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I love my GPD Micro PC

blog.danieljanus.pl

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Re: I love my GPD Micro PC

#11

Post by afandian »

coverclock wrote: post #7

I also have a MacBook Pro and a GPD Micro PC. The latter is ideal for taking into the field (in the case of my GPS work, literally a field) to connect to the various pieces of hardware I deal with. It's really a pocket-sized industrial PC, in the sense it has a lot of physical ports, e.g. Ethernet, a DB9 serial port, etc. taking it quite useful for hardware hackers.

I’m quietly excited about the MNT Pocket Reform [0]. There’s some real progress being made by the looks of it [1].

[0] https://mntre.com/media/reform_md/2022-06-20-introducing-mnt...

[1] https://mobile.twitter.com/minut_e/status/155805356090603110...

Re: I love my GPD Micro PC

#12

Post by cesarb »

idle_zealot wrote: post #3

My concern with a device of this size is typing. How do you use a keyboard barely larger than a credit card? Do you thumb-type, touch type, hunt-and-peck with just your index fingers?

> How do you use a keyboard barely larger than a credit card?

If you can use a phone's virtual keyboard, which is even smaller and has no physical separation between the keys, you should be able to use a keyboard like that one. It feels strange at first, but you adjust quickly. (I don't have any experience with that GPD, but I have experience with an old EeePC, which is similar-sized but probably has smaller keys because it doesn't have any keys to the left and right of its trackpad.)

Re: I love my GPD Micro PC

#16

Post by detaro »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #14
jdmoreira wrote: post #13

this thing needs a gsm modem

Does it though? Practically everyone has a smartphone on them these days that's capable of hotspot mode.

For regular/long use the battery drain is a pain though, so yes, there still are reasons to have it built into a laptop/tablet.

Re: I love my GPD Micro PC

#17

Post by epakai »

The Micro PC is a really cool device, but owning one I couldn't really recommend it outside a very small niche.

Form factor, ports, and performance are all great. The firmware is very frustrating though. Mine shipped with a newer firmware (4.18) than was available to download, and it was miserable. The machine would power on to blank screens, and have random crashes. I was wary of downgrading because I couldn't put the "newer" firmware back on.

Finally gave in and stability was much improved on 4.13. Boot issues still happen though (less frequently). They seem possibly exasperated by Linux. It can require 3 or 4 attempts at holding the power button to force a reset. Unplug anything that could be back-feeding power so it will actually reset (not confirmed). Just all around annoying if you power it on and off a lot.

Other issues to consider. The hinge support is somewhat fragile. I try to be gentle opening and closing. I think I also put some epoxy around the plastic screwhole pillar. The battery has a permanent over-discharge cutoff that a number of users have hit so I've been careful to keep a charge on it.

Re: I love my GPD Micro PC

#18

Post by Psyonic »

"Better not hop on a city bike with it in my backpack, ’cause what if I fall?"

How often do people fall on bikes? I biked for years in SF with my work laptop and never had an issue.

Re: I love my GPD Micro PC

#20

Post by nfriedly »

I had a GPD Win 2 for a while. It's a similar device, except targeted at gaming instead of productivity. I loved it! (I did occasionally use my Win 2 for productivity, but it was 99% for playing games.)

GPD's newer Win models are all more powerful, but they're also bigger and the Win 3 has a completely different form factor. They're good in their own ways, but I still miss the pocket-ability of the Win 2, and occasionally wish I hadn't sold mine.

There's a small group on the gpd_devices discord that throws around ideas for a "Win Min" - something in a similar size and form factor, but with upgraded specs. I'm not holding my breath, but I would love to see that.

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