Back when this machine was just a crowdfunding project, we got a few submissions about it. Since we generally do not link to crowdfunding projects before they’re, you know, actually available products (for obvious reasons), I never did anything with them. Now, though, the GPD Pocket is out and about, and it seems to be a pretty amazing tiny laptop we really have to talk about, because it’s adorable and remarkably capable.
It’s an all-aluminium Windows 10/Linux laptop with a 7″ 1920×1200 IPS display with 323 ppi, the top-of-the-line Intel Atom x7-Z8750 1.6Ghz quad-core processor, 8GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 405, and a 128GB SSD. It has a chicklet-style keyboard, a little nub mouse pointer, and can be ordered with either Linux or Windows. It has decent battery life too – they claim 12 hours. According to reviews, it seems to be ticking all the right boxes, making it an actually decent product to buy. IT’s $469 on IndieGoGo right now, and the retail price will be $599.
I’ve always wanted such a tiny laptop, but most of the time they were ugly plastic pieces of garbage that barely got by. This seems to be the first one that isn’t actually a bad product (save for the terrible product descriptions on their website), and I’m definitely intrigued. Is there a market for machines like this?
There weren’t any normal, written reviews, really?
1. No.
2. Get used to YouTube reviews. Sign of the times. Whether we like it or not.
> Get used to YouTube reviews. Sign of the times. Whether we like it or not.
ADHD doesn’t affect all of us.
What does this have to do with anything?
ADHD -> short attention span. <- I guess what he was implying?
Which is funny, because a review takes far less time to read than it takes to watch a 10 minute video.
At least, it does for me.
Edited 2017-05-09 09:56 UTC
I have ADHD and this is an offensive statement (also wildly inaccurate about what ADHD is and how it affects people.). Youtube reviews are terrible. If I wanted a quick rating of a device a video scroll through is silly. A web page with a 1-5 star rating is much more efficient and performance graphs are far better than some random’s opinion buried in a 10 minute video. Youtube is narcissistic as hell. Before you put up a Youtube video, take a deep breath and think, is this something people really need, or even want? Or am I doing this to promote myself and maybe make a few bucks. Most of the content on Youtube is self aggrandising garbage.
Edited 2017-05-11 01:00 UTC
Sorry, life’s too short to watch a talking head when i could be reading the same amount of info in 1/10 the time…
That was Thom’s point. He also prefers written reviews.
If you want a decent tiny laptop Thom and don’t want to spend half a grand on this thing? Just pop on eBay and grab you either an Asus EEE or Aspire One with the AMD Brazos APU.
Both hold 8Gb of RAM, can easily do 1080P over HDMI so you can use it as an HTPC when not being used as a netbook, and even after 6 years my Asus 1215B still get 4 and a half hours on the original battery. Oh did I mention that as a parting gift when they retired support for the legacy APU chips they released a beta Crimson driver that allows them to run any Windows from 7-10? I run 8.1 on mine and its quite snappy, all I need to do now is replace the HDD for either an SSD or a hybrid to max out the system but even with the HDD its still quite responsive.
So not all netbooks sucked, just the ones with the craptastic Intel Atom…what is this thing running?…..oh, no thanks.
Intel Atom is a trademark. The processor in this thing runs rings around even the fastest AMD Brazos while sipping much less power.
AMD Brazos, jan. 2011 (40nm, 9W Ontario, 18W Zacate) vs. Atom x7-Z8750, mar. 2015 (14nm, 2W Cherry Trail)
That might explain some differences between the two.
C-50 two cores, 1000Hz, Last Order Year 2011. Boots Great on Solid State Disk. But Again EDGE crawls. Should Have Austere “Driving Mode”.
The original Atom that came out in 2008 in the early netbooks was indeed a slugfest; it was a stripped down version of a PIII that my Dell CPx from 2001 can keep up with. About the only thing the Atom had going for it was Windows 7 support and decent battery life.
However, the Atom chip in this device is based on the Broadwell platform, and provides excellent performance/price and performance/watt values. I’ve had a couple of tablets based on this and the previous generation chip, and they don’t lack for speed at all. In fact, I’d say the only limiting factor is less than perfect Linux support, but that’s more the platform as a whole and less the CPU itself. Either way, kernel 4.4 and up will likely support all the features of any device this chip is installed in, and most distros except Debian stable have reached that milestone.
Fully agree with you, my 1215B is still running strong.
When I bought it, Amazon was even selling them with Linux pre-installed.
Last year I got surprised that the same price category got replaced by hybrid tablets with just 2GB RAM and some for of eMMC for the harddisks.
Will keep around as long as I can.
On my phone I have no way of knowing you linked to a YouTube video until I tap it, then next minute I’m wasting my data.
On my phones that is easily done via press-and-hold.
The dialog that pops up with link related actions also shows the URL.
If only they could speak like normal people instead of so exuberantly. I had to close both those videos 2 words in “Hey guys!!!!” and “Way back!!!””
