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Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

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Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#61

Post by stjohnswarts »

kzrdude wrote: post #56
techplex wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't blame them, Linux touchpad drivers are horrendously bad. I can imagine a young person tryin to learn to use the pi400 and them getting frustrated because the touchpad is hard to use. I wonder if there are any studies that show a mouse is easier to learn than a touchpad or vise versa.

I think the multitouch drivers have been really good. Been using it with a MBP 2015 touchpad, and I think that shows how good hardware helps the equation.

Eh they must either have an open spec for drivers or provide source code for linux kernel devs. I have dell laptop and the pad works great for windows and is horrible with linux which rules out hardware issues.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#62

Post by philistine »

davidhyde wrote: post #19
tyingq wrote: post #2

"The 400 doesn’t have an audio-out." That does seem like a miss for an otherwise decent platform. HDMI out support is fine, but since this setup is quite portable, exposing a headphone jack seems obvious. I suppose bluetooth is the expectation now?

The on-board sound quality on the raspberry pi line has traditionally been quite poor so you probably want a dedicated sound dongle anyway especially if you are using headphones. This is an article about the model b+. It's an older version than the 4 but explains the problem just as well since the 4 still uses PWM instead of a DAC. http://www.crazy-audio.com/2014/07/sound-quality-of-the-rasp...

You’re giving me flashback to the whole Game Boy line, who always had a buzz in the headphone jack until the DS finally properly isolated the sound.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#63

Post by stjohnswarts »

swiley wrote: post #41
simonh wrote: post #34

So going through the actual comments here, what this really needs to make a compelling product is: A built in touch pad, an audio jack, a full size HDMI port (even thought the accessory set includes an HDMI cable), an M.2 or SATA connector and a backlit keyboard. Anything else? Maybe an Intel processor, Windows, a built in battery and a hinged screen that folds down over the keyboard. Are we getting there yet?

Personally I'd far prefer a trackpoint to a touchpad. They're much easier to get right and take up less space.

Other than a few outliers, the trackpoint format is dead to 95% of the market.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#64

Post by ranit »

gambiting wrote: post #7
kristopolous wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB audio dongles are super cheap. You can get 2 of them for about $10. If I was on the design team for it I could eventually come around to being fine with it.

Yes, but it's "yet another" dongle for this machine which is meant to be an easy to use all-in-one friendly to beginners. Them using micro HDMI is already bizarre seeing as there's loads of room for a full size port and most people will need a dongle/adapter here, but not including an audio jack is crazy, seeing as the proper Rpi4 does have one!

> and most people will need a dongle/adapter

Micro HDMI to HDMI cable is included in the kit.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#65

Post by cstross »

Coincidentally, the bare Raspberry Pi 400 sells for £67, and the original Sinclair ZX81 (my first computer, back in 1981!) sold at launch for £70, with 1Kb of RAM.

Per the ONS composite price index, £1 in 1981 is worth £4.42 today. So the equivalent cost of a Raspberry Pi 400 in 1981 would have been £15.15. (Alternatively buying a new ZX81-equivalent in 2020 would set you back £309.)

Seriously, this thing is ridiculously cheap. Really demonstrates where 40 years of Moore's Law has taken us!

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#66

Post by ansible »

fludlight wrote: post #59
tyingq wrote: post #2

"The 400 doesn’t have an audio-out." That does seem like a miss for an otherwise decent platform. HDMI out support is fine, but since this setup is quite portable, exposing a headphone jack seems obvious. I suppose bluetooth is the expectation now?

Many (most?) HDMI monitors have an audio-out jack.

Unfortunately, most new TVs don't have a 3.5mm audio jack these days.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#67

Post by rootsudo »

philistine wrote: post #62
davidhyde wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The on-board sound quality on the raspberry pi line has traditionally been quite poor so you probably want a dedicated sound dongle anyway especially if you are using headphones. This is an article about the model b+. It's an older version than the 4 but explains the problem just as well since the 4 still uses PWM instead of a DAC. http://www.crazy-audio.com/2014/07/sound-quality-of-the-rasp...

You’re giving me flashback to the whole Game Boy line, who always had a buzz in the headphone jack until the DS finally properly isolated the sound.

And why some ipods still are $$$ because of DAC.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#68

Post by thecureforzits »

simonh wrote: post #34

So going through the actual comments here, what this really needs to make a compelling product is: A built in touch pad, an audio jack, a full size HDMI port (even thought the accessory set includes an HDMI cable), an M.2 or SATA connector and a backlit keyboard. Anything else? Maybe an Intel processor, Windows, a built in battery and a hinged screen that folds down over the keyboard. Are we getting there yet?

“No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.”

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#69

Post by f_allwein »

cstross wrote: post #65

Coincidentally, the bare Raspberry Pi 400 sells for £67, and the original Sinclair ZX81 (my first computer, back in 1981!) sold at launch for £70, with 1Kb of RAM. Per the ONS composite price index, £1 in 1981 is worth £4.42 today. So the equivalent cost of a Raspberry Pi 400 in 1981 would have been £15.15. (Alternatively buying a new ZX81-equivalent in 2020 would set you back £309.) Seriously, this thing is ridiculo…

And of course the Raspberry Pi 400 has 4 GB of RAM, so up by a factor of 4.000.000.
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