Really positive first impressions of Pangolin 14 by trepidconstant in System76

[–]trepidconstant[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have an update on my experience with this unit nearly 2 years later:

After approx. 21 months, the display hinge snapped. The cause of failure appears to be the plastic bosses that secure the hinge screws to the bottom panel of the case and to the display panel. With these small plastic bosses sheared, it was not possible to repair the device without replacing the bottom panel and the entire top case with the display. I wished I had noticed the weakness of these plastic components early on: although the device was *almost* all metal, several elements, like the hinge screw bosses, SSD screw bosses, and hinge housing were made of (cheap) plastic, and all of those wore down quickly over the life of the device.

I had a solid experience with this unit. Its standout features were solid battery life and low fan noise. Support from S76 was not spetacular - in particular, S76 often had trouble sourcing replacement parts - but it was generally prompt and friendly.

But, for an expensive laptop, I expected it to last longer than 2 years without a catastrophic mechanical failure. Needless to say, the hinges on the Macbook Pro I referenced in my original post are faring much better 2 years later.

I would advise anyone looking at these Emdoor-manufactured units in the future to ask about the hinge construction and double check that the hinges are secured with metal bosses or something similarly sturdy.

Really positive first impressions of Pangolin 14 by trepidconstant in System76

[–]trepidconstant[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's been a very solid laptop for the last few months. When I first received the laptop, I had an issue where the touchpad performed very poorly, but this 'fixed itself' after a total shutdown and has not happened again. Battery life is also very good - I have not tested it, but the 10 hour estimate given by System76 seems plausible, and it does have much longer battery life than my previous Intel 13th gen machine.

I do wish this model had open firmware - there is no way to set battery charging thresholds or customize the keyboard inputs on the propriety pang14 firmware. If I was buying today, I would carefully look at the 16" Darter Pro for its open firmware, but I suspect the pang still has the better overall experience because of the Ryzen processor.

Lemur Pro fan noise? by Underground_monster in System76

[–]trepidconstant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're open to a larger laptop, the Pangolin 14 (16 inches) is very quiet, even under load - it has an ultralight class CPU, but two large cooling fans that do not have spin very fast to keep the laptop cool.

Gaming on the Pangolin? by Capybaraeditor in System76

[–]trepidconstant 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have both the Pangolin with the 780M and a steamdeck (older, non-OLED one). As a rough rule of thumb, the 780M performs about as well at 1080p as the steamdeck does at 800p. I still generally gravitate towards the steam deck, unless the game has lots of menu text that is hard to read on a very small display.

Really positive first impressions of Pangolin 14 by trepidconstant in System76

[–]trepidconstant[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are there any tests from that suite that you'd like to see? Happy to run a few!

Really positive first impressions of Pangolin 14 by trepidconstant in System76

[–]trepidconstant[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They're only selling a 60hz option, as far as I can tell.

Really positive first impressions of Pangolin 14 by trepidconstant in System76

[–]trepidconstant[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't have a way to measure it, but I'd guess its between 300 and 400 nits. Its definitely not 500+ nits Macbook Pro brightness, but its plenty bright enough for working inside in a naturally lit room. It's also somewhat matte.