My new lafite 14 AMD AI 365. Review and Linux experience

[mieh]

I bought a 14 inch lafite with Ryzen 9 ai 365 from pcspecialist. This laptop is a tonfang that is also sold by a number of resellers, which just a few of which are already offering ryzen AI series (strix point is named I believe). I ultimately decided to go with pcspecialist because their discount on no Windows license (way greater) and the 3 year warranty they offer where I'm based from (Spain). Other sellers limit to just one or two years.

A few days after the purchase it occurred to me that being a tonfang device, pcspecialist may be able to ship it without any branding (as I always prefer minimal branding on my laptops) so I contacted customer service and while they would not promise anything, they'd leave a note on my order. Once I received I was really happy to see that my request made it through!

here is my review and some pictures:

Build quality is quite good with some minor bits. Note that I also have a MacBook Pro M4 for work, and the build quality differences are considerable. I'd compare this pcspecialist laptop build quality to be similar to my old Xiaomi air 13.

Cons:

• aluminium doesn't feel too thick, which may make it prone to dents
• power button click feels cheap
• status led is located by the power button and it's a bit too bright for being in that location
• function keys appear to be limited only when holding the fn button. I haven't found a way to configure it but I suspect it's a firmware default config.
• only s2idle sleep available by the looks. Overnight sleep discharge not too bad tho with a 1-2% per hour
• ugly bios. I have yet to contact pcspecialist for asking them if they provide bios updates.

Pros

• screen is nice and bright. Quite possibly needs some calibration (in linux) as night light creates too bright colors.
• feels sturdy
• sound is decent
• mostly quiet operation
• battery life w/o any optimisations (yet) between 8 and 10 hours
• decent trackpad, but the mechanical click could be better. It doesn't bother me too much as I barely use it.

I'm using it as a linux machine (with fedora) and out of the box there are some issues with random freezes and dead keyboard on resume events. I've been able solve these with a bunch of kernel params: amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x12 amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x600 i8042.noaux acpi_osi=linux mem_sleep_default=deep
The ir camera works perfectly with https://github.com/boltgolt/howdy and the ethernet connection requires a driver as it's not yet in the upstream linux kernel. I happened to find that the driver provided by slimbook (clevo/tonfang reseller too) works perfectly here https://github.com/Slimbook-Team/slimbook-yt6801-dkms

Feel free to ask any question!

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

I bought a 14 inch lafite from Ryzen 9 ai 365. A few days after the purchase it occurred to me that being a tonfang device, pcspecialist may be able to ship it without any branding (as I always prefer minimal branding on my laptops) so I contacted customer service and while they would not promise anything, they'd leave a note on my order. Once I received I was really happy to see that my request made it through!

here is my review and some pictures:

Build quality is quite good with some minor bits. Note that I also have a MacBook Pro M4 for work, and the build quality differences are considerable. I'd compare this pcspecialist laptop build quality to be similar to my old Xiaomi air 13.

Cons:

• aluminium doesn't feel too thick, which may make it prone to dents
• power button click feels cheap
• status led is located by the power button and it's a bit too bright for being in that location
• function keys appear to be limited only when holding the fn button. I haven't found a way to configure it but I suspect it's a firmware default config.
• only s2idle sleep available by the looks. Overnight sleep discharge not too bad tho with a 1-2% per hour
• ugly bios. I have yet to contact pcspecialist for asking them if they provide bios updates.

Pros

• screen is nice and bright. Quite possibly needs some calibration (in linux) as night light creates too bright colors.
• feels sturdy
• sound is decent
• mostly quiet operation
• battery life w/o any optimisations (yet) between 8 and 10 hours
• decent trackpad, but the mechanical click could be better. It doesn't bother me too much as I barely use it.

I'm using it as a linux machine (with fedora) and out of the box there are some issues with random freezes and dead keyboard on resume events. I've been able solve these with a bunch of kernel params: amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x12 amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x600 i8042.noaux acpi_osi=linux mem_sleep_default=deep
The ir camera works perfectly with https://github.com/boltgolt/howdy and the ethernet connection requires a driver as it's not yet in the upstream linux kernel. I happened to find that the driver provided by slimbook (clevo/tonfang reseller too) works perfectly here https://github.com/Slimbook-Team/slimbook-yt6801-dkms

Feel free to ask any question!

Just wanted to say massive thank you for a fantastic in depth review, and also for the necessary workarounds you found in Linux.

