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What are good Linux laptops for 2019?
I'm developer and after a year on a MacBook pro I'm still missing things like i3wm. Also, touchbar of MBP is just a nuisance. On the other hand I like screen, weight and battery life of MBP, best of all laptops I've ever had, but I still want to go back home to linux.
I'm currently considering
1) Dell XPS 15 (but the previous one I've had had only 2-3 hours of battery life)
2) Huawei Matebook X Pro, but I prefer 15" screen to 14"
- ahachete 8y agoWriting from a Carbon X1 6th gen right now. Ubuntu 18.04 stock, no tweaking required, all worked no problem. The best laptop I ever had. Previously owned a 4th gen. 16.04, minor tweaking, also excellent laptop. Pricey, but the best you can get.
- lokicat 8y agoseconding the x1c6, fantastic linux machine. Lenovo's sub-model differences are a little bit baffling, but this means there are sometimes deals to be had on ebay.
- kevinherron 8y agoI’ve got one of these as well, and it’s great at running Linux, but it’s SOOO much slower than my 6-core MBP. Compiling any project that takes longer than 30 seconds kicks the fans into high gear, throttles the cpu, and leaves it nearly unusable until it’s finished.
- frfl 8y agomaybe this anti-throttling script[1] should help. I'm able to run at max CPU clock frequency at 85-90+ deg temps without throttling when doing CPU intense stuff (t480s, not carbon, but should work on carbon). [1]: https://github.com/erpalma/throttled https://github.com/erpalma/throttled
- kevinherron 8y agoI've had this installed and running since day 1.
- lokicat 8y agothat's impossible. If it were that that much faster, it'd have to weigh twice as much and the CPU would probably have double the TDP! :)
- rayiner 8y agoDo you use it as a laptop? What’s the battery life like with no tweaking?
- ahachete 8y agoYes, very frequently. I haven't measured it, but it lasts quite long.
- ninetax 8y agoI have the high density version of this laptop and it's a pain switching between external monitor and the laptop screen due to lack of ubuntu support for per monitor fractional scaling. Otherwise it's been pretty good. I wouldn't say no tweaking at all, but mostly none. Love the keyboard.
- poolsuite 8y agoThose cheap sub-$200 Dell Inspirons run Xubuntu no problem. No non-free wlan needed and storage is easily expandable with USB 3.0. No complaints so far the experience has been smooth.
- sdfsdfsdfsdf3 8y agoAsus Vivobooks are fine and cheap .e.g S410U and easily upgradable (taking it to 16gb cost maybe $100) Everything works out the box except the fingerprint reader (maybe in 19.04)
- andrewfromx 8y agoiPad with mosh into remote Linux box in cloud. It’s the best!
- jchw 8y agoI would also recommend considering Thinkpads which often run Linux fairly well (not always, but usually.) The X1 Carbon series is generally a great option (though be mindful of which generation you're getting since it varies strongly by generation.)
- ggm 8y agoThinkPad carbons rated well by owners. Pre carbon X series rated well by diehards
- Jaepa 8y agoAs mentioned the X series is great. The X1 Extreme Pros: - Up to theoretical 64 GB RAM (2 DDR4 slots) - 15.6in screen. - Secondary M.2 PCIe slot - Optional 4K display. Con - Nvidia GPU - 5-6 Hour Battery life There is also the X1 which is 14 in laptop, which max memory at 16GB of ram and but has great battery life.
- dhairya 8y agoAlso second the X1 extreme. I bought for my machine learning projects and work. It comes with a dinky GPU (1050 TI w/ 4GB) which is useful for running experimenting with small deep learning models locally. I was able to buy mine with 64 gb and core i7 (i7-8750H 6 Core Processor) during Lenovo's cyber monday sale for around ~$1,800. It looks like Lenovo is moving aggressively and is selling their high end laptops at a discount to capture the Apple audience. A similarly configured Macbook pro would run closer to $3,500. I run pop os (ubuntu flavor) and it runs great. A couple of caveats. There is no linux driver for the finger print reader. Also it is super loud, anytime you do something intensive the fans start running. Additionally, you need to tune the laptop to get better battery performance. Usually, I disable the NVIDIA driver for general use which improves the life by 50 to 60%. And finally there have been some documented bios issues which have caused bricking. This is avoidable if you stay away from the touching the bios. Thankfully pop os makes switching between the drivers easy. Overall, its a great laptop. Love the keyboard and the power under the hood.
