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Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

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Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#31

Post by founderling »

farisjarrah wrote: post #26
founderling wrote: post #20

I wonder why they price their products so cheap. They seem to be totally overrun by demand. And give a terrible user experience when you try to order from them. Friends of mine have ordered (and paid!) Pine64 products weeks ago and get no information when they will be shipped. When you send them an email, it either gets ignored or you get a reply by someone who does not speak English. Telling you something like "Yes…

This isnt really a finished product that they are comfortable selling to the general population. I actually feel like they are doing a pretty good job of setting customers expectations. From the order page for the pine tab I see these disclaimers: The PineTab comes with UBports OS build installed. Please note that the OS build is still in a beta stage, and while most core functionality works, some elements remain a w…

How does the statement about dead pixels help people who ordered and paid a phone but get no information on when it will be shipped?

Regarding general population vs hackers: Do you imply that hackers value low price higher then others? Are hackers particularely poor? I thought hacker often means coder which usually means higher income then the general population.

Personally, I would totally prefer to pay 50% more and have my emails answered and my orders shipped.

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#34

Post by gspr »

rjsw wrote: post #9
justwalt wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, probably about as well as any of the quicker RPi clones would, which is pretty decent for light tasks. $100 is about as much as you’d pay for one of those plus a touchscreen anyways, so it sounds like a fair deal.

I only have one Pine device, a Pinebook. The build quality seems good to me, it isn't just a collection of components thrown together.

I'm so close to buying a Pinebook, and I know that everyone wants "just one more feature", but jesus, 4 GB or RAM?! If it had at least 8 I'd buy it in a sec. But 4 just won't cut it (thank you, modern web).

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#35

Post by zozbot234 »

dangus wrote: post #24
katmannthree wrote: post #15

Anybody here remember the HP Touchpad firesale where HP liquidated their stock of cancelled not-quite-iPad-competitors for $99.99 and people went nuts for them? It's weird how that felt like a great deal and yet this one is expensive enough to make me question if I could get anything close to that much value out of it. The HP firesale was back in the days where a decent tablet cost around $500 and it was a screaming…

It was definitely a high end tablet at the time. Maybe it also reflected less of a worry about losing software support at that time. If Apple told us that the iPad was now discontinued and you could get an iPad Pro for $99, I wonder how many people would jump on it. If the software is dead the device is a brick. That concept wasn’t really on people’s minds as much in the PC days. In retrospect it’s unbelievable that…

The HP webpad has pretty good software support even today, albeit obviously unofficial and not from HP. People are even looking into running pmOS on it; it's just hard because it's not a standard device in any sense, so it comes with its own booting, flashing etc. workflows.

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#36

Post by kohtatsu »

farisjarrah wrote: post #26
founderling wrote: post #20

I wonder why they price their products so cheap. They seem to be totally overrun by demand. And give a terrible user experience when you try to order from them. Friends of mine have ordered (and paid!) Pine64 products weeks ago and get no information when they will be shipped. When you send them an email, it either gets ignored or you get a reply by someone who does not speak English. Telling you something like "Yes…

This isnt really a finished product that they are comfortable selling to the general population. I actually feel like they are doing a pretty good job of setting customers expectations. From the order page for the pine tab I see these disclaimers: The PineTab comes with UBports OS build installed. Please note that the OS build is still in a beta stage, and while most core functionality works, some elements remain a w…

The PineTab comes with UBports OS build installed. Please note that the OS build is still in a beta stage, and while most core functionality works, some elements remain a work-in-progress.

Small numbers (1-3) of stuck or dead pixels are a characteristic of LCD screens. These are normal and should not be considered a defect.

When fulfilling the purchase, please bear in mind that we are offering the PineTab at this price as a community service to PINE64 communities. If you think that a minor dissatisfaction, such as a dead pixel, will prompt you to file a PayPal dispute then please do not purchase the PineTab. Thank you.

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#37

Post by kick »

founderling wrote: post #20

I wonder why they price their products so cheap. They seem to be totally overrun by demand. And give a terrible user experience when you try to order from them. Friends of mine have ordered (and paid!) Pine64 products weeks ago and get no information when they will be shipped. When you send them an email, it either gets ignored or you get a reply by someone who does not speak English. Telling you something like "Yes…

Counter-perspective:

On price:

By releasing things as cheaply as they can within reason, this vastly broadens who can get one. Given that they depend on the community to create most if not all of the software, this means that software support gets there much earlier than it would otherwise; compare the progress on the Librem handset to the PinePhone: one took three years, has gone over the predicted timeframe multiple times, and still isn't quite right (or released), while Pine64's is actually surprisingly decent, and got there much faster.

On 'customer' experience:

Every time I've ordered from them they've been perfectly responsive and have gotten things shipped on a reasonable time frame. They're based in China and, if you weren't aware, there's kind of a big event happening over there that's interrupted their everything. They're not Apple and it'd be worse if they were trying to be; they aren't treating their customers badly, they're treating their workers well; chill out.

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#39

Post by jmull »

I like to see things getting cheaper, but I've got to wonder: is cost a problem that is important to solve for Linux tablets?

If utility is limiting these kinds of devices more than price, then cutting a few bucks from the purchase price isn't going to change things much.

Is it like lowering the toll on a bridge that doesn't go anywhere most people want to go?

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#40

Post by NikolaeVarius »

gspr wrote: post #34
rjsw wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only have one Pine device, a Pinebook. The build quality seems good to me, it isn't just a collection of components thrown together.

I'm so close to buying a Pinebook, and I know that everyone wants "just one more feature", but jesus, 4 GB or RAM?! If it had at least 8 I'd buy it in a sec. But 4 just won't cut it (thank you, modern web).

4gb is fine if you run a lighter DE. I program go/python/c++ directly on a Jetson Nano w/ vim and firefox and haven't had any huge issues
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