My previous laptop was an ASUS UX331UN, and I wrote a post when I got it 6 years ago reviewing it [LINK]. It served me well, so I figured for a while that when it came time to replace it, I would most likely get another ASUS laptop. Over most of this year, I noticed progressively more often when using that laptop that it would make an odd whirring sound, and that would be especially noticeable when it would be shutting down. This motivated me to start considering to get a new laptop. More recently, the recent US presidential election result forced the issue for me, as I was concerned that the president-elect, once inaugurated, would impose heavy tariffs on many different countries that would significantly impede global supply chains that are essential for the manufacturing of electronic goods, including laptops. Thus, I thought carefully about and made the decision to buy a new laptop. Follow the jump to see more.
Making the decision
As I assessed my needs, I realized that many things have changed since my previous laptop purchases. First, I no longer play video games. Second, I no longer regularly review Linux distributions. Third, since starting work at Cambridge Systematics (as I mentioned in a post earlier this year [LINK]), that company has provided me a laptop to do all of my work, so this is my first personal computer in which I am not doing any coursework or research as part of my primary job; I occasionally do contract work related to my expertise in transportation for people with disabilities, so I would use my personal laptop for that, but such opportunities are rare enough (as I am not seeking them out as often as one would for a primary job) that such requirements would not significantly shape my laptop choice (and in any case, such opportunities would at most require me to search for academic journal articles or news articles online, use citation tools online, write simple reports in word processing software, and make simple slides in presentation software). Thus, I no longer saw a need for a dedicated graphics card, I no longer felt as compelled to get top-of-the-line specifications, and I no longer anticipated spending the vast majority of my time each day using this specific laptop.
That said, I still had a few specifications that I wanted to make sure to meet. I had heard from friends & family members that with how resource-intensive many websites and applications have become (partly because of more expansive features and partly because of lazier programming in the absence of tight hardware constraints), it will be necessary to have at least 16 gigabytes of RAM. Also, I wasn't satisfied anymore with my second laptop having only 256 gigabytes of storage in its solid-state drive; I wanted more, especially because although I figured that I would not take that many pictures & videos on my phone in a given year, I would be taking enough pictures that over several years, I could probably appreciate having that extra storage space available. Additionally, it had to be a form factor that I could still hold & carry (given my disability); I was surprised to see that the most popular laptop manufacturers (whose laptops come with Microsoft Windows) have largely discontinued the 13-inch screen size in favor of the 14-inch screen size, so I decided that the laptop should have a 14-inch screen and should not weigh much more than 3 pounds and should not weight any more than 3.25 pounds. Finally, I still wanted to use Linux, especially knowing how intrusive Microsoft Windows 11 is, as I still support the ideals of software freedom, I want to keep my data private from big companies like Microsoft, and I don't want my daily usage & enjoyment of my own computer to be compromised by having the OS bombard me with advertisements. That said, I wanted to be able to install & use Linux relatively easily instead of having to constantly fight with the OS to get it to recognize aspects of the laptop's hardware.
The last of those points (regarding easy installation & usage of Linux) significantly turned me away from ASUS's current offerings. In particular, almost all of ASUS's current offerings fitting the other specifications have a Microsoft Copilot key (that in Microsoft Windows would trigger the use of Microsoft's Copilot AI features), and when searching online for information, I saw that in most Linux distributions, it is very hard to re-map that key to something like the 'CTRL' key. ASUS's remaining offerings that did not have that key and still met my other specifications did not seem to inspire confidence regarding Linux compatibility; many people reported online problems with the sound system or with the computer randomly freezing. I noticed that computers from Lenovo seemed much better in this regard based on buyers' reports online; there didn't seem to be major compatibility problems with Linux, and many Lenovo laptops that had good Linux compatibility also lacked the Microsoft Copilot key. Additionally, most of the good reviews of Lenovo laptops for Linux compatibility were the ThinkPad models, which generally had good reviews online and about which I had heard good things from friends. I did notice that many reviews criticized Lenovo ThinkPad laptops for inaccurate color rendering. However, the one that I ultimately bought had a version that was advertised as having 100% coverage of the sRGB & DCI-P3 color spaces. Thus, as it seemed to meet all of my other specifications, I bought the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s with a 14-inch screen & weighing just under 3 pounds, an AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 7840U processor (16 cores, 2.3 gigahertz average speed, and 4.8 gigahertz maximum speed, with an integrated graphics card), 32 gigabytes of RAM, and a 1 terabyte solid-state drive. Additionally, I figured that if the screen is not as good as advertised, I could still live with it as I am not an amateur or professional digital artist, photographer, videographer, photo editor, or video editor.
