[SOLVED] Looking for a new laptop, OLED, 8845HS + Linux

Hardware Hub Laptops & Netbooks
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It’s time to replace my work ThinkPad 13 which has served me well for almost 8 years now. I’ve been considering a model with Ryzen 8845HS, but I do have a few concerns and could use some insight, especially if you already have some real world experience with Linux+OLED combo. Ryzen 8845HS laptop reviews are basically non-existent, most, if not all, reviews are mini PCs.

  • OLED display and Linux: The model I’m looking at comes with 14" OLED, IPS LCD is only available in 16" which is too big for my use case. I’ve read mixed reviews/experiences about Linux capabilities to handle OLEDs. Some manufacturers like ASUS have dedicated OLED care software (for Windows only ofc.), Lenovo does not (but they do have inactive window dimming, presence detection…).
    Are there still compatibility issues when it comes to color calibration, HDR support, brightness control, burn-in prevention, flickering on low brightness?

  • Ryzen 8845HS NPU usability: How usable is the NPU at the moment? I’m curious about real world performance, is it capable of running local models somewhat competently or at least has potential to do so once the developer community gets their hands on it? How does “up to 16 TOPS” compare to say RTX 4050 laptop? It’s not a hard requirement but it might be nice to have.

  • Ryzen AI 9 365 is just around the corner with “up to 50 TOPS” NPU, is it worth the wait and probably higher price?

I mainly develop tooling for factory floor, like die-cutter tools. Occasionally, I build some weird stuff like Blender models for product AR visualization. I also dabble with microcontrollers to gather live telemetry from die cutters to get predictive tool maintenance dialed in. With the microcontrollers enabling massive data collection in super short intervals, AI might be useful here to dig out some insights we might be missing.

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This is a bit late response, but in case you haven’t bought a new laptop yet, it might be helpful.

I just got an ASUS S16 OLED that has the ryzen 8845HS APU and a 16 inch OLED panel. I’m running arch linux, and it is mostly running fine, but there are two issues that make me regret somewhat.

The first issue is that I haven’t found a way to control the keyboard backlight in linux. It is permanently enabled and rotating through RGB colors. I had hope that OpenRGB could work to control it, but it failed to find devices (had some i2c error). EDIT: Kernel 6.12 fixed keyboard backlight control.

The second issue is the worst one, to the point where I would not recommend getting a laptop with a Ryzen 8845HS for linux. This APU is very inefficient on linux in its current state. My laptop which was advertised with up to 14 hours battery life, gets like maybe 4-5 hours if I’m lucky. I think this is mostly due to bad power management for the APU. EDIT: Kernel 6.14 fixed amd pstate power management.

I’ve tried to use auto-cpufreq, and power-profiles-daemon. Power-profiles-daemon is unable to change the power profile to power safe with some weird error. Found someone else with the same issue on reddit, who has a different laptop from a different manufacturer with the same APU.

I’m hoping that this would just be some early adopter issues and that we will get better support in future linux kernels. But with the unreasonably high power consumption of this CPU just sitting idle doing nothing, I can’t recommend it for linux if you want good battery life. It’s a shame, because I really like this laptop otherwise.

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Thanks, I ordered it couple of days ago, some Ideapad with 8845HS/32GB. It was super cheap for what it is and I figured I can just use the rest of my budget for a proper GPU for AI.

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It arrived yesterday, Lenovo Ideapad Slim 5, Ryzen 8845HS, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, OLED screen.

Out of the box, Fedora 40 runs mostly fine.

The Good:

  • Keyboard backlight works
  • Fn keys function properly
  • Trackpad gestures work
  • OLED screen brightness adjusts well, with no flicker
  • Camera and microphone are operational
  • No sleep/wake issues so far
  • It runs Skyrim at a mostly steady 60 FPS
  • It runs Baldur’s Gate 3 at approximately 40 FPS

The Bad:

  • The Goodix fingerprint reader does not work
  • Blender Cycles won’t render on GPU (Radeon 780M) out of the box, still looking into it
  • Battery life is around 4 hours, which drains quickly
  • Cooling fans blow directly at the screen

Regarding the laptop’s overall build:

  • The speakers are really poor
  • The keyboard is good - better than the M1 MacBook Air, though not quite ThinkPad quality
  • The chassis is made of aluminium, but the keyboard deck has slightly more flex than the M1 Air
  • The trackpad is okay - it’s not haptic or glass, just adequate
  • The display is glossy and plastic-covered, very reflective and slightly distorts reflections
  • The keyboard backlight is poorly executed, with a lot of backlight bleed, and the F-row shines directly into my eyes at a comfortable distance
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I know I’m late, but I’m also thinking about buying a laptop with 8845HS at the moment, and I’m wondering is the new linux kernel update 6.14. with it’s AMD XDNA NPU drives fixed some of the problems you were facing?
Also, does the NPU drain power even if you aren’t using it, or is there soem support to just turn it off and don’t use it at all, and have normal battery?

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Hi. I’m still using my S16 OLED with the 8845hs. Kernel 6.14 fixed my cpu power management issues. AMD pstate is working properly now. I’m not using the NPU for anything so I don’t know much about it.