User:Niedzielski/2019 Linux laptop survey

Although the title specifies "laptops," what I really mean is any portable Linux device which could include tablets that have a decent hardware keyboard. My primary use case is MediaWiki development, which includes heavy Docker container and Visual Studio Code usage on approximately stock Ubuntu v19.04.

Requirements

 * Web cam
 * 2+ USB 3+ ports
 * Good battery life (4+ hour battery life under development load)
 * Good portability (less than 5 lb, cool running, with a decent keyboard and trackpad)
 * High DPI display

Avoid

 * Discrete NVIDIA GPUs. I've used a variety of Linux laptops for the past 10 years and it's been my personal experience that those with discrete NVIDIA GPUs are effectively semi-portable waffle makers. That is, they have extremely poor battery life and stay toasty regardless of whether or not the GPU is disabled in software. I believe this has in part caused two of my batteries on two different laptops (an XPS and a MacBook Pro) to expand.

Devices considered
Most of this section is anecdotal but I'm just recording my own thoughts for my own reasoning as to which device to purchase and not submitting an objective and perfect survey.

✗ Apple
My best device to date has been a 2012 MacBook Air 13" with maxed out specs but Apple products have become increasingly more difficult to run Linux on well. So much so that I can't justify the risk of purchasing one. As such, despite being a consistent industry leader for high quality builds, I haven't considered any Apple device.

✗ Chrome OS
I have a Pixel Slate that I use the Linux beta container functionality on. I can effectively execute a MediaWiki Docker container and have done about a month of development on it. However, the feature was extremely unstable and Chrome OS appears to be extremely rudimentary (no back button on file browser, no recycle bin, ...). In the course of normal development, I had on several occasions my entire Linux container just stop booting requiring extensive debugging just to get my files off of it. There are far too many game over bugs currently but the battery life is amazing. I would consider it given a more featureful, stable, and open OS. I don't think GalliumOS is used widely enough to seriously consider for primary PC usage.

✗ Dell
Although my current system is overall great, there are some things that I think could be better and I'd like to... See other PCs. I also had a pretty shitty experience trying to get a battery replaced for my current system. It started swelling terribly under a year and pushed the trackpad out. Support basically forced me to get a half-sized battery at my own cost. Whatever happened to that Dell guy who was always just getting high all the time, telling people their Dell destinies, and presumably handing out free full-sized batteries? I'd give Dell another spin but not this time.

🤙 Lenovo
I was quite interested in the Lenovo lineup because I'd never used their laptops and they're so popular among the Foundation devs running Linux. I also love their USB C chargers. Unfortunately, there's too many models to choose from and no buyer's guide! I filtered by spec which I just have to hope is mostly accurate:


 * Intel graphics: I really want to avoid the NVIDIA wafflemaker effect.
 * i7 processor: I assume i7s are always faster than i5s. This is apparently untrue in some configurations but I'm going to pray to Git that's an outlier and close my eyes extra tight.
 * 16+ GB RAM: I don't have a good handle on how much RAM I use these days. I think I'm almost always under 16 GB, frequently under 8 GB, and I don't know what the practical battery implications of more RAM is. Vagrant eats RAM for breakfast IIRC, but I usually favor Docker containers. Still, I'd get 32 GB if I could.
 * Under 4lb: portability (optimal lightness and battery life) is the major shortcoming of my current laptop.
 * 3000+x2000+ resolution: I've appreciated the higher resolution displays and in my experience their color is far superior. I wrestled with this choice because popular opinion is that they're glossy battery hogs. I definitely miss the matte finish but my Chrome OS Pixel Slate with Linux containers has a great display and battery life so I'm going to gamble high resolution won't impact the native Linux battery performance too much.
 * 1+ TB HDD: I'll be changing my old laptop into a media center and I stopped downloading the Android Open Source Project's codebase so this should really free up some room. Still, I've found that I pretty regularly run out of disk space somehow so I'm going to keep living large until I stop bumping into the limit.

