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New KDE Slimbook launched with Ryzan-4000 series processor

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51–60 of 69 posts

Re: New KDE Slimbook launched with Ryzan-4000 series processor

#51
post #7

Looks rather nice, but "up to 5 hours battery with real use" for the 14" model is pretty awful, to put it mildly. They should get a lot more running time from a 47Wh battery than 5h. Only one USB-C port (apparently without charging support?) is pretty stingy, too. And one of the USB-A ports is only USB 2.0? WTF

USB-C really needs to support charging + displayport altmode (simultaneously if possible, to plug in something like this: https://www.amazon.de/Cable-Matters-DisplayPort-Multiport-Ad...)

Re: New KDE Slimbook launched with Ryzan-4000 series processor

#52
post #48
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, a lion share of all AMD notebooks on the market is developed, and manufactured by a single OEM. If you look inside recent lenovos, or huawei laptops: scratch, scratch, and you see Qinghua Tongfang logos on PCB, and body parts. The PCB design, and parts list is nearly identical. Very few big brand companies have in-house engineering for laptops, and the few who have, have it for Intel only.

This is really cool information. My current laptop is a €3.000 Lenovo X1, which I'm not particularly impressed by. I was impressed by my 440s which lasted 5 years though. Where would you suggest I go for my next laptop?

X1 has a 15w ULP CPU. Is it the performance that doesn't satisfy you? If so, the 45W Ryzen should indeed blow it out of water.

I cannot find any new machine on the market with the OLED screen X1 has though.

Re: New KDE Slimbook launched with Ryzan-4000 series processor

#53
post #52
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really cool information. My current laptop is a €3.000 Lenovo X1, which I'm not particularly impressed by. I was impressed by my 440s which lasted 5 years though. Where would you suggest I go for my next laptop?

X1 has a 15w ULP CPU. Is it the performance that doesn't satisfy you? If so, the 45W Ryzen should indeed blow it out of water. I cannot find any new machine on the market with the OLED screen X1 has though.

Sorry, it's an X1 extreme with a i7-9850H, also 45W. Compute capability wise, I'm quite happy.

I've been disappointed with build quality compared to the older 440s. The nvidia prime setup with a shared frame buffer also makes the external display ports more or less useless under linux.

I feel like I've paid a high lenovo premium for a more-or-less average notebook. If all branded laptops are using the same platform, I'm wondering if there's a way to avoid paying that premium.

Re: New KDE Slimbook launched with Ryzan-4000 series processor

#54
post #53
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

X1 has a 15w ULP CPU. Is it the performance that doesn't satisfy you? If so, the 45W Ryzen should indeed blow it out of water. I cannot find any new machine on the market with the OLED screen X1 has though.

Sorry, it's an X1 extreme with a i7-9850H, also 45W. Compute capability wise, I'm quite happy. I've been disappointed with build quality compared to the older 440s. The nvidia prime setup with a shared frame buffer also makes the external display ports more or less useless under linux. I feel like I've paid a high lenovo premium for a more-or-less average notebook. If all branded laptops are using the same platform,…

Well, I myself have not seen any notebook as of late that satisfies my standards on build quality too.

I myself long time dreamed to build my own, fully custom, factory quality notebook, and possibly spin a small business around that.

Dell XPS has set a new high in laptop quality after a decade of boring, rebranded OEM designs, and Taiwanese cookie cutter engineering, but it is still not reaching the level of Japanese notebook brands before 2008.

I could've vouched for Panasonic, but they don't have 45W models. And despite their still excellent quality, they are not aiming at the power user demographics, like programmers.

Re: New KDE Slimbook launched with Ryzan-4000 series processor

#55
post #7

Looks rather nice, but "up to 5 hours battery with real use" for the 14" model is pretty awful, to put it mildly. They should get a lot more running time from a 47Wh battery than 5h. Only one USB-C port (apparently without charging support?) is pretty stingy, too. And one of the USB-A ports is only USB 2.0? WTF

They could probably do a bit better, but coming from mbpro land, 5 hours seems to be standard. It's what my old 2013 and my current 2019 mbpro (with 100wh battery) lasts with light use. Nowhere near close to the 11 hours Apple touts and there's no way it would ever achieve that. It sometimes runs out of battery after sleeping just a few hours. Maybe Slimbook's just being honest for once and not claiming ridiculous numbers like other manufacturers, numbers that are simply pulled out of their asses.

