This is a bit of a rant; feel free to skip it if you’re here for the KDE content.
This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about the dearth of truly great PC laptops out there, and I suspect it won’t be the last.
I limit myself to a single computer for simplicity’s sake, so it has to be a laptop. And since I replaced my 2020 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga a year ago, I haven’t succeeded at finding a truly great replacement yet. From a certain point of view, you could say I’m a picky buyer, judging by my list of requirements. But frankly, I think these requirements are not that unreasonable. All I want is a laptop that gets the basics right:
- Good screen with a DPI suitable for 175-200% scaling, generally between 240 and 280 DPI
- Good keyboard with text navigation keys (Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down) and a sensible layout: delete at the top right, no stupid replacement of normal modifier keys with fingerprint readers or copilot keys, no tiny arrow keys, etc.
- Good touchpad that’s precise, doesn’t lag, and allows clicking on most or all of the total area
- Good speakers that get reasonably loud and don’t have downward-facing tweeters
- 8 hours of battery life with low usage
- Reasonably fast CPU
- Reasonable GPU performance for desktop compositing and playing couple-year-old games
- Replaceable disk
Just the basics; no great world-shattering innovation needed, and that’s before I narrow the search to laptops that lack NVIDIA GPUs and have touch or 2-in-1 capabilities (which I quite like and are highly useful for testing touch support in KDE software). So it has to have great Linux and Plasma compatibility too!
I’ve closely followed the PC laptop market for 9 years, maintaining a giant spreadsheet of every laptop model and how they fare on the above characteristics plus many more:
The multi-year trend is “one step forward, one step back.” Most companies still change their laptops’ keyboard layouts in random negative ways every year; ship with stupid screen resolutions, woefully bad speakers, and disappointing touchpads; and stuff the most powerful processor and GPU in there and don’t focus enough on tuning the cooling, power usage, and fan profiles.
Some examples from my own usage:
My 2016 HP Spectre x360 was slow and had a poor screen DPI and a laggy touchpad. The 2024 model fixed those problems but lost its HDMI ports and text nav keys, and the USB-A port has a fiddly and annoying little hinge that’s hard to use and will eventually break. And then the 14″ version was canceled in 2025.
My 2020 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga was also slow, had miserable battery life and a loud fan, put the Fn and PrintScreen keys in inconvenient places, and its high resolution 4K screen option had too high a DPI, wasting energy. The 2025 model fixed those issues but lost the excellent quad speaker system, garaged pen, and the third key to the right of the spacebar that let you re-bind one of them into being a second Meta key.
None of this would be a problem if you could customize and upgrade laptops like you can with desktops, but you can’t. Even on the Framework 13 laptop which makes this an explicit selling point and has made huge leaps in 4 years, there still aren’t aftermarket speaker modules that sound good or a keyboard deck with text nav keys. And the touch/2-in-1 capabilities are only offered on the 12″ model.
Where are the great laptops?
Let’s step back a bit and try to figure out what’s going on here. We have an industry of over a dozen PC manufacturers selling thousands of products, but few truly great ones that are satisfactory in all ways, not just a few.
I feel that a major problem is over-complicated product lines. Let’s look at what the big companies offer.
Here’s Lenovo:
Seven product lines (or is it eight? There’s an extra one in the sidebar not shown in the main view) and 330 distinct models! How can a normal person who isn’t a laptop enthusiast find anything in here? Even my eyes glaze over when I’m trying to distinguish the differences between the models and product lines.
The problem is that maintaining so many product lines at a reasonable level of development and quality is impossible, even for a company of Lenovo’s size with billions of dollars to throw at the problem.
But it’s not just Lenovo: HP further complicates things by having separate sites for consumer laptops and business laptops. First the consumer laptops:
12 product lines with 67 models. Already a lot. But now add in the business laptops:
7 product lines with 352 models! Absurd. HP implicitly acknowledges the problem by advertising a sales advisor you can chat with to help you make heads or tails of this overwhelming mess (and maybe steer you towards more expensive models):
In total, HP offers 19 product lines and 419 models. Madness, I tell you. Sheer madness.
