Comment by windowsrookie | Hacker News Reader

Comment by windowsrookie | Hacker News Reader

The author mentions if you want a small laptop today, you need to go to eBay and buy an old UMPC. This is not correct, there are some modern mini laptops. I purchased a new 8" mini laptop with folding touchscreen and an intel N100 CPU from AliExpress.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805658668421.html

Specs: Intel N100 12GB RAM NVME SSD Slot 1280x800 Touchscreen (with pen support) USB-C port (supports charging and DisplayPort) HDMI Ethernet (1 gigabit) WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.2

It's actually a pretty decent computer for being a no-name Chinese device. It has a backlit keyboard and my Microsoft Surface pen works perfectly on it. The 1280x800 LCD is low-res by todays standards, but at 8" is just fine. The 800 vertical resolution does mean that some modern apps get pushed behind the taskbar (on Windows 10). The cursor touchpad is difficult to be precise with, but you have the touchscreen with pen support if you need to select smaller items.

Around Black Friday it was $245 + tax (Without an SSD, I preferred to install my own name-brand SSD) so keep an eye out for sales.

The UEFI appears to be fully unlocked and has pages and pages of options. There are options to adjust CPU boost and voltage settings but I haven't been able to get the CPU to pull more than 6.5w.

A downside of not buying from a real company: The drivers for the device are emailed to you in a .zip file from the seller. So that is pretty sketchy, but it's the same for any of these Aliexpress devices.

There are also all of the various GPD devices[0] as well if you're looking for something a bit more expensive that theoretically has more of a reputation.

[0]https://www.gpd.hk/

One was reviewed in 2021... https://liliputing.com/gpd-pocket-3-mini-laptop-review/

The GPD Pocket 3 is the closes equivalent device and I considered it as well. But, you can buy two of these AliExpress N100/12GB RAM laptops for the price of one Pentium N6000/8GB RAM GPD Pocket. The i7 GPD Pocket pushes $1,000.

Also, based on reddit posts, GPD's build quality and customer service doesn't seem to be any better than the AliExpress laptop.

The latest GPD devices with occulink, real USB4, and 64G mem are in a different league of device capabilities though. They can even drive 3d AR and VR glasses.

I have a GPD Micro PC running Linux that fits in my pocket. It’s been a very useful device, even has a classic serial port which I have used in data center to access a server which had lost all it’s network interfaces, found to be caused by a counterfeit nic card which failed.

I see others claiming GPD has bad build quality. That’s not my experience at all.

I’m currently looking to upgrade to something more powerful I can carry around hopefully just as easy. I’m leaning towards either their GPD Win 4 [0] [1] or the very latest GPD Win Mini.

[0] https://liliputing.com/gpd-win-4-2023-handheld-gaming-pc-wit... [1] https://www.gpd.hk/gpdwin4

[2] https://www.gpd.hk/gpdwinminisdfewr

Their occulink port and USB4 is the real deal and allows eGPUs both for gaming and compute.

Though I’m not a gamer I’m currently leaning towards the Win 4 because it has a dock system and an LTE module, which the Win Mini lacks both. However perhaps the Win Mini keyboard and form factor is more conventional.

I can't recommend GPD products - they're just not made to last, and rely on hacked-up Windows installations to drive them. Components will start failing 1-2 years on, without generally-available replacement parts, and GPD will have already moved on to their new shiny by that point, if you can even get them to respond. These devices are made to look good on YouTube unboxing videos and tick off checklists of hot features, and hold together just long enough to reel in the next batch of buyers.

Which is a shame, because the Win 2's form-factor and cursor control scheme are basically perfect for what I want out of a handheld PC, and also seemingly unique.

There's an entire site dedicated to tiny devices

https://liliputing.com/

Seriously want. Few questions if I may:

- Have tried a Linux distro on it?

- What is battery life like (especially under Linux)?

- How is the keyboard generally? (Not expecting miracles but is it usable)

I have not personally tried linux on it. This laptop has device specific drivers that may be difficult to get working correctly under linux.

The screen is likely sourced from a tablet, so it's default orientation is portrait. This means that the UEFI displays in that orientation, rather than the correct landscape orientation. The included windows drivers correct that.

There is also a sensor that rotates the screen automatically when you fold it into tablet mode. In device manager it is labeled "Bosch Accelerometer".

Wifi is labeled as a "Realtek 8852BE". But the chip looks pretty generic on the mainboard, I'm not sure if it's a real Realtek chip.

The sound card is generically labeled as "High Definition Audio Device".

The keyboard is actually pretty decent. It's only 7.5" wide, and some of the keys are in a strange position. But has a better feel than a MacBook butterfly keyboard.

Battery life I haven't tested. Right now at 77% Windows is estimating "3 hours remaining". Using it lightly I'd estimate around 4 hours of battery life.

Thanks for taking the time to answer these. The thing you say about the display is interesting. I guess that means subpixel rendering (ClearType) will be suboptimal when in "laptop" mode but not a big deal.

Missed having a true pocket computer since the Psion/Windows CE days. I'll probably end up buying one... :-)

> I guess that means subpixel rendering (ClearType) will be suboptimal when in "laptop" mode but not a big deal.

This should be fixable in Linux, where you can configure the subpixel order and orientation (horizontal or vertical).

Here's another example, similar in form factor to old Sony VAIO UMPCs

https://www.ayaneo.com/product/AYANEO-SLIDE.html

A 6" display with Windows 11 sounds like an exercise in futility to me. That form factor probably works well for gaming, but In my experience it doesn't work well for anything else. I'm not a gamer so I prefer a more traditional laptop style device.

Ayaneo Slide vs GPD Win 4 seems to be an interesting debate. Based on my research so far, Win 4 has occulink and optional LTE module in it’s favor. Slide has tilt screen and supposedly slightly better keyboard. Is there anybody who is Linux focused and has laid eyes on both?

A maybe, maybe not, less sketchy alternative could be a Nanote P8 from Japan. They were released in 2021 and can be bought for $200-$230 new and shipped from Japan on ebay.

The downsides are the much slower Intel 4200 CPU and less, slower RAM, slightly smaller 7" screen. I would not be surprised if the manufacturer of the Ali laptop is the same as that of the Nanote.

>A downside of not buying from a real company: The drivers for the device are emailed to you in a .zip file from the seller. So that is pretty sketchy, but it's the same for any of these Aliexpress devices.

Have fun hosting a CCP exit node

Obviously security is a concern when using these cheap Chinese devices. That said, I have not seen any unusual activity on my network.

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