
What are good Linux laptops for 2019? - gtt
I&#x27;m developer and after a year on a MacBook pro I&#x27;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&#x27;ve ever had, but I still want to go back home to linux.<p>I&#x27;m currently considering 
1) Dell XPS 15 (but the previous one I&#x27;ve had had only 2-3 hours of battery life)
2) Huawei Matebook X Pro, but I prefer 15&quot; screen to 14&quot;
======
tristram_shandy
ThinkPad 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.

~~~
anonlapwarmer
Just 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).

~~~
wishinghand
How much of an effort was it to get MacOS in there? Did you follow a tutorial?

------
frfl
Pro 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-
batt...](https://www.tecmint.com/tlp-increase-and-optimize-linux-battery-
life/)

~~~
lasagnaphil
Or powertop, which works well too.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerTOP](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerTOP)

------
automathematics
I 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
I 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
I 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
Likewise with me. The iPad is a great device for non-programming activities.

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anonlapwarmer
MBP 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.

------
ioddly
Pretty 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.

------
wmantly
I 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
Also 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

------
ahachete
Writing 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.

~~~
kevinherron
I’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
maybe 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
I've had this installed and running since day 1.

------
jchw
I 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.)

------
lukaszkups
I'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).

------
yulaow
Thinkpad 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
T480 (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.

------
akmittal
I 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
Asus 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.

------
knotty66
2013 - 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.

------
Can_Not
I 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
Is it problematic to use external monitors under linux with the nvidia dgpu?
In a old model I had it was a pita

~~~
Can_Not
Maybe, I'm going to try this: [https://www.linuxbabe.com/desktop-linux/switch-
intel-nvidia-...](https://www.linuxbabe.com/desktop-linux/switch-intel-nvidia-
graphics-card-ubuntu)

------
whalabi
I'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
I 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.

------
kdamica
I'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.

------
Jaepa
As 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
Also 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.

------
zlynx
Your 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
Can you elaborate more on that issue (and how to turn it off)?

------
saltedshiv
I'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
I 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.

------
poolsuite
Those 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
Asus 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)

------
joseph8th
Anybody have the Thinkpad P1? Been thinking about it...

------
mk926
I 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

------
auslegung
My next linux laptop is probably going to be the sytem76 Galago Pro, you can
get it very highly specced for a very reasonable price.

------
ggm
ThinkPad carbons rated well by owners. Pre carbon X series rated well by
diehards

~~~
rayiner
I own one (6th gen). It’s _okay_ relative to other PC laptops. The WQHD
display is good. Trackpad is passable. Lenovo’s quality control is shit. The
bezel is a peelable sticker....

~~~
ggm
Lenovo: Trashing the brand, one change at a time..

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daviddever23box
Dell m55x0 with 4K touch display and preloaded Ubuntu works very well.

------
andrewfromx
iPad with mosh into remote Linux box in cloud. It’s the best!

------
crb002
MBP with Docker.

~~~
chpmrc
Docker on macOS literally halves the battery life (since it's running a VM).

~~~
quickthrower2
If it halves the battery life that’s a really bad sign of an inefficiency
somewhere. Docker isn’t even a VM.

~~~
mldbk
Docker isn't even a VM on Linux Kernel :)

On macOS/Windows it will run a small VM with Linux Kernel first.

