The repairability is still good, you can get parts and there’s a manual published by Lenovo that will guide you on everything. But upgradability just isn’t there anymore. I guess in some of the high end P series like P1, but most have soldered RAM now. The AMD models even have soldered wifi cards. I like my P14s g4 AMD, and also my T14s g3 AMD from work, but I’m really looking forward to the progression of Framework, and also System76’s in-house design.
AMD currently tends towards running significantly cooler and quieter, and the graphics in the APU are far better.
Edit: I agree to avoid the E and L series, L is better than E if you absolutely must. But I wouldn’t. I’d also avoid the X1, they sacrifice way too much to be thin. The T series is really the sweet spot. T14s is tuned to run cool and quiet, and is only about 1mm thinner than the T14. The T14 is middle ground, and boosts a little more but sacrifices a bit of noise. I really can’t tell the build quality between the T14s and T14 in this latest design, the T14s used to use significantly better materials. The P14s is simply a T14 that supports more RAM and boosts even further.
The T16 and P16s are the same relationship at the 14 incher, but with a bigger battery and an offset keyboard with a numpad.
The X13 is the same motherboard as the T14s, but in a 13" design. The T14s and X13 also get dual USB4 on the AMD models, while the T14/P14s only get one. I think that carries over to Intel models with Thunderbolt, but I’m not sure.
The Z series is odd. Better touchpads, sleeker design, AMD only. The Z16 doesn’t have an offset keyboard. The Z16 is also the only option for discrete graphics from AMD. But… they’re not really Thinkpads, in a traditional sense. The materials aren’t as robust, and they sacrifice cooling some for thinness. I’d consider one a lot more than the X1 series, and I’m excited for the redesign in a few years.
The P series is really diverse, from the P14s and P16s that are really just rebadges the T series, to the P1 that is a serious workhorse. There’s quite a bit inbetween, but aside from the entry models, they’re going to be quite a lot less portable, more power hungry, be louder, and have worse battery. If they’re what you need, great, if not, eh.
I chose the P14s gen 4 AMD with 64GB of RAM. I’ll run some VMs at times, and the RAM will also help future proof me since I can’t upgrade down the road. I was back and forth between it and the T14s, but when I got my T14s at work I realized that this gen just isn’t any more premium than the T14/P14s. I popped in a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro, which is the only single sided 4TB drive with RAM that I know of.
Originally I ordered an OLED model, but the battery life was horrible. The 400 nit low power LCD is probably what you want. The 500 nit privacy guard has horrible viewing angles by design, and the 300 nit LCD is below average in color reproduction and uniformity. The T14s has a 300 nit low power with slightly higher resolution, I probably would have gotten that if the P14s offered it. I might swap later.
Arch, because of the AUR and because I can’t get fully used to NixOS. Also, I know my way around Arch better tban any other distro. I tried my luck on Debian and it didn’t go that well, but I’m willing to try again soon. (If only I could get Hyprland on Debian…)
Advantages: has all the software I need, new versions as well.
Disadvantages: lacks a stable branch (I recently found myself with limited/no internet access for about 2 months; if Arch had a stable release, I wouldn’t have had to rebuild my NixOS system over 100 times while I was trying to get a decent DWM setup.
Is it wireless? If so, and the controller supports it, try using it in wired mode. Sounds pointless, but have had issues with wireless controllers that worked fine when connected via USB.
i’ve been using sonobus lately and it’s been pretty good, I had latency issues when I tested the android app a long time ago, ill have to test it again
That reminds me, some time ago I tried installing Garuda on a Ryzen 5800H based mini PC but there where so many issues (namely worrisome graphical artefacting, which has never occurred with other distros on the same mini PC) I had to abort and abandon trying it until maybe the next or a future release.
I simply wanted to check out Garuda (arch based, if I recall well). I used the Cinnamon iso with Ventoy (not sure where the issue arose from).
That’s weird. I have had zero issues with it so far (talking about distro specific issues) and I am running this with an AMD APU, Nvidia GPU, prime offloading on wayland. Works like an absolute charm. Though granted, this isn’t quite out of the box, you may not need to be a wizard to figure it out, but I would not recommended this to a noob.
Arch, because I can never be happy except when I'm bickering with a machine.
Seriously, though, I like the control and the learning factor. I enjoy knowing what my computer is doing and why, AUR is great, and the documentation is generally top-notch. Once you get past the point in the learning curve where everything is on fire and you don't know why (don't forget the 'linux' package when you pacstrap, kids!), it's a delight to use
I started at Sarge, went to Ubuntu Warthog until Eft, and went Suse and Fedora but then changed to Xubuntu Ibex. I stayed until Vervet and since then have found a very comfy home in Arch.
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