I currently use a 2021 Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition and I really enjoy it. It’s a bit pricey at $1650 MSRP but it comes with a high end all AMD 5900HX, 6800M, 2 SoDIMM slots, and 2 M.2 slots. Plenty of ports: 3x USB-A, 1x USB-C, Ethernet, HDMI, headphone jack, and power jack; I’ve needed all of them and it’s just enough. Quite good battery life for a gaming laptop and supports USB-C charging. I currently dual boot Windows and Ubuntu. Biggest flaws are the preinstalled SSD is crap and there’s no webcam.
I just got a Lenovo Yoga 9i and am pretty happy with it. It has a really nice display and wanted to experiment with a convertible as I occasionally wished I had a tablet but wouldn’t use it enough to justify it. Having a laptop that can double as a tablet was attractive.
Random notes:
Fingerprint reader doesn’t work.
There is a sysfs file to set an 80% charging limit which is nice.
WiFi often seems slow and the signal strength is reported as low. I suspect this is poor AP selection as it seems to connect to a further AP in my house rather than the closer one.
Yeah I’ve got a t480. Sweet spot between upgradeable, repairable, affordable, performant. I’ve got a secondary NVME in mine for Debian. It’s got an internal and external battery. I replaced the thermal paste and the internal battery in about 20 mins. Very pleased with mine.
To run Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, or some other FOSS OS?
I’m running Fedora on a refurbished Thinkpad P1 Gen 4, and I’ve had good luck running Linux and the BSDs on higher end refurbished Dell Optiplex, Latitude, and Precision equipment.
Apple hardware is nice, and MacPorts gives me access to the vast majority of my *nix tools.
Shopping for new hardware I’d look at the list below to get Linux preinstalled.
I just bought a Framework 13, and I got say, it’s amazing. First of all, everything works out of the box. That’s surprising for a laptop with Linux. Even the Dell I used to own that specifically advertised compatibility with Linux and even came with Ubuntu had a fingerprint reader with no Linux support. Meanwhile, the fingerprint reader on my Framework has worked flawlessly.
Second, it’s blazing fast. I got the new AMD one, and it’s definitely fast enough to handle everything I’ve thrown at it.
Third, if something breaks on it, like the screen, replacing the part is incredibly easy. I’ve replaced a couple laptop screens before, and while they’re easier than phone screens, it’s still a PITA. And that’s if you can find a replacement screen.
And then lastly, eventually I’ll be able to upgrade it. I like that.
So yeah, if you can afford the price premium, I highly recommend the Framework 13.
my thinkbook 16p g2 is trash. Nvidia driver is not working well and the device wakes up from suspend whenever it’s plugged out or in on any usb or power connector, and then heats up your backpack.
I currently use a Thinkpad L540. Durable af, but really big and thiccc. The screen viewing angles are super bad though, along with the trackpad being kind of weird.
I use a ThinkPad x280 that was my previous school computer so I bought it out after school for like 150€. I really like it, just wish it had a bit more RAM.
I’m not as hardcore as most, I run windows as my main OS, but I do love my LG Gram 17" laptop from ~3-4 years ago.
It’s powerful enough for general use, webdev, and very light 3D modelling, and it is insanely light and portable. I have a 14" MacBook at work and the gram is lighter than it, thinner, not that much bigger, and far more durable.
Great keyboard and trackpad, giant screen (I wish it was brighter but this is the version from 3-4 years ago), and surprisingly solid Bluetooth, microphone, thunderbolt etc.
Still very happy with my Dell XPS 13 9310 I bought in late 2021. (wow was it so long ago?) I use Adobe Creative Suite daily and make videos in Da Vinci Resolve.
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