Frankly looks great, but that keyboard is a mess. If they could fix that before going to press, it’ll be a killer machine for my kind of use case. I need reasonable power and portability. Size I can always forgive (I used a 9″ eee-pc for a few years)
There’s a Psion-inspired Android device by http://www.planetcom.co.uk/ — the GPD needs to steal this keyboard. These kinds of keyboards desperately need to return.
I was thinking of the Psion as well.
The detail is that this laptop is, well, a laptop, and trying to cover the gamut of what a PC keyboard needs, notably function keys, and the mouse.
The Psion and this other thing are touch devices.
Both devices look pretty cool to me right now, though.
Someone Should Code a “Shake it out” i/o
As you can see from the “typing” in Word in the video ( https://youtu.be/49o4yco9cyY?t=261) you can hardly put a whole sentence on the screen at once.
Whenever you touch the screen you are completely blocking the view.
If you need a full Windows PC with such portability, just buy a pc-stick and plug it in somewhere.
If you don’t need a full Windows PC, use your phone for similar functionality.
Also, clickbaity title much? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_Libretto
Or, before then, HP 95/100/200 LX ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_200LX ), Atari Portfolio
The Portfolio was rather decent as a DOS machine, but the onboard memory was limited (128KB) and needed several proprietary extensions (bee cards) to become useful. Not speaking about the tiny screen. And the config.sys + autoexec.bat had its quirks too.
What if I want a new “Nokia N900” type of device?
It’s a full Linux distribution with a physical keyboard that can fit in a pocket. If it is what it says it is and is currently selling for the price listed, then it’s the only device of its type on the market. Even the Dragonbox Pyra is still only taking preorders…
Edited 2017-05-08 15:42 UTC
True, but my experience with the Pandora, the associated community, and the quality and transparency of the Pyra development updates means that my advice for anyone looking to buy just one N900-like device would be “Wait and compare this to the Pyra or you’ll probably wind up with buyer’s remorse.”
(The keyboard alone is cause enough to wait and compare. The amount of refining and tweaking that’s gone into the Pyra’s layout and keymat are inspiring and I love how, thanks to one of the community members doing a proof-of-concept Pandora mod, the Pyra’s going to have enough shoulder buttons for Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and Fn. Maximally comfortable thumb-typing for traditional desktop application hotkeys, here we come!)
Edited 2017-05-08 16:12 UTC
Looks like the Pyra will start shipping to backers very soon, issue with case producers dog eating his homework or some equally unbelievable excuse…
The guy leading this project basically single handedly saved the pandora, and has been excessively open and transparent.
There is a very strong community behind this product and I’d say you’d be well worth waiting the short time before making any decision
He surely increased the font size, but that is what any user would have to do to use this device, or hold it a few centimeters away from your face. All of the demo’s everyone is doing is either webbrowsing (just use your phone/tablet), video watching (phone/tablet) or…..well, nothing actually because a 7″ screen with regular Windows on it is just much too small. Using Store/UWP apps on it would have been much better because they scale much better but nobody demonstrated that and there are much cheaper devices for that. 7″ is just too small to be useful
If you want a Nokia N900 type of device, this is not it. This device is about twice as wide and deep, you cannot thumb-type on it, you cannot make calls/pictures, you cannot use it while in your hands (too wobbly) and you cannot use it while on a table (too small screen/keyboard). Both videos also show that you can fit it in your pockets, but you couldn’t actually walk like that (my 1520 is 6″ and much thinner and is already uncomfortable)
It is “the only device of its type” on the market because there is no demand for a machine with such specs and full Windows, but such a small screen and keyboard.
Technically it all seems pretty awesome, but when you think about actually using it the idea entirely collapses and has been surpassed by phones/tablets and pc-sticks
Could Be Helpful. Edge Is TOO MUCH for that HW spec.
“Is there a market for machines like this?”
We Old Tribe used paper agenda. This Format is the modern equivalent. Substantively more useful.
Don’t Know about New Generations.
Edited 2017-05-08 19:19 UTC
And the new one, the Pyra, is also smaller than this one.
Agree, also Sharp Zaurus.
However it could be argued that the GPD Win is closer to a traditional laptop form factor.
It’s a lot thicker actually…
The keyboard looks OK as long as you can make do with a US keyboard. Maybe they will sell a tack-on bluetooth extension with the extra keys for typing in anything but English.
Also, such insistence in optimization for “women’s slender fingers” does not promise much comfort for men, or women with fingers that are not that slender.
too bad they didn’t hang on there, the 02 was a fantastic prodcut.
Interesting line-up of 4 other machines and the one of this article. None of them float my boat personally, but maybe Thom could do an interview with the NL based Ockel?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwj4Jb5h6fs
I had more expectations from KS-PRO, but it is flopped on indigogo.
To be fair it was pretty hard to find on google if you don’t know what exactly you’re searching.
Edited 2017-05-10 20:40 UTC