System 76 Serval Review and truth about System 76 laptops

I review the System 76 Serval WS laptop after 1 year of ownership and do a deep dive into System 76’s open firmware. I discuss some of the downsides of System 76’s firmware and look at its performance.
Join me as you get a real review from a real user with 1 years worth of experience with the laptop.

[@Soundlesskitty]

2.5 hrs on the battery power profile / hybrid graphics with a dim screen? That's rough.. I'm seeing similar life on my Thinkpad X1 Carbon Extreme Gen 4 with ~83% battery health (i9-11950H, RTX 3080, also on Pop!_OS 22.04 - `upower` reports 74.97 Wh available out of 90.09 on the battery) and the same power profile / hybrid mode with ~30% brightness. Was hoping to see that the models from System76 might be a bit better power-calibrated or something.
Love the OS, but man I want a machine that can deliver great performance (both CPU and GPU) with good efficiency and without getting extremely hot / requiring loud fans with significant ventilation. Seems like Macbook Pros are the only real option these days if you want that stuff. But I'm with you on MacOS lol

[@ultraboykj]

I am looking at getting the 2048 version of this laptop. Appreciate the review. Thank you.