Need advice before buying Lafité Pro 14

N

nerock

New member
Hi, I need to get a new laptop. The laptop willbe used 90% of the time for programming. Some people recommended me Thinkpads but then I discovered this page and I wanted some advice.
Has anyone tried the Lafité Pro 14 (specifications below) with Linux before (I will probably be changing distros every now and then, most of the time Pop OS, Ubuntu or Manjaro). If so, any problem? I got a bit worried after selecting Linux and seeing this:
You have specified that you will be installing an operating system that is not supported by us (Linux).. Please note that we do not supply drivers for this operating system and our call centre technicians are also not fully trained to answer any sales or support questions relating to this operating system. We will of course try our best to offer as much support and advice as possible for any known issues.
Click to expand...

Also, anyone with more knowledge of processors can tell me if going for an i7 instead an i5 is worth the money?

EDIT: Also, is it worth the more expensive wifi, and what can you guys tell me about battery duration?

Thanks!

pcs_logo.jpg


PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK SPECIFICATION

The specification below has been formatted so you can easily copy and paste this to our forums when discussing your specification. Once you've copied the specification, please click here to continue.
Chassis & Display
Lafité Pro Series: 14" Matte Full HD IPS LED (1920 x 1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor i5-10210U (1.6GHz, 4.2GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
24GB 2666MHz DDR4 (1 x 16GB Corsair SODIMM + 8GB SOLDERED)
Graphics Card
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS (CPU Dependant) - 1.7GB Max DDR4 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2300MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 65W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf European Power Cable
Battery
1 x Lafité Battery 73WH
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 M.2 GAMING + BLUETOOTH 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 1 x USB 3.1 PORT + 1 x USB 3.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
LAFITÉ PRO SERIES SINGLE COLOUR BACKLIT SPANISH KEYBOARD
Chassis
Clevo L141CU (i5-10210U, FHD 60Hz N7, 8GB, Blank KB)
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
It's quite a new offering, and appears to be the Clevo L141CU chassis.

I doubt you'll find much specific confirmation of this exact chassis running Linux but in general, Clevo chassis run Linux and it's fine, most of the hardware inside is some iteration of stuff that has been around for years and the drivers are fine.

Some Linux versions have had issues with newer wifi cards and there's the occasional specific component that doesn't play nice ( a given model of SSD for instance - afaik 970 Evos are fine though).

Have a look at some of the issues here:

Linux Laptop Compatibility

The questions "Will X laptop run Linux?" or "What issues does X laptop have with Linux?" come up quite a lot, so I thought I'd make a list of a few posts with info about people's experiences on Linux with PCS laptops. Although PCS don't officially support Linux on these, most chassis seem to...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk
with mentions of wifi card issues in some instances

Also, anyone with more knowledge of processors can tell me if going for an i7 instead an i5 is worth the money?
Click to expand...
The i7 is just a slightly higher clocked i5 with a little more cache. it may be faster - unless you need every last drop of horsepower in the thinnest chassis possible, it's probably not £120 worth of 'faster' though.

If you do need as much CPU horsepower as possible in a thin chassis, the Vyper 15.6" would be worth looking at.
 
Z

zoodinger

Member
I didn't get this laptop from pcspecialist (big mistake IMO, I've had other computers from pcspecialist before and they've been great), but I have the same chassis from a different company. So take this with a grain of salt.

Laptop is overall working (using latest version of Kubuntu), but getting things like keyboard backlight and hibernate working isn't supported out of the box. So far I still have the following problems:
  • - keyboard backlight state doesn't resume after waking up from sleep, it gets reset to its default value.
  • - Screen brightness and backlight state aren't saved after restarting.
  • - Couldn't get hibernate to work, but then again I didn't try too hard.
I can see some people have problems with getting the backlight working at all, but mine worked out of the box (minus the not resuming state issue). There are solutions on these forums but so far they haven't worked for me.

As for the chassis itself, I'm personally not impressed with the build quality:
  • - Keyboard feels a bit flimsy, the spacebar has a dead area around the edges (making me miss a few of spaces), and touchpad buttons don't click very well and must be pressed at exact spots.
  • - My screen has permanent bright spots without closing the lid with something inside (the usual cause). Either because I held it wrong, or got pressured somewhere during transfer... which IMO it's unacceptable for a laptop that's meant to be carried around. But I believe PCSpecialist uses a different screen panel than the one I have, so it might fare better. I don't know.
  • - Keyboard base cracked without dropping anything or me causing an obvious damage. It's a very small crack next to the shift key, so it's really only a cosmetic issue. Again, must happened while carrying.
Other people are giving good reviews on laptops with the same chassis, so I don't know. Maybe I'm just unlucky. But I have a thinkpad for work (running Windows, so no Linux advice) and even though it looks fugly, the keyboard, touchpad and durability are so much better in comparison.

Now on the inside, I got it with a quad i7, 512GB NVme, and 16 GB of ram. It performs exceptionally well and for a machine this small it's impressive. Processor fan can be a bit annoying at times (sort of like a high-pitched buzz), other people complain about this but it doesn't bother me too much. I use it for coding and compilation is super fast compared to Windows.
 
M

MfromF

Member
Sorry to ask, but why are you planing to buy the "Pro" and not a "Lafité IV"? I was looking around a few weeks ago, but soldered RAM is a no-go for me, so I landed at the IV and after some weeks I am really satisfied with it. Whilst I have to say that I work at a desktop as long as I am not outside the house.

I chose an i5, because it has a great relation between price, power and energy consumption.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
jerome_jm_martin said:
Hi,

just be really carefull with the lafité pro + linux, there's a a major issue with nvme drives. It wil NOT work with linux.
it's a bios related issue and can not be bypassed with kernel param. :

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/unable-to-install-linux.66956/#post-463036

rgds
J.
Click to expand...
This is currently accurate and still being investigated. It appears the BIOS is limited to turning the drive to AHCI mode instead of SATA causing issues with the Kernel.
 
Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
I can confirm the Lafitte IV is fine with Linux but despite a bit of searching have no idea when the BIOS problem on the newer one will be fixed.
 
F

freechelmi

Member
Stephen M said:
I can confirm the Lafitte IV is fine with Linux but despite a bit of searching have no idea when the BIOS problem on the newer one will be fixed.
Click to expand...

At least it will never be fixed on the linux side (because it is an ugly intel hack) , the ball is on PCS side
 
F

freechelmi

Member
zoodinger said:
I didn't get this laptop from pcspecialist (big mistake IMO, I've had other computers from pcspecialist before and they've been great), but I have the same chassis from a different company. So take this with a grain of salt.
Click to expand...

Are you sure it is a L141CU ? If yes could you contact your reseller to get a Bios archive so we could use NVME disk ? thanks
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
freechelmi said:
At least it will never be fixed on the linux side (because it is an ugly intel hack) , the ball is on PCS side
Click to expand...
As stated on multiple threads, this is specifically a limitation of the Linux kernel which PCS don’t support as clearly stated in their terms and conditions and on the Linux thread on this forum.

So they don’t need to modify anything BIOS related as it works as sold and advertised.

Solved! - NVMe drive booting in AHCI mode?

I found some evidence that the Samsung 950 Pro NVMe drive can boot in AHCI mode: https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/67039-using-nvme-ssd-ahci-vs-raid-mode.html http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19662477...
forums.anandtech.com forums.anandtech.com
 
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