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Lichee Console 4A – RISC-V mini laptop: Review, benchmarks and early issues

3.14.by

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Re: Lichee Console 4A – RISC-V mini laptop: Review, benchmarks and early issues

#131

Post by snvzz »

hajile wrote: post #125
sylware wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RISC-V is becoming a worldwide interop standard, and a real one, namely royalty free and which will be stable in time once we get all the "now we know" features, and all that at the ISA level (x86_64 and ARM are _NOT_ worldwide royalty free). And don't be mistaken, there is no perfect ISA (it is said "average"), it does not exist, only a set of trade-offs and compromises which will not fit all use-cases perfectly. RI…

RISC-V is already putting the squeeze on ARM in the embedded market. RISC-V is fewer gates at almost every performance level the embedded market is interested in due to having a tighter, non-legacy ISA (there's even the open SERV core which fits RISC-V into an insanely small 2.1KGe). RISC-V likely has a future in mobile devices as it crawls up the performance tree like ARM did. This leaves ARM in a tight squeeze betw…

>(there's even the open SERV core which fits RISC-V into an insanely small 2.1KGe).

And QERV, only slightly bigger, yet dramatically faster.

Re: Lichee Console 4A – RISC-V mini laptop: Review, benchmarks and early issues

#132

Post by ac29 »

cjdell wrote: post #129
windowsrookie wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 au…

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).

Re: Lichee Console 4A – RISC-V mini laptop: Review, benchmarks and early issues

#133

Post by alchemist1e9 »

calgarymicro wrote: post #109
windowsrookie wrote: post #80

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…

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/

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.

Re: Lichee Console 4A – RISC-V mini laptop: Review, benchmarks and early issues

#135

Post by __michaelg »

bpye wrote: post #25

I could get over the perf but the power consumption is rough. It seems strange that the USB hub is using so much power. From a (leaked?) data sheet I don’t see any way to disable it - but it does have firmware which can be updated? There is also a 5V-3.3V LDO built in so I wonder if that may be what is dissipating so much power. The AMS1153 looks like a similar story…

Yup, something is strange there. There are 14in x86 laptops that consume 7W or 8W in idle (with the screen turned on but on minimal brightness).

Re: Lichee Console 4A – RISC-V mini laptop: Review, benchmarks and early issues

#136

Post by alchemist1e9 »

windowsrookie wrote: post #121
calgarymicro wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

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.

Re: Lichee Console 4A – RISC-V mini laptop: Review, benchmarks and early issues

#137

Post by alchemist1e9 »

kube-system wrote: post #96
windowsrookie wrote: post #80

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…

Here's another example, similar in form factor to old Sony VAIO UMPCs https://www.ayaneo.com/product/AYANEO-SLIDE.html

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?

Re: Lichee Console 4A – RISC-V mini laptop: Review, benchmarks and early issues

#138

Post by the_third_wave »

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #111
the_third_wave wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is the spelling used in e.g. the Netherlands, a country where the light metal used in aircraft goes by the name Aluminium which also happens to be the correct version [1] of the bastardised Aluminum . The word Silicon 'feels' wrong to a Dutch speaker because it makes it sound like integrated circuits are made out of the same stuff used to assemble aquariums, fake boobs and heat-resistant flexible cookware. That st…

honestly, I'd be in favor of renaming to computium. then you get to teach kids that sand is computium-dioxide!

That's it, now it finally becomes clear. Hear me.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is not just a story, it is the story. The story of our planet, Earth, a planet-sized computer built by the Amaltheans to find the definitive question to life, the Universe and everything for which the answer is '42'. Things went awry when an ark full of telephone cleaners crashed on the planet/computer which made it come up with the wrong question. The book only mentions that they'd have to build a new Earth to run the program again but now it can finally be proven that they did no such thing - they just used the old one and recycled the top layer of the machine's substrate and left us the evidence: sand. Billions of tons of recycled computing equipment cover our beaches, filling up the bottom of the seas and covers parts of the planet.

Think about this the next time you're laying a brick wall, pour some concrete or are annoyed by the gritty stuff between your teeth when you eat your lunch on the beach. You're literally eating computing history and who knows what effects that will have on the final outcome.

Re: Lichee Console 4A – RISC-V mini laptop: Review, benchmarks and early issues

#139

Post by mintplant »

calgarymicro wrote: post #109
windowsrookie wrote: post #80

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…

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/

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.

Re: Lichee Console 4A – RISC-V mini laptop: Review, benchmarks and early issues

#140

Post by snvzz »

edwintorok wrote: post #58
rwmj wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did a comparison of a few RISC-V single board computers and the Lichee Pi 4A is definitely very slow on real world tasks, even though in theory it ought to be the fastest. I never got to the bottom of exactly why - it might be software issues or non-upstream drivers. At the moment I'd recommend the VF2 for general use. https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2023/07/25/heads-up-lichee-pi-4a-...

Interesting, I had the opposite experience: the GUI was very slow and nearly unusable on most RISC-V boards that I have, except the LicheePi4a. But that is probably just due to the GPU (which unfortunately doesn't have open source drivers yet?), and not the CPU, and they're all running different kernels and distros. When I have some time I'll need to compare again with the latest distro available for each, and also a…

re: GPU, mesa3d side (vulkan driver) is merged upstream. OpenGL/CL/GLES are via Zink.

powervr is working into getting the drm side merged to the kernel, too.

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