krita, acer, samsung

[Joseph Sinclair]

Some things to note:
The NVMe drive in the Acer will significantly improve startup and disk access, it's about 4-5 times faster than an SSD.
The extra RAM in the Samsung, as well as the more capable i7 CPU, will make the general "feel" of the machine smoother and faster while in use.  The Samsung with the 8th gen i7 is not a good choice.

Ideally one would add an NVMe to the Samsung 12G ($120 gets you a Samsung 1TB NVMe in an 80mm M.2 form factor), but lacking that (I do not think the Samsung Ion, guessing that's the machine, has NVMe M.2 available)

All else being equal, I'd probably opt for the Samsung 12G, or the Acer if startup time is more important than working with larger art images.  Note that 8G RAM (including O/S) limits drawings to about 8K resolution, max, at high color depth, and while that's good for screen, it might not do for anything intended to be seen on paper or canvas.

One other thing, It might be worth taking a look at the Wacom Cintiq panels if your wife is interested in high quality digital art.  It's a very good drawing tablet under a high quality (USB connected) screen that can attach to just about any laptop or desktop.
A bit pricey (16" is ~550; Wacom One 13" is ~400), but hard to beat for someone with significant skill or talent who is transitioning from Analog to the digital world.

On 2021-10-11 10:06 PM, der.hans via PLUG-discuss wrote:
> moin moin,
> 
> I picked up an Acer 2 in 1 with touchpad for kid. We really needed to
> finally replace the laptop that had been gravity tested a few times at the
> beginning of the pandemic.
> 
> First thing kidling wanted was to install Krita ( much disappointment that
> it wasn't on there by default ). Many hours have now been spent
> discovering how to use a stylus.
> 
> My wife is an analog artist, but likes what she's been seeing, so now I
> need two devices that can use stylii.
> 
> I had picked up the Acer from Woot and they immediately ran some Samsungs
> for less money. The Acer requires a little bit of a bios dance to get
> running with debian ( and a non-free ethernet driver ), but has otherwise
> been great and much better than the dell we're replacing.
> 
> A similarly priced Samsung is similar for features, but I don't really
> compare hardware specs anymore since I don't often buy hardware.
> 
> Acer:
> * 10th Gen Intel Core i5-1035G4
> * 8GB LPDDR4
> * 256GB NVMe
> 
> Samsung:
> * 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8565U
> * 16GB
> * 512GB SSD
> 
> There's also a Samsung for $200 less
> 
> 10th Generation Quad-Core i7-10510U 12GB DDR4 SDRAM
> 512GB SSD
> no USB C :(
> 
> I like the idea of more RAM, but the family doesn't really need that. They
> don't run containers and databases and test deployments on laptops. Seems
> a waste to me :).
> 
> They need pretty decent hardware ( we should have far less drop-testing as
> that lesson has been learned ), with a decent touchscreen that will work
> for a while. They do need computers they draw on rather than tablets they
> compute on. They will be running debian ( or derivative if we must ).
> 
> Links:
> 
> https://computers.woot.com/offers/acer-spin-5-convertible-laptop-3?ref=w_cnt_wp_3_6
> 
> https://computers.woot.com/offers/samsung-notebook-9-pro13-3-i7-2-in-1z?ref=w_cnt_wp_5_8
> 
> https://computers.woot.com/offers/samsung-galaxy-book-flip-fold-laptop?ref=w_cnt_wp_5_3
> 
> Also, an opportunity to podcast as root:
> 
> https://computers.woot.com/offers/sudotack-usb-streaming-podcast-pc-microphone-1?ref=w_cnt_wp_3_1
> 
> ciao,
> 
> der.hans

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