- auslegung 8y agoMy next linux laptop is probably going to be the sytem76 Galago Pro, you can get it very highly specced for a very reasonable price.
- automathematics 8y agoI typically use my google pixelbook recently since it lets you run a containerized linux in a secure OS but I get it if that's not your thing. - System76 laptops are generally well reviewed. The Oryx Pro looks nice - I had a Dell XPS15 and hated everything about it for some reason, but - I have a Dell XPS13 and I absolutely LOVE it, so that that for what its worth
- mark_l_watson 8y agoI bought an 4K display Oryx Pro last fall and love it. The 1070 GPU let's me do ML locally. But, it is large and heavy. I find myself grabbing my MacBook when I am on the move. I would like to replace the MacBook with a very light weight Linux laptop, sometime.
- JHonaker 8y agoI have an Oryx Pro as well. When I don’t need the power, I find myself grabbing my iPad with “Pencil”. It’s probably a function of what I do. When I’m not coding or playing a game, I’m reading papers and writing math. When I’m on the go, I’m not looking to do the kinds of things I do at work.
- mark_l_watson 8y agoLikewise with me. The iPad is a great device for non-programming activities.
- jseliger 8y agoFWIW, Dell's XPSes are supposed to get an OLED screen shortly: https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/08/dell-4k-oled-xps-alienware https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/08/dell-4k-oled-xps-alienwa.... May not be valuable to everyone, but it's likely valuable to some people.
- frfl 8y agoPro tip, whatever laptop you do get, look into TLP[1]. It'll make a significant difference with battery life. [1]: https://www.tecmint.com/tlp-increase-and-optimize-linux-battery-life/ https://www.tecmint.com/tlp-increase-and-optimize-linux-batt...
- lasagnaphil 8y agoOr powertop, which works well too. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerTOP https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerTOP
- anonlapwarmer 8y agoMBP refugee here. Lenovo T480: real-life 11 hour battery w/ the second extended battery, lighted/water-resistant/good-feel keyboard, WQHD display, up to 32 (maybe 64 unofficially) GiB of RAM, Quad-core i7, MIL-SPEC rated, still user-servicable. It's not the latest in everything but it's awesome all-around. And, if you somehow find the right channel to order from, you maybe able to order it in a magnesium (!) top-case. There maybe a way to shoehorn in 3 SSDs of different types by using a dual SSD SATA tray that RAIDs them together and presents them as SATA and the WWAN bay with a properly-keyed right-angle NGFF extender.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- saltedshiv 8y agoI've had a Dell Precision 5510 and now I'm using a Precision 5520. Ive run Ubuntu, but am currently running Fedora 29 on the 5520. Fantastic machine. Best Linux on laptop experience I've ever had.
- rsyring 8y agoI switched to a ThinkPad due to the 5520 bottom mounted camera. I never thought I'd hate it so much, but we started doing lots of video calls at work, and it really became an issue for me.
- tristram_shandy 8y agoThinkPad T480 (with a 1080ti in an external GPU enclosure for gaming at home / ML) 32 GB, 10+ hour battery life, 1Tb of flash storage with OPAL transparent self-encryption, WQHD main display, two USB C ports + two regular USB ports + an ethernet jack, automatic firmware updates through the package manager, and most importantly, no driver issues with the laptop and Linux whatsoever! I replaced my workstation and gaming computer with this setup and am finally down to one-device nirvana. Last month I knocked a full cup of coffee on the keyboard, and was relieved to discover the keyboard is completely separate and isolate from the rest of the device and is designed to be easily user replaceable -- I was able to replace the entire keyboard ($80 on Amazon) without even opening the case! The assembly is held in place by two screws on the bottom. My previous laptop was a 2018 MBP, which I sold after two months due to my dislike (and distrust) of the keyboard. Couldn't be happier.
- ioddly 8y ago> I replaced my workstation and gaming computer with this setup and am finally down to one-device nirvana. That's a tantalizing option, what kind of gaming do you do on it? I'm at a point where I'm ready to have one computer, but while I don't do very much gaming any more I do like to pick up new games.
