My wife is looking for a portable device primarily for modeling in Blender and optionally for drawing in Krita. So we looking for something with a GNU/Linux support from manufacturer.
We considered https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-InfinityFlex-14-Gen1, it looks nice, but maybe you have other suggestions? Do you have experience with convertibles, how convenient is to draw on them?
We also considered https://earth.starlabs.systems/pages/starlite for drawing and a separate device for Blender, but having two devices might not be convenient…
Does linux support from manufacturer really matter?
The tuxe laptop convertible may seem nice and if she wants to draw on the screen then you are going to be limited on other options. But I would be worried about that intel gpu.
If you want to do 3d modeling you will need something that is gaming grade. I would rather game on a crappy card than model using one. But i also confess i am not up to date with the last few years of developments in that space.
In my very humble experience with digital art a proper dedicated drawing tablet beats any kind of touchscreen drawing.
So if you comfortable installing a chosen linux distro from a usb. (It really is not difficult, ai and YouTube can guide you trough it) and she is not already adept at touchscreen drawing i would suggest:
Lenovo Legion Both my partner and their mom have one with a different graphics card. Most of this line have nvidia rtx cards and all of those will do the job. Naturally more expensive models will have newer/faster cards.
Wacom intuos i am biased to call wacom tablets great because i have never used any others. I can say the intuos line is much nicer then the older bamboo pen and touch/fun line. Models come in different sizes
Only they can truly answer for themselves, but from a business standpoint, yes. It might. Being able to get support direct from the people who made/sold the laptop, whether it be in the form of a warranty or tech support, could save you from having down time when you need to be working.
Not really, but from my experience Linux on laptops sometimes have issues with things like battery life.
I have a SteamDeck to compare and it works just perfect, this is why I were looking at manufacturer support.