In one of I promised that after I receive my copy, I will share my impressions of using the laptop . In this article I will try not to repeat myself, so if you need to refresh your memory about the main technical characteristics of the device, then I suggest that you first read the previous post about this device.
What's the timeline?
Devices are made in batches, more precisely, even in pairs of batches: with ANSI and ISO keyboards. First they ship the ISO version, and then (about a week later) a batch with ANSI keyboards. I placed the order on December 6th, the laptop was shipped from China on January 17th. As I said in , there is no delivery to Russia of this particular laptop, so I had to arrange delivery through an intermediary in the USA. On January 21, the parcel arrived at a warehouse in the USA and was sent to St. Petersburg. On January 29, the parcel arrived at the PVZ, but half an hour before its closing, so I took the laptop in the morning of January 30th.
What's the cost?
For the laptop itself and its delivery to the USA, I paid $232.99 (15`400,64 in rubles at that time). And for shipping from the USA to St. Petersburg 42.84$ (2`878,18 in rubles at that time).
That is, in total, this device cost me 18`278,82 rubles.
There are a couple of things to note about shipping:
- After a short comparison was chosen (not advertising, there are probably cheaper intermediaries).
- When replenishing the account with the intermediary, a certain percentage was charged on top (now I don’t remember exactly how much: not much, but bad taste remained).
- I did not have to pay import duty on the device because its price fits in .
- In the shipping cost, I included an additional (something around $ 3) service for wrapping the parcel in an additional layer of plastic wrap. This reinsurance turned out to be unnecessary (so I would say that such a laptop with delivery will cost ~ 18 thousand rubles), since the native packaging is quite multi-layered.
Inside the DHL package was a package with bubble wrap, inside of which there was already a cardboard box and a power adapter. Inside the first box was a second cardboard box. And already inside the second box there is a quick start guide (in the form of a printed A4 sheet) and the device itself in a thin shock-absorbing package.
Packing Photo
Touchpad
The first thing that greatly spoils the impression of the device is the touchpad. As rightly noted в :
The problem is with input accuracy. For example, it’s hard for me to select text in the browser - I just don’t get it by letter. The cursor slows down, floats a couple of pixels in a random direction when you move your finger slowly.
From myself, I would say that the touchpad has a "drift". That is, at the end of the gesture, the cursor still moves a few pixels on its own. In addition to updating the firmware, setting the MinSpeed parameter (in etc/X11/xorg.conf) greatly improves the situation (but, unfortunately, does not completely solve it):
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall"
Driver "synaptics"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.25"
EndSectionOr the same with the command:
synclient MinSpeed=0.25The configuration recommendation has already migrated from the forum thread () In .
Keyboard
I liked the keyboard in general. But there are a few points that are rather nit-picking on my part:
- The key travel is unusually long (that is, the keys are high)
- Clicks are noisy
The ISO (UK) layout option is too unusual for me, so I ordered the ANSI (US) layout for myself. Below we will talk about it:
The keyboard layout itself presented several unpleasant moments that I felt already when typing directly:
- No context menu key (neither separate nor Fn+)
- No separate Delete key (there is a keyboard shortcut Fn + Backspace)
- The power key is located in the upper right corner, to the right of F12
I understand that this is a matter of habit, but my personal preference: the power key (better - the button) should be separate from the keyboard keys. And in the vacated space, I would prefer to see a separate Delete key. It is convenient for me to see the context menu on the Fn + right Ctrl combination.
Connecting an external screen
Before the laptop fell into my hands, I was convinced that a Chinese USB Type C to HDMI adapter bought on aliexpress for Nintendo Switch (if anything, I know about the danger of such devices) will work with Pinebook Pro. Something like that:
In fact, it turned out that it did not work. And, as I understand it, you need an adapter of a completely different type. :
Here are some selection criteria for successfully using the USB C alternate mode for video:
- The device must use USB C alternate mode DisplayPort. Not USB C alternate mode HDMI, or other.
- The device can have a HDMI, DVI, or VGA connector, if it uses an active translator.
