Not OP but if I were to buy a laptop right now, it'd be the Inspiron 16 plus.
Last gen i7, 3050/3060, up to 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, 3k 16:10 screen, good battery. And i think they sell it without dedicated graphics card too.
Now I have an Inspiron 7677 which works great on linux except for the fingerprint and the webcam.
Oh, I forgot.
The Tuxedo Pulse 15 gen2 is also a great laptop I think. It's not a gaming laptop, it's more like a Macbook. Ryzen 7 5700U, up to 64GB of RAM, 2k screen, huuuuuuge battery, good connectivity, etc. And you can put your own logo on the lid.
Not OP, but I've heard great things about the Asus ROG Zephyrus line, and that's what I'll probably get when i refresh my current Asus laptop which id approaching 8 years.
The problem I ran into with a Zephyrus G15 that I owned for a short bit is that it was inanely fussy about GPU drivers. I had the 5900HS/3080 version, and under Windows if I we’re running anything other than the OEM Nvidia drivers, I’d lose 20% GPU performance without a corresponding reduction in heat. Didn’t matter if the drivers came from Nvidia or Windows Update, same problem.
What made it worse is that locking the Nvidia drivers to a specific version is not straightforward — if you only lock the main driver with Windows policy manager, Windows Update will update other parts of the Nvidia driver and leave you with drivers that are partially broken.
I didn’t try Linux since this machine was intended mostly for gaming.
I ended up returning it at the end of its return window, because I don’t have time for a machine that won’t run properly without absurdly specific drivers. Built a gaming tower with the money instead, which has not only been better behaved but doesn’t sound like I’m cooking it alive when I’m running games on it like the G15 did.
I love my older ROG Zephyrus G14. Use it everyday for heavy Ruby on Rails + Java, with some gaming on the side (Control, Warframe)
It doesn't necessarily look great, but it's not offensively gamerish. There's a nice utility that lets you turn the fans off/on and GPU on/off, so it gets good battery life with GPU off. USB-C charging supported, nice matte screen, 120hz+ refresh rate. I have mine setup with 40gb of RAM (one 8GB dim is baked on, one is upgradable) and with a replacement Intel wifi chip.
When I need a replacement, I'll probably get the newer 2022-ish G14. They upgraded the USB-C ports (both now support display out), they put better WiFi in by default, and they went all-AMD for CPU+GPU, all of which seem like great ideas to me.
I had a Zephyrus G15 (2021) which ran great, but the screen brightness wasn't great. When I heard this year's G14 had a brighter display and an AMD CPU and GPU, I dove in and installed Fedora. Other than standby, everything just worked.
The thing I will ding Asus about is serviceability. It's easy enough to remove the screws to take the bottom panel off, but there was always one screw for NVME/Wifi that had so much loctite that I ended up needing a special pair of plyers to remove.
I have a 2020 ROG zephyrus g15 and it’s great other than the noise/heat which is annoying but not a deal breaker. and prior to 2022 there was a lack of camera. It doesn’t compare to the new M1/M2 laptops (I bought one for my parents and it’s incredible) but I’m satisfied for my needs, which needed to be Linux/Windows with a DisplayPort for VR.
I have a ROG Strix (12th gen intel) and no whine. Been using WSL so far but need to try again to see how well Linux runs on it.
Overall, its been a solid machine so far and had sufficient battery life for me to program on flights half-way across the US without concern. My only regrets are I wish the thunderbolt port used the integrated gpu (never need discrete and sometimes windows gets stuck switching) and no webcam.
Which model do plan buying? I'm trying to get my hands on G15 2022, doesn't have the "gamey" look, has a good battery life (9 hours or so) and just powerful enough with a 3060
Some of the lenovo legion laptops don't look very "gamey". You still get the excellent cooling and performance. Only complaint is the battery life but I use it mostly on my desks so its not really an issue.
Legion 7i Slim looks pretty slick, but unfortunately it doesn't have Ethernet port, and I haven't heard good things about the wireless card in terms of performance, but it also depends on your router (if it supports WF 6)
Not GP but I'm very happy with mine. Can't speak for every model but I've got an old 15Z970 with 24 GB of RAM (from 2017 I think).
LG Grams aren't cheap laptops. They don't have the retina display. But they're nice, lightweight (lighter than Mac laptops) and overall feel good.
I'd say it doesn't feel as polished as the latest Mac laptops but it feels way sturdier. My M1 Macbook Air always felt like it's screen was brittle: some porcelaine to be manipulated with the greatest care or it'd break. And break it did, after 10 months, seemingly for no reason.
While my 5 years old LG Gram is still going perfectly fine.
I have one too (17Z90N), and it's pretty nice, as laptops go.
~10h battery life on Linux with minimal tweaking, decent keyboard and touchpad, huge screen (I've tried to use the tiny laptops that are popular these days, and they just do not work for me).
Things I don't care much about and so explicitly won't review: camera, internal audio (I only ever use headphones), battery life when closed (I just go put it on my desk and plug it in when I'm not using it)
My one major complaint is that the edges are unreasonably sharp. Seriously, I don't know who designed this thing, but they apparently use laptop keyboards very differently than I do. I have been considering filing them down.
I also got it on ebay for what I now realize is significantly below the price it would've been new. I don't think it's worth $1800, but I don't think any (personal) computer is worth $1800, so adjust your weighting of this opinion as desired.
I researched this option before opting for an LG gram. I might research it again soon.
Would you care to share exactly what gaming laptop you picked?