WiFi seems okay for me, I've not had any problems. Restarting X is indeed annoying. Also only one of the USB-c ports has display port support, that took me a while to figure. I thought my usb-c monitor was broken until I took a closer look at the ports. No webcam is pretty annoying as well.
The Linux community for the laptop is actually pretty large. People have reverse-engineered a lot of the "nice to haves" [0].
I love the battery life, which is great when running on integrated graphics.
The CPU is great too, I'm satisfied with autocomplete speed in my IDE. I think the 5900HS is also quite power-efficient, maybe the Intel versions are more power-hungry, not sure. Another benefit is that the laptop stays completely silent, and only whirrs up when gaming or doing heavier workloads.
The GPU in my version is "just" the 3060 Mobile, but it's good enough for me, and there are costlier version with better GPUs.
The ports are good enough for me. There's one USB-C 3.2 Gen2 which I used to connect to a DisplayPort screen, and there's an HDMI port, which I use to drive a 4k@120Hz monitor. I also use one of the USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) ports with a hub to run all peripherals (mic, webcam, keyboard, mouse).
WiFi was giving me problems on Windows (I have the MediaTek card), but that was fixed at the end of 2021. Another smallish issue is that there's no webcam, but I use a standalone cam anyway.
Otherwise the G14 would have made my list. The reviews I read on HN suggested it would be worth a look.
Edit: saw that the parent post says that that has been fixed in this year's model. Will take a look. Thanks both!
One big advantage of the high-end Thinkpads: they're spill resistant. I accidentally spilled an entire mug of tea over this one, and it had no ill effects whatsoever. You can't do that with most laptops.
- Crashes more than before. This has only been 2 or 3 times, but it's still 2 or 3 times for than it should.
- Has random issues, like graphical glitches, with builtin and external 4K displays. Right now I keep the resolution at 1080 because it's annoying.
- Has more issues going into and out of sleep.
Those are all probably Ubuntu's issues though. Physically I don't have a gripe besides maybe the speakers are a bit quiet and it would be nice if there was a USB C port on the right side so I could charge from either side.
I doubt that's unique to the T14, though. Every recent laptop and desktop I know seems to have trouble sleeping lately. Either they refuse to go to sleep, or they do, but randomly wake up and then stay on. I don't know what's causing this PC insomnia epidemic.
To complement other points:
- you can put the nvidia card in “compute” or “hybrid” mode, which removes the need for X restarts. Compute is really nice, the computer runs on IGP (which is vey capable) and all cuda workloads seamlessly wake up the nvidia card, no question asked
- the above means that the pc is nearly silent, maybe helped by the AMD cpu, while being pretty capable with the 8 real zen3 cores
- no issues really on Linux, and the Asus-laptop tools allow you to switch off the leds or cap the battery charge. The wifi card was an issue initially, quickly fixed with a newer kernel
- the screen is 120Hz, and this is really appreciated actually
I would buy a newer version in a pinch
The Realtek WiFi device is a problem with hp laptops too. Works but needs a cold reboot after the hibernate wakes up.
Are you saying the intel WiFi chip is pin compatible with the Realtek? That’s an amazing find.
I thought that most laptops have the WiFi on a mini-PCI card these days (or really anything in the past 10 years) unless they are really trying for the ultra-slim, solder everything down look.
# of CPU Cores 8 # of Threads 16 Default TDP 45+W
AMD really knocked it out the park with zen3
2022 rog strix 12th gen i9 + rtx 3060
10/10 must Buy
I went with strix vs others because of power delivery. Apparently rtx 3080 is great and all but asus seriously fucked up because the laptops they put it in dont deliver it enough power and it gets similar performance to a 3060. So I just got the 3060, 300ms screen is mind blowing
Nothing today even comes close, and never will.
The ASUS ROG line of gaming laptops had exactly what I wanted, although they look a bit garish, they are good value for what you get.
On Black Friday I got a G14 Zephyrus with a 8c16t Ryzen 9, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and 14" FHD IPS screen. I think I paid £1300. There's a free RAM slot, so I upgraded to 32GB, I think it supports 48GB max. There are a couple of gotcha's mind you:
- It came with a WiFi chip with poor support for Linux (and it wasn't great on Windows). I got an Intel one from eBay for £10 and it took a few minutes to swap out.
- You need to restart X to switch from hybrid to integrated graphics, which you want to do on battery to save power.
- You need to restart X to switch from integrated to hybrid graphics, which you want to do when you get back to your desk so you can use a USB-C display.
- The default fan curves mean the fan turns on and off every few seconds. I changed the settings so it is off most of the time and it runs fine.
- The powerbrick that comes with it is heavy. I use a 65W USB-C brick and have no issues for working, but for gaming (it has a RTX 3060) it needs more power.
- The model I have has no webcam, that's fixed in this year's modem.
Everything else works great. Battery life is 5-6 hours as standard, but if you disable turbo boost and you can get closer to 10 hours.