ASUS makes it even harder by dividing their models into micro-targeted audiences, which makes no sense since there’s overlap in all these use cases and only limited differences between what any of them need in a laptop:
Ultimately I found 8 product lines with 289 models on the US site. Yikes!
MSI does similar segmentation but finds a way to make it even worse by putting more models in each high level category and not offering a “See all” page:
Hmm, do I want a Titan gaming laptop, or a Raider? Maybe a Vector ? Perhaps a Cyborg, or is that a Thin? Apparently they can’t even settle on one name for half of them. Ultimately MSI has divided their laptops into no fewer than 16 product lines with 159 models.
How about Dell?
10 product lines, 70 models. A bit better than some of the competition, but 70 total is still an objectively ridiculous level of choice to offer, especially considering that most of these models are going to offer various configurations of CPUs, memory, and storage space.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
You might think that this level of choice should provide anything one could want, but that’s not true. Most of the models differ by like 1% and make all the same mistakes, copy-pasted across the whole product line.
These companies are clearly trying to micro-target specific market segments to match prices to buyers’ budgets, but offering so much choice is foolish. Most buyers — even big commercial buyers — are not informed enough to be able to pick the perfect device from among a massive blob of options presented at the same level. The result is choice paralysis, lost sales, disappointing purchases that reduce brand loyalty, and expensive returns.
There has to be a better way!
Who’s doing it right?
There are some bright spots in the industry.
The most notable is Apple, which offers two product lines and five total models. The differences between them are 100% comprehensible. No matter what Apple laptop you choose, it has a world-class touchpad, great speakers, an at-least-good keyboard with a sensible layout, a nice high DPI screen, great performance, and mind-blowing battery life. There are no bad models (if you’re a Mac fan, of course).
Razer is up there too, with one product line and three models, and all of them mostly get the basics right.
Framework also does a great job, also with just three models. The Framework 13 is so close to being the perfect do-it-all general purpose device for me. It just needs text nav keys, better speakers, and a touchscreen (ideally in a 2-in-1 form factor like the 12).
The small Linux-specific StarLabs company does an unexpectedly great job too, with the same three models (hmm, perhaps there’s a pattern here). And these aren’t Clevo or Tongfang units, either! They’re really nice custom engineered Linux-first laptops. I’ve come close to buying one on two occasions within the past year.
And notably, these companies’ laptops tend to get better with each revision, rather than oscillating around a specific level of quality but never consistently improving.
How to not confuse the hell out of people
It’s not that hard: offer a small number of product lines and models with very clear segmentation (by screen size, presence or absence of a GPU, 2-in-1 vs clamshell laptop, etc) and make all of them good. Don’t sell any bad models that have crappy screens, keyboards, touchpads, speakers, or battery life. Don’t sell any models that are 99% identical to other ones. Don’t do this:
Then make each product better every year. Don’t just put in a new generation of CPUs and ports when they become available; be thoughtful and actually make things better. Reduce power consumption, fan noise, and heat emissions. Tune the speakers to sound better. Increase the screen backlight’s brightness. Put in a nicer, higher-resolution webcam. Increase the number of microphones, and add hardware noise cancellation. Tighten up the ports so they aren’t wobbly. Thicken the case to make it more durable. Beef up the hinges. Use captive screws for the bottom cover. Lighten or roughen the surface a bit to resist fingerprints. Make it easier to remove keys for cleaning without breaking their attachment mechanism. Make the whole keyboard replaceable.
And so on. You know, care about the product! The way we do in KDE for Plasma and our apps. Make it better. Admit and undo your mistakes. Double down on your strengths. And make something great you can be proud of!
A few companies are already there, and I hope someday more follow in their footsteps.
Adventures in Linux and KDE 
I hear you. I have a Huawei AMD 2020 and it has a premium Macbook quality to me as someone who has used the latter. It also has the taller 3:2 aspect screen which is a big improvement over widescreen on a laptop IMO.
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I know the feeling.