The laptop
I was generally pleased with the laptop hardware when it was delivered and I got to open & feel it. The laptop as a whole, when held and touched, felt quite solid especially with the slightly rough matte plastic surfaces, living up to Lenovo's reputation. I liked the feel of typing on the keys (with enough vertical motion when pressing on the keys to feel substantial), the use of the red nub cursor in the middle of the keyboard, and the design of the mouse trackpad & buttons in front (relative to a user facing the screen) of the keyboard. I appreciated the power button being separate from the keyboard, which was something that was present in my first laptop but not in my second laptop, as well as the separate buttons for 'PGUP', 'PGDN', 'HOME', and 'END'. I also liked the solidity of the hinges, though it is slightly annoying that when I attempt to lift the screen to open the laptop, I end up lifting the entire laptop a little bit before I can open the laptop; this may be something that I will become more used to over time.
There are enough ports for whatever I can imagine needing. More importantly, this laptop has more ports than my second laptop. For this reason, I do not feel compelled to buy a USB dock or anything like that; I already had to make some compromises to manage with fewer ports for my second laptop, so with this laptop, things will be easier than they were with my second laptop even if I don't buy such a dock. Additionally, I really appreciate the standardization of charging ports & devices; this laptop, like many laptops sold now, charges through a USB-C port.
When I tried, installed, and started using Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" MATE on this laptop, I was initially concerned that the fans were running too fast & the laptop was becoming too hot. This did align with some reviews online which noted that this laptop could become marginally hotter to the touch than competing laptops. However, since those initial experiences, I have found that this laptop is extremely quiet and runs very cool under my typical personal usage load, so I am no longer concerned about this issue.
One seemingly unique feature of Lenovo laptops, which is slightly annoying to me (not being used to Lenovo), is that on the left-hand side of the keyboard, the 'FN' and 'CTRL' keys are swapped compared to most laptops. I am still getting used to this change, and I don't know how long that will take, but I am not yet willing to look for software solutions (like remapping keys) in Linux especially because I anticipate using this laptop somewhat less (usually fewer hours per day, and some days perhaps not at all) than my previous laptops and not doing as much programming or similar things that would require me to use the left 'CTRL' key a lot. Also, I had to look up how to turn off the keyboard backlight. Even now, I have noticed in Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" MATE on this laptop that it takes two tries for the correct key combination, when engaged, to actually turn off the keyboard backlight.
There are two more moderate annoyances. First, the screen feels like a downgrade compared to my second laptop. As warned by reviews, it renders images in a way that is too red and waxy; viewing the same pictures from my phone on this laptop compared to my second laptop, I could see that the latter would render those pictures with much more realistic colors & levels of image sharpness. I am willing to live with this for a while, but I do think that when I need to buy a new laptop, I will take a little more seriously the issue of color rendering. Moreover, it feels especially disappointing given that it was advertised to cover 100% of the sRGB & DCI-P3 color spaces. Second, the webcam was advertised as being 5 megapixels, yet when I used software in Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" MATE for which I could see myself in the built-in webcam, the picture again looked red, overexposed, and waxy, especially in contrast to the external webcam that I have had for the last 8 years (when looking at myself in exactly the same place & conditions at around the same time). I don't know how much of that is inherent to the webcam versus being an artifact of the screen deficiencies, but in any case, I felt disappointed by this, though I am willing to live with this too because I don't anticipate using my personal laptop as much for personal video calls as I used to and essentially at all for professional video calls.
Installing and using Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" MATE on the laptop
I was able to create a bootable live USB medium with Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" MATE on it and get past Secure Boot and the default storage medium encryption on the laptop to boot into that live USB medium. However, the first time I installed the OS to my laptop, the installation failed near the end. Thankfully, the Microsoft Windows 11 partition, which had been resized as part of the Linux Mint installation process, had not been corrupted. Thus, I simply restarted the installation process, and the second time worked just fine.
