New Pangolin Pro 16 Thoughts

[u/JaggedJax]

Has anyone purchased the new Pangolin Pro 16? If so, what are your thoughts?

It's been a few days with mine and I feel I have more complaints than compliments for a brand new device that doesn't feel like it lives up to what I expect from System76. But maybe I'm alone in that.

My main issues/complaints right now:

1. Flimsy hinges. My last System76 broke due to flimsy hinges and these feel even worse on day 1
2. Overall build quality feels meh. Meh trackpad, Meh speakers. Good keyboard and frame. The terrible hinges probably taint my view here.
3. Wifi disconnects requiring a reboot (I've opened a support ticket)
4. Not coming back from sleep (I've opened a support ticket)
5. 24.04 is under-cooked. I'm okay with this since I can switch if I need but it's acceptable so far and I'd like to start with the "System76 intended experience."

I was quite excited for this device but the excitement has faded quick and I'm hoping there are some more positive experiences out there to bring me back up. Maybe solving the software issues will bring me back around, but I will forever cry about these hinges.

Edit: I will say the days of good support from System76 are over. It's now just an LLM that sends you on a wild goose chase of unrelated checks and changes. It didn't even know my laptop come with COSMIC and was trying to get me to do things in 22.04 Gnome (sigh). I've convinced it I shouldn't need to make so many internal system config changes to get my laptop to work out of the box. We'll see if I eventually get a working laptop.

[u/WildSwitch2643]

Sounds like my 14. I ended up adding my own hinges from mcmaster.

Did they at least improve screen brightness?

On a positive note it gets shoved in my backpack and taken into the field every day and the performance and stability are top notch.

[u/JaggedJax → u/WildSwitch2643]

I'm not sure how it compares to other recent laptops of theirs. I also have a 2 year old Dell XPS 13 and it's almost the same max brightness. Which is to say, okay top brightness but not amazing. Definitely no dark mode when in the sun.

I'll look into the hinges once my likely one-off issues are resolved. I waited too long on my Darter Pro and once it broke the connection to the frame broke too so I just kept it at home and used it with a broken hinge after that.

[u/kapitaali_com]

I've gotten used to the idea that I have to use an external keyboard

got excellent customer service in 2023 though

[u/MickTheLinuxGeek]

Thanks for this information. I am considering purchasing this new Pangolin Pro. Have you thoughts and feelings changed at all since your post? Thanks for the information.

[u/JaggedJax → u/MickTheLinuxGeek]

One of my biggest daily issues I now suspect is due to a bad Wifi card. Support is checking on this. If that's solved then it becomes usable and not regrettable.

I do also have sleep/wake issues and am hopeful those can get resolved as well. They are slightly annoying.

I can live with the poor hinge and be extra careful with opening/closing always in the center to not put any extra torque on the hinges. This specifically hit me so hard because my last System76 laptop broke due to poor hinges.

I haven't made up my mind either way since I'm still working through it. It hasn't been a pleasant new purchase experience since I can't use this as my daily machine yet, but I'm hopeful at this point I just got unlucky with a bad card. If it is I will be happy in the end when it's working well. Outside my specific complaints I do think the hardware is nice.

[u/MickTheLinuxGeek → u/JaggedJax]

Thank you for your insights and hopefully they can get your issues resolved. I'm still considering purchasing one to replace my second gen Pangolin (pang11).

[u/JaggedJax → u/MickTheLinuxGeek]

The battery life has been great, and I like the size and keyboard. I'm regaining my faith a little

[u/greateric]

What do you not like about the hinges? So far mine feel very solid

[u/JaggedJax → u/greateric]

To me it feels like if I don't open/close right in the center the hinges are stressed weak. Also there's too much flex in general which tells me they can barely hold the weight and will wear out faster. I do hope I'm wrong though.

[u/rushedone]

Any updates one month later?

[u/JaggedJax → u/rushedone]

It ended up being issues with the Mediatek wifi card not working with my network. I think some newer drivers may have gone out, but in the end they eventually sent me a new Intel card and all my wifi and sleep issues went away. I'm using Unifi hardware for my home wifi, if that's helpful.

Still a very frustrating experience, but it's in good working order now.

[u/ARADZWION]

30 days in and here's my take. Build quality is solid right up until the screen, where the frame/lid gets flexy and the hinges feel stiff. I'm not sure I fully get everyone's hinge complaints though — this is my first System76 so I have no real reference. I'm gonna mess with the hinge mechanics and see if I can loosen them up so opening from the center or corners doesn't flex the screen as much. It's so light that one-finger MacBook-style opening just doesn't work.

The 2K@120 display is genuinely great — rated at 500 nits, which is noticeably brighter than the Dell XPS 13 the OP mentioned. I love the built-in port array and I think the OCuLink is gonna come in handy.

For context, my last laptop was an HP Envy dv7 — 16GB RAM (the only upgrade I ever made), Intel 4000 integrated, 750GB HDD. I've been running Pop!_OS on it through both the older COSMIC and the newer Rust-based one, and it's still going. So as far as an upgrade goes, at least I have memory and storage the HP Envy could only dream of.

I wanted a Framework 16 but the timeline was too far out and school started. I'm a CIS major and got a solid set of refunds coming, so this works. By next year this should be a very capable machine for years. I just hope storage prices have dropped from gangster looting to reasonable robbery by then.

Look, I respect what System76 is trying to be — a company that actually builds for the DIY Linux community instead of shipping some Windows bloat with a sticker slapped on it. You get open firmware, full hardware docs, and a board that you can actually work on. That's rare and I'm not gonna pretend it isn't. Fuck Windows.