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• HP_Spectre_x360_14-ea0023dx

HP Spectre x360 14-ea0023dx

I've run FreeBSD on TigerLake on multiple occasions, first the 13" Spectre x360 and now the 14" version. To my surprise, the 14" had a better OOB experience.

Some of it was that it was later on = more support, but also HP didn't choose some vague audio chip for the 14". While a lot of people love ThinkPads (including my brother), I don't want one: I get two from work and yet prefer my HP Spectre even if I can't suspend-and-resume my Spectre.

Like many TigerLake laptops, this Spectre has the Intel "Evo" branding.

• Year introduced: 2020

1. Hardware

• CPU: Intel TigerLake Core i7-1165G7

• Ethernet: None

• Graphics: Intel Iris Xe (supported in drm-kmod)

• Memory: 16GB DDR4 (Soldiered)
• Screen: 13.5" 3000x2000 IPS Touchscreen
• Storage: Intel 1TB Optane NVMe (forgot which model)

• Wireless: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (supported in iwlwifi)

2. Support overview

• Graphics are supported in drm-kmod, however these four lines in the xorg.conf "Device" section gives a balance of GPU performance and usability:

        Option "AccelMethod"  "sna"
        Option "TearFree" "true"
        Option "TripleBuffer" "true"
        Option "DRI" "3"

UPDATE: No longer needed on drm-kmod 5.7.19.

• This isn't a "gaming laptop", but despite that, games are slow versus Windows and Linux even with the tweaks above. I guess I'll wait for drm-kmod 5.8 UPDATE: Games (namely Toontown Rewritten via the Ubuntu userland) works great on 5.7.19. It's just 5.7.0 which had issues.

• Unlike the 13" Spectre, the 14" has working audio on both headphones and speakers. In fact, mainstream Linux distros and Windows 11 (Enterprise, not Home) had more issues with audio.
• If you want a USB Wi-Fi dongle, get a Ralink one. Realtek dongles are flakey.
• No suspend-and-resume (I believe), but I usually hard shutdown laptops. Old habits die hard, from when I had a crappy laptop with ~2 hours battery, and when I got to FreeBSD on my laptop, it came in handy.

• For sound, you need this in /boot/device.hints:

hint.hdac.0.cad0.nid33.config="as=1 seq=15 device=Headphones"
hint.hdac.0.cad0.nid25.config="as=2 seq=0"

• If you want a TigerLake HP Spectre, GET THE 14". Avoid the 13" Spectre for FreeBSD. If you want a 13" TigerLake laptop, you are better off going with either a non-HP, or an HP Envy or EliteBook model. The 15"/16" model may work, but I haven't tested those as I prefer portability.

• I have a blog post on how to optimize this laptop (and newer Intel PCHs) for power consumption: https://www.neelc.org/posts/optimize-freebsd-for-intel-tigerlake/

3. Files

None!

CategoryLaptop CategoryHP