Buying a new laptop: Any advice on Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro?

[oneone]

Hi there!

After 10 years time I am looking to replace my old 2015 MacBook Air, on which I have run Gentoo throughout its lifetime. Despite being satisfied overall with the MacBook, I am hoping to avoid certain problems that I had with it, when buying a new laptop. In particular, the new laptop should satisfy the following criteria:

• Hardware should be fully compatible with Linux (in particular the WiFi card, Bluetooth and webcam).
• Hardware should be upgradable and battery should be easily replacable.
• The battery should last for a whole working day (at least when assuming low performance activities like web browsing, etc).
• Display should be bright enough to work outside.

After a few online searches, I found the Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro 14 (https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXE ... n10.tuxedo).

Does anybody here have any experience with running Gentoo on it?

I saw that there are articles for the Tuxedo Aura 15 (Gen2) in the Gentoo Wiki and that the tuxedo-control-center is in the official Gentoo repository, which seems to be a good sign. I'm sure that Gentoo would run on it, but I'm worried about smaller compatibility issues, remembering the pain to get WiFi, Bluetooth and webcam working on the MacBook.

The hardware of the Tuxedo laptops is customisable and if I get one, I have to make some decisions:

• I can go for the Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro 14 (Gen9) with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU and Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 or for the Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro 14 (Gen10) with AMD Ryzen 7 H 255 CPU and either Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210 or AMD RZ616 Wi-Fi. It seems that the AMD processor is more energy efficient at the same performance, so I am leaning towards the AMD Ryzen 7 H 255 CPU.
• If I take the Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro 14 (Gen10) with AMD Ryzen 7 H 255 CPU, I can choose between two WiFi cards (Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210 or AMD RZ616 Wi-Fi). According to the specs, the AMD RZ616 Wi-Fi supports 6 GHz WiFi, which the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210 doesn't, but doing a quick online search, it seems that multiple people had problems with the AMD RZ616 Wi-Fi on Linux in the past and so I am leaning towards the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210.

The specs of the thus configured laptop would then be (copy pasted from website):

Omnia Display | 3k (2880 x 1800) | 16:10 | max. 120Hz | 500nits
32 GB (2x 16GB) DDR5 5600MHz Kingston ( +151,26 EUR)
AMD Ryzen 7 H 255 (8 Cores | 16 Threads | max. 4.9 GHz | Radeon 780M | 16 MB Cache | without NPU)
1 TB WD_Blue SN5100 (NVMe PCIe 4.0)
ENGLISH US ISO (EN-QWERTY international) with backlit with TUX super-key
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210 (802.11ax | 2.4 & 5 GHz | Bluetooth 5.3)

Unfortunately the laptop does not have a mini jack audio output, but I suppose I can just use a USB-C adapter for that, if necessary.

Does anybody here have any thoughts / comments on or experience with this kind of configuration which might be helpful for me?

Any advice would be much appreciated

[rab0171610]

As far as I can tell, you did not explain why you need an audio jack output. Most devices now use BT to connect audio devices.
As for bright enough to work outside, I think most portable computing devices - including laptops, phones, and tablets
have reflective glossy screens intended to enhance the screen when viewing video or games. A business laptop or a matte screen works best for outdoor use in my experience. This will mean that the colors are more muted and there is a dullness to the screen. However, the screen can then be seen at all angles in bright lighting, including outdoors, without acting as a mirror or distracting reflective surface.
I recently needed to replace two laptops. I decided to buy refurbished Thinkpads from a used tech dealer on ebay. The Thinkpad T series was originally a high end business laptop. One was a LENOVO THINKPAD T14 GEN 1 CORE I5-10210U. The other is LENOVO THINKPAD T14 GEN 1 CORE I5-10310U For both the cost was 335 dollars. I use external NVMe SSD 1TB drives in USB connected enclosures. One is the main drive and the other is used for daily Timeshift backups. They each had 16GB of Ram but I upgraded them both to 32GB by adding a secondary memory module.
Each runs Gentoo. I update them remotely using SSH and they both are set up with distcc, but they would probably work well without it.
Most of the newer laptops I have worked with have no issues running Linux. I have had several that the sound or wireless networking/BT does not work under Linux. Some of those worked later with out of tree kernel modules which were later integrated into the newer kernel versions. A few rare times, there was never any compatibility. Sometimes, it was just the headphone jack did not work in Linux but otherwise sound worked. I spent a lot of hours tracking changes, news items, and kernel module updates hoping for a fix. Sometimes it never came. I found it exhausting.
The newer the laptop, the more likely there is to be a device that will not work, especially networking/BT. As you pointed out, sometimes you get a different network card on two different laptops of the exact same model. You generally won't know which one you have until you buy it. It sucks when you get the one with the card that does not yet and potentially will never have Linux drivers available.
A quick fix is to use a USB dongle and add a USB network card that is supported.
NONE of those laptops BTW, though purchased new, are still working. These were lower and mid tier models from brands like HP, Dell, and Lenovo. I have bought more new laptops over the years than I can count. Most of those are not easily fixable when something breaks and are considered disposable.
I get that the Tuxedo is intended for Linux but . . . I think it is too expensive. And to be honest, I am not that impressed by their specs either when considering the price. I am a thrifty person and I think there are a lot of older devices out in the wild with a lot of life left in them. Some of these are were very high end devices in their time. Also, most of these older models now work well and also have full, complete driver support in Linux.
I would rather spend 500 dollars on two solid, easy-to-repair older laptops that were the top of the line in their time and save thousands of dollars than buy new. This is especially true if you are going to be using a Linux OS. But you do you. I just wanted to offer a different perspective.

