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Comment by jonahbenton | Hacker News Reader

Is Lenovo not an option in EU? I am in US, bought a P1 Gen 2 a couple of months ago. Wait of about 4 weeks for the custom build I wanted.

Fedora works flawlessly (really) and the machine itself is a clear improvement on the MBP 2015s I had been harboring/nursing as a result of the disasters that were the butterfly keyboard and Catalina. Battery life is the only sub-excellent feature, but I am always near a plug. Pricing is equivalent to Apple. I am very happy with it. For comparison I have had several System76 machines and the build quality, while improving, is not first class.

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Lenovo's Fedora laptops are coming to the EU, they just haven't launched on the web portal just yet. I believe you can call them and they'll sell it to you anyway.

If it's not asking too much, would you please share an overview of the hardware you picked out and a ballpark figure of the final price? Much like you mentioned, I'm currently harboring/nursing a 2015 MBP with a 2014 backup/parts bin MBP with broken display connection and need to get a healthy machine before it's too late. It's time to let go.

Thanks!

Sure thing-

Model code: 20QTCTO1WW

The main customizations were CPU and soldered RAM, and the 4k non-touch screen plus the Quadro card. I have some 1TB PCIe SSDs around and am fine installing additional RAM (max of 64G).

Copied from my manifest-

● 9th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-9880H Processor with vPro™ (2.30 GHz, up to 4.80 GHz with Turbo Boost, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 16 MB Cache)

● 32 GB DDR4 2666MHz

● 256 GB PCIe SSD

● 15.6" UHD (3840 x 2160) IPS, anti-glare with Dolby Vision™ HDR 400, 500 nits

● NVIDIA® Quadro® T2000 4GB GDDR5

● Fingerprint Reader

● Backlit - US English

● IR & 720p HD

● FHD Black Paint/UHD Woven

● Enabled Discrete TPM2.0

● 4 Cell Li-Polymer, 80Wh

● 135watt AC

● Intel® AX200 Wi-Fi 6 802.11AX (2 x 2) & Bluetooth® 5.1

● vPro Certified

● 15.6" UHD (3840x2160), IPS, Anti-glare, 500nits, No touch, IR-Camera, Mic, Woven

● Retail Packaging

● Publication-English

● 3 Year Depot or Carry-in

Total cost after discounts pre tax about $2700. Base machine as I recall was about $1800; the CPU added about $300, screen + card about $400, RAM about $200. Also paid the Windows tax, but maybe the P1s now ship with Linux.

Good luck!

Thanks a lot, this is great!

This may never be seen but Lenovo has released some new models in the US. It looks like one can get roughly the spec sheet of mine above with the new P15v for about $1800, rather than $2800.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/thi...?

I might get one as a backup.

How is the trackpad coming from your MBP?

Ah, it is noticeably different, and clumsier, but I don't use it! I have used Thinkpads for decades and love the trackpoint, am happy to be back to being able to almost entirely ignore the trackpad.

In my limited use I'd say the surface is a little less pleasantly tactile compared to the MBP, there is slightly more latency in initial response, and it is slightly more jerky when scrolling. The latter two feel mostly like driver issues. I am aware of people doing work on the drivers to get it a little closer to the feel of the MBP, but don't follow it too closely.

Hope that helps.

I do use the trackpad (on an X1 Extreme), and it is indeed the one thing about this laptop that's not as good as a Macbook.

I love everything else. Better keyboard, spill resistant (I already spilled an entire cup of tea over it with no ill effects whatsoever; you can't do that with a Macbook), very solid build quality.

My only complaint are:

* trackpad not quite as good as Apple (though not terrible)

* ctrl and fn key are the wrong way around (why?!)

* specific for the X1E (at least with a 4k OLED screen): it drains the battery like crazy. The Carbon isn't as overpowered as the Extreme, so that's probably a solid choice if you want to be mobile, but my Extreme frequently has only 2 hours of battery life.

You might already know this but you can actually swap the CTRL and FN key via the BIOS.

https://support.lenovo.com/nl/en/solutions/ht074187

I suspected as much, but thank you for the link. That makes it easier. Now just to find some replacement keycaps. You don't happen to have a link for that, do you?

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