this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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Best laptop hardware? (programming.dev)
submitted 1 day ago by Moussx@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev
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Hello! For work (where I'm compiling a big Rust monorepo in a loop), I'm on a Thinkpad T14 Gen 4 and it's getting a bit annoying.

My only constraint is that I'd like a 13-14 inch device

The AI memory situation is probably to blame, but after sending a LLM fetch specs and GeekBench results, it seems that for sustained multicore performance, the only thing that comes close (within 10% but still lower) of a M5 MacBook Pro (currently ~3200 EUR), is the HP Elite G1a (ARM linux is OK), but its list price is much higher (up to 4900 EUR for 64G memory and 1TB disk) for arguably worse speakers and battery on top.

So right now it's hard to justify not getting a MacBook and that makes me sad...

Is there a laptop you're using right now that comes close enough to a MBP in long compilation jobs, but runs Linux and doesn't somehow cost more ?

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[โ€“] Moussx@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I looked at phoronix benchmarks for the 13 Pro first, but I wasn't impressed (even acknowledging that Phoronix should have asked for the Ryzen one)

[โ€“] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

Well if Panther Lake doesn't work for you, I don't think any x86 machine will. You might want to try Strix Halo, but those are more power hungry and aren't in many laptops (I think it's the weird ROG tablet and some HP machine that isn't all too great). You might also be interested in the Framework Desktop, a fun little Striz Halo box, but it's not the most portable

Stay away from Snapdragon machines, they don't perform as good as M series silicon and Linux support is pretty poor.

Your best alternative is probably an M1 or M2 Macbook Pro running Asahi Linux, since you are fine with ARM.