System76’s updated 15-inch Pangolin laptop ships with Ryzen 7 5700U CPU

System76's Pangolin is a lightweight and relatively slender 15" design with a 1080p matte display and RGB-lit keyboard. [credit: System76 ]

Specs at a glance: System76 Pangolin

Pop!_OS 21.04 or Ubuntu Linux 20.04

CPU

Ryzen 5 5500U or Ryzen 7 5700U

RAM

8GiB DDR4 (upgradable to 64GiB)

GPU

AMD Vega 7 integrated

SSD

240GB to 2TB NVMe

Battery

49 Wh LiOn

Wi-Fi

Intel dual-band Wi-Fi 6

Display

15-inch 1080p matte

Camera

720p

Connectivity

two USB-A 2.0 ports
one USB-A 3.2 port
one USB-C 3.2 port
one gigabit Ethernet port
3.5 mm phone/mic combo jack
DC power jack
full-size HDMI 2.0 out
Kensington lock slot

Entry-level price

$1,200 (Ryzen 5500U, 8GiB RAM, 240GB NVMe)

This week, System76—probably the best-known Linux-only laptop vendor—announced the latest update to its lightweight 15-inch Pangolin laptop series. The newest models of Pangolin are available and shipping today; customers have a choice between a six-core Ryzen 5 5500U and an eight-core Ryzen 7 5700U processor.

Pangolin was already the first System76 laptop model to offer AMD Ryzen processors, with last-generation Ryzen 4500U and 4700U models announced last December. This year's model bumps up both the processor generation and asking price significantly—last year's Ryzen 4500U Pangolin started at $850, offering 8GiB of RAM and a 240GiB SSD in the entry-level trim. The new 5500U-powered Pangolin runs $1,200 for the same specs.

AMD Ryzen + Linux for the win

The increase in price likely reflects additional public awareness of mobile Ryzen's outstanding Linux kernel support as well as its significant raw performance advantage over most competing Intel CPUs. Although we didn't get the chance to test System76's Ryzen 7 4700U, Acer's 4700U-powered Swift 3—which isn't even designed as an OEM Linux laptop—remains one of our all-time favorite systems for dedicated Linux users.

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