Re: New KDE Slimbook launched with Ryzan-4000 series processor

#56
post #25
post #14

Wow, this laptop is serious business, it's the only less-than-15-inch laptop I could find with 32GB of RAM below 1500 EUR (it's only 1069!). Does anyone have any experience with these ones, any reviews?

The thing is, a lion share of all AMD notebooks on the market is developed, and manufactured by a single OEM. If you look inside recent lenovos, or huawei laptops: scratch, scratch, and you see Qinghua Tongfang logos on PCB, and body parts. The PCB design, and parts list is nearly identical. Very few big brand companies have in-house engineering for laptops, and the few who have, have it for Intel only.

Can't we buy directly the Qinghua Tongfang hardware from some place like Aliexpress, or from a higher volume/lower margin reseller like Walmart or Bestbuy?

Re: New KDE Slimbook launched with Ryzan-4000 series processor

#57
post #26

Probably worth mentioning that they also do a non KDE version of these two laptops without the KDE branding on the lid and with your choice of a number of different Linux distros (or windows) pre-installed. Here is the 14" model: https://slimbook.es/en/store/slimbook-pro-x/pro-x-i7-1-compr... and 15" model: https://slimbook.es/en/store/slimbook-pro-x-15/pro-x-i7-2-co...

of note those machines are machines with Intel Processors in the same chassis, and are not AMD powered.

Re: New KDE Slimbook launched with Ryzan-4000 series processor

#58
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, some manufacturers claim outrageous battery life numbers that noone has ever managed to achieve outside of a lab. But my 2017 X1 Carbon with a 57Wh battery does manage close to 10 hours of actual light-ish use (with Linux). Macbooks' running times are apparently pretty close to what Apple claims, too. But 5 hours advertised running time is just bad, even if it actually manages that much.

> 0 hours of actual light-ish use (with Linux) There is Linux and there is Linux. Do you run KDE? It's basically the heaviest DE around, so it's bound to impact power-management.

In my experience, the desktop doesn't matter that much. I typically get over 8 hours on my 47Wh battery 13" HP Envy.

Watching powertop, the biggest consumers for my battery after the screen are:

- the keyboard backlight (1W)

- bluetooth left on

- pulseaudio needing a restart (fuck pulseaudio's session management)

- iwlwifi power saving mode being misconfigured

- Skype

If any of these situations are happening then I only get 4 to 6 hours. Short bursts of CPU/GPU activity like desktop transitions don't last long enough to make a significant impact.

Other than Skype being poorly written, this stuff could all be automatically detected by a daemon or by the software itself.

Re: New KDE Slimbook launched with Ryzan-4000 series processor

#59
post #26

Probably worth mentioning that they also do a non KDE version of these two laptops without the KDE branding on the lid and with your choice of a number of different Linux distros (or windows) pre-installed. Here is the 14" model: https://slimbook.es/en/store/slimbook-pro-x/pro-x-i7-1-compr... and 15" model: https://slimbook.es/en/store/slimbook-pro-x-15/pro-x-i7-2-co...

anything like this for US shoppers?

Re: New KDE Slimbook launched with Ryzan-4000 series processor

#60
post #57
post #26

Probably worth mentioning that they also do a non KDE version of these two laptops without the KDE branding on the lid and with your choice of a number of different Linux distros (or windows) pre-installed. Here is the 14" model: https://slimbook.es/en/store/slimbook-pro-x/pro-x-i7-1-compr... and 15" model: https://slimbook.es/en/store/slimbook-pro-x-15/pro-x-i7-2-co...

of note those machines are machines with Intel Processors in the same chassis, and are not AMD powered.

When I click on the link I get the option between AMD and Intel, and the AMD link takes me to this model, which does seem to be the same without branding: https://slimbook.es/en/store/slimbook-pro-x-15/pro-x-15-amd-...
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