Léonard Urban

I’ve been using the Slimbook EVO 14 for a few days now, and here are my impressions. This is also a test of writefreely—let’s see how it goes! 😉

My Old Laptop

As a computer science (and biology) student, I mainly use my laptop for taking notes and doing homework. Beyond that, I’m a Linux hobbyist and enjoy programming for fun.

Before switching to the Slimbook, I used a Lenovo Ideapad C340 14'' Intel with 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM. While it served me well for about six years, several issues became hard to ignore:

• Screen quality: The 1080p resolution was too low for comfortable text reading, and the viewing angles were poor.
• Battery life: The 40Wh battery degraded over time, lasting only about 1.5 hours in power-saving mode by the end.
• Graphics performance: The integrated GPU struggled with anything beyond lightweight games (like Minecraft at 720p) and limited external 4K displays to 30Hz.
• Build quality: The chassis cracked in places, and I had to use duct tape to hold the hinges together.
• Keyboard failure: An entire row of keys stopped working, rendering the laptop unusable without an external keyboard.

Choosing a New Laptop

My new laptop needed to meet the following criteria:

• Better performance
• More RAM
• Improved screen
• Under 1,000 CHF
• Good Linux support
• From a European company (here’s why)

These last two points narrowed my options to Tuxedo and Slimbook. Since I carry my laptop all day, I wanted something under 15''. This left me with the Slimbook EVO and the Tuxedo InfinityBook—identical machines in terms of specs. I chose the Slimbook EVO because it was cheaper and came with GNOME preinstalled.

Review

Hardware

The Slimbook EVO feels well-built, especially compared to my old laptop. The aluminum chassis is sturdy and premium. The screen is a significant upgrade: better viewing angles and resolution, though the scaling is a bit awkward. At 100%, everything is too small; at 200%, too large. Fractional scaling works, but may affect battery life. The 120Hz refresh rate is smooth, but I disabled it to save power—it’s not essential for my workflow.

The only downgrade from my previous laptop is the lack of a touchscreen, but since I use an external drawing tablet, it’s not a dealbreaker.

Performance-wise, this laptop is a breath of fresh air. It boots in under five seconds, handles Minecraft at full resolution (with shaders!), and supports 4K displays at 60Hz. My model has 32GB of RAM and 500GB of storage. The extra RAM is a relief, and while the storage is half of what I had before, 500GB is more than enough for my needs.

Software

Buying from a Linux-first vendor means most drivers are preinstalled. However, I decided to install Ubuntu 25 from scratch—perhaps not the smartest move. The installation went smoothly, but I had to manually install a few packages, like the Ethernet driver (guide here).

Facial recognition via howdy doesn’t work yet, as it depends on a library not yet ported to Ubuntu 25. For now, I’ll stick with typing my password.

I also replaced Slimbook’s slimbook-battery (which uses TLP) with power-profiles-daemon for better GNOME integration. I might revisit this later to see if TLP offers better battery life.

Speaking of battery, I capped the charge at 80% in the BIOS to extend its lifespan. It’s reassuring that Slimbook sells replacement batteries, which could be useful down the line.

Final Thoughts

I’m happy with my purchase and would recommend the Slimbook EVO 14—especially if you value Linux support and European manufacturing.

Note: This text was re-phrased with AI (Le Chat by Mistral.ai to be precise).