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Pinebook – Powerful, Metal and Open Source ARM 64-Bit Laptop
- convivialdingo 7y agoAlso see their prototype video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mj3_jMBlbxA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mj3_jMBlbxA
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dhruvmittal 7y agoIt's a shame they're dropping the 11", though I concede that if they want this to be feasible with the magnesium alloy body they did need to condense the product line.
- gnode 7y agoConceivably, you may be able to build your own. Pine sell the bottom and top halves of the Pinebook 11" as spare parts minus the mainboard in their store. I've no idea how mechanically compatible the Pinebook Pro mainboard is with the Pinebook chassis, though.
- petecox 7y agoThe 11" is being superceded by a touchscreen tablet, with an optional keyboard. (No "pro" bump though - the same original Allwinner internals)
- anotheryou 7y ago> there will be an upgrade path for owners of the 14" regular Pinebook to a 'Pro-like' Pinebook (we're exploring an upgrade path for existing 11.6" users too - stay tuned). https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=7093 https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=7093
- apocalyptic0n3 7y agoLinus Tech Tips put out a video this week on Floatplane about the Pinebook (not the Pro edition) and it was woefully underpowered. CPU was compared to the PS3 and GPU was compared to the original Xbox, for reference. It barely ran with the stock software (they had to install updates/new software to get it running) and was unable to play a 480p YouTube video fullscreen without noticeable frame drops. The hardware in it and their tablet and phone prototype are several generations out of date (easiest example is WiFi only being 802.11n and single band). They were also unable to get Windows running on it when they tried using a Raspberry Pi image, if that is something you care about. Pine64 themselves claim that the machine is not a daily driver. The Pinebook Pro looks more respectable hardware-wise, but I would avoid looking at it as a daily driver until you can find reviews of it saying otherwise. I had been looking at the phone a few days before and was astonished at how outdated the hardware was, even for an open source device that is possibly upgradeable.
- Youden 7y agoI'm not saying the old Pinebook wasn't bad, I've never owned it but some of your points are a bit hollow for me. > CPU was compared to the PS3 and GPU was compared to the original Xbox, for reference. Why is this a problem? This is "desktop" hardware against mobile hardware. > It barely ran with the stock software How so? It didn't perform well? It didn't boot at all? > and was unable to play a 480p YouTube video fullscreen without noticeable frame drops With which software? Did it support the A64's hardware decoder? > They were also unable to get Windows running on it when they tried using a Raspberry Pi image ...Is expected that you're able to boot Raspberry Pi images on completely different devices? > Pine64 themselves claim that the machine is not a daily driver. I think you should have opened with that. > I had been looking at the phone a few days before and was astonished at how outdated the hardware was, even for an open source device that is possibly upgradeable. Open source hardware projects don't have the luxuries that multi-billion dollar behemoths like Samsung do. They don't have access to pre-production SoCs so they're handicapped from the start and they need to handle everything from design to parts sourcing to manufacture to distribution themselves, with a small team. That means you're going to get "outdated" hardware. You don't buy open source for the latest shiny things, you buy it for other reasons.
- pier25 7y agoPrice?
- gruturo 7y agoThe ISO keyboard is unfortunately a true bummer. I hate that layout with a passion and would gladly pay extra to have an ANSI layout keyboard (the one with the flat Enter and the backslash above it) and even install it myself if it's feasible.
- squarefoot 7y agoAnd IMO that on/off button as part of the keyboard is so stupid: I've used a cheap Asus laptop with the same arrangement and it was a painful experience. Just why? To save half a fraction of a buck perhaps? Then bill me the cost for a proper keyboard and I'll be glad to pay more for it. The on/off button belongs to an area where the user cannot hit it by mistake, and the writing surface can't be that place.
- rjsw 7y agoI have never hit the power button by mistake, you have to hold it down for a while anyway.
- HeWhoLurksLate 7y agoPersonally, I prefer ISO- the Big Enter bothers me because it removes one spot that my pinky could be pushing buttons from, and so feels less efficient. Mind you, when programming, I touch type with my right hand translated over a row- so instead of [J][K][L][;] it'd be [K][L][;]['] and my pinky is just all over the place. I do see why people like ANSI, but it's probably just a nature / nurture thing.
- DubiousPusher 7y agoA little disappointing it's not actually made of pine.
- etu 7y agoA bit like the Raspberry Pi when it's not made of berries... ;)
- Tepix 7y agoWaiting for the successor with a RK3588
- HeWhoLurksLate 7y agoThe thing that I was missing in the last version, and most of why I didn’t buy it, was that the GPIO present on the Pine SOC boards (and Raspberry Pi’s, etc.) were not exposed in any way, shape or form on the last version. I think it would be really neat to have some flavor of internal GPIO (exposed pads on the edge of something are just fine, a low-profile connector with a fanout cable would be great for repair, too) that could be used for hobbyist projects or some fancy integrated controller for something like industrial robotics.
- pmarin 7y agoWe used to have GPIO ports in all computers including laptops via the parallel port.
- HeWhoLurksLate 7y agoThat thing is so big, though, and doesn't really work when laptops are really thin (which, to a certain extent, I really appreciate).
- dTal 7y agoPreferably with some sort of overcurrent protection. It's one thing to fry an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi - it's quite another to fry a whole laptop.
- rocky1138 7y agoDo we have FOSS drivers for 100% of the hardware yet?
- boxfire 7y agoThere's an opensparc 1000 running proprietary firmware, much like the Intel Management Engine and company. There's a small effort to replace that in open software. If I had oodles of free time I might contribute, but I've got my own projects to fry.
- apple4ever 7y agoIsn't all their software support done by the community still? PINE's hardware has always been amazing. But their software support has always been terrible.
- grizzles 7y agoI bought a pinebook a few months ago. It's so bad I consider it e-waste. They've lost me for life.
- imtringued 7y agoThat describes almost every SBC.
- mrbill 7y agoI had one. Horribly slow, and the keyboard was terrible and near unusable. Sold it to a coworker a couple of weeks later.
- iamnothere 7y agoPeople complaining about the old Pinebook are missing the point completely. Pine was always super open about its limitations, even on the "purchase" page. From the beginning, it was always intended as a product for tinkerers, ARM enthusiasts, and OSS advocates, not for consumers. And now they've taken what they learned and applied it to create functional, Chromebook level hardware. Even with the Pro version, why would you ever buy this thing as a typical consumer? I mean, how would you even find it in the first place? The Pinebook is not aimed at the general public, even the Pro version. The Pro will be great as a terminal and as a machine for casual development. It's not a gaming PC, a media center, or a server.
- nickik 7y agoThis is the type of laptop I would get with RISC-V. That would be amazing. But for an ARM Laptop I'm not interested enough. But decently a cool project.