Tuxedo Infinitybook 16 Gen 8 — The ultimate Linux laptop?
An overview of alternatives and an early review.
The Linux laptop market
Even though more options for Linux laptops emerged over the past years, it is still fairly limited. When I searched for “Linux compatible laptops” only a handful of options seemed to be reasonable:
- Dell XPS Plus Developer Edition: An Ubuntu certified laptop. This could be a valid option as the XPS series has been recognized as a robust laptop solution. So what could be wrong here? From googling it seemed like there have been many bugs around this device. Also with past machines I had lots of trouble with the device quality: software and hardware issues alike. Nowadays Dell’s recognition lives from past times, but in reality their quality assurance and even worse the support lack what it needs to be a top brand.
- System76 Pangolin: System76 offers laptops with pre-installed Linux as well. They strongly promote PopOS!, which gained lots of popularity over the past years. They have lots of configuration options and would have been my top choice as the machines are fairly priced on top. They also use AMD hardware instead of Nvidia, which is less powerful, but more suitable for Linux. Unfortunately they ship from US and I did not want to pay the horrendous import taxes in Germany (and also not interact with officials).
- Lenovo Thinkpad or Legion Pro: Within the huge Windows laptop market, Lenovo has always been a brand whose machines are more Linux compatible. The Legion Pro has strong specs for the price, but from reviews it seemed like the Legion Pro has the tendency to get quite warm and loud. The Thinkpad Carbon on the other hand is expensive and starts at more than 2000 euros.
- Framework: These laptops have a strong focus on sustainability, transparency and repairability. The new framework 16 even includes Nvidia graphics and can be customized like no other laptop. On the flipside the price tag is incredibly high and like System76 shipping happens from US.
- Starlab: They offer various models ranging from 1000 euro to more than 2000 euros (with different Linux distros to chose from). Also here the laptops are expensive considering the hardware.
- KDE Slimbook: This one is one of the more affordable options. It comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U and has memory and storage configuration options. KDE Plasma is the pre-installed distro. Pricing starts at around 900 euros. A very good allrounder overall.
- Tuxedo Infinitybook: Tuxedo offers a wide range of customization options. Laptops can be shipped with Windows or Linux, but also Linux with a Windows guest VM. They even offer their own distro Tuxedo OS. When shipped with Ubuntu the OS has some nice extra tweaks like power profiles. Also here the hardware is not sold for the cheapest price possible, but it is less expensive than some of the other system integrators. The laptop case is the same that System76 uses. It costs significantly more than the KDE Slimbook, but the i7–13700H is also a lot more performant.
Generally for many Windows laptops it should be possible to change them to a dual boot system, replace Windows with a Linux distro or set up a VM. However this can and likely will be a lengthy and frustrating process of debugging, work arounds and changing bios settings.
The choice
In the end I decided in favour of Tuxedo. I had XPS models in the past and all of them had major issues sooner or later. The Lenovo thinkpad I used did the job, but felt quite cheap as it was not from the carbon series. Framework and System76 looked interesting, but the import taxes were deal breakers. Additionally what happens when a device is broken and needs to be sent back to be repaired? This would take way too long. Starlab was too expensive. The Slimbook would be a great choice. When battery life is more important than computational power this looks fantastic.
Tuxedo looked the most for me though: Plenty of options for customization, a decent price tag and they are located in Germany.
The specs
The Infinitybook 16 gen 8 I configured comes with:
- 16 inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio
- magnesium chassi (in black, silver would be possible as well)
- i7–13700H (14 cores, 20 threads. 55 watts)
- integrated graphics (Nvidia graphics are optional and I passed it in favour of more battery life and to save costs. A GPU cannot be added anymore, so be careful what you decide for.)
- 64GB RAM (this is the maximum, most people should be fine with 16GB and RM can be upgraded afterwards))
- 1.5 TB storage (1 PCI Gen 4 1TB SSD and 1 500GB PCI Gen 3 SSD, the storage can be upgraded afterwards)
- SSD encryption (very important for business users and everyone who wants to protect the own data)
- 80 Wh battery
The Infinitybook also comes with a powerful selection of ports:
Left side (from left to right): Kensington Nano Security Slot™, USB-C 3.2 Gen2 (Connected to: dGPU* | DisplayPort 1.4a | G-SYNC compatible | no PowerDelivery DC-In | DC-Out: max. 15 Watts (5 V / 3 A)), USB-A 3.2 Gen1, SD card reader, 2-in-1 audio (headphone + mic).
