Looks like the culprit is the CPU/SoC: Rockchip RK3399. The specs for it do look decent on paper [1] but I guess it's simply too slow and not suited for laptops due to a small cache. It looks like a mobile phone SoC.
>The screen size and resolution scream for fractional scaling but Manjaro does not seem to provide it. Scale of 1 is a bit too small and 2 is way too big. The screen is matte, which is totally awesome, but unfortunately the colors are a bit muted and for some reason it seems a bit fuzzy. This may be because I have not used a sub-retina level laptop displays in years.
Screen is a deal-breaker for me. I stare at screens for hours on end and if it's not something in the same class as a retina screen on a Macbook or iMac, I just ditch it quickly. As for fuzzy screen and muted colors, well, that's the fault of the matte layer on the LCD panel. It's purpose is to diffuse light and minimize reflections. Personally I don't like to make that trade-off and prefer glass surfaces on my screens. I'll make a shade and make sacrifices as to how I orient myself to enjoy crisp text and proper colors in photos/video.
As for scaling, only Cinnamon DE does it right. I've tried almost all DEs over the past 6 months or so and Cinnamon's new fractional scaling and HiDPI support is the best by far. [2]
>The trackpad's motion detector is rubbish at slow speeds.
None of the non-Macbook trackpads are great. There's a project that's working on a good Linux trackpad driver but it's far in the future. Don't bank on it in the short-term. [3]
[1] http://rockchip.wikidot.com/rk3399
[2] https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/02/cinnamon-desktop-fractio...