For years I was shopping for a laptop with a >1080p but <4k screen resolution between 12 and 14 inches in size, 2-in-1, replaceable ssd, usb-c charging (and more than 1 port, ideally 1 on each side of the laptop), and nice premium build quality. I also needed access to arrow keys, page up/down, and the other text navigation keys, and it NEEDED a backlit keyboard.
But for some reason EVERY manufacturer either put in 1080p screens for people who don’t care, or 4k screens to check that box (and drain the battery).
I finally found a Dell Latitude 9330 2-in-1 14″ open box deal on eBay that came close enough. It has it’s own problems, the screen doesn’t go dim enough, it’s a bit heavier than I’d like, the RAM is soldered on, in Linux the headphone jack always thought it had something plugged in for maybe the first year, the fingerprint reader doesn’t work (of course), for the longest time it thought it was on battery when it wasn’t booted with the usb-c charger attached, I’m not sure if the webcam works to this day, but it’s the best I could find (for the price especially).
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Hi,
I chose a rugged laptop.
Negative is, of course, the size/weight. It is signifcantly heavier and thicker than a regular laptop.
But the display is fantastic in sunlight, or bright rooms with its 1100 nits. I love the display. Vastly better than office laptops. Note that lightbleed is visisble. The keyboard is really good, and of course excellent privacy features since used by law enforcement and military. Speakers quite loud. The chassi is solid, and the display hinges are solid as well (does not wobble when you move it since made for being mounted in vehicles). I also love that you can attach shoulder straps and move around with it around your shoulder. Compared to modern Thinkpad T14s, this is a tank.
Note that the toucpad does not move, and this version is NOT water-proof.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/297461834586?_skw=5430+rugged&itmmeta=01K03ANA8KHJ4FZBE3ZH4C7E3W&hash=item45421b635a:g:vf8AAeSw-FZocTVE&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA4FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1ejUfzrXmAu8pgYhloJd7wuU1g0vYqsZS3L8hVjNvMTr4dRSnea1l6i%2B%2BbehVRzkyNGUhLxIixKssALzM5QXYmipDmD89ySZvHgC9NjAj5%2Fxs0uuQU2n0Sm4noyQBQZMyshaXg%2FFLP4nLZlHT4xgPg0hW%2BMjYzqTmOdmMZ6ZnevVNRy9%2B5reLpfLMWVeEhkf1jDT%2BoevGHnBxpPH2LfJEjXoT5kpOtXUks6n%2BZ2QWpS%2FiU6Z5ihUz12mZ9r1llZEd1tPafMhoDcmkRQKiVmMh4z%7Ctkp%3ABFBMuKTV6oBm
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Need to add.
You would need to make sure it is the 1100 nits outdoor display, and ask details about the configuration.
Mine has 2x USB-C (on both sides, both can dock/charge the laptop).
3x USB-A
Ethernet
HDMI (real)
VGA
Memory card reader
SIM card
Also GPS/WWAN if you need that for testing.
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I hear you! I share the same desires. If only builders focused on making a few products of top notch quality.
What do you think about the XMG brand? e.g the XMG core 15
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XMG laptops are Clevo/Tongfang rebrands. You can see how, for example https://www.xmg.gg/en/xmg-evo/, looks the same as https://slimbook.com/en/creative. Clevo/Tongfang laptops have been getting better over the years for sure. But there’s still a long way to go. See https://pointieststick.com/2025/07/13/the-hunt-for-a-perfect-laptop-continues/comment-page-1/#comment-40420
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Slimbook. It’s already great but you can request upgrade from the company to match all expectations.