That is, you need an adapter from USB Type C to DisplayPort, which can then output to HDMI, DVI, and the like. The community is testing different adapters, the results can be found in . In general, you need to be prepared for the fact that an arbitrary USB Type C dock will not work or will not work completely.
Operating system
The laptop comes with Debian (MATE) from the factory. Out of the box did not work in the forehead:
- Moving the system bar to the left edge of the screen: after a reboot, the main menu button disappears, there is no reaction to pressing the Super (Win) key.
- For one of the Android smartphones, the MTP protocol did not work. Installing other packages to work with MTP did not solve the problem: the phone stubbornly does not appear as a laptop.
- For some videos on youtube, the sound did not work in FireFox. As it turned out .
Plus, it seemed strange enough for me that the default OS turned out to be 32-bit: armhf, not arm64.
Therefore, without thinking twice, I switched to using 64-bit Manjaro ARM with Xfce as a desktop. I haven't dealt with Xfce for several years, and before that I mostly used Xfce as a desktop environment for *BSD systems. In short, I liked it very much. Stable, responsive, configurable.
Of the minor disadvantages, I would note that some functions that, in my opinion, should be immediately after installing the OS, have to be delivered from packages after. For example, the user's lock screen, which is displayed during inactivity, closing-opening the lid, or as a reaction to pressing hot keys (that is, the configuration of the hot keys themselves is in the system immediately after installation, but there is simply no lock command).
Power Tests
I want to say right away that I suspect that something is wrong with my power supply system. My laptop in standby mode discharges (from 100% to 0) in less than two days (40 hours). Tested on Debian, because on Manjaro ARM the suspend mode does not work yet - :
Known issues:
- Suspend does not work
But from the experience of use, I can notice that without a connected power adapter in partial load mode, I calmly use the laptop during the day without recharging. As a power load test, I put a streaming video from youtube () over WiFi with XNUMX% screen brightness. The device lasted just under three hours on battery. That is, on "to see a movie" quite enough (although I still expected slightly better results). At the same time, the lower part of the laptop is heated quite decently.
Charging
Speaking of charging. The power adapter looks like this:
The length of the power cord is just over a meter, which is short when compared to typical laptops.
Before I received the device, for some reason I thought that the laptop would be charged from USB Type C. And it seems that while the laptop is on, charging via USB Type C should work - . But my USB Type C battery is not charging (which reinforces my fears that something is wrong in the power system of my copy).
Sound
Poor sound. Frankly speaking, I simply have not seen worse sound quality (or even the same). Even with a 10-inch tablet or just a modern smartphone, the sound quality played through the device's speakers is much better. For me, this is not critical at all, but the sound quality was unpleasantly surprised.
Summary
It may seem that I have listed mainly some shortcomings, which means I am dissatisfied with the device, but this is not at all the case. Just listing everything that works on the one hand is boring, but on the other hand, it seems to me more important to describe the shortcomings of the device here (if, for example, someone plans to buy it). It's not the kind of device you buy for your grandma (and if you do, you'll have to visit often and tweak your laptop). But this is a device that performs decently to the best of its hardware capabilities.
At the time I got a laptop, I looked at the current retail alternatives. For the same money, there are several models of some conditional Irbis, and one model each from Acer and Lenovo (with Windows 10 on board). In my case, I don’t regret a bit that I took the Pinebook Pro, but, for example, for my parents (very far from the computer environment and living geographically far from me), I would take something else.
This device, of course, will require attention and time from its owner. I think not many people will use a laptop in the "bought and use in the factory configuration" mode. But setting up and customizing Pinebook Pro is not at all a burden (I focus on personal experience). That is, this is an option for people who are willing to spend their time to get the final product, sharpened to their own requirements.
The current situation (COVID-19) has unfortunately resulted in the production schedule being frozen for the time being. On the official forum, branches about the sale of used models appeared. Often, sellers set a price equal to the cost of a new device and paid shipping ($220-240). But especially enterprising individuals sell their . What indicates the presence of interest in these devices, and in the case of Pine64, the community determines a lot. In my opinion, the life cycle of Pinebook Pro will be long and successful (at least for end users).
Source: habr.com