I think I’ve read in Lemmy somewhere that the T14 notebooks should be avoided is they come with letters after the T14. I’m thinking of buying a T14s G5. It has to be new as we get tax deduction (will be at the reception of small local museum). What do people this of this notebook. I’ll end up installing Linux on it. I was thinking of going DELL as I’ve been running various latitudes over the years without major problems but looks like people are not fond of DELL + Linux. Any thoughts?
The “s” means it’s a tiny bit thinner and lighter, but the components are soldered on so you can’t upgrade anything.
One of the big selling points of the newest T14 is that it is probably the most modular and repairable modern laptop you can get, except for Frameworks.
Get the non-s if you care even a little bit about that part.
The upgradability depends, the 14s g5 has upgradable ram, etc.
Plus Lenovo checks the network cards and wireless/WWAN cards for authenticity, so no upgrades apart from the hardware which comes with the model), but I’m not sure if that’s still the case.
Oh wait, it did? TIL. LPCAMM, or SODIMMs?
I’d bet sodimm since lpcamm was dell only until lpcamm2
Ah that’s what I meant, oops
I use the T14s G6, running Fedora Silverblue, as my only PC. I bought it mainly for its AMD 880M iGPU, which just hits the performance I need for the few games I still play, as well as its mobility so I can blender on the go (and because I got fed up with the seemingly endless hiccups from my ASUS G14).
It’s good. No issues I know of. The display is a bit slow even for a 60Hz panel, but the battery life is stellar (probably also because of the slow panel).
However, if it’s static, as you say, I’m not sure if a small desktop PC wouldn’t be the better choice overall. After all, modern ThinkPads are pretty expensive.
The “s” suffix is for Slim, which you don’t really need if it’s used at a desk in a fixed position. S series generally are lighter, slimmer (eh) and harder to repair / more fragile. That said, when careful, these are slim, elegant professional machines with excellent Linux support.
they’re built way better than their t14/p14s counterparts though, iirc they use the magic alloy for the chassis instead of plastic
Yup. Lightweight, Rigid, and Classy.
Unfortunately, I can’t really comment about that specific device. Regardless, I’d reckon the following is worth noting:
- ThinkPads (and to a lesser extent the Dell’s Precision/Latitude line of devices) are (generally-speaking) the best supported laptops on Linux. We can e.g. see this when software like TLP has exclusive features to ThinkPads-only.
- Linux-specific vendors like NovaCustom, Star Labs, System76 and TUXEDO are cool. But, they have to do a lot to catch-up. Some of them don’t even have an entry within ArchWiki’s entry on laptops.
- While not a Linux-first vendor (at least initially), Framework has been picking up a lot of steam. Definitely deserving a mention alongside the others.
Anecdotally, I’ve moved from HP to ThinkPad and there’s a very clear difference. To name one of my many frustrations with HP, my battery died every year or so on Linux. That’s just ridiculous. By contrast, the experience on ThinkPad has been absolutely glorious. It’s clearly meant to offer a first-class Linux experience.
BTW, HP is terrible. My 250 g5’s aftermarket (AliExpress) fan is alive since 2018, but the original died in a year. The original battery just died one day (probably a dead cell) and the aftermarket ones died in the same fashion. And of course the plastic started falling apart in 2019 from just moderate wear.
My 2018 latitude 5290, I bought used in 2023 needs just a battery replacement and maybe the thermal compound. I even dropped it many times and only needed mild bodywork (some plastic welding).
I have been using T14s Gen 6 (AMD) for over a year now and it works perfectly
I think the thinkpad T14 series is pretty mainstream for linux - except for the Gen6 snapdragon one. Arch wiki thinks the gen5 will work
I had a top of the line Dell (precision 5520) that I bought with Ubuntu on it, so it ran linux very well. But there were quality issues, mainly the battery swelling up and making the keyboard stop working. Then the screws for the case fell out and the hinge kind of broke, and the power connector stopped working, as did its replacement. I think you aren’t really supposed to work on the dells yourself as it had special screws, not plain philips heads.
Maintainability on thinkpads is better, in general. And I like the way the computer feels more - just better design.
Well, I think the latitudes are great to work on (at least my 5290). Just remove the Phillips screws on the back cover and you can replace practically everything. But it’s still way more delicate than the t440p (which is harder to accidentally harm.
Could be they’ve improved! I didn’t have much trouble opening mine but I did need a special star bit for the screws, and they tended to fall out without thread lock.
This is a bit interesting. Isn’t Lenovo a Cinese company who bought IBM hardware production or something like that. So Lenovo has outpaced Dell then? I always had a slim view of Lenovo … and stuck with Dell because american superior quality …
What do you mean doc, all the best stuff is made in China
Are you serious? Basically all computers are manufactured in China. Yeah Lenovo bought the IBM line, so they started from a great position, but I’ve always considered them, and the thinkpads in their IBM days, in a cut above Dell.
dell is manufactured globally, in china and in other places. probably lenovo too.
of course they are manufactured globally. but in theory designed in US (for DELL) and China (for Lenovo). So in theory, QA and quality standards are way better specified in US than they are in China? Although, if Thinkpads are still comparable to their IBM equivalents in terms of quality, then the above theory is not true. China is moving ahead fast and everyone else is falling behind.
the chinese aren’t worse engineers than americans, they’re just usually more incentivised to reduce cost than increase quality
anyway I think the thinkpad design team is still in japan
I never said the cinese are bad engineers. They are probably outpacing american and european engineers. But their priorities are not protecting labour or the environment, which is why on average, i’m skeptical of cinese engineered and produced electronics.
americans can design garbage, so can chinese. or the opposite.