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See https://pointieststick.com/2025/07/13/the-hunt-for-a-perfect-laptop-continues/comment-page-1/#comment-40420
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Is your work mostly on the go? Because your requirements list is quite long, and most of it would go away if you just docked your laptop. I bought a ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 AMD last year, it’s tiny (13″), has a nice screen, but 90% of my works is done when it is docked to a 40-inch display. The speakers are nothing to talk about, but again, I’m mostly using it with a pair of Beyerdynamic headphones and there was a time when I just had a small Yamaha Hi-Fi system connected to my PC. The keyboard is OK, but I’ve been using Microsoft Natural keyboard for years and I wouldn’t want to use a laptop keyboard for any longer work. Compared to my previous laptop, I’ve lost an Ethernet port, but I realized I’ve used an Ethernet dongle like 2 times since I bought the laptop. So, unless you travel most of the time, using external gear greatly enhances any laptop.
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I do have and use a nice docked setup with external screen, speakers, keyboard, and mouse. But maybe I’m just restless, because I only use it some of the time. I like being able to also work from the office, the kitchen, the den, the living room, etc.
And then when work is done, I like being able to snuggle up with my wife to watch a movie in bed, and external speakers aren’t going to be very useful there. That’s a specific use case where downward-firing tweeters produce really bad sound, because the sound goes into the bed sheets and gets muffled.
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We use a simple, cheap JBL Essential as an external speaker when watching movies, coupled over Bluetooth or if latency is a matter by cable. Works reasonable well for us and for sure the sound beats any laptop speaker. Since the speaker is reasonable small, it’s easy to carry around.
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Yeah we all feel your pain. However simple choice is what we have now in form of Gnome desktop. I guess most readers of your blog prefer something else. I for one, too, and btw none of the companies listed in the end of the post have a good enough product to offer from my pov. Everything they have is either overpriced or size mismatched (usually both). 16” is too big, 13” is too small.
One has to scroll pages and look for his best option, and I hope it will stay this way, because we’re all different.
PS: I hear lots of positive comments related to HP ZBook recently. You probablly should give it a try.
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The point is to offer relevant choice, like screen size, GPU, form factor, budget segment etc. rather than offer choice between “objectively slightly worse screen” and “objectively slightly better screen”.
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Yeah, it’s about offering choice that matters while getting the basics right, so people don’t need to pick from among an overwhelming set of poor options and frustrating trade-offs.
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I am for some years now buying from a small german company, Tuxedo: https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/
And being quite satisfied with their choices and offers.
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See https://pointieststick.com/2025/07/13/the-hunt-for-a-perfect-laptop-continues/comment-page-1/#comment-40420
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Learn from my mistakes and stay away from HP-laptops if you want to run Linux.
HP does NOT support Linux if it is not explicitly mentioned on their official homepage (even on their expensive business series).
On Linux there is e.g. no testing of firmware upgrades at all.
The customer service will not even forward firmware issues to the developers – for the sole reason that you run Linux on the laptop.
With this attitude, you will never know if your HP-laptop will still run, after the next firmware upgrade. And if the firmware upgrade breaks your laptop, you will not receive any support from HP – and you have no means to contact developers or even report your issues.
I recommend buying laptops only from manufacturers that actively support Linux.
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Actually my current laptop is an HP, and it’s the best I’ve ever used (even though it’s not perfect). I just wrote about it in https://pointieststick.com/2025/09/03/the-perfect-laptop/
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I recommend searching for a laptop model that is actively supported by its manufacturer. This includes hardware support/ drivers/ firmware for Linux.
Even if a laptop today runs Linux better than any Laptop before – the next firmware update or missing security fixes might seriously affect your experience in the future.
HP support, for example, did not even forward my Linux firmware issue report to their developers – and we talk about an expensive business grade “Elite” Book. And they clearly told me that they do not even test new firmware on Linux.
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I’m unsure about the actual situation with HP.
In the past I had a HP Notebook (don’t remember which one) with Kubuntu 12.04 and I had no issues.
My home server is a HP Gen8 Microserver with Ubuntu Server LTS. I have here no issues. I’m aware that there will be firmware updates, but I ignore them because the machine works like a charm.
Two friends of mine had different ASUS notebooks. One was perfect with Linux, the other one refused to boot from the USB stick.
I think you can find some HP devices which work perfectly. On my side I tend to ignore firmware updates as long as I have no serious issues. I had an Acer Ryzen 5 notebook with an BCM Wifi module which sucked on Linux kernel 4.x. No firmware updates helped, only on Linux kernel 5.x and newer this problems were solved.
