Ulranote IV / Kubuntu 18.04

PAF

Member
Detailed spec below; here is a brief report on my new Ultranote, which arrived today. Quality is comparable with any machine in the same price band, and it's a good looking and comparatively light weight piece of kit. The trackpad works well, and the keys have a good amount of travel, although the space key needs to be hit pretty much in the centre to register - something picked up by other reviews. This was not a power machine or something to game on, but will be used for word processing, email, web on the move, so I resisted the lure of the newer M.2 PCIe drives. The only intensive work I do is moderate photo editing, which is why I opted for the full HD screen (which actually takes some getting used to, everything being that much smaller). No dead or stuck pixels! I can't speak for battery life, though the power manager on my desktop reckons I've at least five hours now I've unplugged it.

Now to Linux: a flawless install! I've been an XFCE user for quite a while, and before that Gnome 2, but was so taken by the new Plasma desktop that I decided with the extra power on my new kit to Kubuntu a try (which in fairness is now less of a resource hog than it used to be). I plugged in my USB, hit F7 for the boot menu and took it from there. I kept the existing EFI partition and deleted everything else, setting up root and home on my 240G SSD, and let the installer run. I settled on the minimal install, which took about ten minutes, then used Muon to add everything else I wanted. Everything worked out of the box except F1 to disable the touch pad and F11 for flight mode.

PC Specialist kept me informed throughout. I ordered on 4 June and had it 9 days later. The only slight glitch was the delivery instructions: PCS tell you not to sign for receipt until you've opened the box and checked; the DPD driver told me once I'd opened it he couldn't take it back, and all I could do was check the box. In the event all was fine!

Hope this is all helpful to anyone else thinking of buying this model for Linux.

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Chassis & Display
UltraNote Series: 14" Matte Full HD 60 Hz 45% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel ® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor i5-8250U (1.60GHz, 3.4GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS 610/620/630 (CPU Dependant) - 1.7GB Max DDR4 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
240GB ADATA SU650 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Audio
Realtek 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-9260 M.2 (1.73Gbps, 802.11AC) +BT 5.0
USB Options
1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 1 x USB 3.0 PORT + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Thanks for the review! I'll pass on your comments about opening/not opening the box....
 

Rob574188

PC Specialist
Hi there,

Many thanks for the review, I am glad that you have been happy with the service as a whole and hope you will enjoy your new machine.

Regarding the delivery, my understanding is that DPD will not allow the package to be opened until signed for, the checks at this point would be purely a case of "is my item obviously damaged?" and if so you would then either refuse delivery and contact us or contact us after signing for the item as "unchecked" or "damaged". Should you notice that damage has occurred in transit from this point onwards (after you have taken delivery) then you should contact us within 72 Hours from receipt as per our terms and conditions here: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/terms/ (see sections 5.3 and 6.10 for relevant information).

I am sorry that this has caused a point of conflict for yourself and we will certainly look into whether the writing can be amended to better reflect the terms of the delivery.
 
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