Lafite 2 with Linux Elementary OS

ohm

New member
Hallo everyone,

I recently purchased a Lafite 2 to replace my ten-year old(!) Acer laptop. I was looking for something for a while and I had to conclude that nothing really matched with my wishes. First of all, I use only Linux as operating system (no other OS in dual-boot). For this reason, I was looking for a laptop that could be delivered without OS pre-installed, to avoid unnecessary additional costs. Secondly, I wanted to have good materials and components in a good aluminum case. Materials quality was in fact the major problem I have experienced with my old ACER Extensa.
This is what I have ordered:
Chassis & Display Lafité Silver Aluminium Chassis: 13.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED (1920 x 1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i5 Dual Core Processor i5-6200U (2.30GHz, 2.8GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card INTEL® HD GRAPHICS 510 [Pentium] | INTEL® HD GRAPHICS 520 [Core™]
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - Hard Disk 250GB Samsung 850 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
M.2 SSD Drive 256GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2150MB/R, 1260MB/W)
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)
Sound Card Realtek 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
LAN/Ethernet Adapter USB 3.0 to 10/100/1000 Gigabit RJ45 Ethernet Adapter
Wireless Router/HomePlugs NONE
USB Options 1 x USB 3.0 PORT, 1 x USB 3.1 PORT + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery Lafité Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (6,300mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x European Power Lead & 40W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language LAFITÉ SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language United Kingdom - English Language
DVD Recovery Media NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Carry Case NONE
Laptop Cooling Stands NONE
Wireless Display Adapter NONE
Stand-Alone Monitor NONE
Additional Keyboard NONE
Notebook Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Games Controller NONE
External Speakers NONE
Webcam INTEGRATED 720P 30 FPS HD WEBCAM
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee NONE
Delivery 2 DAY DELIVERY TO NETHERLANDS (€25)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days

After paying, it took about 8 days to get the laptop built and shipped.
As you can see from the picture, the system looks very nice. It is simple, but the quality of the hardware and materials met my expectations.

Installing Linux it is not such a big deal, despite UEFI. I wanted to install Elementary OS, but I did not manage to get the live distro on the USB stick recognized. What I have done to circumvent this problem is to first pass through Ubuntu. After installing Ubuntu and erasing the disk, I installed Elementary OS in UEFI mode. This is what it is shown in the picture.
Pcspecialists does not provide any support for Linux, so you should be able to fix things yourself. I had some problems with one of the USB ports. After unplugging a usb stick the system used to go in power-saving mode and shut down. I fixed this by tweaking the power management settings (a lot on this can be found in several Linux forums). Also the wifi card is not recognized (an issue that I experienced with the Ubuntu derived distros in the last period). This requires installing additional firmware, again pretty simple after doing few minutes web search.
Finally, the touchpad had, at the beginning, some delay effect, again easily fixed by installing some tweak tool in Elementary OS.
For the rest, the combination Lafite 2-Elementary OS is probably one of the best combinations one can find at the moment. All together, the system performances are brilliant. I use it for scientific work (scientific computations, etc). I can barely hear the fan working. The laptop is very quiet, very fast, very light and portable.
Hence, if you are looking for a Linux laptop, with great performances, and you have 897 € budget, then I would strongly recommend this option. You will have something comparable to a Mac in terms of materials, but better because the OS is just better.
As a last remark, as I said Pcspecialists does not provide support for non-Windows OS. That is a pity, because I believe the market potential is enormous in that sense. But I have to say that my experience with them was very positive.
 

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ohm

New member
I actually did not pay attention to that so far. I would say around four hours, depending on what you do with it, of course.
 
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