Choice. The problem is choice.

I’ve been looking to buy a laptop for a while now. And by a while I mean a long while.

So far I managed to narrow my choices down to Macbook Air, Thinkpad x250, Dell XPS 13 and Multicom Talisa U731. There seems to be pros and cons with all of them.

The Thinkpad x250 famously have a good keyboard and battery life. Moreover, I think it would be nice to use the red track point as it would allow me to keep my fingers mostly close to the “home row” meaning the keyboard keys “asdf” and “jklø” (Norwegian keyboard). The form factor is also nice. The biggest down side is the price point.

The Dell XPS 13 Developer edition is part of Dell’s Sputnik Project. It features a beautiful screen bezel and it’s super light. Dell has a dedicated team working tirelessly on Linux compatibility resulting in up-stream code contributions to the Linux kernel itself. Following its launch the laptop has struggled with some bugs in need of ironing out but they seem to be squashing those bugs at a good pace. On one side I really want to buy this laptop as a clear signal that I appreciate companies that work towards better Linux support. But on the other side I’m not really sure about shelling out so much money for a laptop with still some issues in need of ironing out.

The Macbook Air has great battery life and touchpad. And it’s even priced quite competitively if compared against the Thinkpad. Though still being more expensive than the XPS 13 and the Talisa. The Macbook Air has a great build quality. But for some silly reason I’m hesitant to move into the Apple ecosystem. Yes, OS/X share common ancestry with the broader Linux ecosystem but I would like to run Ubuntu on my new laptop. Maybe I’m just in denial.

Almost like a dark horse we have the Multicom Talisa U731. This laptop is priced roughly the same as the XPS 13. It’s got a aluminum chassis like the Mac Air and I suspect it would run Linux just great. Don’t know what’s holding me back.

Hmm.

Maybe I don’t really need a new laptop.

Maybe I’ll just grab a cup of coffee.