Is the Lemur Ultra a Good Choice?

[Ubun2to]

I am getting a new laptop soon, and I want to know if the Lemur Ultra is a good choice.
I like the default 2nd gen i5 processor from my own experience.
16 GB of RAM-wow. This will deliver the speed I need.
An SSD is reliable, and these are much cheaper than what I've seen on similarly spec'd laptops.
Having a DVD drive by default is great, as software is still put on CDs and DVDs.
This is looking to be the best choice for me, and I want to know, if you have used it-is it good?

[brdmn]

I have the Lemu4 with 8GB of memory and the 60GB SSD, and so far the performance is very good. The only thing I don't like about the i5 is that it is running around 10 degrees C hotter than the i3 in my Lenovo T410, and unfortunately the trackpad area gets quite warm as a result. I'm sure most of this is the difference in processors, but some might have to do with the Clevo vs. Lenovo design differences.

The performance is very snappy. With Xubuntu, a cold boot cold takes barely seconds. I did try the pre-installed Ubuntu briefly, and it is also quite speedy. All of the hardware works out-of-the-box, and having installed Xubuntu, I can say that there is really nothing special you need to do to make anything work, other than installing the System76 debian pkg.

[PGScooter]

Does anyone have a review regarding the battery life? According to this thread, it should be around 3.5 to 4 hours.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...=lemur+battery

[pete04]

I have the Lemu4. Owned it about a month now. it's my main work machine.

It's a really nice laptop. Build is pretty solid. Ubuntu is super snappy. Everything has worked flawlessly, from ripping and writing CDs to extra monitors, etc. I've been super satisfied. Only thing I'd change is the keyboard. It's not a chicklet/island style, which I'm just very used to.

I'm getting about 3.5 hours out of the battery and do have Jupiter installed. I haven't noticed it running warm.

I think it's a pretty good option -- a solid laptop that you know supports Ubuntu without any worries.

[Arioch]

Been so tempted to buy one myself. Need a lighter laptop for traveling but powerful enough to be my production machine. The two reasons holding me back are the keyboard and the screen, low resolution. I have a gazelle with nvidia card (15'' monitor) and I am used to that, but it is just to heavy and bulky to travel with it or attend workshops/conferences.

Can't have it all, can we?

[Ubun2to]

I think I've finally found a winner for my new laptop.

[rg4w]

I had the pleasure of spending some hands-on time with the Lemur at UDS a couple weeks ago. Very impressed with the solid feel while still seeming surprisingly light for its size. And I love the trackpad. Really nicely done, both in its movement and how its integrated into the chassis.

The only thing holding me back is the screen resolution. I've been having a tough time finding a 14" machine with something greater than 768p.

May main concern here is coding, how many lines of code I can read on screen at a time.

I just haven't worked on a machine with 768p in a long time - do you folks find yourself able to work comfortably with that res?

[lieryan]

I am getting a new laptop soon, and I want to know if the Lemur Ultra is a good choice.
I like the default 2nd gen i5 processor from my own experience.
16 GB of RAM-wow. This will deliver the speed I need.
An SSD is reliable, and these are much cheaper than what I've seen on similarly spec'd laptops.
Having a DVD drive by default is great, as software is still put on CDs and DVDs.
This is looking to be the best choice for me, and I want to know, if you have used it-is it good?

I recently purchased a Lemur Ultra (lemu4); so I'll share. In a brief, my Lemur Ultra configuration has i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, and 160GB SSD, priced at $1013, not including shipping.

What I like:

• speed: this laptop is fast, blazing fast. The SSD makes booting, shutdown time the fastest I've seen yet; sleep and wakeup are also very fast; the 8GB RAM and i5 CPU runs multiple virtual machines without a hitch.
• no noise: no harddrive means no sound of spinning disks, and the CPU runs cool enough with practically no fan sound while doing most light activities.
• ubuntu: as promised, all the hardware runs out of the box without any driver issues.
• support: I had not had much need for support yet, but from the very brief time I had, the support staffs seem to be very responsive and helpful.
• build quality: even though it's made of plastic and not unobtainium, overall, Lemur 4 is very solidly built (much more solid than any of my previous laptops from Dell and HP). Except for one part, the middle lower section of the screen is very flaky if you press on it.
• keyboard: I type a lot as a programmer, therefore the size, layout, and felt of the keyboard is very important to me. With lemu4's keyboard, I felt right at home immediately.
• material: the matte chassis is very resistant to grease, which is significant to me since I had a greasy skin. Unfortunately, the rim around the screen are not made from the same material and does attract grease.

What I don't like:

• design: although the chassis has a solid build quality, it is undeniably ugly. It has many hard edges, which causes mild pain to my wrists. This might be excerbated by my sitting posture which puts my wrists hard against the lower edge of the laptop.
• power plug: I received a US plug even though I ordered from Australia; fortunately, I still have cables from my previous Dell laptop which fits into the provided adapter fine. This is just a warning for those purchasing from overseas.
• touchpad: I like the look of integrated touchpad; however because of that, there is no tactile cue to differentiate between the touchpad and the chassis, I had at times find the cursor not responding, only to find out that my finger is outside the touchpad area. With normal touchpad, I can correct for that without looking at the touchpad, which is much harder in an integrated touchpad. The touchpad also seems to have a couple of responsivity issues when doing two-finger scrolling.
• UPS: not entirely System76's fault, but the delivery of my laptop by UPS wasn't smooth.
• no auto mute: in my old Dell laptop, unplugging an earphone from the audio jack will automatically mute the volume, and replugging will unmute it. As I prefer earphones than speakers, I find it really annoying if I accidentally unplug my earphone and still have sounds playing, and quite inconvenient if I had to manually mute/unmute every time I plug/unplug the earphone.

Verdict:

Although Lemur Ultra 4 won't win a beauty contest, it really shines on the essentials that really matters. Will recommend it.

**edits**: added no auto mute.

[PGScooter]

Excellent review! Thank you for taking the time to write that up.

[Arioch]

Nice review!

But how about screen resolution? And battery life?