I'm having intermittent issues with my Ubuntu Plucky Puffin machine freezing on the log in screen once the screen comes out of sleep (not the pc out of sleep), on a new RX 9070 XT which I have no doubt may be the issue as kernel support is still very new. Those Kernel params may be exactly the kind of thing I need, will have to investigate how to identify the necessary params required for my specific issue.

 

[QueGui]

Thank you for your detailed and very valuable review!
I'm planning to buy the same laptop (hesitating between the 365 and the HX 370) and to run Fedora on it as well, so your review is extremely valuable!

A question that might sound dumb, how easy is it to open the laptop to upgrade the RAM and storage? I'm planning to buy the one with the cheapest RAM and storage and to upgrade it myself.
I'm assuming that this should be pretty straightforward, but I couldn't really find any information online.

Thank you!

 

[mieh]

It's easy, check out this video

It's the same tongfang chassis sold by another company

 

[morgwai]

For anyone looking for more data, the base models are called X4SP4NAL (365 and hx370), X4KK4NAL (350), GX4HRXL (8845HS) and GX4MRXL (125H).

Also here's a version of the video with English audio (with German accent ;-) )

I've ordered mine hx370 variant from a Dutch company with generally similar prices and 3y warranty also, but offering Intel WiFi (AX210) and no-RAM / no-NVMe options. I will put 128GB Crucial into it (CT2K64G56C46S5) that if bought separately is a bit cheaper, but more importantly has a lifetime warranty. NVMes bought separately usually have 5y warranty.

@mieh , how's your WiFi performance? MediaTek has generally bad opinions, but there's not much data about this new chip (aw-xb591n).
Also many thanks for the DKMS module link!!

Cheers all

 

[morgwai]

Found the real upstream of the module: https://www.motor-comm.com/product/ethernet-control-chip

 

[TuringsPet]

Great review @mieh!

I’m also thinking of running Fedora on this model. Does anyone know if there is any way to control fan speeds?

 

[morgwai]

@mieh have you tried to connect some high-speed Thunderbolt/USB4 devices to your machine? (like docks with at least 2 display outputs or eGPU adapters) My machine seems to have a problem with this, so I'm wondering if it is a faulty part or a general problem of this model... I will be very grateful if you shared your experiences about it!

Details are here for anyone interseted:

USB4 port randomly refuses to work: hardware problem?

Hello all, A few days ago I bought a new laptop: TongFang X4SP4NAL with AMD HX370 CPU (this is the original unaltered model that some Linux-laptop brands use as a base for their models, for example Tuxedo). So far I’m very happy with this machine, except for 1 problem: its USB4 port is quite...

forum.level1techs.com

USB4 port randomly refuses to work: hardware problem?

Hey all, This is the problem I mentioned in my most recent build: USB4 port on my new laptop (TongFang X4SP4NAL, HX370 CPU) is quite moody: it often...

egpu.io

Thanks!

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

@mieh have you tried to connect some high-speed Thunderbolt/USB4 devices to your machine? (like docks with at least 2 display outputs or eGPU adapters) My machine seems to have a problem with this, so I'm wondering if it is a faulty part or a general problem of this model... I will be very grateful if you shared your experiences about it!

Details are here for anyone interseted:

USB4 port randomly refuses to work: hardware problem?

Hello all, A few days ago I bought a new laptop: TongFang X4SP4NAL with AMD HX370 CPU (this is the original unaltered model that some Linux-laptop brands use as a base for their models, for example Tuxedo). So far I’m very happy with this machine, except for 1 problem: its USB4 port is quite...

forum.level1techs.com

USB4 port randomly refuses to work: hardware problem?

Hey all, This is the problem I mentioned in my most recent build: USB4 port on my new laptop (TongFang X4SP4NAL, HX370 CPU) is quite moody: it often...

egpu.io

Thanks!

Appreciate this wasn't aimed at me and it's way outside my knowledge anyway, just thought worth mentioning that on a previous generation TongFang, the early adopters had issues with USB ports cutting out intermittently. Turned out the controller was actually overheating and all that was needed was putting some thermal pads over the controller chips.

I'll see if I can find the post, just mentioning in case in a small chance it may be related

Here we go, it was the 2023 model and we stickied it luckily: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/recoil-2023-13th-gen-usb-issues.93235/

 

[morgwai]

on a previous generation TongFang, the early adopters had issues with USB ports cutting out intermittently. Turned out the controller was actually overheating and all that was needed was putting some thermal pads over the controller chips.

Thanks for the info and the link!
As far as I understand, all Strix APUs have USB controller integrated into 1 chip together with CPU and GPU (see "connectivity" section for example in HX370 specs), so I think it does not apply to this model. Also no sensor has ever exceeded 70 degrees so far.