crossposted from: https://tilvids.com/videos/watch/69008160-d7a9-4bf2-af92-ebcfc256b20f
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Timecodes: 00:00 Intro Sponsor: Start securing your CentOS 7 fleet now 02:06 Slimbook Hero 03:32 Design & Build Quality 04:45 Specs and options 07:02 Performance & Gaming 09:25 Display 10:06 Keyboard & Mouse 11:20 Software Experience 12:36 Linux gaming laptop? 14:10 Support the channel
#Laptop #Gaming #Linux
It’s a 15 inch device, with a 1440p display that refreshes at 165 hertz, with an aluminium chassis, a 13th gen Intel i7 CPU, an RTX 4060 GPU, as much RAM as you could cram into a laptop, and very solid I/O.
So, this thing is chunky: it’s not meant to be an ultrabook, it weighs 2.1 kilos, or 4.6 pounds, and it’s pretty damn sturdy. Not much give or flex to this chassis, thanks to the aluminium.
The hinge is really solid as well, with minimal wobble when typing. It’s a 16:9 form factor. Of course you can open the laptop, and access the 2 M.2 slots for SSDs, the 2 DDR5 RAM slots, and the battery, which is 62 Wh. You can also buy spare parts from Slimbook, including the bezel cover, touchpad, lid, battery, keyboard palm rest, display, and more.
Now, in terms of specs, this laptop is well equipped, with a core i7 13620H, and an Nvidia RTX 4060, with 8 gigs of VRAM.
You can spec the rest up to your liking, with up to 64 gigs of DDR 5 RAM, at 5200 Mhz, and up to 4TB of PCIE4 storage.
You can also choose to dispose with the gamer branding and use a more unified black keyboard instead of having the white accents on the WASD keys, and you can pick any keyboard language you want.
As per I/O, on the left, you get a kensington lock, a USB 2.0 port, probably for a mouse, a mic jack, and a headphone jack. On the back, you have a mindisplay port, USB C 3.2 gen 2 with dusplayport support, HDMI 2.1, a gigabit ethernet port and the barrel charger, since charging this thing over USB would be a challenge. And on the right, there’s an SD card reader, and 2 type A USB 3.2 ports.
On top of all that, you get Bluetooth 5.2, Wifi 6, a basic webcam and onboard mic that won’t blow your socks off, dual speakers that are pretty decent, and a backlit keyboard with RGB, because, gamer.
In terms of benchmarks, the CPU get a score of 2733 in single core and 11625 in multi core on Geekbench 6.
https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/3787232
Battery life is decent, with about 7h of generic office work with wifi on, 50% brightness, and using the silent mode.
In Horizon Zero Dawn, at the native 1440p resolution, without any upscaling, and at the ultra preset, the Slimbook Hero managed a super smooth 60 FPS.
For Shadow of the Tomb Raider, also at 1440p without upscaling, and the ultra preset, I got 99 FPS on average, sometimes going down to about 80, or up to 120.
The display is really solid, it covers 100% of SRGB, it has a refresh rate up to 165hz, and it’s 1440p.
The keyboard is solid enough. The keys are very stable, and they have good travel. They’re quite clicky, and the sound is pleasant, and they bounce back super fast, it’s very nice to type on.
The touchpad is ok. It’s smooth enough, and precise, although it’s very off center, which I find annoying in day to day use.
Why?
I disagree with it, but the premise is that they cant be upgraded so they are stuck at a set spec, they struggle with heating and dust issues, they make a lot of sacrifices due to needing to fit into a laptop size, and they basically need to be plugged in 24/7 which bites at the portability.
All valid points, but also all acceptable trade offs if you need a portable and flexible machine.
Every gaming notebook can be upgraded (RAM, storage) but not to the degree of desktop PCs, true. Although https://frame.work/products/laptop16-diy-amd-7040 exists now.
Btw, I don’t play graphically intensive games anyway but the games I play I wanna play at native screen resolution of 1440p.
One needs to clean the fan every once in a while (more often when dumb people place it on the bed). Not so different from desktop PCs.
But you can’t upgrade the two most important components: CPU and GPU. So if your gaming laptop isn’t cutting it, you need to buy a new one, you can’t just upgrade the component that’s causing bottlenecks.
So a gaming laptop is likely to be much more expensive than a non-gaming laptop. My E-series Lenovo ThinkPad cost $400-500, which is about half the cost compared to entry gaming laptops. I haven’t once cleaned the fan, and it’s still doing well a few years later (my kids play Lego games and Minecraft on it).
So for my money, I go with a Steam Deck for games and an inexpensive laptop with integrated graphics for everything else. Total cost is ~$1k.
Upgrading or cleaning a laptop means opening up the laptop. Anyone who has opened a tower and a laptop will attest, the laptop is a nightmare to deal with and the tower is much simpler.
Depends on the laptop. For some it’s just unscrewing the bottom. Gaming notebooks aren’t the super slim ones. They tend to be easier to open than their ultrabook cousins.
Even on a lot of non-gaming laptops. I can’t say that I’ve loved the dells I’ve had, but I can’t fault them for their repairability. Cleaning out the fans, swapping memory, storage, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards, all just a dozen screws to remove the bottom panel and access all of that.