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 ?
What are you really looking for? You mention GeekBench, multi-core performance, battery life, speakers, memory, and screen size. But you mention Rust compilation. So I’m confused, do you want a powerful machine or one that has a long battery life or a machine that looks and sounds good?
I see EUR and fr-fr, so you must not be in the US but in France or Belgium.
Also your comparison is not really equal. You’re comparing a M5 Macbook Pro with an M5 Pro 18-core CPU, 20-core GPU with 24 GB system memory (3200€), and 1TB SSD to a HP Elite G1a with 64GB and 1TB SSD (4900€). If you give the macbook pro 64GB of memory, then you’re at 4300€. If you take the default M5 Max config (18 core CPU, 32 Core GPU) and the default 36GB RAM, you’re also at 4800€.
What is your budget?
Looking at nano review and sorting by multi-core performance, this is the list:
(why not geekbench for multi-core?).
As you can see, AMD and Ryzen do well (and that snapdragon), all the way to Intel Core i9 13980HX.
Here’s a Tuxedo laptop with a Ryzen 9 9955HX and 36GB RAM for ~2800€. Make it 64GB and you’re at ~3500€.
Or here, a StarFighter Ultra with Intel Core Ultra 9 285H, 64GB RAM, 1TB storage.
Otherwise there’s linux preloaded where you can find stores that sell laptops.