The 14-inch MOTILE

A new Dell Linux developer XPS 13 laptop  will be available this month  and starts at $1,199.99. There is no lower cost option. The $1,199.99 price tag represents an i5-based Developer Edition with 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, an FHD display, and with Ubuntu 18.04.03 LTS preloaded. Unless you need a 10th gen computer for high power work load there are other options. Walmart has two laptops. The MOTILE 14" Ryzen 3 (M141-RG) and the MOTILE 14" AMD Ryzen 5 (M142-RG).

Note: The MOTILE 14" M141-RG and the MOTILE 14" M142-RG comes preinstalled with MS Windows. UEFI Secure Boot can be easily disabled from the BIOS.

Installing GNU+Linux on MOTILE Performance Laptop

Which distro to choose? This is largely personal preference. I'm partial to Manjaro, but I'd advice a newcomer try Ubuntu (or Mint) as they're the distros with the most available resources online if you have doubts or questions.

When I received my laptop, I install Manjaro KDE Plasma on a Gen3 Samsung 970 250GB Evo plus NVMe drive I already owned. Everything worked out-of-the-box. My MOTILE 14" AMD Ryzen 5 (M142-RG) performed as expected during testing. It was smooth and stable running Manjaro 18.1.0 without any issue. It also ran very cool and when fan kicked on, mostly due to the excellent venting out the back.

Walmart Motile M142 Dimensions (inches): 12.6 inches x 8.4 inches x 0.75 inches
 
    Operating System: Manjaro KDE Plasma
    CPU: Ryzen R5-3500U
    Memory: 8GB DDR4 (Single Channel memory)
    Hard Drive: 256GB MVMe Drive(upgraded from    250GB m.2 drive)
    Optical: None
    Screen: 14" IPS
    Resolution: 1920 x 1080
    Graphics: Radeon Vega 8
    1 x USB-C (none charging)
    2 x USB 3.0
    1 x USB 2.0
    Micro SD card slot
    1 x HDMI Port
    1 x Ethernet Port
    Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Mbps, Gigabit
    Wireless: 802.11b/g/n
    HDMI Port: 1
    Headphone/microphone: One Combo Jack
    Webcam: 720p IR webcam
    Bluetooth 4.2
    Battery: 4100 mah lithium polymer


While never hearing of Motile previously, I decided to go ahead and buy it to replace my ageing Intel Celeron 847 Sandy Bridge, ASUS (X201E-DH01) laptop. While Microsoft Windows 10 Home is preloaded on this budget laptop, once installed Manjaro KDE Plasma ran performed as expected. This MOTILE 14" is incredible, it's thin, its light, its and metal. The Ram, SSD and WIFI can be  upgraded.

Yes System76, Dell, and Think Penguin have several high-end laptops per-installed with GNU+Linux. However there are not options under 600.00 USD. The best low end laptops are not actually preloaded with GNU/Linux, and that’s a common trend.

GNU/Linux  Pre-installed

System76: Galago Pro 14" $949.00 USD
Think Penguin: Penguin T2 $649.00 USD
Dell: Precision 3540 721.59 USD

Windows Pre-installed

Note: All 3 are popular among GNU/Linux users. They are fully compatible with Linux distro, especially Ubuntu.

MOTILE 14" M141-RG $299.00 USD
MOTILE 14" M142-RG $399.00 USD
Acer: Aspire E 15 $424.00 USD

System76s Galago Pro is one of the best high-end Ultrabooks in the world. It offers an all-aluminum design and lots of processing power. Its 10th gen i5-10210U out paces both Acer MOTILE and Acer systems by a wide margin. If you work with raw HD, 4K video or create special effects the Galago Pro 14" is hard to top. However for most people everyday computing is happening in a web browser. So with the budget MOTILE 14 and Aspire E 15 you do not get the biggest possible hard drives or the most powerful processors. No one wants to spend $1000.00 USD  just to look at Face Book and watch Pluto TV.

Conclusion

You won't find a better value than the MOTILE 14 M142-RG ($399.00). With a high-powered 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen 5 Mobile Processor and Radeon Vega 8 Graphics you can stream online videos or surf the web. The screen stretches nearly to the bezels. You typically do not see a full HD screen at this price point. Walmart's MOTILE 14 is one of the most beautiful laptops on the market right now, with its all aluminum  design and sleek profile. This system is very upgrade-able. It has a free NVME slot for a second hard drive and the ram is not soldered to the board. MY Asus X201 cost around 300.00 USD in 2014 and as 2020 still works. It runs Linux mint xfce as a daily driver. We really do need low-end pre-installed opensource systems.

MOTILE trademark by Walmart Apollo, LLC