System76 Lemur Pro 10

Background:

• Bought in January 2021
• In use probably 6-12 hours per day, on average, since then
• PopOS for 3 months
• Qubes OS for 3.5 years
• Arch Linux for 1.25 years to the present, as of writing
• Kept in backpack of briefcase
  • Also during travel

Specs:

• CPU: Intel i5-1135G7, 4 cores 8 threads, 4.2GHz boosted
• 8GB RAM plus 20GB I added
• 1/2TB SSD

Recommendation: I would recommend this if you’re interested in a portable, powerful laptop and you don’t care much about build quality. I will not try to determine whether the newest model matches up to this one and is worth the price. That being said, if mine broke I would buy the newest Lemur Pro for $1600, with the default 12c/14t i5 4.3GHz boosted, 8GB RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD, and 2.2lb weight.

Pros:

• Great daily driver
• Lightweight (2.1lb)
• Small form factor
• Small screen bezels
• Powerful
• I easily added more RAM
• Easy disassembly for maintenance
  • Adding RAM (once)
  • Replacing batteries (twice)
• Great daily battery capacity
• Reliably handles double- and triple-monitor setups over Thunderbolt.
  • I use the Dell WD22TB4 ThunderBolt 4 Dock
• Touchpad recognizes gestures with good enough reliability.
• Charges fast on both the barrel and Thunderbolt ports
• Has dedicated HDMI port

Cons:

• Battery health could be better.
  • It begins to inflate after ~1 year and by 2 years it’s inflated enough to push the keyboard up at least 1/8 inch.
  • As it inflates the capacity drops noticeably.
  • You will have to buy a new one which will run you around $150.
  • The cable for both the new batteries I’ve received has been too long so I’ve had to wedge it against the battery and motherboard. Note that the batteries weren’t aftermarket, they were from System76 directly.
• Keyboard shows noticeable wear and tear, but perhaps this is expected for the build quality.
  • My E key has fallen off. The plastic scissor mechanism clip, which holds the key to the keyboard, broke.
  • The touchpad coating has worn off in two places.
  • The coating on 26 of the keyboard keys has begun to wear off. Some keys have maybe 10% surface area worn while others have 80%.
• My right USB port doesn’t detect hard drives, but the left USB port and the Thunderbolt port do.
  • I may have damaged it by shorting the \(\pm5\text{V}\) output in an electronics project, but I feel like it should have better protection?
• The rubber feet broke off quickly, maybe within 1 month of usage. They just can’t withstand the shear force imposed by sliding the laptop back and forth, which I do a lot.
• The sticker rubbed off the bottom and now I don’t know my laptop’s serial number.
  • The SN should be hardcoded in software or engraved somewhere.
• The upper 1/4 inch strip of the touchpad, closest to the keyboard, doesn’t respond.
• The speakers aren’t good quality or that loud
  • After 4 years the left speaker started to sound really bad when playing bass
  • They’re usable when you need audio output and don’t have other options, but for any consistent use (Zoom meetings, Youtube videos) you’ll wish you had better speakers