Replacement for 2012 Macbook Air

bob26

Member
Chassis & Display
Lafité Pro Series: 14" Matte Full HD 60 Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor i5-1135G7 (2.4GHz, 4.2GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics
1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2300MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 65W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Lafité Pro Series Integrated 49WH Lithium Ion Battery
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 4 + 1 x USB 3.2 (TYPE C) + 2 x USB 3.2
Keyboard Language
LAFITÉ PRO SERIES SINGLE COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Chassis
Clevo NV41MZ (i5-1135G7, FHD 60Hz N7, Blank KB)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £721.00 including VAT and Delivery

This will be a replacement for a mid 2012 Macbook Air that has a sticky trackpad and has become frustrating to use.

I plan to install a Debian based distribution, probably MX Linux, with Gnome desktop.

Any thoughts would be very welcome.
 

Stephen M

Author Level
Have a look at the Linux part of these fora, there are good threads on which machines are ok with 'nix. Only one model has had major problems, cannot remember which but will have a search.

In general getting a Linux distro to work on PCS machines is quite simple and getting better.

Have never used MX much, mainly Ubuntu but gradually migrating to Manjaro as that seems to run out of the box better than most.

One common thing I have noticed in the last year is that Nouveau drivers are working better than proprietary ones, although my machines have a GPU and not integrated.
 

bob26

Member
Thanks Stephen.

The machine will be for my somewhat elderly wife (we are both well into our 70s) and I prefer a 'stable' rather than rolling release.

I would have put Debian 10 on but the stable kernel is too old and putting Bullseye on would mean too many updates at the moment. I hadn't looked at MX Linux until yesterday when I was looking at Debian derivatives that would run on modern hardware. MX appealed because it seems to be a stock Debian with a few useful add-ons and there is an 'ahs' version that comes with a 5.8 kernel and newer graphics drivers and firmware. I've given it a try in a VM with Gnome instead of Xfce and think it would be fine provided I can get it to work with the hardware.

Since the Macbook Air started playing up I've given her a 15 inch 2011 Macbook Pro with Debian 10 installed which works perfectly and she is quite happy with it apart from the size and weight.

In a worst case scenario where I can't find a working Linux setup I can always install Windows but I really don't want to have to do that.

If I can get Linux to run satisfactorily I will be very temped to get a 15 inch version for myself.
 

Bhuna50

Author Level
I have no idea about Linux, but just wanted to check that you were aware you only selected a 250GB drive - quite small really (but I appreciate that you probably arent gaming etc :D ). For the extra £30 the 500GB Samsung is a faster drive slightly and obviously double the size.
 

bob26

Member
Thanks for pointing this out.

I actually placed an order on Monday 22nd February but prior to that I reviewed the quote and came to the same conclusion as you for exactly the same reasons and went for the 500GB drive.

You are spot on about gaming!
 
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