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Comment by scrlk | Hacker News Reader

HP ZBook Ultra G1a? It has Strix Halo, 14" 2880x1800 (242 ppi) 120 Hz VRR OLED, and Ubuntu 24.04 options.

Can't speak for the keyboard, but HP ZBooks/EliteBooks tend to be decent.

I'm typing this post on the 395+ 128gb RAM model. IMO, the keyboard is better than the one in the newest Macbook Pro. Just enough travel, and quiet enough so I don't disturb co-workers when I type.

I use it for development running Fedora Workstation. My job involves spinning up lots of containers and K8S KIND clusters.

I often reach for it instead of my 14" M4 Macbook. However, I will choose the Macbook Pro when I know I'll be away from a charger for a while. The HP, as great as it is, still has bad battery life.

The only downside is that the webcam _does not work_ unless you use Ubuntu 20.04 w/ the OEM kernel package.

The ISP driver which will enable the camera to work is in the process of being up-streamed, though. I believe they're targeting early 2025 for mainline Linux support.

> early 2025

Is that a typo?

There’s barely 4 months left in 2025.

Oops, yeah. I meant early 2026

Do you feel a difference between Strix Halo and other x86 machines you could lay your hands on to date? I want one, but with an M2 Max macbook pro and Zen2 desktop it feels very hard to justify.

Subjectively, it’s a bit faster than my M2 Max, but a lot faster than my 3700x desktop.

I have this laptop with this display configuration and it looks amazing. However on Arch with Gnome/Wayland I cannot get color management to work, which is a problem since this display has such a wide gamut. Opening HN on it for the first time I was blinded by the deepest orange nav bar I could imagine.

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