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Since you were seeking laptops I imagine you're fine with the computing power laptops usually offer. I recently purchased a ThinkPad E14 gen 3. It has a 6 cor
by 2143 5y ago
Since you were seeking laptops I imagine you're fine with the computing power laptops usually offer.
I recently purchased a ThinkPad E14 gen 3.
It has a 6 core 12 thread Ryzen 5 5600U, with 24 GB of memory (8 GB soldered + 16 GB I installed later).
I run Linux exclusively. No Windows or dual boot or anything like that.
I currently run the latest Fedora 36 Beta. On this particular OS I have none of the usual Linux problems.
- Wifi works on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.
- Bluetooth works seamlessly. Picks up my wireless mouse and headphones right after boot/wakeup. Couldn't say the same about my older Linux laptops.
- Sleep/suspend/wakeup etc works.
- Camera works. Btw it has a shutter.
- Screen resolution is full HD.
- Battery life of about 6 to 7 hours on moderate usage. I think you might be able to customise your order with a bigger battery and faster charger.
What doesn't work:
- Fingerprint sensor
Note that I did not have to do any workarounds on my machine with Fedora 36 Beta. YMMV.
Some general thoughts on the ThinkPad E14:
- Material quality of the E series is definitely not as great as the T, P, and X series of ThinkPad. But then again, it was much much cheaper, and I think the quality is okay for the price.
- You can upgrade memory, storage, and a few other things by opening up the bottom panel.
- Keyboard is great. Trackpad isn't as good as the ones on the Mac. I personally like the 3 physical buttons above the trackpad.
- Choose your display wisely. There are TN displays as well as better quality displays.
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My friend has the same laptop, except it's on Ryzen 3, memory is only 8 GB, and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. On his machine, there are the following two problems:
- Display always goes to full brightness on boot.
- Memory shows only 6.2 GB (usually it shows 7.7 on other Ubuntu laptops with 8 gb; on my Fedora it shows the full 24 GB).
However, these are OS specific problems and workarounds exist. Also, I'm hoping things would be sorted out in the newer versions of the Linux kernel.
- xbar 5y agoSidebar: do you have an opinion about which ThinkPad series currently has the best material quality, disregarding weight as a factor of such quality?
- 2143 5y agoI haven't used it extensively, but the X1 carbon impressed me. Where I live the X1 carbon is crazy expensive though — even more expensive than well spruced Macbooks. The newer M1 Macbooks have impressed me. Though I love Linux, I don't do anything that can only be done on Linux. Hence I hesitate to spend more than a Macbook money on a ThinkPad.