people have decent experiences with other distros. That's on the 13 though, nothing official about the 16.
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i recommend nvidia geforce now for game streaming, if your ok with some latency. then you dont need to get a gpu at all
Then your laptop requirements become super easy. I'm running a framework 13 and am quite happy with it.
The only down side is no coreboot, but I think repairable hardware is more important at the moment.
2I don't understand how people can use game streaming for anything besides something like a puzzle game, input response time absolutely kills me
15I tried it with Cyberpunk 2077 and the latency was so low I couldn't notice it. I had no issues weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds.
It's really a matter of whether your ISP can handle it. Many of those in the US cannot because there's not a lot of regulations regarding the minimum quality of service they have to provide.
5My ping to the server is usually less than 10ms on wifi, and sometimes less than 5ms on a wired connection, so I've found that most games work fine. After all, that's lower latency than some displays.
3GeForce now, and shadow, both let you test your connection to see how good it is. Basically you need a low latency and low jitter internet connection. To the data center.
The maximum latency you want is 40 milliseconds, and you want low jetter. Then you're going to have a good experience. Obviously the lower the latency the better.
Speed.cloudflare.com is a good basic test, it'll tell you what your average latency is to cloudflare, and your jitter is. If that's good then game streaming might work for you.
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You would be much better off using an egpu with the laptop. The latency from streaming is terrible.
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If you don’t care as much about the specific brand and want to shop deals I would look at laptop deal history on slickdeals and keep an eye on the posts there after nailing down what you think is a good sale price.
1I have a Lenovo Yoga. Love it to death and it hasn't failed me yet!
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