On the few occasions I have had to actually write and edit on a phone, it was horrible, so I avoid it at all costs. But what do I do when I’m on the go and I don’t have room in my bag for a full-sized laptop?
I go mini. Or, shall I say, tiny.
This eight-inch laptop isn’t a toy, however. Upon picking it up, you can feel the metal chassis has a surprising amount of weight to it. When I turned the N150 on, I was greeted by Windows 11. It should come as no surprise that I dislike Windows. So what did I do? Obviously, I installed Linux.
To be more specific, I installed KDE Neon. I knew I’d prefer the KDE Plasma UI because I felt it would be the easiest to use on the small touch screen. The installation was as easy as installing any Linux distribution (which is to say… very) and there was only one issue with the audio.
Also: Your old laptop can ‘shine on’ after Windows 10’s sunset with this Linux distro
During my testing, I installed the Ollama/Msty combo to see how the N150 would handle local AI and I was surprised it performed pretty well. It wasn’t nearly as fast as my System76 Thelio, but that’s comparing apples to oranges. Even so, queries were answered quickly and I only heard the fan kick on briefly.
I didn’t benchmark this tiny laptop but that’s not really of concern for such a small device. You don’t buy a laptop of this size for its performance, you buy it for its portability and convenience. That the N150 was able to run Linux to perfection was a major bonus for me.