Spanish hardware company Slimbook is on something of a roll of late.
Not content to cater to the needs of KDE enthusiasts, the hardware outfit recently unsheathed the impressive aluminium 15-inch Slimbook Excalibur.
‘For €49 extra you can upgrade to a QHD+ (3200 x 1800) HiDPI display’
Today the company takes the shrink wrap off of yet another Linux powered laptop.
Say hello to the Slimbook Pro.
Slimbook Pro Specs & Price
With an aluminium body, lightweight build and 13.1-inch display the Slimbook Pro is plays smaller sibling to the 15.6-inch Slimbook Excalibur.
The base model ship with a standard FHD (1920 x 1080) panel but for a mere €49 more you can upgrade to a QHD+ (3200 x 1800) HiDPI display.
Canonical is sponsoring a HiDPI hackfest for GNOME right now, so if you opt to go HiDPI now you can expect to see various improvements to the Ubuntu HiDPI experience is future releases.
Inside there’s a choice of 7th Gen Intel ‘Kaby Lake’ processors:
- Intel i3-7100U @ 2.4GHz
- Intel i5-7200U @ 2.5GHz
- Intel i7-7500U @ 2.7GHz
The integrated graphics of Kaby Lake won’t handle top-tier gaming titles at max frame rates but is perfectly adequate for most needs.
All models come with 4GB RAM as standard (8GB, 16GB and 32GB upgrades available). Base storage is 120GB SSD, with a variety of upgrades and second hard disk options available at extra cost — yup, there’s enough space inside for 2 hard drives.
You can also elect to kit your Slimbook Pro out with Intel Dual Band 8265AC WiFi, which apparently has “better signal and stability in the latest Linux kernels“.
As a portable laptop and not a portable workstation power consumption is a key consideration. Improvements in the Linux Kernel combined with the lower power consumption of Intel’s Kaby Lake processors means you should expect to a decent amount of battery life from the Pro (for comparison, the 13.1-inch System76 Galago Pro manages a terse 4 hours max) but you should be able to eke a bit more out of the Slimbook Pro.
Ports wise the laptop has all you could ask, including
- Full-size HDMI out
- Mini Display Port
- 2x USB 3.1
- 1x USB Type-C
- SD card slot
- Ethernet RJ45 jack
- Courage jack
- Mic jack
Along with a full-size backlit keyboard in either American or Spanish layouts, the Slimbook Pro also uses a Synaptics touchpad.
The Slimbook Pro is, on paper, a pretty decent laptop that’s competitively priced. The addition of a HiDPI display makes the portable all the more attractive, as do the upgradeable components.
The Slimbook Pro price starts at €699 for the base Intel i3 model.
Elephant in the room time: there is no denying that, yes, with smaller computer companies who sell Linux hardware you do tend to pay a little bit more for the privilege — but that’s economies of scale for you; you can’t expect to pay own-brand label prices for what is, in effect, organic produce.