With these requirements, I came up with this list which I've sorted by weight and added new models mentioned at the Consumer Electronics Show (X1 Carbon G7 and X1 Yoga G4) not yet configurable:


 * ThinkPad X1 Carbon G7, 2.40 lbs, not yet configurable
 * ThinkPad X1 Carbon G6, 2.49 lbs
 * ThinkPad X1 Tablet G3, 2.79 lbs, 3000x2000 resolution
 * T480s Ultrabook, 2.90 lbs
 * ThinkPad X1 Yoga G4, 2.99 lbs, 3840x2160 resolution
 * Yoga C930 3lb, 3840x2160
 * ThinkPad X1 Yoga G3, 3.08 lbs
 * ThinkPad T490, 3.17lbs
 * ThinkPad T480, 3.6 lbs

Even just figuring out the release dates requires extra research but so far as I know the two newest models are the X1 Carbon G7 and X1 Yoga G4. It was easiest just to sort by weight since lightness is big interest for me.

The X1 Tablet G3 was kind of crazy because it has pretty amazing specs at only 1.69 lbs. That's actually just the tablet weight though which isn't a mode I use often. The keyboard is weighty and brings the total to 2.79 lbs so it doesn't have the lightness I originally supposed. Still, sounds like an impressive machine and should be at the top of anyone's list if they value tablet or convertible functionality.

I ruled out the T480 since it was so much heavier than the rest and presumably older than the T490.

I'm going to revisit the list when the X1 Carbon G7 and X1 Yoga G4 are more configurable. I'll also be checking for reviews on notebookcheck and cpubenchmark, verifying OpenGL compatibility and comparing those to my current laptop. I don't know if Ice Lake will come in this generation.

✗ System76
I had a maxed out desktop replacement System76 laptop. I think it's the worst laptop i've ever own. The keyboard and trackpad were cheap, the screen was washed out, and the chassis was garbage. Just from the standpoint of a laptop containing all the human interface devices necessary for efficient development, it fails. THe device was very expensive and the build quality very poor, so although I like to root for smaller, independent companies that value Linux, I cannot justify the risk of purchasing another one.

Dell XPS 13
BBearnes (WMF) used an XPS 13 for a couple years until late 2018 and took some initial notes. "...It's a standard recommendation for folks looking for a good Linux developer laptop... ... Ran Debian stable just fine, modulo requiring a proprietary Intel wifi driver. I probably wouldn't buy it again personally, but it's not an unreasonable choice depending on your preferences."

Cons

 * "Too many pixels..."
 * "...Performance was sometimes not great in ways that seemed odd given the hardware profile..."
 * "...Not a great keyboard."

Pros

 * "Good battery life..."
 * "...Physically very robust / solid build..."
 * "...A really nice size for travel and took quite a bit of abuse without failing."

Dell XPS 15 9560
I have an XPS 15 9560 with more or less maxed out manufacturer specs running mostly stock Ubuntu v19.04. Overall, it's a great machine and it meets all of my needs when at a desk. I use Docker containers with Visual Studio Code extensively for MediaWiki development and it runs them very well. In my spare time, I like to play mostly old games and do a little WebGL programming which it also handles nicely.

Overall, I think it's a great Linux desktop replacement but not very portable.

Pros

 * The performance, stability, screen quality, and GNU / Linux software compatibility have been superb.
 * The keyboard is ok and the trackpad is pretty nice. When I'm at home, I normally use external peripherals.
 * The chassis and ports are decent.

Cons

 * The portability (battery life, heat, thickness) has been awful. In particular, I think the NVIDIA GPU basically turns any Linux machine into a grill, even when disabled in software, and the 9560 has been no exception. Due to heat, I think, my battery had to be replaced within a year. It's basically a semi-portable waffle maker and, because of this, is more of a desktop PC than a laptop.
 * Suspend and hibernate have been pretty flaky so I stopped using them. However, I've never had much luck with either on Linux.
 * The speakers are crap but I always use headphones.
 * There's a little background fuzz on the headphone jack so I attach over USB.
 * The webcam placement sucks.
 * The fans are a little noisy and always on.
 * The coil whine is ceaseless.
 * The screen is glossy and its lowest dimness setting seems at least twice as bright as it should be.

Lenovo ThinkPad T470
Legoktm runs Fedora on a T470 with 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD, and a touchscreen. Legoktm elaborates that the touchscreen "...Is pretty nice when reading long documents that you can use your finger to scroll. Everything literally just works with the touchscreen, it's super neat. Firefox even has an option to make the buttons slightly larger for easier touch screen stuff." Legoktm says they'd buy it again but would want to get a USB-C charger instead of the proprietary ThinkPad charger.

