So interestingly enough, the Pangolin is the first laptop model I am aware of from System76 that isn't an outright Clevo chassis (via Sager). I don't know all the facts but I did find this interesting reddit comment:
Which suggests there are pretty major changes to how they have previously done laptops:
1) The manufacturer is Emdoor(?) instead of Clevo. (I have never personally heard of Emdoor)
2) Final assembly is done in-house @ System76 instead of via Sager. That is assembly for Pangolin is done in Denver at the same place the Theelios desktops and Launch keyboards are made.
While not necessarily all in-house yet, both of these changes are a pretty massive difference so as a former owner of several System76 laptops, I am curious how much better the Pangolin is.
Edit: So after doing some googling, it seems like Emdoor is a Chinese manufacturer out of Shenzen (https://www.emdoordigi.com/about.html?category_id=0). Personally, not sure moving from a Taiwanese manufacturer to a Chinese one is actually a good thing...but still curious none-the-less.
> Personally, not sure moving from a Taiwanese manufacturer to a Chinese one is actually a good thing...but still curious none-the-less.
As somebody working in a related space, _any_ diversification is a good thing simply because it forces System76 to redesign its processes to become less Clevo-specific.
Once you start, you're going to have a hard time to find an ODM that's willing to teach you the ropes _and_ accept that you're not a single-ODM shop _and_ deal with whatever fancies S76 brings up, so that limits options. (Any of these mean that S76 will be a high-maintenance customer for Emdoor, and these three more than compound in that way)
For what it's worth I used a Clevo (branded as Medion) laptop as my daily driver for about 6 years, while backpacking around the world. The thing was a tank and still works as my backup at about 9 years old now. It's been through rainforests and deserts and up mountains and definitely got damp in a few rainstorms. Some keys on the keyboard no longer work and the bearings on the fan are very worn out. But that thing is a tank.
https://www.reddit.com/r/System76/comments/10a3lqj/comment/j...
Which suggests there are pretty major changes to how they have previously done laptops:
1) The manufacturer is Emdoor(?) instead of Clevo. (I have never personally heard of Emdoor)
2) Final assembly is done in-house @ System76 instead of via Sager. That is assembly for Pangolin is done in Denver at the same place the Theelios desktops and Launch keyboards are made.
While not necessarily all in-house yet, both of these changes are a pretty massive difference so as a former owner of several System76 laptops, I am curious how much better the Pangolin is.
Edit: So after doing some googling, it seems like Emdoor is a Chinese manufacturer out of Shenzen (https://www.emdoordigi.com/about.html?category_id=0). Personally, not sure moving from a Taiwanese manufacturer to a Chinese one is actually a good thing...but still curious none-the-less.