A $99 Laptop?! - Pinebook

[James]

Buy cheap laptops on Amazon: https://geni.us/u1ays

 

We got the cheapest laptop we could find- just $99. But is this notebook even usable? Depends... do you know how to use Linux?

 

 

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, James said:

We got the cheapest laptop we could find- just $99. But is this notebook even usable? Depends... do you know how to use Linux?

The original Pinebook is pretty bad. Personally, I'm pretty excited about the upcoming Pinebook Pro, which looks like a much, much more useable device and still not costing much.

[James]

2 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

The original Pinebook is pretty bad. Personally, I'm pretty excited about the upcoming Pinebook Pro, which looks like a much, much more useable device and still not costing much.

When you quote me I get a notification

[WereCatf]

Welp

[TetraSky]

For that price, I'd go the used route. Better specs, even if it's older.

 

Also, 360p goodness.

[lewdicrous]

There comes a time where the low price doesn't justify the poor performance of a brand new device.

This is one of them..

[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Also, 360p goodness.

One of the reasons why I consider the first Pinebook practically worthless. The Pro - version does boast H/W-accelerated 4K video-decoding, so it'll be a lot more useable media-consumption device.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, lewdicrous said:

brand new device.

Nitpick: it's a couple of years old by now.

[TetraSky]

10 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

One of the reasons why I consider the first Pinebook practically worthless. The Pro - version does boast H/W-accelerated 4K video-decoding, so it'll be a lot more useable media-consumption device.

I was talking about the video itself being in 360p only. But it does technically apply to what that laptop can playback, too.

[unijab]

28 minutes ago, James said:

do you know how to use Linux?

 

Should try Fedora 30 on it.

[PeterBocan]

I think the main killer of this Pinebook is its storage device. If there was any possibility to stick SATA HDD/SSD it would perform 1000x better, but alas, who's gonna mod it.

[winlux OS X]

I don't get why knowing how to use Linux would be a limitation at the level of work you can actually do on that thing

[Tristerin]

Agree - used Laptop = way better buy.

 

But its neat

[vasaikar]

Not much to say about the product. On the other hand, the case on the desk for most of the video was really distracting. I was paying more attention to the lights on that case rather than focusing on the actual subject of the video.

[Foxlet]

I might also mention, the reason the Pinebook didn't boot Windows is because it's using uboot to load the kernel directly, while RasPi Windows has a Broadcom-specific binary that sets up UEFI first.

 

It is possible to compile and load an UEFI environment off of uboot; if the image was modified for that, it could potentially work with the existing HAL and boot to a degree (the Mali GPU doesn't help in this case).

[Streetguru]

Not possible to run android on it?

Next you should check out a raspberry pi based laptop

[Foxlet]

Just now, Streetguru said:

Not possible to run android on it?

Next you should check out a raspberry pi based laptop

You could run any Linux-based system if you make an uboot-compatible image first.

[Streetguru]

1 minute ago, Foxlet said:

You could run any Linux-based system if you make an uboot-compatible image first.

Then considering the $20 phones that run android relatively well this thing should be able to kill it with that OS?

[Foxlet]

1 minute ago, Streetguru said:

Then considering the $20 phones that run android relatively well this thing should be able to kill it with that OS?

Assuming Android blobs can be found for graphics, yes, it would be a very good contender (although the touch-oriented interface might hinder it in that regard).

[Luscious]

This is about as impressive as a first gen netbook from 2008... only less useful LOL

 

Seriously, you could pull out a K625 AMD setup from 2010 and have a far more practical machine in your hands that's just as portable and runs full Windows 7.

 

I wouldn't even use this as a word processor - who are they actually marketing this for? I think if you only have $99 to spend on a notebook you have much bigger issues IMO.

[SenKa]

For the price I would recommend a used thinkpad if you actually intend to use it like you would your current PC/Laptop. You can find ones with first gen Core iX series mobile CPU's for the price of this thing. Much better specs, runs an X86 OS, and is more usable over all.

 

Though, that is assuming you looked at the Pinebook for the intent of using it like you would your normal laptop. In that case you're missing the point. I'm not exactly sure what the point it, but it isn't that.

[Kroon]

6 hours ago, WereCatf said:

The original Pinebook is pretty bad. Personally, I'm pretty excited about the upcoming Pinebook Pro, which looks like a much, much more useable device and still not costing much.

 

No it's not bad, just different. Pinebook is for a really niche market, FAR from regular user. 

 

Sadly enough Linus did't showcase Pinebook true purpose. 

[WereCatf]

2 hours ago, Kroon said:

Sadly enough Linus did't showcase Pinebook true purpose. 

Which is?

[iBflyin]

Does anyone have a link for the forest wallpaper that was on the monitor in the background for this review?

[Aegelward]

The Pinebook Pro looks kind of interesting, though they are still essentially hot gluing one of their SBC boards into a laptop chassis, Hopefully they'll do a more dedicated laptop board with m.2 and SODIMMs on it.