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Pinebook: An Affordable 64-bit ARM based Open Source Notebook

pine64.org

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Re: Pinebook: An Affordable 64-bit ARM based Open Source Notebook

#171

Post by mistermann »

jancsika wrote: post #159
mntmn wrote: post #83

I'm also working on an ARM notebook in the spirit of Novena called Reform: http://mntmn.com/reform/ This version is 32-bit, but it has 4 cores @ 1.2GHz and 4GB of RAM. Also, it is actually open source, meaning that all the electronic design files (made in KiCAD) are available on GitHub and as soon as we have decided on the correct formats the same will be true for the mechanical/case parts, so you will be even able t…

> I don't know how you can sustainably make a laptop and sell it for $100. I'm selling the first developer models for EUR 549/599 and I'm not making any profit on these, it's basically passing on the material cost. I guess it's a tradeoff between cutting enough corners to bring the price down and trying to achieve some base of quality and durability. These are different goals. I don't completely understand your goal.…

Are these things good enough that you could buy one and say stick it in the laundry room (or wherever) with a web browser on it and make actual use of it? Like a laptop in every room?

Re: Pinebook: An Affordable 64-bit ARM based Open Source Notebook

#172

Post by inetsee »

tacoman wrote: post #163
opencl wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not hard to rebuild old laptop battery packs with new 18650 cells.

I've tried rebuilding the battery for an x220 twice and both times the battery case ended up too damaged to be used. I'm about to fork over $100+ for my forth battery for this machine.

I am confused. I have a Thinkpad X220 I bought used. The original battery is still usable for my purposes. (I don't use it for travel so I haven't tried using it for more than a few hours at a time.) I just looked on Ebay and the most expensive batteries listed for the X220 are less than $50, with some less than $20. Am I missing something?

Re: Pinebook: An Affordable 64-bit ARM based Open Source Notebook

#173

Post by boomlinde »

hyperpallium wrote: post #141
boomlinde wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an 11" model, IMO that puts it somewhere within netbook territory.

Assuming the same height/width proportions, it would have (11/7)^2 = 2.47 times the area. Quite a bit bigger.

11" is bigger than 7" for sure, but that's not my point. My point is that 11" is at the upper end of what I'd consider a netbook, and it wasn't immediately obvious to me when I browsed the page that there was an 11" model so I thought you might have missed it, too.

Re: Pinebook: An Affordable 64-bit ARM based Open Source Notebook

#174

Post by vuln »

tacoman wrote: post #163
opencl wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not hard to rebuild old laptop battery packs with new 18650 cells.

I've tried rebuilding the battery for an x220 twice and both times the battery case ended up too damaged to be used. I'm about to fork over $100+ for my forth battery for this machine.

Man, I was thinking about taking on this challenge next. I have 2 of the extended batteries that work excellent but the regular battery wont hold a charge for more than a few hours.

So the main issue was not damaging the case? Did you have any references or guides?

Re: Pinebook: An Affordable 64-bit ARM based Open Source Notebook

#177

Post by justaguyhere »

unlimitedbacon wrote: post #88

I have this laptop. The beauty of it is that it is unashamedly bad. It is the humblest of laptops. The body is a direct copy of the 13" MacBook Air. As a computer, it is at least as usable as a Raspberry Pi. The teardown photos are hilarious because the motherboard only takes up about 1/6 the internal space. The rest is empty. https://hackaday.com/2017/04/28/hands-on-with-the-pinebook/ It comes with Ubuntu 16.04, but…

Thank you for the link and the review.

It does in fact turn on

This one made me laugh

Re: Pinebook: An Affordable 64-bit ARM based Open Source Notebook

#178

Post by protomyth »

rjsw wrote: post #113
michaelmrose wrote: post #106

Why 2G of ram? Its certainly usable but seems so limiting is there really a huge savings from not including another 2G?

The SoC doesn't support much more than 2G, the Allwinner Wiki says 3G is the maximum but you probably want to just use two memory chips to keep costs down.

Is there an ARM motherboard that accepts more that 4GB?

Re: Pinebook: An Affordable 64-bit ARM based Open Source Notebook

#179

Post by prophesi »

newscracker wrote: post #169
unlimitedbacon wrote: post #88

I have this laptop. The beauty of it is that it is unashamedly bad. It is the humblest of laptops. The body is a direct copy of the 13" MacBook Air. As a computer, it is at least as usable as a Raspberry Pi. The teardown photos are hilarious because the motherboard only takes up about 1/6 the internal space. The rest is empty. https://hackaday.com/2017/04/28/hands-on-with-the-pinebook/ It comes with Ubuntu 16.04, but…

> The teardown photos are hilarious because the motherboard only takes up about 1/6 the internal space. The rest is empty. https://hackaday.com/2017/04/28/hands-on-with-the-pinebook/ As mentioned in that review, the software part seems to be a problem area for Pine. That could also be why it's cheap (because it's mainly the hardware alone that one is paying for). I got the original Pine64 board through the crowdfundi…

The Ubuntu image has been actively maintained for a while now. Though now the maintainer is putting more effort towards Android 7.1. Which is the crux of the issue... These distros are usually maintained by just one community developer.
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