I was able to install my preferred programs without too much trouble. Some of these programs have changed since my second laptop. For example, I now use the Signal desktop application as well as the pCloud desktop application. I also use Zoom, but much less than I did on my second laptop now that I no longer have a valid Zoom account. I still use LaTeX, Emacs, Inkscape, and occasionally Mupen64Plus. I no longer use Skype. I occasionally use Julia to play around with numbers, but because I am no longer a physicist or an academic researcher and I no longer need this laptop for professional use, I no longer need additional programming environments like Jupyter. It was interesting to reflect upon how my life & career has changed and what that has meant for my relationship with my personal laptops, especially the extent to which my previous personal laptops were deeply entangled with my senses of personal & professional identity and the way that this laptop will reflect those things somewhat less going forward.
Compared to my second laptop, with this laptop, it was easier to deal with the high screen resolution, as MATE has better defaults for such situations now than was the case 4 years ago. More broadly, Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" MATE in this laptop is extremely fast & responsive. Because I will likely use this laptop somewhat less than I have used my first & second personal laptops, I hope that this laptop will last longer and will continue to perform well far into the future.
A minor annoyance is that the time zone seems to have been messed up by the use of the live USB. Using a solution from the Linux Mint forums [LINK] seems to have resolved the problem, but it is still annoying that it took a bit more work than with my second laptop upon which I had installed Linux Mint 19 "Tara" MATE initially and then installed Linux Mint 20.1 "Ulyssa" MATE. Another minor annoyance is that the program Redshift, which automatically makes the screen less bright & more red-colored at night to reduce eyestrain based on location, does not work with the Wayland display protocol that comes with Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" by default; GNOME & KDE have their own built-in applications to resolve this problem, but MATE does not.
A moderate annoyance, which was written about in the Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" release notes [LINK], is that some bug associated with the version of the Linux kernel or with the version of the MATE file manager Caja shipped with Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" (the latter being specific to the MATE version) prevents Caja from recognizing & mounting partitions formatted as NTFS. Although I do not really plan to use Microsoft Windows 11 for anything (especially because I don't plan to use this laptop professionally or for video games), meaning that I don't plan to mount the corresponding partition on this laptop's own storage medium within Linux Mint for any reason, I have external hard drives formatted as NTFS, and in that moment, I especially needed them to be able to transfer data from my second laptop to this laptop. I suppose that I was warned by the release notes, but I was still rather annoyed that such a bug could persist given the importance of this feature to many users. I found a solution online [LINK] which indeed fixed the problem, though looking at related posts in Linux Mint forums, there still may be a concern that continuing to connect external hard drives formatted as NTFS to versions of Linux Mint with these versions of the Linux kernel or Caja could expose them to greater risks of data corruption & loss. I hope that with this fix, those risks are actually much lower than these concerns might indicate, so I am willing to live with this situation for now (especially because I don't anticipate storing as much data or needing to back up my laptop as often as before). I also hope that further changes to the Linux kernel or to Caja don't break this solution or expose my external hard drives to even greater risks. Looking farther into the future, I hope that the next version of Linux Mint (version 23) fixes these problems and does not introduce any major new problems; if that is the case, then I may be more inclined to upgrade to it relatively soon after it is released instead of sticking with the current version of Linux Mint until its support ends or until this laptop stops working (whichever comes first).
Concluding remarks
Despite these minor & moderate problems, I am reasonably happy with this laptop. Because I am only using it for personal use and my personal use is much more limited compared to before, I am more willing to settle & live with these issues & fixes for now. Additionally, it is easy for me to claim that in the future, I will be more careful about checking these issues with Linux and with the laptop hardware so that I can get the best possible Linux experience with my next laptop. However, there is no guarantee that laptops will continue to be sold at a large scale to end users in a few years from now, that it will continue to be possible to install Linux on them at all, or that it will be possible to avoid further encroachment of AI tools (like Microsoft Copilot) or of personal data collection by big companies. As I have matured with age and I am able to get a better perspective on my own life by having more things in my past to look back upon, although I certainly hope that I can still buy laptops & install Linux on them and would be disappointed if that were no longer the case & troubled by what that means for individuals' data privacy, I can be more OK with the idea that even if my next computer doesn't let me install Linux or avoid encroachment of AI tools or of personal data collection, I can take pride in having done what I could (within the constraints of my own comfort with interacting with my own personal computers) for many years (as I have now been running Linux Mint on my own personal computers for over 15 years).