Personally, I hate every update whch doesn’t state clearly the changes. Simply “bugfixes and improvements” are not helpful and I likely ignore these.
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It’s the same with most other products. Try to buy a car, a smartphone, a TV, a Linux distribution, or practically anything else. The perfect product will never exist, because they are designed explicitely for customer dissatisfaction. If you had the perfect product, you had no reason to buy another one.
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You’re probably right, but I reject this idea on moral grounds, and I think companies that use it are being short-sighted in terms of the practical effects.
If you make the best product and sell it at a reasonable price, you’ll poach sales from your competitors and gain market share. Your customers will do your marketing for you by recommending your products to their family members and friends. And because nothing lasts forever, when the time for replacement arrives, they will be loyal repeat buyers and get another one.
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Hi, I’d like to add a comment about sound quality in Framework 13. For context, initially I had i7-1185G7 motherboard with regular speakers (not the 80dB ones), currently I have 7640U motherboard and the same speakers.
I had to do two things to achieve subjectively quite nice sound quality (close enough to work-provided MBP 14″ M4):
Of course that covers just one of the issues you expected with this laptop, and I wish this DSP stuff was done in hardware by default, but oh well.
As for text nav buttons, it took me a month or so but I’ve got my muscle memory to use Fn + arrow keys, doesn’t seem to be as big of an inconvenience as I’ve initially anticipated. Having that said, I still prefer the keyboard layout of ThinkPads, and I wish there was a trackpoint or at least an optional touchpad that can be clicked anywhere – tap to click slows me down and introduces uncertainty as to whether a click has been registered by hardware.
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Yeah, the Framework 13 is currently at the top of my list for “unsuitable non-touch laptops”. With text nav keys, it would move to the top of the “suitable non-touch laptops” list. 🙂 I do really want upward/forward-facing speakers though.
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Have you considered Asus Proart Px13 yet? I’d like to know if something has made you decide not to use it.
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I evaluated it, yeah. Problems:
I also had some concerns with the electronic webcam shutter, as I wasn’t able to find evidence that it worked on Linux.
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Have you had a chance to look at System76 laptops? They seem to be quite well thought and designed.
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They’re Clevo and Tongfang re-brands, and most of them share the hardware-based disadvantages that a lot of those units exhibit:
Note these are generalities. Some models quite nice, but none of them hit that sweet spot of “gets all the basics right” according to my requirements IMO.
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Was struggling with the same criteria (minus the drive requirement) and wound up getting an ASUS Zenbook (UN5401RA). Then wound up getting another one off of EBAY for a friend. As a programmer the dedicated text navigation keys are mandatory!
Not seeing any available anywhere right now, but then again we are a couple of generations removed from when that came out. Hoping that they still are making that style model with newer CPUs.
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This model was pretty high on my list last year. I passed it over because of the poor speakers (and ended with an HP that also has poor speakers, go figure). Might have been a mistake.
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I had similar requirements (waited for many years with upgrade) – I ended up with Lenovo P14s G4 (must be AMD, not intel): https://www.phoronix.com/review/thinkpad-p14s-gen4
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-P14s-G4-AMD-review-fast-portable-straightforward.795741.0.html
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This one looks excellent, and has everything I’m looking for except for the only touchscreen option using a 2560×1600 resolution, which will require 1.5x scaling to reach my preferred density level. There’s a 3K screen option that offers the perfect DPI, but it’s not a touchscreen.
1.5x scaling isn’t the end of the world, but in my experience the sub-200% scaling experience starts feeling good at 170% and above. I’m currently using 175% on my 14″ 2880×1800 screen and have no complaints.
Why Lenovo offers so many different screen options with different combinations of resolution, brightness, refresh rate, color fidelity, and touch enabled-ness is beyond me. They should offer one resolution (the right one, something between 240-280 DPI) with one refresh rate (120Hz or above), one level of color support ( at least 100% sRGB, ideally P3), and then just let you choose if you want it to be touch-enabled or not, and maybe also if you want it matte or glossy.
