convertible linux laptop suggestions

[cdingsnke]

Hello LTT community,

I am looking for a convertible laptop for school with stylus support under 1500€ (has to be available on the European market, USD are similar to € in strength, so under 1500 US$ is also ok).

I would like it to have decent performance that will still be usable 5 or 10 years from now, but I am not planning on doing any heavy gaming on it. I would prefer it to have an external non-NVIDIA GPU, but if the integrated graphics of the chip are acceptable, I am happy to take them. I can accept 16GB of RAM, but I would prefer 32, though I understand this can be difficult due to the current pricing situation.

Storage should bee 512GB or above.

The display, as I said, should have touch and I also want it to have 120 Hz though that is not a must. I do not care about its size and a small display is ok.

I also do not have any manufacturer preferences.

For ports, I also do not have any musts, but I would like USB-C charging, HDMI or DP and then at least 2 or 3 USB-A or C ports. Thunderbolt, USB-C Display out and a side power button would also be nice.

What do I mean by Linux? I do not want an NVIDIA GPU, as I have made many bad experiences with one on my current machine, but other than that I only have a few wants: I would like it to be on some official linux support list, for example from the manufacturer or canonical or at least have some test having been conducted by a third-party.

Repairability is not really important to me, but I will take it and pay a few extra bucks if it is possible.

 

Thank you in advance for the help, because I wasnt able to find any standout options myself.

[MightyFargoFox]

https://frame.work/laptop12

 

It's not super powerful, or has thunderbolt, or 120Hz. But it's in your price range, has official Linux support, an optional stylus, a side power button, supports USB-C charging + DisplayPort Alt Mode, and 4 selectable ports + 3.5mm.

 

I have one myself with Fedora Linux. Fedora has perfect support out of the box, no configuration needed, just install it and everything is setup nicely and works perfect.

[cdingsnke]

1 hour ago, MightyFargoFox said:

https://frame.work/laptop12

 

It's not super powerful, or has thunderbolt, or 120Hz. But it's in your price range, has official Linux support, an optional stylus, a side power button, supports USB-C charging + DisplayPort Alt Mode, and 4 selectable ports + 3.5mm.

 

I have one myself with Fedora Linux. Fedora has perfect support out of the box, no configuration needed, just install it and everything is setup nicely and works perfect.

I have been aware of that one, but I do not know if the performance is quite cutting it for me, especially if I want to keep using it for the next few years. I have also seen that you can get way more for your money from lenovo, for instance, especially because laptop 12 prices have gone up a bit I believe. Is it worth it to buy ram and storage from somewhere else then the official website though to lower the price? With my research, I have seen that there are minor price differences for the same specs, but nothing major. Also, do you suggest the i3 or the i5 variant?

Thank you for your help.

[Kilrah]

I really like my HP OmniBook X Flip 14

[MightyFargoFox]

54 minutes ago, cdingsnke said:

I have been aware of that one, but I do not know if the performance is quite cutting it for me, especially if I want to keep using it for the next few years. I have also seen that you can get way more for your money from lenovo, for instance, especially because laptop 12 prices have gone up a bit I believe. Is it worth it to buy ram and storage from somewhere else then the official website though to lower the price? With my research, I have seen that there are minor price differences for the same specs, but nothing major. Also, do you suggest the i3 or the i5 variant?

Thank you for your help.

You have to decide how much 1st party Linux support weighs into your decision. Lenovo tends to ship out of date distro versions and don't support Linux users well. Framework has articles for troubleshooting hardware on Linux, releases firmware/BIOS updates for Linux, and actively supports specific distros. You'll never need to touch Windows whatever issues you face.

 

If you can get a better deal on RAM and storage elsewhere that's great. The SSD needs to be a 2230 form factor though.

 

I got the i3 for cost. The i5 is slightly faster GHz and has two more efficiency cores. Might not be worth it depending on your needs. Consider that Framework will in all likelihood release an updated motherboard in the coming years with better specs. That's just the way they do things. Their laptop 13 has many many more motherboard options released after the 13 released, including ARM and RISC5, as well as newer Intel and AMD options.

[cdingsnke]

2 hours ago, Kilrah said:

I really like my HP OmniBook X Flip 14

Thank you for your suggestion. I am very tempted to buy it, because it has great specs on paper for its price. I just was not able to find it on any official linux support lists and I have seen some sites suggesting little issues with it in linux. Also, there seem to be an Intel and an AMD variant with the AMD variant having better performance but also being more expensive and also having more RAM and Storage for some reason. What model did you get and have you tried linux on it/how good is the support on there?

[Kilrah]

2 hours ago, cdingsnke said:

I just was not able to find it on any official linux support lists

Yeah unfortunately that's rarely a thing these days.

 

I got the Intel 258V version with the 1800p OLED display / 32GB / 2TB.

Works perfectly fine from what I can see on any Linux distro I've tried except for Linux Mint Cinnamon where for some reason fractional display scaling and VAAPI wouldn't work. Other versions of Mint with different DEs were fine, Cinnamon was fine on other distros so no idea why, Linux things...

I have Mint Debian Edition on and that's working just fine. 

[cdingsnke]

I just watched the framework event and unfortunately, they did not refresh the Laptop 12, so I guess I will go with the omnibook, which still is a really good option. I do not like buying windows preinstalled, because I always feel like I am paying extra for something I then throw away, but I guess the price increase is not that bad for manufacturers like HP. I chose this product and this configuration: https://www.hp.com/de-de/shop/product.aspx?id=BF9T7EA&opt=ABD&sel=NTB#overview . I thank everyone who helped me in this search.
EDIT from a few weeks later: just before purchasing, I was in the BIOS (it was probably the UEFI, I do not know much about that) of my old laptop for a short time and I saw an option for performance mode. Underneath it, there was written "Press Fn+Q in Windows to toggle". After seeing this, I reconsidered, because I do not want anything like this on my new machine, so I actually bought the FW12 i5 no OS, RAM, SSD instead, just for the Linux support. I did buy storage and RAM separately and I do suggest that to everyone purchasing this laptop, because I did probably save over 100€ on my 1200€ purchase with that, just take care to buy the right ones. I also just bought 16GB of RAM, intending to upgrade after the current RAMpocalypse is over. This was probably still marginally more expensive than from other sellers. After now having receive the laptop, I can say that what I previously considered a few dealbreakers, like the non-OLED and 60Hz Display and the 5000mAh Battery, are really not that bad, I mean a base iPad has pretty much the same screen and the Battery still lasts me 8 hours of screen-on time. The performance is not that great though, not for school work but gaming much more than minecraft is pretty much impossible without a GPU, that being said the omnibook would not have had that either and it does eat a lot of battery. Performance for other more CPU-intensive tasks is pretty good though and video rendering is faster than on my old laptop with a GTX 1650. I was most surprised when I got a framework driver update in the software store, specifically for my device, that really made me feel like I was not just doing unintended stuff right now with my system. I also have hopes for new motherboards to release for this laptop, so maybe some of my issues may get better in the future. For anyone looking at this thread after the fact, I really do suggest official linux support over a slightly cheaper price and better features, but this all up to individual consideration.

Edited May 25 by cdingsnke
Added information