Cons

 * "There's some bug that occasionally, after closing the lid for it to go to sleep, when I open it up and wake it up, the fans will go on full blast until I reboot. It's too unpredictable for me to reproduce it, maybe happens 20% of the time. I've gotten in the habit of just not closing the lid or just shutting down regularly."

Lenovo ThinkPad T480
Anomie runs Debian unstable (with Window Maker) on a T480 with the following enhancements:
 * i5-8250U processor: "...From what I read online the i7 wasn't worth the extra cost and I didn't need vPro from the 8350U or the NVIDIA graphics card that seems tied to it."
 * 14.0" FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS anti-glare display: "...I didn't care about a touchscreen or the extra-high resolution. Reviews online say the brightness on the WQHD is better, but since I keep my brightness low I didn't care about that either."
 * 16GB RAM: "...Hopefully enough for several years of new tools needing more RAM. I could in theory upgrade it if I would need to." He also notes: "I wanted enough RAM to comfortably run mediawiki-vagrant on the occasions I need to (I mostly run things directly though), which my T430 with 4GB was having trouble handling."
 * No fingerprint reader.
 * 256GB SSD, SATA3: "...From what I read the M.2 didn't seem worth the cost either."
 * Upgraded battery.

Anomie says they'd buy it again and notes "From what I've read they made some weird decisions with the T490: the basic T490 is more of a successor to the T480s (trades ports and upgradability for "slimness") while the T490s goes even further down the "remove features for slimness" path. I hope they reverse direction by the time I'm looking to replace this one."

Pros

 * "In the past at least ThinkPads have been known for quality keyboards. ... I use the built-in keyboard and touchpad for everything."
 * "My T480 seems to generally stay very cool. OTOH, I hear there's some BIOS issue that makes the T480 over-aggressive at throttling." "I seldom hear my fan."
 * No trouble with suspend or resume.
 * No coil whine.

Cons

 * "Occasional freezes. No idea if it's Linux, BIOS, hardware, or what."
 * "I like the PC beep, but the sound card doesn't seem to support it under Linux."
 * "ACPI events for brightness adjustment sometimes stop working after boot or resume from sleep. Reboot usually fixes it."
 * "It has a built-in battery and an external. For some reason they have it drain the internal battery first."
 * Speakers face down and aren't very good.

Lenovo ThinkPad T560
Bmansurov (WMF) runs Arch Linux on a T560 with 16 GB of RAM and an i7-6600U CPU @ 2.60GHz. "I like the laptop's keyboard, and the touchpad, although the trackpoint is too sensitive by default (didn't get around to fixing it). I especially like the matte screen. Sometimes I think the brightness is not high enough when I use the laptop outside, but in a bright room, it's very good."

"The internal battery probably lasts 3-4 hours, and the external one lasts about 8-12 hours. These are approximate numbers because I've never measured them, but when I have both batteries full, I don't worry about losing power for at least a day. That said, I don't play games or watch multiple movies on the laptop while on battery. When you add the external battery, the laptop gets pretty heavy."

"I don't think this laptop has a dedicated GPU, and I don't hear the fan at all, nor do I notice any heat coming out of it."

"The keyboard has a numberic keypad, which I don't really use. I think they could have removed it and moved the other keys to the middle and added two speakers to the sides of the keyboard, which would have been awesome. The speakers that come with the laptop aren't great. If multiple people are watching something, I usually have to connect an external speaker to get a higher volume."

"For work, sure I'd buy one. I don't hate any specific feature of the laptop. I think it's one of the best laptops (for Linux) that I've used. Personally, though I don't feel comfortable using any laptop that comes with an Intel Management Engine, but there are no good alternatives either."

