Portable Linux laptop for university

[M3rlin2]

Hey everyone,

I've read a bit through this thread of the forum but couldn't find any recommendations for linux-based laptops.
I'm studying physics and am looking to go toward the computational part of this. Therefore I will need a decent CPU and lots of RAM, but no GPU. For different reasons I need the laptop to run Ubuntu, so this is a necessary requirement. As I'm going to be carrying it around quite a bit, I would also like it to be rather light weight. The cost is not so much a limiting factor, as I can spend around 1500€. (~1750$, however prices for hardware seem to be about the same in euros and dollars)
I would also like to add, that I'm by no means an expert, when it comes to using Linux (Ubuntu) and would therefore prefere the system to have Ubuntu support from the get-go.

Taking all this into account, I've been leaning towards the XPS 13 with an i7-7560U, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD, which seems to tick all boxes. The one thing I would like to be different is screen-size, hence I also looked into the XPS 15, which still seems to work with Ubuntu, however isn't natively supported.

So my questions to you are:

• Would buying the i7-Version be a mistake, e.g. is the extra money worth the extra performance (does it even add any)?
• Do you have different suggestion?
• Am I making any other major error I'm not aware of?

For new suggestions, these are the must-haves in short:

• Ubuntu compatibility (without too much tinkering. A bit is okay, but if it gets excessive I'm most likely out)
• <=16GB Ram
• SSD
• (Ultra-)Portable
• Decent to good battery life
• Good (enough) CPU
• ~1500$

 

Maybe as a sidenote, I will be using an external keyboard, mouse and monitor when sitting at my desk, in case that changes anything. Therefore the larger screen is not necessary.

I would appreciate your input!

 

[fredih]

Get one of the Dell gaming ones, there's a cheap one on the market right now, and flash it with Linux yourself.

I don't know of any Laptops that ship with Ubuntu from the factory right now.

 

Someone please get the Model, I can't remember it, but one of my friends has it and he's pretty satisfied with it.

[vanished]

There was a thread that was quite similar recently, hopefully this will help

 

[sicily428]

Check system76

[AvocadosGuac]

3 minutes ago, fredih said:

Get one of the Dell gaming ones, there's a cheap one on the market right now, and flash it with Linux yourself.

I don't know of any Laptops that ship with Ubuntu from the factory right now.

Someone please get the Model, I can't remember it, but one of my friends has it and he's pretty satisfied with it.

6 minutes ago, M3rlin2 said:

(Ultra-)Portable

THose laptops are not ultra portable.

 

I like the Asus ZenBook UX310

 

Any XPS laptop is also a solid choice.

[Guest]

Dell has some that come with Linux out of the box:

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-laptop

[Billy_Mays]

You made a typo in one of the tags "porable"

[M3rlin2]

3 minutes ago, tjcater said:

Dell has some that come with Linux out of the box:

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-laptop

Thanks for that list. Hadn't found that one yet. I will give it a closer look tomorrow and report back.

About the Zenbook, I will also look into this one. My first google search revealed that most problems seem to have been solved already, so it might be worth taking it into consideration as well.

Regarding the typo, I fixed it. Thanks.

[fredih]

I've got the XPS 15, and I'm super happy with it, I've got my 32gb of RAM, an i7 and a GTX 1050. It's okay for light gaming, and the display is awesome for Video and Photo editing. The battery holds up as well. Editing Photos for an hour or two on battery is no problem.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention that it has its drawbacks too though. The Wireless and Display drivers don't run well out of the box, the audio solution they supply (Waves Maxx Audio) is super crappy if you ask me, and it can run hot quickly when you put it on soft ground that covers up the bottom intakes. This might not be an issue for you, but it has been for me a few times: Get a THunderbolt 3 USB hub. Only two USB A ports is pretty limiting in some cases.

 

However, I fixed the Video/Audio issues, removed all the drivers and use the Microsoft ones. 

[M3rlin2]

First of all, thanks for all the quick responses!
I've checked out the link to the developer shop site from Dell and must say it is amazing. I'm probably going to confuigure a Dell Precision 5520. The nice thing about this model is that you are able to actually configure quite a bit. Right now I'm looking at getting an i5-7440HQ with 16GB Ram and the larger batterie, while neglecting the NVIDIA Quadro, a larger Drive and (obviously) Windows. It suprised me, that one could even configure a Xeon-Chip and some other neat stuff.

So for everyone wanting to have a little more freedom when choosing a notebook, I can only recommend checking this side out.

[mrchow19910319]

Yeah, if you know you are going to use linux exclusively, you should go to dell's website. 

They have a list of laptop that have linux preinstalled for you. Those are the ones that have the highest compatibility when it comes to running linux on them. 

[Amaranth]

My X230 works perfectly with Linuxand you can pick those up very cheaply.