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Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

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Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#341

Post by NikolaNovak »

randalluk wrote: post #91
rxhernandez wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me; it's far superior to anything outside of a mouse. And yes, I have a MacBook M1 (I didn't realize how poor the support was for Linux by the time the return window closed).

> Me; it's far superior to anything outside of a mouse. I used to love the track point - it felt so efficient to have my pointing device right on the home row of the keyboard. Eventually I realised it was the cause of some pretty bad RSI (or something) in my index finger. Now I have to remove the plastic cap to stop myself from using it.

I can see that happening. Interestingly though, while I'm a right handed person and use mouse with my right hand, I use the trackpoint with my left hand! It actually thus helps prevent RSI for me - I get to mix it up and switch my hands :). I also find that it's a very different position - I think stretching right thumb to hit left button is harder than using left thumb to hit left button, which is just naturally resting there (understanding of course these can be remapped:).

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#342

Post by brimble »

plafl wrote: post #18
adamors wrote: post #10

> 7-9 hours of typing, browsing and some programming. > 3-4 hours of video/audio conferencing or other CPU intensive tasks. This is one of the primary reasons I can't even consider moving away from an M1 Mac. I used to love ThinkPads but not being able to use the machine for 10+ hours without charger is a dealbreaker in 2022.

This is a usually cited concern for so many people and I'm curious to know why because I rarely unplug my laptop, like most people I know.

You can just get up and go and not even think about power. You can even take an overnight trip and not bother to bring the power brick. It's very nice.

... plus, crazy, excessive-seeming battery life at purchase means you still have "all-day" battery when the device is 5 years old and the battery has significantly degraded.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#343

Post by mciancia »

wlesieutre wrote: post #235
tim-- wrote: post #49

I recently acquired a ThinkBook 16p Gen 2, and while a different machine entirely to the ThinkPad, I must say that this is an _absolute beast_ of a machine. It's a total joy to use. It's the most fun I have had using a laptop since my first MacBook. Moving from the MBP to the ThinkBook has made me realize how... boring MacBooks are - not saying that's a bad thing. MacBooks do 'just work'. But the ThinkBook? The machi…

You could do 2x 4K displays with compression over a DisplayLink dock. Probably fine for UI stuff, maybe for video, not great for gaming. The newer 14" and 16" models would drive them natively (or 2x 6K + 1x 4K with the higher end SoC) but then it's not much of a fair comparison by price. The single external display limit is only on the basic "M1" processor and not any of the Pro/Max/Ultra followups. https://danielcom…

Displaylink and/or macOS does not support scaling on hidpi displays for some reason so it's not a good alternative :(

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#344

Post by csdvrx »

frant-hartm wrote: post #44
gaasdggasd wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all-amd systems are a solid alternative as well. if you only have an igpu, it's effectively the same experience as an all-intel system. if you additionally have an amd dgpu, offloading work to it is as simple as setting DRI_PRIME=1 in the target process environment

Yeah, AMD would be the way to go (I switched to AMD on my desktop when Ryzen came out) only if there were reasonable laptops available. AFAIK there are no AMD laptops with 128 GB RAM. Quickly looking at Lenovo site, I couldn't even find one with 64, only 48.

Besides the lack of OLED display, the limited RAM on AMD laptops is another showstopper then. I want a minimum of 64GB ECC, which I can get on a Thinkpad with an Intel Xeon CPU.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#345

Post by ajford »

jen20 wrote: post #118
jgaa wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What we have from Apple laptops, when it comes to the ThinkPad keyboard, is like comparing stone tablets with a 1980 IBM electric type writer ;)

It’s pretty unclear to me which is supposed to be which in this comparison after the ThinkPad switch to mushy chiclets in the early 2010s (limited run anniversary edition excepted).

The Thinkpad chiclets suck compared to the scissor switches of the earlier models, but compared to the soft putty that is Mac keyboards, they're still a winner.