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
LWirzenius runs Debian buster on an X1 Carbon (6th generation). The config is standard with 8 GiB RAM and 500 GiB NVMe SSD. LWirzenius adds: "Everything I've tried works, but I haven't tried some stuff, like the fingerprint reader. I've only used a USB Ethernet adapter (works). ... I'm reasonably happy with it, thought it's not as nice as my personal laptop, mostly due to the keyboard. If I needed a new personal laptop and had the money, I might buy one like this, or a previous generation (not the 2nd generation, though, which has a really awful keyboard). I don't like that it's thin in the modern style, which means, among other things, that there's no RJ45 Ethernet port, the battery and disk aren't easily replaceable."

tgr runs Ubuntu v18.04 on the standard Foundation config. "Overall, it's pretty decent (I only had it for a few months so grain of salt and all that): it's very light and thin, everything other than the fingerprint reader works fine under Ubuntu, the keyboard layout is not completely horrible, the battery life is a bit under 4 hours (more if I dim the screen / stop stuff I don't need) which is way less than it should be capable of in theory but I'm not bothered by it enough to try the scary-looking fixes on ArchWiki."

"I added my experiences to the officewiki page (although pretty much everything there just duplicates the ArchWiki page which is really comprehensive)."

BBearnes (WMF) runs Ubuntu v18.04 on an X1. "... For a laptop in this style (thin ultrabook, no removable battery, no builtin ethernet, etc.), I like it pretty well. The keyboard is not as good as older ThinkPad models, but is still vastly better than most laptop keyboards and has a TrackPoint™. I particularly appreciate that the display on this model doesn't have such a high pixel-density that I need to go to great lengths to reconfigure my window manager and various applications, aside from increasing font sizes a bit here and there.  I'm not sure yet how well it's going to survive the rigors of travel - it feels kind of flimsy, but so far I've had no problems. ... I would at least consider buying this machine for personal use..."

Lenovo ThinkPad X220
LWirzenius also runs Debian buster on a 2012 X220 with a non-standard 16 GiB RAM and a 2.5" (7 mm high) Samsung SSD. LWirzenius says it works lovely but is a little old, especially the screen. This is the second one they've purchased and they may buy another!

TCipriani runs a 2011 X220 with 16 GB RAM, i5-2540M CPU @ 2.60GHz processor, 500GB SSD primary, 256GB mSATA SSD secondary, and an IPS display. The OS is Debian testing with coreboot and ME_Cleaner to truncate the Intel Management Engine backdoor.

"Overall I really like my setup, but it's starting to show some age... I also own a ThinkPad X230t which has a less-nice keyboard than the X220, is harder to coreboot, but has a way cool Waycom tablet screen. I don't think I plan on upgrading anytime soon."

Pros

 * "Best keyboard ever."
 * Old enough hardware that all drivers are supported.
 * Hardware is very hackable / extendable.
 * Fast enough for me.
 * "Secondary hard drive has been a boon (where all my git repos go, mounted at /srv/, everything goes into /srv/git which I have symlinked in ~/Projects)."

Cons

 * Poor battery life.
 * Intel Wi-Fi chip.

Lenovo ThinkPad X230
BBearnes (WMF) has a late 2013 X230. "The build quality isn't quite up to classic-era ThinkPads, and it's definitely taken some damage, but it has many of the qualities I appreciate in traditional ThinkPad design: Lots of attention to the keyboard, a bunch of ports, swappable battery, great keyboard lighting, little flashlight LED that you can toggle on, etc."

"Not a ton of screen real-estate and almost certainly underpowered if you're running VMs / a ton of Docker containers locally, but generally very usable and I still take it to the coffee shop as a writing machine from time to time."

Lenovo ThinkPad X240
Tim_Starling runs Xubuntu on an X240 with dual-band Wi-Fi, a 256 GB SSD, and the large battery option. Tim adds: "Yes I will buy another one. This is my second ThinkPad. The first was an R61e, which was similar to a T series. The X series gives you a smaller form factor but otherwise about the same specs as a T series. In my home office it's always plugged in to a monitor, so it makes sense to size the built-in screen for travelling. With the R61e it was difficult to fully open it on an airline tray table, it would hit the seat in front. The X series fits in that space."

System76 Galaga UltraPro
BBearnes (WMF) has a late 2014 UltraPro. "...I will probably not buy a System76 laptop again unless something changes drastically. It was actually quite powerful and internals-wise would have made a very reasonable desktop system, but the keyboard was terrible, the battery life basically nonexistent, and the overall physical quality of the build (aside from the simplicity of taking it apart and putting back together, which I appreciated) would have been embarrassing on a laptop at a third of the (considerable) price.