I have a Batch 1 FW 16, and overall I am very happy, but I have some qualms, I would be happy if i could get some feedback from you guys if this is normal or just nitpicking. (especailly on the Display and surface finish part.)
Processing and Gaming:
Processing power is more than good enough for most task, I could run different Gen assemblies without dying of old age. Even with the integrated graphics it can run rather demanding Titles such as Helldivers2 on low-medium settings at ~40fps. The fan can get a bit loud (compared to my desktop), but through headphones that isnt a problem. The bigger problem i encountered was that WASD heats up to uncomfortable temperatures within 20 min, at that point holding down W to run can be almost painfull.
OS:
I am running Fedora 40, and apart from a bit of tinkering to get the power management up and running in the beginning (which is all documented here) the overall support is great.
Screen:
For the most part i really enjoy the screen, but that is one of the first problems I encountered.
Normally I set the screen brightness to 30% when off the wall, at that brightness i noticed very bad contrast at times. Gray writing almost starts to blend into black background, pictures, movies and skin tones look off… That’s as good as I can describe it as I sadly have no way to really quantify my feelings.
This all disappears once i crank up the brightness to around 80% tho, might as well just be standard screen behavior, dont really know…
Surface Finish:
I am a bit grumpy about the surface finish, the hand rests draw more smudges than my old Surface book, and after about 4 months of regular-daily use I noticed that the finish of the case starts to wear off, the left corner above the keyboard locking mechanism developed a black stripe and i could remove quiet a bit of the silver gray surface finish just with my nail. Same on the back where i always slide it into my sleeve. So far its only a optical imperfection, but I am a bit afraid on how this will develop over the coming years. I am not sure if this is worth writing to the support, especially because i doubt they could change anything…
Keyboard and trackpad:
Keyboard and trackpad are ok, I read about ppl saying the trackpad is too small, thats subjective but even for my rather big hands i would say the size is adequate. I sometimes recognize double inputs from the keyboard I cant remember typing, but that is not overly common. I also read about ppl having problems with the touchpad lightning, I noticed that for some reason “+” on the numpad turns on/off breathing mode of the LEDs, might be worth checking if you have problems.
Expansions and Upgrades:
Expansion cards are great, I can always give them out whenever a colleague forgets his HDMI or usbc adapter. Could also add a 2nd SSD after running out of space, really love this feature.