I am in the market for a laptop, so I thought I’d ask here for suggestions here.
For context, I am a selling my gaming PC for a laptop as I have largely stopped gaming as I’ve gotten older and am moving around quite a lot in my day-to-day, so having to SSH into my daily driver all the time can get annoying. If I were to have my DREAM laptop, I would like a LOT of disk space as I store a lot of projects locally and plan to dual-booth Windows and Arch Linux (though, I will only use Linux 99% of the time). Additionally, I would like at least one or two USB-A ports, and HDMI out would be very helpful as I am not selling my monitors, but it is not even remotely a requirement as I have my adapters. I would prefer it not be RGB (granted, I can always just not use it), but backlights are quite nice. I need not a dedicated graphics card but I would like good specs otherwise (my budget isn’t a huge concern). I currently use a 65% keyboard and that is my absolute favorite layout. A laptop that uses a 65% keyboard would be a god-send, but my more technical preferences are more important. Lastly, I would like to support a company that encourages/contributes towards Linux/open-source. If they have RGB or other control software that has native Linux support, that would be nice. But I plan to dual-boot so that’s not a huge issue.
Recommendation if you want the best based on storage capacity, being on go, and reliability:
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 --or-- ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11
Once you go ThinkPad X1 Yoga or ThinkPad X1 Carbon, generally most never look back to HP Z-books or Dell Latitudes, anymore.
https://ubuntu.com/certified/202303-31326
Well, if cost is not an issue, then get the ThinkPad X1-G8/X1C-G11 with this configuration:
i7-1365U - (do not get P processor, it runs hot and sucks up too much battery life)
64gb RAM
Starts at 1TB -> 8TB SSD (upgrade it yourself or have tech help you do it)
Screen: 1920x1200 (anti-glare - matte, which is non-glossy and no shiny coating) - avoid 4K or OLED, the battery life is terrible compared to just. also, do NOT get the privacy filter, it sucks as coloration is terrible.
Onsite support for parts replacement by Lenovo tech or overnight delivery: 5y Premier Support Plus (cost jumps, otherwise move it to 3y middle tier at Premier non-plus, and upgrade it later as you need it).
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 (it will be laptop, and a tablet when you need it to), if you don’t need it to flip, get X1C, the keyboard experience is typically slightly better on it. The HP and Dell keyboards remains mostly junk for typing enthusiasts based on what I’ve seen.
Models have no discrete graphics so you don’t have to worry about iGPU/discrete-GPU toggling in Linux for drivers/support or switchover junk or battery life drainage concerns.
10h-20h of battery life, depending on usage.
ThinkPad series mentioned here supports downgrade to W10 from W11 if you need native Win10 legacy environment that you can’t get anymore with more new laptops, and can dual boot Linux if and when needed.
This man laptops! Thanks, lol. I was wondering how long it would take to get recommended a ThinkPad considering I mentioned im a Linux user. I’ve never owned one but I’ll definitely look into it. Also, the information about the display is actually very helpful