I just wish that Linux on affordable ARM laptops (like the Pinebook Pro) wasn’t still such a hassle. One of the reasons I’ve stuck with all-Intel CPUs and chipsets on laptops is that I know I can throw basically any Linux distro on it and it’ll almost certainly work out of the box. I’ve been Windows-free at home for almost 20 years, and I won’t go back.
I switched to ryzen laptops in 2018 and haven’t had an issue since the first one I got (had to use dkms/recompile my wifi driver with every update; not a huge deal but def annoying). The ryzen zenbook and now thinkpad laptops I’ve had since 2021 have had an identical linux experience to intel laptops for me. The thinkpad was like $300 used with 32G ram, easy to put a 2tb ssd into as well.
My priorities for mobile are portability and battery life so this may not fit your use case. But linux support for ryzen laptops is solid.
That’s good to know about Ryzen as portability and battery life are my priorities too. Thanks! I’m going to seriously consider them for the next laptop.
I’m sure intel battery life is still better optimized at this point, but my ryzen laptops do probably 8+hrs idle and 2+hrs intense (i.e. gaming, video calls, etc.). Which is good enough for me.
I forgot that back in 2018 there was a kernel bug where ryzen couldn’t sleep or wake from sleep, but that’s been fixed for so long I’d forgotten about it. Haven’t seen sleep/wake issues in probably 2-3 years at least.
That sort of battery life is fine for me. I don’t need to do much heavy work on the road, I just want something that will last a day of fairly frequent web-over-wifi use at a reasonable brightness. I don’t do much gaming while travelling, and if I think I will be, I just take my Switch.
I also pick my laptops based on being able to charge by USB-C, and I travel with a big PD-capable power bank. So I’m never really stuck for power.
AMD is their main competitor. ARM stuff also exists.
Thanks
I just wish that Linux on affordable ARM laptops (like the Pinebook Pro) wasn’t still such a hassle. One of the reasons I’ve stuck with all-Intel CPUs and chipsets on laptops is that I know I can throw basically any Linux distro on it and it’ll almost certainly work out of the box. I’ve been Windows-free at home for almost 20 years, and I won’t go back.
I switched to ryzen laptops in 2018 and haven’t had an issue since the first one I got (had to use dkms/recompile my wifi driver with every update; not a huge deal but def annoying). The ryzen zenbook and now thinkpad laptops I’ve had since 2021 have had an identical linux experience to intel laptops for me. The thinkpad was like $300 used with 32G ram, easy to put a 2tb ssd into as well.
My priorities for mobile are portability and battery life so this may not fit your use case. But linux support for ryzen laptops is solid.
That’s good to know about Ryzen as portability and battery life are my priorities too. Thanks! I’m going to seriously consider them for the next laptop.
I’m sure intel battery life is still better optimized at this point, but my ryzen laptops do probably 8+hrs idle and 2+hrs intense (i.e. gaming, video calls, etc.). Which is good enough for me.
I forgot that back in 2018 there was a kernel bug where ryzen couldn’t sleep or wake from sleep, but that’s been fixed for so long I’d forgotten about it. Haven’t seen sleep/wake issues in probably 2-3 years at least.
That sort of battery life is fine for me. I don’t need to do much heavy work on the road, I just want something that will last a day of fairly frequent web-over-wifi use at a reasonable brightness. I don’t do much gaming while travelling, and if I think I will be, I just take my Switch.
I also pick my laptops based on being able to charge by USB-C, and I travel with a big PD-capable power bank. So I’m never really stuck for power.