System76 has broadened its workstation-class laptop lineup with a fresh revision of the Serval WS, a 16-inch portable designed to satisfy engineers, developers, and gamers alike.
The headline change, a 2K (2560 × 1600) panel running at 240 Hz, finally brings the Serval into the 16:10 era, giving users markedly more vertical space for code, CAD models, or spreadsheets while keeping motion buttery-smooth during high-frame-rate gameplay.
Under the aluminum skin, the Serval WS now pairs Intel’s Core Ultra 9 275HX—a 24-core “Meteor Lake” part— with NVIDIA’s freshly minted GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.
The CPU’s hybrid architecture is tuned for heavy parallel workloads; consequently, kernel builds and multi-threaded simulations should complete noticeably faster than on the outgoing 14th-gen silicon.
Meanwhile, the Ada-Next-based 5070 Ti pushes more shader throughput and adds an updated tensor core block, making it a well-timed choice for on-device AI inferencing as well as for current AAA titles.
Buyers can populate the Serval WS with up to 96 GB of DDR5-5600—handy when dozens of Docker containers pile up—while the dual M.2 slots accept a combined 12 TB of PCIe 5.0/4.0 NVMe storage. Although PCIe 5 drives are still scarce, the laptop’s forward-compatible bus should reduce buyer’s remorse once next-gen SSDs hit the shelves.
Regarding connectivity, a 2.5 GbE port sidesteps Wi-Fi bottlenecks on production networks, and a generous selection of USB-A, USB-C, HDMI 2.1, and Mini-DisplayPort jacks supports multi-monitor desk setups without dongle roulette.
Thermal engineers will appreciate the reenvisioned cooling assembly, which uses vapor-chamber plates and higher-density fins to keep the 240 W combined CPU-GPU ceiling within spec under sustained load.
On the software side, there’s no suproses. System76’s in-house Pop!_OS distribution remains the default, but the company is gearing up for a public beta of COSMIC, its Rust-based desktop environment.
Early internal builds suggest lower idle power draw and tidier compositor latency—changes that should translate into longer battery life and cooler lap temperatures once COSMIC ships later this year.
The new Serval WS starts at $2,999 and is available for preorder today. System76 expects first units to leave its Denver facility in late May, with configurable lead times shown at checkout.
With a price tag like that I will never own this.