Personally I don’t get the hype with any of these products. Just because they run Linux by default isn’t a strong enough selling point when I can get better specs for cheaper elsewhere and install Linux myself.
If one can afford to pay the higher price, then Star Labs’ (or System76’ etc) laptops will offer far superior Linux support. Modern hardware from non-‘Linux-first’ vendors have shown causing troubles with ‘deep sleep’. Issues like these can and have been resolved on Star Labs’ (or System76’ etc) devices. Furthermore, they don’t only sell ‘Linux-laptops’, but they also contribute to the upstream of coreboot and other Linux projects. Thus, by buying their laptops, one is actively contributing to that cause.
This. If you’ve ever bought a laptop and then realized you couldn’t use the touchpad or thr WiFi because it wasn’t supported in Linux, you’d see the importance of a vendor that explicitly supports linux.
I’ve also been in charge if buying laptops at work for employee’s. After a few devices wouldn’t work 100% in Linux, we only bought devices that were explicitly made for Linux. It’s not worth the risk of throwing $1k-$3k at a device only to learn later that it’s not usable.
I also hear that battery life can be optimised better!
It looks like a typical, modern laptop. There’s hardly any ports on it, it uses a non removable lipo battery, and charges with a fragile USB C connector.
I want a big, swapable battery that uses 18650 cells, a robust charging connector, a full set of audio jacks, ethernet, and lots of USB A connectors. USB C connectors don’t belong on a laptop unless they are easily replaceable like on the framework laptops.
Are you willing to pay several thousand for a mediocre CPU and no dedicated graphics?
Because even then they don’t have a chance of making their R&D back.
I want a big, swapable battery that uses 18650 cells,
I mean, me too. I think that having less than a 100 Wh battery is nuts, but it’s essentially impossible to find them.
I think that a couple of things have killed this:
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Cost. Cutting battery size is an easy way to cut cost, and it’s less-explicit than, say, cutting RAM, as vendors often list a non-standardized “hours of battery life”.
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USB PD plus external power stations. I think the expectation is that one will get one and having the user just use external ports makes life easier for the vendor and means that they don’t need to deal with counterfeit batteries and such. Also moves heat out of the laptop. I would be more sympathetic to this if there were a standard for a laptop to start automatically drawing from an external USB powerstation when its internal battery gets low, rather than requiring manually-triggering charging.
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Weight. Apparently some people are super-rabid about laptop weight.
100 Wh is the maximum you’re allowed to bring on to an airplane.
Right, which is why I favor the 100Wh battery.
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Wow almost 2k for a laptop? Ok it has actually good specs, but still it’s alot.
I checked out the website on my phone and it was a hot mess. Wtf is going on there?
Yeah, that overview page is rough. The specs page worked alright tho.
A little bit pricey 😲
At that price, i’d just get a dell…
Every time it’s the same…
Why not just make a good enough laptop for a cheap price ?
Why not just make a good enough laptop for a cheap price ?
You can have a good laptop or a cheap one, not both.
You are conflating good and powerfull. The basic 1800£ one from then isnt even that powerfull. Half price from samsung or something would be the same. It’s just not worth it, not by a long shot.
Cool! I think 16" laptops are too big, but nice specs. Amd 7040 series is looking great
Removable camera and killswitches? That’s pretty sweet!
It looks great! They accept crypto, so in the next big pump I will get one!
Just be careful with this. I bought a $2k laptop with crypto. When it broke and they refunded me in crypto, it was pegged to the fiat amount. So the price slip meant I lost ~$500 on a 100% refund
I am not sure about the haptic feedback on the trackpad! I hate it on a phone. It is too jolting! If it is tap to click that is also aweful - at least on Plasma, as the palm rejection is not very good. Hopefully it can be turned off and has a physical click.
Have you ever actually tried a haptic touchpad? I have and honestly they are so much better everything else feels like a joke in comparison.
Also no it won’t have a physical click, that defeats the purpose. It’s also not the same as tap to click, it uses a force sensor.
As I said above, I have only had haptics on the phone - and I disable it! On a trackpad I want to be the one doing the pushing - not something else! Why exactly is it better? How is it not tap to click - force sensor or not? It is not like using a Theramin is it? Your fingers must be touching/tapping the touchpad, no? On top of that, any bit of interfering palm sensation is a great annoyance that I would rather avoid!
You’re passionate about something you don’t understand and have never tried.
Tap to click you remove your finger and press it back down to click. That’s why it’s called tap to click and not press to click.
With haptic touchpads you keep your finger where it is and apply more force. It’s a completely different gesture and is very similar to mechanical clicking touchpads.
Why it’s better is because it is consistent across the whole touchpad surface versus mechanical typically don’t work towards the top of the touchpad. Mechanical touchpads normally feel loose to me and you can’t change the actuation force. With a haptic touchpad you can change the actuation force since it’s a force sensor with a software defined threshold.
It also doesn’t feel anything like phone haptics. It feels more like a press than a vibration like a phone does.
These are also higher quality touchpads in general that have more resolution. Theoretical even better than the Apple force touch devices I have used.
Walk into an Apple store and try one of their devices before you complain again.
Ok, nice! No, I did not understand, so thanks for your explanation! It makes more sense now! Yes, true, there is nothing worse that a sloppy, loose touchpad. Thanks for the detailed response! 🙏
I have been skeptical of haptic trackpads in the past but they feel great on the Steam Deck
Cassidy Glass is aptly named after Cassidy James Blaede’s feedback found over here.
Is it just me, or is the sound the keyboard is making really bothersome? It sounds like awful banging. Can’t imagine that being pleasant.
