Ask HN: Best Windows/Linux developer laptop in 2025

I just upgraded from a 7-year old XPS 15 - technically it was a Precision 5520 from when Dell still had a Developer Edition that would ship with Ubuntu but it was hands down the best Linux laptop I had. The things I loved about that one was:

  - 45W TDP processor - none of the U series 15W slowness
  - 4K screen that scaled to 1080P perfectly at 200% scaling - so X11 and XWayland apps still looked good.  Also the screen quality was amazing
  - Integrated Graphics - no messing around with NVIDIA drivers

I searched high and low for something similar but could not find anything on the market. So made some compromises and went with System76 Pangolin (pang15). Here are my notes on the machine

  Pros:
  - 45W TDP processor is fast
  - They let you load it up with memory and disk for reasonable prices unlike most mainstream manufacturers
  - 2nd M2 slot is nice for copying over old SSD
  - They provide Windows Drivers in a GitHub repo
  Cons:
  - Battery life is pretty bad but I stay plugged in most of the time so not a huge issue for me
  - Fans spin up pretty often
  - USB-C charging only.  There is an A/C Adapter barrel jack but they don't ship a charger and I can't find a suitable aftermarket charger.  I worry about wear and tear on the USB-C port damaging it one day and that will be the end of the laptop effectively if I can't plug in.
  - The screen needs around 133% fractional scaling which is not even an option.  So I have to use a combination of 125% scaling and tweaks.  XWayland apps look terrible so had to go through and force Wayland on all Electron apps and JetBrains and as you can probably guess there are random odd bugs
  - Random issue (rarely) where I power it on and it does not start up, then I have to close the lid, hold the power button, etc before it starts up.  Support told me to try booting with one memory stick but it's so hard to recreate I don't think I'll be messing around with it unless the issue starts cropping up more.

Now given all of the complaints, the increased speed over a 7-year old laptop is still nice so I am keeping it. Too bad Dell seemingly abandoned their Developer Edition program. The new XPS's force discrete graphics for good screen options and it's a roll of the dice whether WiFi or peripherals work properly with Linux. I've heard Lenovo has good Linux support for certain things but they also seem to be pushing discrete graphics for high screen resolutions.

I like the Lenovo P16 gen2.

It's not cheap and rather heavy, but very powerful. You can get it with lots of RAM, a powerful graphics card (for LLMs), and a CPU with 24 cores (32 threads). And you can get it shipped with Fedora or Ubuntu (although wiped it immediately and installed my own Fedora).

Curious what the bad Lenovo experience was. I've had various Thinkpads since the early 2000's and they all worked for me.

OP notes they switch between Linux and Windows.

I've not tried local LLMs on Windows, but I do loads with 'em on a three-year-old Legion running Arch.

That said, whilst small local models are nice for some use-cases, I'm leaning more towards APIs these days. I like the better selection of models and the ability to use them without bringing my machine to a halt.

You could buy a MacBook and scratch away the logo, then replace it with a logo of your preferred brand.