A Linux gaming Laptop isn't as crazy as it sounds: Slimbook Hero review

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Timecodes:
00:00 Intro
Sponsor: Start securing your CentOS 7 fleet now
02:06 Slimbook Hero
03:32 Design & Build Quality
04:45 Specs and options
07:02 Performance & Gaming
09:25 Display
10:06 Keyboard & Mouse
11:20 Software Experience
12:36 Linux gaming laptop?
14:10 Support the channel

#Laptop #Gaming #Linux

It's a 15 inch device, with a 1440p display that refreshes at 165 hertz, with an aluminium chassis, a 13th gen Intel i7 CPU, an RTX 4060 GPU, as much RAM as you could cram into a laptop, and very solid I/O.

So, this thing is chunky: it's not meant to be an ultrabook, it weighs 2.1 kilos, or 4.6 pounds, and it's pretty damn sturdy. Not much give or flex to this chassis, thanks to the aluminium.

The hinge is really solid as well, with minimal wobble when typing. It's a 16:9 form factor. Of course you can open the laptop, and access the 2 M.2 slots for SSDs, the 2 DDR5 RAM slots, and the battery, which is 62 Wh. You can also buy spare parts from Slimbook, including the bezel cover, touchpad, lid, battery, keyboard palm rest, display, and more.

Now, in terms of specs, this laptop is well equipped, with a core i7 13620H, and an Nvidia RTX 4060, with 8 gigs of VRAM.

You can spec the rest up to your liking, with up to 64 gigs of DDR 5 RAM, at 5200 Mhz, and up to 4TB of PCIE4 storage.

You can also choose to dispose with the gamer branding and use a more unified black keyboard instead of having the white accents on the WASD keys, and you can pick any keyboard language you want.

As per I/O, on the left, you get a kensington lock, a USB 2.0 port, probably for a mouse, a mic jack, and a headphone jack. On the back, you have a mindisplay port, USB C 3.2 gen 2 with dusplayport support, HDMI 2.1, a gigabit ethernet port and the barrel charger, since charging this thing over USB would be a challenge. And on the right, there's an SD card reader, and 2 type A USB 3.2 ports.

On top of all that, you get Bluetooth 5.2, Wifi 6, a basic webcam and onboard mic that won't blow your socks off, dual speakers that are pretty decent, and a backlit keyboard with RGB, because, gamer.

In terms of benchmarks, the CPU get a score of 2733 in single core and 11625 in multi core on Geekbench 6.

Battery life is decent, with about 7h of generic office work with wifi on, 50% brightness, and using the silent mode.

In Horizon Zero Dawn, at the native 1440p resolution, without any upscaling, and at the ultra preset, the Slimbook Hero managed a super smooth 60 FPS.

For Shadow of the Tomb Raider, also at 1440p without upscaling, and the ultra preset, I got 99 FPS on average, sometimes going down to about 80, or up to 120.

The display is really solid, it covers 100% of SRGB, it has a refresh rate up to 165hz, and it's 1440p.

The keyboard is solid enough. The keys are very stable, and they have good travel. They're quite clicky, and the sound is pleasant, and they bounce back super fast, it's very nice to type on.

The touchpad is ok. It's smooth enough, and precise, although it's very off center, which I find annoying in day to day use.
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Make sure you're prepared for the End of Life of your CentOS 7 fleet right now:

TheLinuxEXP
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I like this design and appreciate that the touchpad is in the middle of a keyboard and not in the middle of a laptop case. There is small disadvantage, touchpad bends a little too much.

szmonszmon
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I have linux gaming PC. Never thought that linux gaming laptop would be considered anything strange

oalfodr
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Of course it makes sense. Have a Legion 7 2021, running POP OS, and punches as strong as a Mike Tyson punch.

lbenegas
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This looks really great. I very much want a ryzen powered version but I would still buy this in a heartbeat if I had the spare cash. Great review as always.

sdtechconsulting
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The closest to perfect Linux gaming laptop this year is probably going to be the Framework Laptop 16. Pretty much any keyboard and touchpad layout you want, USB4, AMD Ryzen HS CPUs, AMD dGPU (so no Nvidia nonsense), great repairability and unrivaled upgradability, and a 16 : 10 2560 x 1600 165 hz 100% DCI-P3 500 nits screen, which no other Linux laptop has at the moment. Literally just waiting on them to fix the final issues so they can ship out the first batch (which I'm in btw)!

cameronbosch
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Great Video!!! I hope you make more content about Linux and gaming…🎉😊

LinuxthePeople
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Small critique on the video, when you were tilting the laptop around while the video was playing, the video content was fading in and out, but it made it look like the turning of the laptop was the cause of the content disappearing. I think the timing made the viewing angles look worse than it actually was.

CameronVanNatta
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I like that the user can choose to omit the logo! That's a brilliant feature which should be available on all laptops.

RokeJulianLockhart.souq
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"Is a Linux gaming laptop possible"

Me with an old Dell workstation with Nvidia Quadro playing Monster Hunter Rise at 1080p 60fps on Linux Mint:
"Idk maybe"

iplyrunescape
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I had an Asus TUF FA707RW laptop. Ryzen 7 6800H, 16GB DDR5 4800Mhz, and an RTX 3070 Ti. Ran Arch on it from day one, not a single issue playing games on it.

I wrote a little script that used Optimus-manager to switch between using the GPU and turning it off to use the iGPU. No problems whatsoever.

Only sold it because I built a better desktop and didn’t need portable gaming. I just use my Switch on the go, and if I want better than that, I’ll get one of those new OLED Steam Decks at some point.

archgirl
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I would still recommend getting and using a chill mat to help the cooling.

PhilipDudley
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Would be nice to have a review of the new generation of Slimbook Executive 16'' and comparing it to this one.

chsdfsbwersdf
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Being stuck to use X11 because of the nvidia GPU is a no go for me. I moved away from nvidia on my desktop for this reason already and because my distro (Fedora) is also moving to Wayland.

stephanepiquemal
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Hello Nick, liked your content and recently subscribed, you're kind of at fault of me wanting a linux laptop (TUXEDO) but, just a samll question, will you be reviewing the upcoming Tuxedo Pulse 14 gen 3? thanks for your content.

alexei
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this might be the PERFECT laptop for me. I think I'll order one immediately

cakedon
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The problem with gaming on Linux isn't the games themselves, it's everything AROUND games. There are decades of mod managers, mods, save editors, cheat engines, trainers, etc., etc., that were developed exclusively for Windows, and if you want to get all that setup on Linux, there is not going to be any easy one click way to do it, you'll have to set up the Wine Bottles yourself and try to run it that way. That's why I still run Windows on my desktop, as I just can't be arsed.

praetorxyn
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I sure do enjoy seeing the same Cleveo chassis from different retailers.

PhilipDudley
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2:45 when using your right hand the arrow keys are better positioned - depending on the game the numpad isn't that dumb an option as well

YannickBo
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I brought a gaming laptop because it was cheep and second hand and I don't really game as much as I used too but Linux runs amazing on it !

Shipwreckt