On the day I received it, I had the feeling that my Steam Deck would end up closed in its case taking dust, once the “new gadget” sensations would have worn out. In fact, something similar happened to me a couple of years ago with Stadia.
But after ~6 months I am still in love with this pocket PC, well after the usual honeymoon.
I finally found the best way to play Paradox games and many indie gems right on my couch, reducing the friction that is involved in gaming while being “tied” to your desk.
Now, every 30-40-mins slot is the ideal moment for a gaming session, instead of mindlessly killing time with doomscrolling or casual activities on my phone.
I suggest looking into the Dell XPS line (both 13 or 15 models, depending on your screen size tastes). I own a 2015 Dell XPS 13 and Linux support is amazing (long battery life, the laptop does not overheat and everything works out of the box on Ubuntu). The only weak spot is the webcam location in the lower part of the screen.
Another good alternative could be the Thinkpad Carbon X line, but I don't have any direct experience.
At work I use a mid-2015 Macbook Pro, if you stick to MacOs it's a very good machine. I also have an Ubuntu 17.10 partition on this machine that I use as main daily driver, but there are a few catches with this particular model (slight overheating, battery life is good but not great, I had to manually install drivers for backlight control and webcam).
I have last year's Thinkpad X1 Carbon. Excellent Linux support (great battery life, everything works out of the box except for the fingerprint reader) and a fantastic machine. Screen is good, it's quite a bit lighter than a MacBook Pro 13" and has a good selection of ports (2 x TB-3/USB-C, 2 x USB-A, full-size HDMI). But I can't judge if it meets OP's performance requirements (it is somewhat thermally limited due to the small form factor and thinness), maybe check out the T480 / T480s instead if you need more power.
One of my colleagues has a two-year old XPS13 and is very happy with it, too. I think they're both great choices.
One problem with the 13" XPS is that 16GB configuration without a 4K+touchscreen display is only available in some countries (Europe, Hong Kong, ...?) I've been looking to get one (new macbook pro keyoard keeps breaking), but the buying experience has been pretty bad where I am.
I'll be in Japan later this month, and I'll probably buy an HP Envy. The XPS doesn't come in the aforementioned configuration and the Carbon X is considerably more expensive (and I can't make heads or tail of their Japanese site).
I run repair shops for a living, and I'd certainly recommend the XPS 13 over a HP. The build quality of the HP Envy laptops we get in are terrible. The XPS 13 is just a better laptop.
Well, shit. I wish I had known about this approximately one month ago when I bought mine.
The screen is beautiful and the battery life is OK, but I really don't see the point of 4K at this size. I figured they were just forcing an upsell to higher margin configurations...
Thanks for the info. They must have added that more recently. I noticed the same thing in Hong Kong where the 16GB 1080p option only became available after my last trip there. Just checked the Japan website, it still only has 16GB and/or 512GB with 4K touch.
I don't believe Envy vs XPS is apples to apples, HP's Spectre laptops probably compare more favorably in terms of build quality. Have you looked into that line at all?
I have had an XPS13 for the last three years, running Linux. Absolutely love it. At home, it is hooked up to a 27" 4k monitor. While travelling, it is very light and has reasonable battery life. The only limitation is the fixed 8GB RAM (note: the 2018 XPS13 has a 16GB model).
As the new 2018 XPS15 was announced 5 days ago [1], I'll probably trade up now to get the Nvidia GTX1050 GPU and RAM user-upgradable to 32GB.
At the moment I think there are a few bugs with Linux support on the XPS 15 but they shouldn't last long. A friend of mine was having quite a lot of trackpad issues that don't appear to affect the 13" model.
I had no issues with Linux support, just follow the guides and you can install stock Ubuntu with no problems with GPU switching and docking station support and everything else.
They changed the cooling solution completely this year, so the coil whine is much less of an issue. I'm sure some may still have it, but from my sample size of 1 I haven't had a problem.
I personally use ConEmu + babun for my everyday work activity on Windows system. I grow accustomed to it and it's a wonderful replacement when I have to do some lightweight Unixy thing without powering up a VM and when my Ubuntu laptop is out of reach.
On the day I received it, I had the feeling that my Steam Deck would end up closed in its case taking dust, once the “new gadget” sensations would have worn out. In fact, something similar happened to me a couple of years ago with Stadia.
But after ~6 months I am still in love with this pocket PC, well after the usual honeymoon. I finally found the best way to play Paradox games and many indie gems right on my couch, reducing the friction that is involved in gaming while being “tied” to your desk.
Now, every 30-40-mins slot is the ideal moment for a gaming session, instead of mindlessly killing time with doomscrolling or casual activities on my phone.