I used System76’s Pangolin for weeks, and Linux was not the biggest problem

Enlarge / The Pangolin has a somewhat plain, practical all-black look. It gets a little wilder when you start plugging things into its gracious array of ports. (credit: Kevin Purdy)

After using System76’s Pangolin as my primary work laptop for nearly six weeks, I can tell you this: If you need a 15-inch Linux-focused laptop, this is the one to get.

The Pangolin is a solid device, designed more for dependability and convenience than ultrabook portability or cutting-edge parts, but it still has reasonably modern hardware (especially its 144 Hz screen). The Pangolin and its native Pop!_OS are a showcase for how remarkably normal Linux can feel as a daily driver in 2023. Normal, and with lots of ports.

Specs at a glance: System76 Pangolin (2023)
Display	15.6-inch 1920x1080 144 Hz, matte, non-touch
OS	Pop!_OS 22.04 or Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 6800U, 2.7-4.7 GHz, 8 cores, 16 threads
RAM	32GB LPDDR5 (up to 5500 MHz)
GPU	AMD Radeon 680M (integrated)
Storage	Two M.2 PCIe NVMe slots, 16TB total capacity
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
Battery	70 Wh
Ports	Four recessed USB-C ports with swappable USB-C / USB-A / HDMI / DisplayPort / microSD / Ethernet / external storage adapters, headphone jack
Size	9.01 x 11.68 x 0.62 inches (228.98 x 296.63 x 15.85 mm)
Weight	2.87 lbs (1.3 kg)
Warranty	1-year
Price as reviewed	$2,049 pre-assembled, $1,529 with no RAM, SSD, or OS, $1,049 motherboard-only

It’s hard to do a nuts-and-bolts comparison of the Pangolin to most other laptops, due largely to benchmark comparability between Linux and most laptops running Windows or macOS. But it’s also not entirely necessary. There’s only one real version of the Pangolin available—one processor, one amount of RAM, then variable, user-expandable storage.

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