I think any laptop sold in the last 4 or 5 years or so is plugged and charged with an usb-c cable and can be docked that way.
it has a 240w barrel plug and two usb-c ports. one usb-c port can be used for displayport, neither for charging.
Other than that, I have been very happy with it. Keyboard, trackpad, screen - all adequate for me. In every way other than the battery, it pretty much gets out of the way and gets the job done.
Maybe it's because I don't actually use it all that much, so my battery hasn't had many cycles put on it. I only use my laptop for travel, normally I have a desktop. That's why I went for a small, highly portable model.
Not terribly impressive compared to something like the newer Apple silicon MacBooks but also not terribly offensive considering I don't often work far from an available power source for super long stretches.
I see that the article describes it as repairable, but is it really easy to get and put in a new battery? I don't see them for sale on system76.com/components
I almost bought one of these in late 2021 when I was in the market for a new Linux machine. They were one of the few manufacturers that actually had stuff ready to ship. But I wasn't interested in PopOS and Framework seemed to be offering a slightly better deal, so I ended up waiting a month for a Framework DIY edition. I've been happy with it despite Framework not being truly Linux-first.
EDIT: Customized the Laptop with Linux Clevo to the same exact specs as the review unit and got a total price of $1,507, so about the same, give or take $30.
Hang on, I thought this was still Clevo stuff. I bought a Clevo-ODM laptop a decade or so ago, the keyboard was atrocious in feel (no click left at all on most keys, just linearish sponginess) and activation (e.g. Space was quite difficult to activate, A would very regularly double-activate) within two years. And I know I’ve heard similar complaints regularly since then from others.
Feel the trackpad and screens are totally fine. (Although low res for the 13' version).
Very happy with mine, specially how small and light it is. This is my 3rd "ultra portable", and it might be the lightest one yet.
I should also mention that my free time to work on projects has dramatically decreased in the past few years, so I am valuing the ability to seamlessly switch between my desktop and laptop on personal projects less than I used to.
Consider the lack of GPU a blessing. You absolutely do not want a hybrid NVIDIA GPU laptop, unless you want to sit with it plugged in at a desk while the fans try and keep the GPU from melting through the case. Worse battery life. With absolutely not a single other tangible benefit.
Unless you are using the GPU for machine learning or w/e, in that case, the only utility it has.
When I'm not running a game, I get plenty of battery life out of it (4-6 hours or so?) and when I run a game I get decent performance. Exactly what I wanted. I haven't tried ML yet but I don't see why it'd be any different.
Other than for gaming, which isn't worth it to do on a laptop anyway, I have seen no reason for this. Most discrete GPUs do a better job with drawing UI elements than a GPU anyway.
I can fix this by plugging in hdmi first, then back to usb-c. Some sort of hardware reset gets executed that way, I suppose.
I find it pretty hilarious that in 2023 this can still be a selling point.
Don't get me wrong I ran arch on a thinkpad for a long time so I can appreciate the statement, but now I just use a macbook and get my work done
Funny how your priorities change over time.
My 6 year old oryx pro gets about 2 hours (on nvidia). It can game though… (steam is kinda amazing)
I really like matt screens which all these laptops have.
This might be your experience with System76, but it hasn't been mine. My Adder WS had infuriating software problems.
• It would regularly hang when disconnecting from AC. The only fix I ever found was a hard-boot.
• When disconnecting from AC, the CPU would sometimes get stuck at 800 MHz. The only procedure I found to reliably fix this was to reconnect to power, wait a few seconds, disconnect, wait a few seconds, and then reconnect.
• It would regularly fail to wake from sleep.
• The screen randomly flashed bright white when suspended, so I had to get in the habit of shutting the lid at night to keep it from waking me up.
• The fan would get stuck at 100% even when the temperatures were at 30°. Fixing this required sleeping and waking the machine.
Maybe some of the problems were caused by Nvidia, but I don't much care. The fact remains that I've been using Linux laptops since I was in high school and I've never had problems like these. Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora all worked well on Dell, Framework, IBM, and Lenovo hardware (Yoga, not Thinkpad), as well as on my home-built desktops with Nvidia GPUs.
Also some hardware problems:
• The barrel connector was cheap and the power cable would regularly fall out. This exacerbated the software problems. The machine would get stuck at 800 MHz at least once a day and hang every few days.
• The machine was generally cheaply-built. The rubber feet fell off, the case creaked and flexed, several keys cracked, small plastic bits broke off, etc.
Credit where it is due, System76 support was responsive and replaced the mainboard promptly and free of charge. But that didn't fix the problems, so not all that much credit is due.
I wound up installing Windows on my System76 and giving it to my cousin as a gaming machine. I owned it less than two years.
>Moral points for supporting a small company that focuses on security (whether this is actually significant is up to the reader)
System76 rebadges Clevo machines and isn't very forthright about it. I find that questionable enough to outweigh my preference for small businesses.
Ironic that distro hopping on a linux-first laptop becomes difficult. But, priorities, I guess.
Maybe being stuck on Pop isn't an issue for some, but for those of us who don't like a UI locked in brown and teal that isn't being updated because they are writing their own entire (also ugly) DE, it is a problem.
Pros:
* Most things "just work", which you only appreciate after working with other linux laptops. For example, I can seamlessly plug this laptop in place of my work macbook with just one usb-c cable. That being said I think things have generally gotten better in the space so this may not be as much of a selling point anymore. Additionally this laptop doesn't have an nvidia gpu, which means its job is easier.
* Great compatibility for building software between my desktop and this laptop, makes my personal dev work a lot more portable.
* It's quite small and very portable.
* Nice keyboard
* Moral points for supporting a small company that focuses on security (whether this is actually significant is up to the reader)
Cons:
* Battery life is a lie, especially since it drains almost as much battery closed as it does open.
* Not great screen, terrible trackpad, and silly webcam considering the price of the laptop.
* As mentioned no gpu, while costing about the same as razor laptop.
Overall, I think I am probably going to switch back to a macbook after this, not being able to go a day without charging and your laptop always being on low battery is a bit anxiety inducing. Also (and this doesn't matter to a lot of people) I really value a laptop trackpad and this one is just plain bad.