- tristram_shandy 8y agoThe external 1080Ti will run pretty much everything flawlessly. I play Overwatch, Rocket League, GTA V, etc, and run everything with max settings and get consistent 60FPS with vsync and no tearing. Of course, you can always upgrade the graphics card in your external GPU enclosure to keep up with future titles
- grover_hartmann 8y agoDo you play Overwatch and GTA V with Proton?
- anonlapwarmer 8y agoJust got mine on the Presidents' Day sale. Not Linux rn but as a Hackintosh it's working pretty well apart from SD card reader, not reading fan sensors in iStat Menus / HWMonitor / Mac Fan Control and slow WiFi after sleep. iMessage, FaceTime, most Synaptics gestures working fine. - 20L5 - WQHD - larger extended battery - Quad-core i7-5550U - lighted keyboard - 16 GiB (will upgrade later to 32 or 64 if unofficially-supported) - Swapped WiFi to DW1830 and added a third antenna - Samsung 970 Pro 1 TB + Lenovo SSD tray (took off the retail SSD label on one side for the heat-spreader thermal adhesive) Looking on Amazon/eBay/AliExpress for vinyl art (Banksy perhaps) to cover up the ThinkPad logo or maybe having it vinyl wrapped with the stuff used on cars (heat-shrunk).
- mk926 8y agoI use Thinkdpad 13 with Ubuntu18.04 and 16G memory, 256G SSD, i7, it's light, battery life is good, 1080p screen, and it's cheap
- wmantly 8y agoI have been using Linux on many higher end HP laptops without issue. At the moment I have HP Spectre x360 15in 2016,8th gen i7 16gb RAM, 512GB SSD and 2gb mx950 Nvidia. After installing Linux Mint 19 everything worked out of the box and i get about 6-hour of battery. I have a few older HP envy series and each of them work with out issue. The only issue i have had in the past 5years is laptops with more then 2 speakers. Linux just assumes 2 speakers and you get shit sound. This is fixable with jack-reset.
- lecarore 8y agoAlso using hp here, i used 2 models (burnt the first one by connecting it to a cheap hdmi adapter while on battery). They're not the best but you get a great laptop for 600€. Nvidia graphic card handling needs tweaking on Ubuntu or it stays constantly at max power. I never tried to get the fingerprint reader to work. The rest works fine. I really like having 3 external screen outputs (vga + hdmi + usb c) to make a triple screen setup without needing an adapter
- kdamica 8y agoI've been using a Galago Pro for over a year now, and I can't recommend it. I thought I wouldn't mind the small battery but it's burned me a few times now. I'm hesitant to even leave it overnight in suspend mode. If I could do it over I'd get an XPS 13, non touch screen.
- akmittal 8y agoI am using Asus Zenbook UX430. Everything except fingerprint works out of box. Getting 6+ hours of battery life with kubuntu 18.10 installed. Also it is decently priced.
- robgibbons 8y agoAsus Vivobook F510UA here, same report: 6+ hours on Ubuntu MATE 18.10. Runs perfect out of the box, sans fingerprint support. Great machine if you add the M.2 SSD and more RAM. From what I've read, fingerprint support for the hardware is still experimental but should be working soon.
- ioddly 8y agoPretty happy on a Thinkpad X230 over here. Cheap as dirt and upgradable/repairable. Battery life is a few hours with a fresh battery. If I got another I'd probably pick up an X1 Carbon. After my last ASUS laptop I will never buy a non-business laptop again. If you stick with the Mac, it's not as good as a real tiling WM but I find Amethyst helps.
- zlynx 8y agoYour problem with the Dell was likely its Nvidia GPU. Even if you aren't using it, the Linux drivers seem to leave it "on". You have to actually unload or never load the drivers. My XPS 15 gets six hours, easy on Fedora 29.
- auraham 8y agoCan you elaborate more on that issue (and how to turn it off)?
- joseph8th 8y agoAnybody have the Thinkpad P1? Been thinking about it...
- crb002 8y agoMBP with Docker.
- chpmrc 8y agoDocker on macOS literally halves the battery life (since it's running a VM).
- quickthrower2 8y agoIf it halves the battery life that’s a really bad sign of an inefficiency somewhere. Docker isn’t even a VM.
