It's Becoming Possible To Run Linux Distributions On The HP/ASUS/Lenovo ARM Laptops

We've been looking forward to the possibility of having a nice 64-bit ARM Linux laptop with decent power and nice build quality. Several major vendors having been rolling out Windows ARM laptops powered by Qualcomm chips and the like with decent specs and quality, unlike some of the cheap ARM Linux laptop efforts we've seen. For those Windows ARM laptops, headway is being made in being able to run Linux on them.

A Phoronix reader pointed out the aarch64-laptops on GitHub effort that is spinning Ubuntu Linux images that work on some of the more prominent Windows ARM laptops. Prebuilt images are currently available for the ASUS NovaGo TP370QL, HP Envy x2, and Lenovo Mixx 630.

The images can be downloaded to a SD card and then flashed onto the devices. The current state of these AArch64 Linux images can be found here. In the case of the ASUS laptop, the touchpad isn't working and WiFi isn't working on the devices either under Linux. The accelerated graphics also have yet to be tackled; the graphics ultimately should be supported great thanks to the Freedreno driver stack. So it's not in a good spot yet for end-users, but progress is certainly being made.

The ASUS TP370QL is a ~$650 USD laptop with Snapdragon 835, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a reported 22 hour battery life at least under Windows 10 for ARM.

The HP Envy x2 is a 12-inch detachable laptop for around $830 USD with a Snapdragon 835, 4GB of RAM, 128GB flash storage, and up to a 19 hour battery life.

The Lenovo Mixx 630 goes for about $650 and is also on the Snapdragon 835 and has 4GB RAM, 128GB flash storage, 12.3-inch screen, and 20 hour battery life.

Hopefully within a few months all of these AArch64 laptops will be playing nicely with the various ARMv8 Linux distributions.