Lenovo has a couple of modeles of the new ryzen apu based laptops out also
Where’ve you been?!
I’m liking lenovo less and less. I’ll keep my old thinkpads, but in just trying to change a display to have fuses pop just because its a new cable… ehhhhhno I’d rather not deal with that.
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Be careful about the quality control on the HP Envy X360. The specs are great on paper, but I had several issues:
Terrible display panels. They actually use at least 4 different panels on this models. All of them are rather dim, which doesn’t bother me too much. Units with LG and AUO panels seem ok. The ChiMei panel is utter trash with abysmal colors and dimmer than the others. Some units have really bad backlight bleeding.
There are a bunch of more minor issues, like the webcam looking purple in daylight. Apparently it’s tuned for fluorescent light, resulting in strange colors in natural or incandescent light. That’s a broader longstanding issue on several HPs, not just this X360 model.
The build quality is just medium. Opening up the laptop is a bit scary as it requires some force to pry off the cover, and the edges are RAZOR sharp. No joke, be really careful. I had to wipe blood off components…
Other issues: I was a bit disappointed by the (lack of) alignment of some of the trim. On my first unit, SD cards would get stuck in the card reader. The weight (~4 lbs) and size (15") are a bit much for a device marketed as a tablet. Battery life seems ok at around 5-7 hours, but I never ran it down completely. I kept getting the feeling that things, eg the fan, might break down eventually. I tend to keep my computers a long time so I want great quality. Touch screen + pen are nice bonuses; they’re ok but not great, say compared to lenovo. About a month ago, the touchscreen wasn’t working in Ubuntu 18.04 beta (kernel 4.15 I think).
The Ryzen 7 2500U is nice though. Upgradeable RAM to 32GB. 2.5" bay + NVMe slot. The 2.5" bay needs a special connector (SATA to ZIF ribbon cable), so if you got a unit without the HDD you might need to order it separately.
Yes, I’m a nitpicker. I ended up returning it. I’ll wait for a more refined model. But those who are less picky might still really like it.
I use that thing on a day to day basis and I can definitely recommend it. Mine has never booted windows so I’m not sure how that experience is but it’s an amazing Linux workstation.
I assume that the windows experience is equally nice though.
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Adendum: I run my GL702ZC (Ryzen 7 1700) with 32GB of RAM. I replaced the shipped 256GB m.2 sata drive with a 960 Evo 1tb, the 1tb spinner with a 860evo 1tb and the realtek wifi with an Intel adapter.
I’m also going to repaste it, but I haven’t done that yet.
Did not read a lot here, just as a PSA: don’t by raven ridge laptop for linux. It’s a mess.
More at 11.
The Ryzen 7 2500U seemed ok out of the box with kernel 4.15 for general use. I didn’t run into problems, but I also didn’t extensively test features, virtualization, etc.
EDIT: I did notice some errors during the boot process, but don’t remember if they’re the same as in your link. But I didn’t have problems with freezing or usb devices.
Display panel would suck but for me I won’t be using the webcam and probably won’t be cracking it open. The base model either 128GB/1TB or 256GB drive and 8GB RAM will do just fine.
Run unigine-valley on it, well anything GPU intensive should work.
Won’t take long, 20 minutes max.
Yup, sounds like there’s someone with an amd laptop. They just have to do amd justice everywhere by sabotaging them. I mean show me a modern gamer laptop, that has heatpipes going OVER the removeable ram slots (I’ll buy u a beer)
To be fair, the x360 chassis is shared between AMD and Intel product lines.
Yes I noticed the GL702ZC’s crazy heatpipe arrangement. I’m speculating that was a last minute modification compared to the non-AMD version of that laptop to try to squeeze a bit more thermal headroom for the desktop Ryzen 7 CPU… with some usability compromise.
Oh, and btw, I’ve seen a MSI laptop “new, display” unit purchased from ebay that had a heatpipe going over ram making it impossible to upgrade without removing the heatsink. I don’t know if it was the default from MSI or if the store did some strange part swap.
I have that laptop and it’s really not a problem, doing a RAM upgrade is easy.
Same with GL702ZC
They couldn’t have sold it with a minuscule battery compared to the one that’s in it? That would give a lot more heat surface area for example or use 2 larger fans instead of only 1. Even the motherbord design look’s like garbage compared to it’s intel counterparts.
TL:DR Supporting the industry on the expense of it user’s, now who would want that as a user. Most don’t want to deal with all that nonsense… But it’s neccesary to deal with, for competition, innovation and all that follows
A system with less than 1hr of battery life… is usually called a desktop.
I nearly bought the GL702ZC but after getting frustrated by the compromises decided to build a desktop. The relative compactness and “portability” of a DTR is appealing though.
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What happens? I’m curious. I decided I’d like a touchscreen machine that is pennable.
GPU driver shits the bed, freezes completely.
Did link it before but probably not obvious enough, so…
==> Click here <==
coulda been a bad chip? IDK I don’t think the drivers are done yet.
Linux is not mature on Raven Ridge APUs. Lots of reports of trouble with 2200G/2400G. I wasn’t sure if the mobile APUs were also affected. Last I heard, kernel 4.17 is when better support is expected.
So far 4.17rc also shits the bed on manjaro.
Review on the HP spectre x360