lhl

Authored Comments

The Ryzen processor is nice, but IMO, it's not so lustworthy since it's using a last-gen 5850U. While the Ryzen 6000's Zen3+ cores aren't a significant upgrade, the latest generation has DDR5, PCIe Gen4, and a much better iGPU (RDNA2 w/ the latest VCN that gives you hardware-accelerated AV1 decode among other things). The HP is also using a single-fan (and if it's like other G8s, a single heat pipe) cooling solution, which is quiet and works well, but probably won't handle much more than 30W sustained, so it won't exactly be bringing the thunder on the performance front. (Compare it to the dual-fan, dual-heatpipe setup of something like the Tuxedo Pulse 15 Gen2, which can handle 60W+).

To me, the other main thing that makes the Dev One not so desirable is the SureView display it uses. Yes, it can get ultra-bright, but has poor viewing angles and reports of graininess/fuzziness. It's still a FHD display (high DPI makes a huge difference with text rendering crispness), the color color gamut is OK (but w/ apparently uncorrectable color shift), and the 16:9 aspect ratio is a bit of a bummer considering that HP has already moved to 16:10 with their other newly released EliteBooks.

Intellectually, I get that the Linux validation/engineering must take extra time, that making sure there's a solid supply of parts is hard, and I'm glad HP is dipping their toes in the water, but at the end of the day, what they ended up from the parts bin doesn't really rev up the Gear Acquisition Syndrome for me.

There are some decent Linux laptop options released this year (Tuxedo, Slimbook, Star Labs, and Framework all have new shiny things), but sadly not many good Ryzen options, so if that's something that's high on your list, it may be better to wait a while (next year?). So far, the current supply of Ryzen 6000 allocations seem to so far have gone into either high-power, high-margin H series gaming or completely soldered-down U series ultrathin laptops. There are some overpriced ThinkPads and EliteBooks coming out now, so who knows, in a few months maybe prices witll drop or something decent will show up (or the 7000 series will roll around w/ better availability, Zen4 cores, and USB4 working OOTB).

IMO, for those dead set on Ryzen 6000, the current best AMD-based Linux laptop is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. It's relatively portable at 1.65kg, has a Ryzen 6800H or 6900HS processor w/ a cooling solution that can sustain up to 80W+ on the CPU (since it's built to be run w/ an AMD dGPU), still has decent (5-7h reported) battery runtime (that can probably be improved w/ some RyzenAdj tuning and making sure the muxed dGPU is fully disabled), has a great 14" WQHD+ 500nit 120Hz 100% DCI-P3 display, and w/ some minor DSDT hacking, works perfectly w/ Linux (there's a dedicated community around working on things). The two biggest negatives are there's only 1 DDR5 SO-DIMM so your max memory is going to be limited to 40/48GB, and that you aren't giving your money to a Linux-supporting company (Asus is terrible, honestly).