- onlydeadheroes 8y agoI think docker runs in a vm on platforms other than Linux.
- mldbk 8y agoDocker isn't even a VM on Linux Kernel :) On macOS/Windows it will run a small VM with Linux Kernel first.
- whalabi 8y agoI'm using a Gigabyte Aero 15X because I wanted the 8750H asap and a proper graphics card. 5 seconds in powertop and I'm getting 10 actual hours of proper use including heavy IDE and loads of browser tabs. I had a lot of trouble in windows with drivers and the likr, so it's not a perfect machine, but in Linux it's been pretty perfect (Ubuntu and Fedora)
- aidenn0 8y agoI run a 15" HP zBook. FWIW I configured it without discrete graphics as I don't game and it's supposed to be better for battery life. If you want something more in the "thin and light" category everyone I know with a recent XPS 13 loves it. Also using either TLP or PowerTOP is important; many distros don't have that out-of-the-box.
- daviddever23box 8y agoDell m55x0 with 4K touch display and preloaded Ubuntu works very well.
- knotty66 8y ago2013 - 2015, pre facelift MacBook Pro 13. Great Linux laptop, and a nice resolution without the scaling issues you will probably run into with a 4k screen. I run arch/i3wm on mine and it runs great. I had a new MBP like yours, but 'downgraded' to a 2015 model because it runs native Linux much better, and the keyboard is much less hassle too.
- yulaow 8y agoThinkpad t480 (t480s if you need at any cost something as slim as possible) or t580. Bonus part: nothing is soldered so you can replace any minor part without problems (yes I hate any notebook which has not easily replaceable ram or ssd or, worse, battery)
- mldbk 8y agoT480 (Intel Core i7-8650U, 32GB RAM) owner here. To be honest it is not doing its best, I mean not everything works at its best out of the box. What is broken: 1) There is some bug in intel firmware out of the box. You will never get your peak CPU freq @ turbo boost mode. Check dmesg and see some fake errors like: ```[35678.237593] CPU0: Core temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 123) [35678.237593] CPU4: Core temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 123) [35678.237595] CPU4: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237597] CPU0: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237637] CPU5: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237638] CPU1: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237639] CPU6: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237640] CPU3: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237640] CPU2: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237641] CPU7: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179)``` It's well known problem, just google "Lenovo throttling fix". I am sitting on 4.20.16 and still I've to apply some workarounds, such as undervolting CPU and so on. 2) Huge power consumption. I spent weekend to lower it up to 4-6 wh in idle from 14 wh in idle (sic!) You have to turn everything unneeded off in BIOS (smartcard reader, card reader, ...?). Changing Thunderbolt Assist Mode to Enabled is a must. But be aware of some nasty bug, when after turning assist mode on you will get a brick instead of working device. To avoid it you have to upgrade BIOS, thanks I get BIOS updates in Gnome Software Center (Fedora). Of course take care and install tlp and so on. 3) There is bug in ACPI, when you enter into S3 mode (by design only CPU0 should be online) all of cores will wake up immediately after entering sleep mode. This leads to increased power consumption in sleep mode (approx 10-15% during all night). There are some other little quirks that I don't remember at the moment. However overall it's a great laptop. I am running Fedora 29 and pretty happy.
- Can_Not 8y agoI currently have a Dell XPS 15 (the model before all USB C ports) with 4k screen, nvidia, Intel quadcore. Replaced windows 10 with ubuntu 18.04, so far the best linux laptop experience I've ever had. Brightness keys work. Closing the lid suspends correctly. I probably need to look for a bath script to turn on/off the nvidia card.
- yulaow 8y agoIs it problematic to use external monitors under linux with the nvidia dgpu? In a old model I had it was a pita
- Can_Not 8y agoMaybe, I'm going to try this: https://www.linuxbabe.com/desktop-linux/switch-intel-nvidia-graphics-card-ubuntu https://www.linuxbabe.com/desktop-linux/switch-intel-nvidia-...
- lukaszkups 8y agoI'm not sure how the current generation works, but I have very good experience with ASUS Zenbook serie (especially 16GB UX32LN - still works flawlessly). Also I can recommend 2018s XPS - works just fine with xubuntu (haven't tried other distros).