System76 AMD-Only Laptop Returns
OK, let&#x27;s look and analyse what they have in detail:<p><pre><code>    Operating System: Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS or Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
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Do they offer any custom software that are only available on these distributions and would be a struggle to find on other? Sone other Clevo resellers have for example custom software to control the fan intensity that&#x27;s Ubuntu only (and Ubuntu 20.04 only). It&#x27;s not clear why they restrict it to only these distributions. Also, why did they even bother to develop their own distribution? Every Linux in existence is a combination of 1 DE (Gnome, KDE, XFCE or other), 1 package manager (apt, pacmanm etc...) and some kernel params. Is it really worth spending their time on a custom Linux instead of on hardware&#x2F;firmware? Speaking of firmware, does it have Coreboot or stock Clevo BIOS? Does it have a fingerprint reader and does it work, can you control the fan speed from anywhere? Nowhere to find answers to these questions...<p><pre><code>    Processor: AMD Ryzen™ 7 6800U: 2.7 up to 4.7 GHz - 8 Cores - 16 Threads
    Graphics: AMD Radeon™ 680M
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This is great! my opinion is this is the best laptop processor reasonably available on the market right now. But if you&#x27;re not desperate to switch your laptop and can wait until the middle or end of this year, buying the next generation Zen4 processor is astronomically better.<p><pre><code>    Display 15.6″ 1920×1080 FHD, Matte Finish, 144 Hz
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Not bad, not good either, 1440p would have been ideal. They do not specify the sRGB % coverage. Is it 90, 95, 99? The difference between 90 and 95 is definitely noticeable and you would do yourself a big disservice if you don&#x27;t go for 95% at least.<p><pre><code>    Memory: 32 GB LPDDR5 @ 6400 MHz
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Yes, amazing, the future is now! But is it 4x8 or 2x16? And is it ECC? What brand?<p><pre><code>    Storage: 2 x M.2 SSD(PCIe NVMe). Up to 16TB total.
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No problems here, I assume PCIe 4.0, but would be great if they specified. Don&#x27;t want to accidentally discover it was PCIe 3.0 after the purchase has been made. Also, what brand of SSD do they provide? Brands are important so you can look at benchmarks.<p><pre><code>    Expansion: 3 × USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1 × USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, SD Card Reader
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3 USBA, 1 USBC? Why not 2 and 2? In the future we will need less USBA and more USBC. Look at macbooks, they have all USBC and everybody eventually copies macbooks anyway (regardless if it&#x27;s a good or bad decision). The more USBC you have now the better for the future.<p><pre><code>    Input: Multitouch Clickpad, Single-Color Backlit US QWERTY Keyboard
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Is 100% of the surface area clickable on the clickpad, or is it one of those awkward ones where you have &quot;mouse buttons&quot; at the top&#x2F;bottom, and you can not press onto the top, only tap? Need more information!<p>Keyboard wise it&#x27;s great! a 15 inch laptop without a numpad is a waste of potential, as a numpad is immensely helpful when doing any sort of finance work. I definitely would not buy a laptop this big without one. Still some more information non the keyboard layouts available would be nice.<p><pre><code>    Networking: Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
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All perfect here!<p><pre><code>    Video Ports: HDMI 2.0, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C w&#x2F; DisplayPort
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I&#x27;m assuming this is the same single USBC that they mentioned above. Is it DisplayPort 1.4, or 2.0?<p><pre><code>    Audio: Stereo dual-driver full-range speakers, 1× Headphone&#x2F;Microphone Combo
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This is their biggest flaw. If you look at the chassis, you will see, the speakers point DOWNWARD. Speakers are supposed to point towards the listener, not away from them. Also, from previously owning multiple Clevo laptops that I&#x27;ve bought for work purposes, sound quality is so bad, you can simply assume you have no speakers as you&#x27;ll be using headphones or a conference speaker. If you buy this thinking you&#x27;ll be able to enjoy any kind of video&#x2F;movie out of working hours without purchasing and carrying extra peripherals you will be extremely frustrated and disappointed. Low maximum volume, poor quality sound, no base, and pointing away from you; every flaw imaginable. More that 4 people in a conference room and wanting to dial in from one laptop to share? Forget about it, you will be embarrassed to even try as the combination of laptop&#x27;s built-in speakers and microphone quality will make the whole experience terrible. This is an area where macbooks excel, great speakers and great microphone, and that&#x27;s why people love them so much, you can actually enjoy the audio interaction. There is no reason for non macbook laptops to be this bad at audio. All they have to do is copy macbooks, like they eventually do anyway... just put in better speakers and microphone, it&#x27;s that easy. Cost wise it&#x27;s not an issue either since a machine like this is going to cost in the same ballpark as a macbook anyway, why be cheap on something so insignificant for the overall price but so important for the user experience?<p><pre><code>    Camera: 1.0MP 720p HD Webcam
    Security: Kensington® Lock, Hardware Camera Kill Switch
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A camera cover is better than a camera kill switch in my opinion, good to have at least I guess.<p><pre><code>    Battery: Li-Ion - 70 Wh
    Charger: 65 W, AC-in 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz
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Why not 99Wh? (the maximum allowed at airports) This is not a macbook, it&#x27;s a beefy, thick laptop no matter how you look at it, why not outfit it properly?<p>Overall: at least it&#x27;s guaranteed to run Linux... but from the points I raised above I guess you can see there is no point for me to get excited about this model in particular. Price wise it&#x27;s going to be over the &quot;expensive&quot; threshold anyway, so might as well find something that ticks most checkboxes. Unless, of course I&#x27;m desperate for a new machine, in which case I could settle for this for a while.<p>I&#x27;m more hopeful for this vendor instead for higher quality devices: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;starlabs.systems&#x2F;pages&#x2F;starfighter" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;starlabs.systems&#x2F;pages&#x2F;starfighter</a>