System76 hasn't made itself a household name outside the Linux community, but it has a reputation for solid hardware, an excellent operating system, and reliable support. The company's latest effort is an update to the Pangolin laptop, now called the Pangolin Pro. The new model is a 16-inch powerhouse with all the ports you need and surprisingly good battery life.
I've been using the Pangolin Pro for most of the summer, and while it's overkill for most people's needs, it's great value with plenty of power if you're in the market for a portable, large-screen Linux computer, making it a standout choice in the increasingly crowded Linux laptop market.
The current hardware market offers an embarrassment of riches for Linux users compared to 2007, when I switched from (then) OS X to Linux. Not only are there dedicated Linux hardware makers like System76, Kubuntu Focus, and Tuxedo, but Lenovo, Dell, and Framework all certify at least some laptops for Linux (Linux often works great even on laptops that aren't certified).
This is great for Linux users, but it also raises the bar for dedicated Linux manufacturers. It's fair to say that, in 2026, no one should have to hunt down drivers or spend hours reading Reddit to get Linux working on their laptop. First-class Linux support is out there if you want it, and System76's new Pangolin Pro definitely delivers it.
In over two months of testing, I never encountered a single hardware, firmware, or software issue. I even got it to print on all four printers that I happen to be testing. Once upon a time, print drivers were the bane of every Linux user's life, but in a curious (possibly delicious) twist of fate, the only machine that's given me printing problems so far is my wife's MacBook Air.
Like all System76 laptops, the Pangolin Pro is built from a white-label chassis, with components selected by System76, then topped off with its own custom firmware (System76 manufactures its own desktop machines).
The Pangolin Pro is big without being huge. At 14 inches by just under 10 inches, and weighing 3.6 pounds, it's considerably larger than the Framework 13 I spend most of my time on, but not so large that it feels cumbersome to lug around. The 16-inch display is a new 2K matte LTPS panel, with 2560 × 1600 pixels and a 165-Hz refresh rate. That's a considerable improvement over the last model, which had only a 1080p screen and, frankly, didn't look very good. This new panel is quite nice, and the resolution is good enough that you won't notice any pixels.
The body of the Pangolin Pro won't win any design awards, but it's a highly functional slab of metal. The body is rigid enough, though given the width there is some flex in the middle of the keyboard if you press down hard enough, but in everyday use this wasn't something that bothered me. The bottom of the chassis is well vented, which is good because under load, the Pangolin Pro will spin up the fans.
There are a plethora of ports to help you leave the dongles behind, including two USB-C (one 4.0, one 3.2 Gen 2), three USB-A, a microSD card reader, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and an OCuLink port for docking or external graphics should you have an eGPU lying about. I love the idea of not carrying any adapters, save perhaps for an SD card reader, but I do wish the two USB-C ports were on opposite sides. And would I swap a USB-A for an extra USB-C? Absolutely, but those are minor gripes.
Under that metal exterior lies an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU, with graphics powered by an AMD Radeon 860M (or, should you connect it to the eGPU of your dreams). Memory starts at 16 GB of DDR5 RAM and can be configured up to 96 GB. The unit I tested had 32 GB. There are two SSD card slots; by default, only the boot card slot is filled. My review unit had a 1-TB drive. You can go up to 8 TB in the boot drive and 8 TB in the M.2 NVMe Storage slot for a total of 16 TB of storage. Given the insane price of memory these days, going all-in here will bring the total cost to an eye-watering $6,103.
Linux performance is always a bit difficult to compare to Windows because not all benchmark tests run on both systems, but based on the benchmarks I ran in Sysbench, the Pangolin Pro is a very capable machine. As you would expect, benchmarks on graphics-intensive tasks (like the Phoronix Darktable test) weren't as impressive, but the Ryzen AI 7's overall performance is quite good.
One place I can unequivocally say the Pangolin Pro is a step up from its predecessor is battery life. Despite being slightly lighter, this year's update packs an 80-watt battery (up from 65 watts in the older Pangolin). I had no trouble getting a full day's work done, though, of course, battery life is highly dependent on what you're doing with your laptop.
The keyboard is large and includes a number pad. The keys are flat, chiclet-style, with little travel. They feel slightly more responsive than a 2025 MacBook Air, but with less travel than a Framework 13. I found it pleasant enough to type on, though in the end I do prefer the somewhat softer keys of the Framework.
I have similar feelings about the very large glass trackpad. For things like photo editing, the trackpad's size is great, but I found my palms occasionally clicked the buttons at the bottom of the trackpad when I took a break from typing. It didn't happen often, but I learned to be careful about where I put my palms.
The 2-MP 1080p webcam is fine for casual use, chatting with family and friends, but if you do a lot of Zoom meetings in a professional context, you may want an external webcam. Also, open-source purists should note that Coreboot still does not support AMD Ryzen chips (or AMD does not support Coreboot, depending on how you want to look at it), so the Pangolin Pro does not use open firmware.
Finally, the Pangolin Pro is easy to open up to replace or repair components. There are nine screws on the bottom of the chassis, and none of them are hidden under the rubber feet or other shenanigans. Unscrew them all, and the bottom lifts off, giving you access to the SSD slots, RAM, WiFi card, and the rest of the internals. You'll have no trouble upgrading components down the road if you decide to, say, upgrade your memory when RAM prices come back down. (Is that actually going to happen? Who knows.)
System76's Pop!_OS Linux has long provided what I consider one of the best Linux experiences out there. The Cosmic Desktop and the custom apps System76 ships with it provide that "just works" stability you need to use Linux daily without even noticing you're using Linux.
As a long-time Linux user, I'm probably biased, but I find Linux to offer a better user experience than MacOS or Windows. I never feel like I'm fighting the operating system to get things the way I want them. I mainly run a terminal for writing, email, reading RSS feeds, etc, and a web browser. When I need to edit photos, I open Darktable; videos in DaVinci Resolve. None of that should require much from an operating system, but for some reason it's all easier for me in Linux.
Pop!_OS is particularly good in this regard, as it manages to feel familiar enough for Linux newcomers to find their way around, while still offering a good amount of power-user features. For instance, if you don't know what tiling windows are, you never need to be bothered about them, but if you want them, you can enable them with a toggle switch in the settings app. There are loads of (customizable) keyboard shortcuts for developers who eschew the mouse, and there are plenty of trackpad gestures to control workspaces, window focus, and more.
At the beginning, I said the Pangolin Pro is overkill for most peoples needs, which is true. Although the Pangolin is actually cheaper than the smaller System76 Lemur Pro (review coming soon), the more portable Lemur Pro might be a better fit for many. However, if you're doing highly intensive things with your laptop, building local AI models or training custom agents, compiling software, or just want a powerful, future-proof machine, Pangolin is one of the best Linux laptops I've tested.
If you're a Linux user looking for a 16-inch laptop with all the bells and whistles, and one that isn't crazy expensive or crazy heavy, this is the machine I would get.
Source: Wired
