I’m an experienced Linux user (since 97’ or so ). Right now using openSUSE (desktop) and Arch (Thinkpad T14s AMD). Kind of fed up with all fiddling and just want things to work. Looking into atomic distros to help solve this and Bluefin/Aurora I want to try next.
I’m also thinking of replacing laptop, FW 13 is on top of list. Before Intel Ultra, AMD was clear choice. Intel supposedly now comes closer in terms of performance/battery but has edge on stability/maturity (+TB4 ports).
Any first-hands experiences on what is more stable/less issues?
I had quite some with T14s AMD until mesa/kernel cought-up, now is fine.
I have been running the FW13 AMD one for now few months.
I’ve used Arch on it and nowadays running Bluefin. Only issues I have had were mostly some AMD kernel regressions during the 6.9/6.10 kernel versions but now with 6.11 (and 6.12) it has been fine.
I have no experience on the Core Ultra model but I think AMD still has some efficency lead with the current 7040 series.
Not sure about the iGPU situation but I have heard/read that the ARC iGPUs still have some issues but take this with a grain of salt as I have no personal experience on them with current linux kernels
So with AMD, there are specific slots you can put specific modules (like the USB-c and USB-a etc). Intel doesn’t have this “issue” and every one of the four slots is Thunderbolt4 port
I run a 12gen Intel Framework and haven’t had any issues related to the hardware.
For me personally I’d still go with an Intel based system as I prefer Thunderbolt over the mix of USB ports for… Reasons. Mainly I’m not a huge fan of USB spec but once again, just personal preference.
Of course depends on what you do, and also how bright your display is. But I guess active working the battery life is something like 5-6hours.
Currently (note I have set the max charge to 85%) with browser, discord open the gnome battery stats show about 7 hours. Display at around 50% brightness.
If you’re OK with the port situation as outlined above, I’d recommend the AMD version of the FW 13. I have the Ryzen 5 board installed in mine and it’s been fabulous as of kernel 6.10. I get around 9 hours of battery life but obviously ymmv.
I don’t have a FW device with the Intel chip, but my Thinkpad T14 has the Core Ultra 155u and the battery life is horrid. I also suspect there are still processor scheduling problems as performance is quite lackluster in my experience.
). Right now using openSUSE (desktop) and Arch (Thinkpad T14s AMD). Kind of fed up with all fiddling and just want things to work. Looking into atomic distros to help solve this and Bluefin/Aurora I want to try next.