Slimbook Excalibur - a few thoughts

I’ve been using the Slimbook Excalibur for six months now, and overall, it has proven to be a solid choice for the price. At €980 + VAT, getting a notebook with 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB drive is excellent value, especially compared to alternatives like Lenovo with soldered RAM or Dell laptops with Intel CPUs.

Pros:

• The aluminium case feels sturdy and premium, giving the laptop a robust build.
• Its slim and lightweight design is impressive for a 15.6-inch notebook
• It runs cool even during extended use, though I haven’t tested it under heavy loads. It's quite enough while not on load. Could be a bit better while on load, but is not terribly bad (I am demanding in this area).
• The screen quality is very good, which suffices for casual use. I mostly use a 4K monitor, so I’m not overly demanding in this area.
• Practical features like enough ports and USB-C charging are welcome, though I’d have preferred more USB-C ports and fewer USB-A ones.

Cons:

• The webcam is a major letdown. At 720p, it looks terrible, especially on a 4K monitor. A 1080p option, even at a premium, would have been far better. This should be a standard these days.
• Networking issues are a recurring problem. After waking the laptop from sleep, I frequently experience network interruptions that require restarting the network manager. It seems related to the Realtek network card driver, which isn’t well-supported on Linux.
• The LED power button is distractingly bright in dark environments, which can be annoying.
• The keyboard is not worst, but is far from ThinkPad keyboards experience.
• The webcam disable button is tiny and feels unreliable. I’m hesitant to use it for fear of not being able to re-enable the camera.
• I'd appreciate coreboot, but little notebooks support this one and usually they are ridiculously expensive)

Conclusion:
The Slimbook Excalibur is a solid laptop with a competitive price and excellent specs for its class. However, its poor webcam quality detract from the experience. I've got some worries about network card, but I am not sure how it works on native Slimbook IS. I'd prefer having quiet notebook on load. If those aren’t dealbreakers for you, it’s a strong contender for a mid-range Linux-friendly laptop. Personally, if I were to make this choice again I'd reconsider this with Framework notebook and choose which works better for me.