Right side (from left to right): Thunderbolt 4 (Connected to: iGPU | DisplayPort 1.4a | PowerDelivery DC-In** | DC-Out: max. 15 Watt (5 V / 3 A)), USB-A 3.2 Gen1, HDMI 2.0b (Connected to: iGPU | HDCP 2.2), Power plug (DC-In)
This should be a powerful machine that lasts for years. Gaming enthusiasts should add an Nvidia GPU and change the OS though (Windows or PopOS! would be better choices).
The Infinitybook 16 starts at 1.549 euro. The configuration above makes up 1.900 euro roughly.
That is lots of money, let’s see if its worth it.
Unpacking the device
The notebook looks classy and can be opened with one hand.
It feels lightweight and is lighter than my Huawei Mate Pro and the Macbook Pro (both smaller devices). The chassi is robust and does not show any flex.
The keyboard feels good (I am not a keyboard enthusiast though, so my judgement might be of little value) and shows very little flex.
Additionally Tuxedo adds some extras:
- USB-C to ethernet adapter (ethernet is just too thick to be added into a thin notebook)
- mousepad
- quickstart guide
- instructions regarding encryption
- a key band
First impressions
As this is an early review I can only share first impressions. After a few days of testing I really like the Infinitybook.
Haptic feeling
It is absolutely robust, has a big screen with small bezels (so it is small given its screen size) and is lightweight as well.
The track pad is fairly big, responsive and I felt comfortable using it instantly. I enjoy it a lot more than Dell and Macbook trackpads.
Performance
The machine feels snappy and does what is expected from an i7–13700H. It can easily handle all tasks we throw at it. With so many cores this should also be the case for many years.
Temperature & noise
Under normal workload the device did not heat up noticeably. It stayed cool and I could not hear the fans at all (except one time during boot were the fans randomly turned on).
Battery life
Under average working load the battery should last 7 hours. As I work with virtual machines power consumption is higher and thus the battery holds for 4–5 hours approximately (on default settings). While in sleep mode the battery loses 1% per hour approximately.
Battery life can be influenced via Tuxedo’s power profiles though:
Overall the battery is the biggest downside and cannot compete with Macbooks. A 99 Wh battery would have been a great improvement here.
WiFi connectivity
The WiFi adapter made a strong impression. In my house the main router is located in the cellar and thus we need a second router under the roof to cover all areas with WiFi.
It happens regularly that a device is still connected to one of the routers while one moved much closer to the other, leading to weak WiFi connectivity.
For the Infinitybook I tested a common case: I connected to the router under the roof and went downstairs. The Huawei Matebook Pro faces major issues here, having slow if any throughput. The Macbook Pro performs fine given the circumstances.
The Infinitybook performed surprisingly well here and showed stronger connectivity than I have experienced with any other device. I could download OS iso files and install virtual machines and completely forgot that I am still connected to the wrong router.
The preconfigured VM
Part of my order has been a preconfigured Windows VM. In the past setting up VMs always came with painful bugs and made the setup a rather painful process. In fact the notebook has been shipped with a Windows VM. Due to a bug in VirtualBox the 3D acceleration is switched off at default. It can be switched on in like 10 seconds. Unfortunately even after switching 3D acceleration on the VM failed to scale to higher resolutions.
Even after debugging for some hours it still did not work. The guest additions worked temporarily, but the VM crashed and forgot the settings again.
Instead of virtual box I switched to Qemu. Also here has been a nasty bug, but after googling and trying many solutions it turned out, that the bug appeared for the German version of Windows 10 only. Switching to US solved it.
The VM delivery has been disappointing overall as it did not save any time unfortunately.
The support
I had two questions for the Tuxedo support and both have been answered within two working days. The replies were detailed and answered my questions to the point.
The Tuxedo touch
Apart from the hardware Tuxedo also offers a lot on the software side. They offer their own open source Linux distro Tuxedo OS.
Alternatively they also ship with Ubuntu. Even here they added some convenient features:
- power profiles (see above) to control power consumption
- a Tuxedo control center:
The control center offers a system overview, power and also fan control. Fantastic!
Is it worth the price?
Tuxedo does not only offer hardware, but also software and plenty of customization options. The hardware alone can be found cheaper, but the whole package seems to be worth it: Good hardware that runs Linux out of the box and has additional convenience features built in.
I cannot judge the long-term usage. This will be another article in he future.
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