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Frameowrk not-a-13″ then – there’s a 16 and 12 now…
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The 16 is huge, too big to really travel with, at least with my travel style (flying coach with just a backpack). It also doesn’t have the right screen resolution, and lacks text nav keys. Finally, the speakers are rather lousy for a 16″ laptop where there’s plenty of space for 4 or more modules and pointing at least two of them at the user. The audio comparison tool at https://www.notebookcheck.net/Radeon-RX-7700S-performance-debut-Framework-Laptop-16-review.790807.0.html shows that the speakers are worss than the last several 13″ and 14″ laptops I’ve used except for my current HP Pavilion Plus 14, and its speakers being terrible is one of the reasons I’m dissatisfied with it.
The 12 looks quite interesting in the abstract, but it doesn’t have the right screen resolution or any text nav keys, and I haven’t seen any reviews of how the keyboard and speakers feel to use yet.
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Cant recommend starlabs enough. The perfect linux compat, coreboot, user replaceble everything, regular firmware updates (over fwupd no less!), nice hardware and fantastic customer support make them stand alone with no competition. Touchpad also very nice. Had my starbook a couple of years and it should last a long time but when the time comes I will buy again. Speakers are not super loud and not as good as apple. battery as good as it gets for linux.
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I cannot agree more with this. I could have written the exact same thing. Thanks for writing it!
Let us hope that manufacturers listen to us…
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Regarding XMG, a relative bought one and it seemed great.
You mention the points:
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does HP still offer custom builds even for private persons?
Thats how I did it. Not sure if its still the same, but it gives you at least the option to get the most pain points away.
For me its always the display and connectivity.
I don’t want slim… i want VGA, RJ 45, 4-5 USB ports and a bright non glare display that doesn’t have funktioniert colors by default (some displays presettings make me really wonder who the hell approved this).
totally feel your pain… 😦
HP customization will probably not help you much though… your requirements are really high, but I can completely understand that.
for the simple reason that you mentioned in the commit: they build seemingly a model for every niche, but completely lost the simple aspect of having an *solid and excellent* base design.
its mostly crappy base design with gimmicks. 😦
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I am sorry over your inglorious search; notebooks are (vis de rule) slow; they lack ergonomics, are very spencer and who makes them knows nothing about UX design (nor ergonomics; besides).And: them chief: they are delayed waste. No possible customization at all. I have a “famous vendor” notebook. The RJ45 port broken at first cable insertion. The vendor preferred “beauty” over strongness. Really, I use them just for testing, not for [serious] production.
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I think you are missing a big point with “Don’t sell any bad models” quip. These “bad” models are maybe bad for you, but they are good for people that don’t want to (or can’t) spend the money on a “good laptop with a good screen” – or they don’t care as much because they don’t sit in front of the screen 15 hour a day, like us.
All of the companies you noted to be “getting there” offer laptops that are $1800 and higher. Notable exceptions are the Macbook Air and Framework 13″ that have useful configurations at $1100 – which is still very expensive and also have tiny screens – and the Starbook basic that has a really crappy CPU to get under $1000, though not by much.
There is a market out there for sub $800 laptops – according to statistics, almost half of the laptop market is under $1000 per unit. These people are served by the major makers – take for example Dell’s annoyingly named Dell 16 (and “plus”): you get a really useful 16″ configuration at $600, or you can have a convertible w/ touch at $750. There are compromises to get to that price point, but for people who price conscious and aren’t looking for the best device – the “bad models” are best for them.
My personal recommendation – for someone looking for a “good model” and is willing to pay for that, is the Dell XPS 16 w/ the 4K touch OLED: its one of the best laptop screens on the market, it has great build quality, has an Nvidia Optimus if you need that (I find that for my compositing desktop and legacy gaming needs, the UHD graphics are fine) and when not running Dell’s crappy system management software on Windows it also has great thermals – and it still comes in cheaper than the Razr with a crappier display. You have to be OK with USB-C only (it comes with an extender that has one USB-A and one HDMI, I replaced it with a cheap USB-C “mobile dock” that has a few more USB ports and and RJ45). Good Linux support isn’t guaranteed, but its basically the same device as the Precision model – where Linux support is guaranteed, and I have good experience with them – my wife is currently running Fedora on the 2 years ago XPS and it is a delight.
