"It can also play back 1080p video with a little bit of stuttering, and 720p video flawlessly. Browsing the web is a bit of a chore, but it always was."
This applies to a Raspi 400 as well (except that, in mplayer at least, 1080p video is solid on it).
These are great little computers. They compile C like a champ, they do all that stuff that us aging geeks expect a computer to do, and quickly. But it takes 5+ seconds to switch email boxes in Gmail. Bzzzt, you lose.
On my big machine with 24GB memory, I run the Signal app because of the wife's social circle's reaction to the Whatsapp TOS change. As it sits there, it's using 2% CPU in each of two threads, and has 4GB of memory allocated.
As a former user of an ARM-based Chromebook, I very much appreciate an elegant, power-sipping laptop design with long battery life and completely passive cooling. The Pinebook also looks to be surprisingly serviceable, although I wish it had swappable RAM, WLAN/Bluetooth daughterboards and so on.
My main worry that keeps me from considering this as my laptop is longevity. I am sure the build quality is fine, but for how long will the performance be adequate for desktop use? For watching videos? For watching videos in a web browser?
My two current main machines are a Phenom II X6-based desktop and a Thinkpad X220i, both machines are around 10 years old, and while the Phenom II would have been considered high-end at the time, the X220i has an i3 that would have been "fine, but not amazing" when it was new.
The desktop is still perfectly capable, I watch 4K videos, play games (not the newest-new AAA titles, but it is fine for most other games) and do everything else I need to do, it does not feel slow nor as if it is lagging behind. The laptop is no speed demon, but it handles 10-20 Firefox tabs well enough, and plays hardware-accelerated 1080p h264 video with no dropped frames.
While I do accept that the Pinebook Pro is positioned as a low-priced machine, will it still be able to provide adequate performance for general tasks, 5 years from now?
>It is the only laptop I have ever used which makes a substantial improvement on the circa-2010 state of the art.
I'm not at all clear what's meant by that. All of the things in the "like" column are easily exceeded by a modern x86 laptop. I clicked the link to read about his disdain with modern laptops, and got nothing but a rant that was long on swearing and short on specifics.
I was unable to buy one, due to the organisations insistence on using paypal as a payment processor - and having been "banned" from using paypal, for refusing to send "identity documents".
Unless that situation has changed, it seems at odds with the open source, do not track me, ethos.
> edit: or is credit card at odds with your wish not to be tracked, too?
I think it's plainly evident from my prevous comment what I consider to be tracking - providing paypal with government identity documents, for it to do what it wishes with. I don't think the snarky shitcoin comment is necessary, but rather shitcoins than paypal, yes.
Do you think potential Pinebook Pro customers should have to spend an accumulated four hours of their time, telephoning some call centre in the Phillipines, just to buy a laptop?
>Do you think potential Pinebook Pro customers should have to spend an accumulated four hours of their time, telephoning some call centre in the Phillipines, just to buy a laptop?
10 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 32.6 ms ] threadThis applies to a Raspi 400 as well (except that, in mplayer at least, 1080p video is solid on it).
These are great little computers. They compile C like a champ, they do all that stuff that us aging geeks expect a computer to do, and quickly. But it takes 5+ seconds to switch email boxes in Gmail. Bzzzt, you lose.
On my big machine with 24GB memory, I run the Signal app because of the wife's social circle's reaction to the Whatsapp TOS change. As it sits there, it's using 2% CPU in each of two threads, and has 4GB of memory allocated.
Software bloat sucks.
My main worry that keeps me from considering this as my laptop is longevity. I am sure the build quality is fine, but for how long will the performance be adequate for desktop use? For watching videos? For watching videos in a web browser?
My two current main machines are a Phenom II X6-based desktop and a Thinkpad X220i, both machines are around 10 years old, and while the Phenom II would have been considered high-end at the time, the X220i has an i3 that would have been "fine, but not amazing" when it was new.
The desktop is still perfectly capable, I watch 4K videos, play games (not the newest-new AAA titles, but it is fine for most other games) and do everything else I need to do, it does not feel slow nor as if it is lagging behind. The laptop is no speed demon, but it handles 10-20 Firefox tabs well enough, and plays hardware-accelerated 1080p h264 video with no dropped frames.
While I do accept that the Pinebook Pro is positioned as a low-priced machine, will it still be able to provide adequate performance for general tasks, 5 years from now?
I'm not at all clear what's meant by that. All of the things in the "like" column are easily exceeded by a modern x86 laptop. I clicked the link to read about his disdain with modern laptops, and got nothing but a rant that was long on swearing and short on specifics.
Unless that situation has changed, it seems at odds with the open source, do not track me, ethos.
edit: or is credit card at odds with your wish not to be tracked, too?
What should they do? Accept shitcoins?
I think it's plainly evident from my prevous comment what I consider to be tracking - providing paypal with government identity documents, for it to do what it wishes with. I don't think the snarky shitcoin comment is necessary, but rather shitcoins than paypal, yes.
Do you think potential Pinebook Pro customers should have to spend an accumulated four hours of their time, telephoning some call centre in the Phillipines, just to buy a laptop?
Nope.