Finally, a Linux laptop with a brilliant display and performance that rivals my MacBook (from Germany)
Finally, a Linux laptop with a brilliant display and performance that rivals my MacBook
cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/9780943
cross-posted from: https://europe.pub/post/53784
Hey, I just got this Laptop for my new job after using an X230 and Retina MacBook Pro for years, nice to see it on Lemmy!
The display, case, trackpad and Linux support is top notch. The keyboard layout is a little weird though. Would anyone be interested in a longer review on my blog?
I would love to see a longer review from the perspective of a long time MacBook Pro user. So yes please!
Who changes resolution away from the screen's native values instead of changing the DPI values?
And they switched to a resolution one that can't even Integer-scale, and, even worse, isn't even the correct aspect ratio.
Personally, I've seen a few people doing similar things, and to me it's always an indicator that the person needs to get their eyes checked. Any person with good eye sight or well adjusted glasses should immediately notice that the text actually becomes blurrier and harder to read despite the increased text size.
What's the current state of Linux support for high dpi screens? As of two years ago I had some issues with getting things to work right in KDE, especially with GTK apps, by manually fiddling with system font sizes and button sizes, before I ended up donating that laptop to someone else.
I still run a fairly old dell laptop with 4k screen, and fedora 41.
My experience is that i needed to set dpi, scaling, and font sizes separately for kde and gnome apps, Firefox is a story in itself, and one app that I quickly stopped using - partly because I could never get it to listen to dpi settings no matter what I did - well, I recently learned that it could be used on a 4k monitor if one first were to set the right environmental variable. Tough luck, I already went with a replacement app.
Right now I only have one app that needs further custom tweaking to be legible, but since that's only running in the background anyway, I haven't bothered. So in short, for most apps it's possible to configure them, but it is a pain point.
Will not buy another 4k laptop.
1440p screen with x11 and wayland works just fine on KDE. Wayland is much better and more performant. Not sure about even higher res.
No clue. I always used very old 1080p (or less) screens. I guess I was just lucky that way 🤣
Maybe they are still using an old school (X11?) DE?
echo "Xft.dpi: 210" >> ~/.Xresources
My lenovo + ubuntu combo is pretty neat
I loved my lenovo laptop. My sister had the exact same laptop and both of our laptops hinges broke. The metal hinges are to strong for the plastic chassis and eventually snaps it. So when you open the laptop, the bottom splits open in half. The performance and keyboard and screen were great. But the hinges are utterly fucked. I looked online and it seems to be a common problem. But they were not willing to repair it without having to pay like half the price of the actual laptop...
Which model?
Same, but openSUSE.
God, I wish I were in the market for this. I have a baseline m1 Macbook Air and a lack of funds, so I can't quite justify another laptop. And while Asahi Linux is very cool, going forward I really want to support good Linux-friendly vendors.
It looks like this is just another rebranded Cleavo/Sager laptop anyway, it wasn't purpose built to be a linux machine.
The 15 inch version comes with a 100 Wh battery, which is a rare find.
"finally" as if system 76 doesn't already exist.
The Clevo OEM laptops that make up most of System76 laptop offerings are getting worse and louder over time. I've had two successive Oryx pros that both had persistent hardware issues that outlasted my warranty coverage, the 2nd of which was simply producing more heat than 3 air cooled heat pipes could ever hope to account for. I know why they stopped selling that particular model of Oryx something like 3 months before the next one was available.
Fwiw, the Infinity Book Pro 14 in the review is also from Clevo. The author does praise Tuxedo's tight integration of their flavour of Linux to the HW, so perhaps this is ahead of S76. No dog in this fight as I'm neutral on both companies, I like PopOS but have never bought a laptop from either
Yeah its a shame they aren't better manufacturers out there for this sort of market. Even first party hardware seems pretty trash these days long gone are the days when a boutique PC manufacturer would go out of their way to make something that stands out. Falcon Northwest is the last holdout I know of and even they are nothing like they used to be.
System 76 is on another continent though.
Another continent from Germany, yes another continet from you, probably but unfortunately for me I live in the same shithole country as system 76. that being said the hardware is all made over on that side of the pond anyway since they are just rebranded Cleavo / Sager hardware anyway.
Novacustom
i think system 76 is x86_64 not arm?
Most everything is x86. The above laptop uses an AMD 8845HS with DDR5 SODIMMs. Pretty standard.
The exception is Apple. And some Qualcomm Windows laptops that… are kinda unremarkable.
TBH the only interesting hardware in this space right now are the AMD Strix Halo laptops (which are Linux friendly M4 Pro/Max analogues), and the Steam Deck’s economical, more specialized chip. Someone could try to stuff an ARM Nvidia GB10 (the thing in Nvidia Digits) in a laptop frame, but it would cost a fortune.
Why would you want an arm laptop? (legit question, not trying to be a dick) Compatibility is already going to be questionable since its running linux, adding a low power mobile focused processor would make it such a niche product it would be all but useless outside of web apps or bespoke software meant just for ARM PC's (of which are very few).
Also System 76 does arm as well https://system76.com/desktops/thelio-astra-a1-n1/configure
They are very purpose built because ARM is not the best at general purpose PC use so it's generally only used in PC's when specifically needed or asked for.