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You can make a good low-end, inexpensive device, same as how you can make a bad high-end, expensive device.
For example, make the case out of thick plastic and rubber, rather than metal. Still durable, but in a different, cheaper way. This is also the segment of the market where people aren’t picky about screen resolution, so you can choose one that makes sense for 100% scale. A lower-end processor should be fine too. Both of these will help with battery life too, because normal people are sloppy about charging habits and benefit from a long runtime.
Putting a good keyboard and trackpad on it aren’t expensive choices; just do it anyway.
This isn’t going to be a bad device, just a low-end one.
The Dell XPS 16 has touch buttons for the function row, which is a ridiculous design choice and a deal-breaker. And no text nav buttons. And a Copilot key instead of a right Ctrl key. I also don’t want an NVIDIA GPU.
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Low-end: sub-$800 customers don’t want devices that look like they’re from the 90s. They want the devices to look sleek like a modern laptop, and that means aluminum sheets (that bend horribly), small cheap speakers and bad thermal design. There used to be a market for devices that look like they came out of a British 80s scifi show (I loved my Precision M4800), but that doesn’t really exist anymore. Saying to poor people: “you’re poor, so buy things that look like you are poor but are well made” doesn’t fly 🤷
XPS: oh, I missed the new keyboard – I assumed it is exactly like the Precision because older models were exactly the same. That is indeed very bad. Then I’d recommend the Precision, which is what I currently use (though an older model, I’m scheduled to update to next year’s model). The copilot button is annoying and unfortunate, and its unfortunate that it is going to appear on more and more devices. Dell offers some of these devices with Ubuntu – I wonder if that means you get a CTRL back? Unfortunately their website used to allow you to change the OS in the order form but that is apparently no longer the case. I’m going to have to call them to check on that. Generally I don’t use the right CTRL so no big loss for me, and in a pinch it can be mapped.
Nav keys: I’m not sure what you mean by “no text nav buttons”: Dell laptops have arrows, pgup/pgdn and even home,end,insert,delete – though some need the Fn key to operate. If you are looking for a full set of non-chorded text navigation buttons, I will be very surprised if you find something that isn’t “desktop replacement” class (i.e. not really portable) with such a setup.
Nvidia: if you don’t want a Nvidia GPU then your best bet is to go all Intel, as even Ryzen laptops these days come with Nvidia GPUs. Most vendors have an Arc Laptops category, though these are usually not the high-end models and likely suffer from unacceptable compromises.
I understand where you are coming from – I’m also always looking for the “perfect laptop”. My list is:
Unfortunately – such a device doesn’t exist, or it’s a year or two behind on hardware spec compared to contemporaries (e.g. see the HP Dev One, that was released 21 months after its APU was made available, but that time newer models were already 6 months on the market).
Speaking of laptops that would have been great 3 years back – the System76 Pangolin 15 checks a lot of your boxes: AMD only, a nice set of nav keys (layout is a bit non-standard, but at least no copilot keys), 2560×1600 display that is pretty good and a nice set of speakers. Shame it is still on Zen 4.
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Oh yeah, I know what you mean. Already the second point on your list (the keyboard and its layout) can completely bring this hunt down.
I use by now a Lenovo Yoga 370 convertible and I love it. I think this model is older than your X. The keyboard is awesome for typing, but the layout could be better.
Actually I think if you really are searching for a perfect (nearly) complete keyboard layout, you should take a look at notebooks from Tuxedo Computers.
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It’s interesting that no one is writing about Dell laptops. I use a Latitude 7650 and am completely satisfied.16:10 displayLarge touchpadVery comfortable keyboardEverything fits
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