When I had to use a Macbook for work a few years back, I was unable to use the keyboard for more than 15-20 minutes without it flaring my RSI. That's compared to about an hour or so I can get on my Thinkpad.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#346

Post by brimble »

avl999 wrote: post #333
l30n4da5 wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i mean, as far as wireless headphones/headsets are concerned, my counter-argument is this: I really don't like having a wire constantly tethering me to my desk. With my wireless headset, i can get up, walk around my office, throw something away, or walk out to the other room and grab a coke from the refrigerator; all without pausing my music or taking my headset off. I charge it at night and it is good all day. no wo…

I don't want to have to keep track of charging yet another device, esp one as important and frequently used as headphones. Heck, some days I forget to plug in my phone to charge let alone headphones. Not worth the headache esp when there is another version of the device available with "infinite battery life". If some people prefer wireless and don't mind having to deal the potential inconvenience of always having it…

I have wireless headphones. They were cheaper than AirPods (they're Jabra) and have pretty good sound. They're full-size, not earbuds.

The battery lasts for a couple days of fairly heavy use, and they degrade to... wired headphones, essentially, since I can use them while they're charging. Also they have a 3.5mm jack if I want to use that. And they've got a microphone, so I can walk around while on calls.

Best of both worlds.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#347

Post by vially »

neither_color wrote: post #336
tim-- wrote: post #49

I recently acquired a ThinkBook 16p Gen 2, and while a different machine entirely to the ThinkPad, I must say that this is an _absolute beast_ of a machine. It's a total joy to use. It's the most fun I have had using a laptop since my first MacBook. Moving from the MBP to the ThinkBook has made me realize how... boring MacBooks are - not saying that's a bad thing. MacBooks do 'just work'. But the ThinkBook? The machi…

>you can use two 4k monitors at the same time -which is impossible with the M1 MacBook Pro I have two 4K monitors hooked up to a 14" macbook pro currently. I believe it's the air that only connects to one external display.

According to the official documentation [1], the 13" M1 MacBook Pro also has this limitation:

  > If you're using a Mac with the M1 chip:
  > 
  > On iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Air, and 13-inch MacBook Pro, you can connect one external display using either of the Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports.
[1] - https://support.apple.com/en-afri/HT202351

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#348

Post by csdvrx »

sudosysgen wrote: post #328
halotrope wrote: post #110

Generally great machines for Linux. Just a PSA from a X1E gen2 owner: Do NOT get the NVidia GPU, do NOT get the fastest CPU and most importantly: do NOT opt for the 4k screen. With 1080p and Intel GPU it is a good, even great laptop with ok battery life (if you can look over the touchpad). Wonderful keyboard, good Linux support (even fingerprint reader works). But just as with the last Intel macbook, the GPU, 10th ge…

Battery life is perfectly fine with an NVidia GPU on any modern laptop with Optimus or a MUX. You just have to set it up to fully power down the GPU. I get 9+ hours of battery life with a 3070 on Linux, it's just always fully powered down. Even at 1440p 240hz, pushing 2x more pixels than 4k60, I still get 5-6 hours of battery life. Yes, it sucks that you have to go through the weeds to get it to work, but once it wor…

> You just have to set it up to fully power down the GPU.

Can you please tell us a bit more?

I have a NVidia + Intel GPU. I was thinking about using the NVidia for KVM (the NVidia would be powered down when not using KVM), and the Intel for native linux display with Pop or Ubuntu 22 LTS as another attempt to use Wayland (since I read NVidia GPUs can cause many issues)

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#349

Post by lvl102 »

nix0n wrote: post #320
boatsie wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The skeptic in me thinks that long lived, upgradable, serviceable, resellable laptops would never have survived long anyways. It’s far more profitable to sell new machines to people and businesses after 3 years. Those long lived tank laptops were actually just too good.

IBM was selling service contracts too, which increased their incentive to make the machines last. Some businesses (and governments) would still be willing to shell out the money for that kind of quality.

If I remember correctly, people regularly shelled out $5,000 plus for those Thinkpads. They had some insane “Rolls-Royce” type of support for business executives.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#350

Post by csdvrx »

brimble wrote: post #342
plafl wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a usually cited concern for so many people and I'm curious to know why because I rarely unplug my laptop, like most people I know.

You can just get up and go and not even think about power. You can even take an overnight trip and not bother to bring the power brick. It's very nice. ... plus, crazy, excessive-seeming battery life at purchase means you still have "all-day" battery when the device is 5 years old and the battery has significantly degraded.

> when the device is 5 years old and the battery has significantly degraded

When the battery has significantly degraded, I usually buy a new one. Changing the battery in a Thinkpad is not very hard.

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