Earlier this month the launch of the HP Dev One was marked by an interesting collaboration between HP and System76, a laptop optimized for Linux developers and System76’s Ubuntu-based Pop! _OS is for running the operating system. It’s a very interesting laptop and well thought out for Linux use with an AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U SoC and integrated Radeon graphics to meet the preferences of many Linux developers with a fully open-source driver stack. I like it. Thanks in large part to HP’s manufacturing, it’s a competitively priced Linux laptop compared to many Linux laptops from smaller vendors that are based on Clevo or other white box laptop designs.
The HP Dev One isn’t HP’s first foray into the Linux laptop space, but in the past it has offered systems like the HP ZBook Studio G7 that came preloaded with Ubuntu Linux. They were not only pre-loading Ubuntu, but have experience with shipping various data science software pre-loaded from machine learning libraries to various developer tools and more. In a previous HP ZBook I test, HP shipped an “extra” of over 40GB of curated open-source software over its stock image.
With their Z by HP Data Science Software effort it was on an otherwise stock Ubuntu installation with a few cosmetic changes. To little surprise their former Linux devices were sporting Intel CPUs with NVIDIA discrete graphics focused on CUDA, RAPIDS, and other NVIDIA software packages, while focusing on data science. With the HP Dev One, they have taken a surprising turn by partnering with System76 and leveraging Pop!_OS for developer/enthusiast-oriented Linux laptops. They are targeting developers as a whole and thus don’t even have a large collection of curated software packages… which is fine for me, at least considering that most of the installations from apt/debian packages or flatpak Packages are just a command away. with Flathub
The HP Dev One costs $1099 USD for this all-AMD Linux laptop, which really strikes a good price point for a large spectrum of developers, rather than just the top-tier Linux developers at an elevated price point. Thanks for trying to target, pricing. HP’s on the scale compared to white box laptops traditionally offered by smaller Linux-focused vendors, and isn’t going much cheaper on the components that makes it a weakly powered developer machine.
For $1099 USD, the HP Dev One is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U 8-core/16-thread processor with Radeon Vega graphics, 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory, a 1TB NVMe M.2 2280 SSD, and a 1080p 14. -inch 1000 nit display. The specs are great and the Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U SoC is a great choice for this mid-range to higher-end developer-minded laptop. The only unfortunate area is 16GB of RAM is the only option, but it’s upgradable by the user to a maximum of 64GB of system RAM. Having 32GB would be a sweet spot, but for now at least HP has allocated just one SKU with 16GB of RAM and it’s up to users to upgrade the memory themselves if desired.
While just a laptop SKU, when buying the HP Dev One it offers accessories like the HP 935 Creator Wireless Mouse and the System 76 Launch configurable keyboard. The System76 keyboard and HP mouse were both included as part of our HP Dev One review Kit, kindly provided by System 76 and HP.
Page 1 – IntroductionPage 2 – HP Dev OnePage 3 – Thermals, Power DataPage 4 – Linux Laptop Comparison Page 5 – Linux Graphics/Gaming PerformancePage 6 – WebP, JSON Parsing, ZSTD Compression, RoPage 7 – Creator Workload, Video EncodingPage 8 – Code CompilationPage 9 – OSPRay Studio, Darktable, GIMPPage 10 – CAD, Python PerformancePage 11 – AI / Machine LearningPage 12 – Chrome + Firefox Web Browser PerformancePage 13 – HP Dev One is a great Linux laptop