[CaptainBlood]

As far as I can tell, you did not explain why you need an audio jack output

I'm sure that Gentoo would run on it, but I'm worried about smaller compatibility issues, remembering the pain to get WiFi, Bluetooth ...

Alternatively, my 2 cents there is that oneone might have devices with jack he wants to keep using.

Thks 4 ur attention, interest & support.

[rab0171610]

Alternatively, my 2 cents there is that oneone might have devices with jack he wants to keep using.

Yes, oneone might. Alternatively, oneone might not. However, we won't know exactly until oneone chooses to share more details. Thank your for your pennies.

[C5ace]

I purchased a few month ago a Lenovo ThinkBook 16 G6 16in WUXGA AMD R7-7730U 512GB SSD 16GB RAM W11P Laptop (21KK00A5AU) $969.00 Australian Dollars

Combo audio jack. Connect headphones or headsets with a 3.5 mm (0.14 inch), 4-pole
plug.
Note: This jack does not support standalone external microphones. If
you use headsets, choose one with a single plug.

It also has privacy slider in front of the camera .

Gentoo and other linux works fine.

[Zucca]

I leave this here just for comparison.

I run Gentoo on MacBook Air M2. This hardware does not meet your requirements, but you have been using a MacBook...
So if you ever consider coming back... Maybe don't? (Yeah, I'm not selling this idea.)

Pros:

• enough resolution on the display
• somewhat bright display, however cannot be used outside when there's too much sunlight (because of glossy display surface)
• battery life can be good, especially when idling
• passively cooled, no fans
• no buttons underneath the touchpad
• proper headphone amp, can drive my 250 Ohm headphones

Cons:
Too many to list here, but upgradeability is maybe the worst. And as of now usb-c ports do not have thunderbolt or display output capabilities. Also you need to keep macOS installed on a separate partition

So basically consider only if you're adventurous and get a real good deal price wise.

[oneone]

Thank you all for your responses!

The Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro comes with a matte display and 500 nits brightness, so I think it should be good for working outside. In comparison, the ThinkBook 16 Gen 6 has only 300 nits, C5ace, and it is a bit too chunky for me (it does have a headphone jack though).

CaptainBlood is right, I would like to keep using my wired headphones and my sound system, which has no bluetooh support. Does anybody here have any experience with using USB-C to 3.5mm headphone jack adapters in Gentoo?

rab0171610, I don't mind the high price of the laptop as it will be fully funded by my employer. It's a small-ish company so their prices would naturally be higher and I think it's a business worth supporting. However, this also means that I unfortunately cannot buy a second hand laptop. My employer requires me to buy a new one from some official shop.

Yes, Zucca, you're not selling this idea I do really like my MacBook Air though, because of it's feel and design. The keyboard has a very good feel and one can type almost silently on it, while still getting good physical feedback (though I'm missing a few keys like PageUp/PageDown/etc). Another advantage of having such a popular laptop is that it is very easy to get second hand spare parts. The 2015 MacBook Air was still fairly repairable.
Tuxedo does seem to offer spare parts on their website as well, but once they don't offer them any more (when the laptop gets outdated), it might be difficult to find them second hand.

I'm still wondering whether anybody here has any experience with the AMD Ryzen 7 H 255 CPU and the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210. Having some issues with either of them under Gentoo are my biggest (probably unfounded) concerns.

[Zucca]

Does anybody here have any experience with using USB-C to 3.5mm headphone jack adapters in Gentoo?

My experience is that at least the cheap ones do work OotB with sanely configured kernel.

I have not performed tests with some high-end headphone adapters/amps, except for Motu M2 (it't more than just headphone amp though...), which worked straight.

[oneone]

Thanks, Zucca!

I think I've misread the specs. It does in fact seem to have a headphone jack

Now I'm just wondering about the support of the CPU (+ integrated graphics) and WiFi card.

[pa4wdh]

Does anybody here have any experience with using USB-C to 3.5mm headphone jack adapters in Gentoo?

Just make sure it uses the USB Audio Class, that's well supported in linux. Telltale signs of devices that use USB Audio Class (if it's not explicitly stated in the specs) is that it can be used "without drivers" (ie. most OS'es ship USB Audio Class drivers themselves, quite unlikely with proprietary USB protocols).
In my experience most devices fall in this category, if in doubt search the internet for the device's name and linux and check the results.

[rab0171610]

Since it is not coming out of your own pocket and not for solely personal use then I would say go for it! Let us know about your experience if you decide to get it after all.

[oneone]

Thank you all for your advice!

Since no one said, that this laptop is an absolute no go, I think I will get it

The specs look very convincing to me and it's a good opportunity to try out this manufacturer.