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After unveiling plans to launch a $199 Linux laptop with a Rockchip RK3399 processor earlier this year, the folks at Pine64 have been hard at work designing the hardware and software for the upcoming Pinebook Pro.
Now the team has posted a YouTube video showing off the latest prototype, and demonstrating that it has improved hardware, and support for 4K video playback (something the company's original Pinebook couldn't handle).
Pine64 still has some kinks to work out — audio isn't working on the current motherboard, and there are problems with charging, suspend and resume. But it looks like the Pinebook Pro could be ready to ship within months.
Source: https://liliputing.com/2019/05/pinebook-pro-update-the-199-linux-laptop-is-almost-ready-to-go.html
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday May 08 2019, @05:48AM (7 children)
I kind of want to pull the trigger but we'll have to see whether it's worth it.
https://www.pine64.org/2019/05/06/may-2019-news/ [pine64.org]
This says they have changed their ordering system from the old one that everyone was complaining about.
This is probably the weakest link in the whole system (in terms of performance) but at least it doesn't have a Management Engine... right?
4 GB is apparently the maximum amount RK3399 supports so forget about expanding that. Putting in an SSD with optional adapter is your only option for boosting performance. Actually, the eMMC is "upgradable" so maybe you can just swap that for an SSD.
The "Magnesium Alloy Shell body" could be good for this price point. I've had more expensive systems made of plastic, like the deteriorating mess in front of me.
Looks like no HDMI, USB Type-C is used for video output instead. Probably means another adapter is needed for some users.
1080p IPS display is good for this price point. No more 1366x768 trash.
10,000 mAh capacity battery seems reasonable. AFAICT a lot of laptops are shipping with smaller battery capacities.
The bootable microSD slot could be fun to use.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 08 2019, @06:39AM (1 child)
I must go check on the packaging again for the exact Rockchip "CPU", but this sounds like my pathetic Asus Tinkerboard in a laptop body. 640x40 video judders and skips whole canyons of frames, but at least the audio keeps going ok. Many of the apps (with the included Debian for arm) are incomplete or broken. I can well believe the struggle to get thing working. You get what you pay for.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday May 08 2019, @07:18AM
See other comment.
Here's a reviewer who tried the original Pinebook with a 1080p screen:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/11/21/pinebook-my-first-few-surprising-hours-with-a-99-linux-laptop/ [forbes.com]
In other words, 1080p video kinda worked on the original Pinebook, and that was with an OS booted on the reviewer's microSD card. The Pinebook Pro has about doubled performance over that model, including a more modern GPU (does 4K and H.265 acceleration), and 4 GB instead of 2 GB RAM (I am typing this comment on a $100 system that handles 720p just fine and has only 2 GB RAM).
You do get what you pay for, but $100-$200 gets you a lot more bang for your buck these days. These systems destroy the aggravating netbooks of a decade ago, and the Rockchip SoC here is better than what a lot of SBCs are packing (particularly RasPi).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday May 08 2019, @07:02AM (3 children)
Comparing the Pinebook Pro [pine64.org] to the previous Pinebook [pine64.org]:
The Rockchip RK3399 ARM CPU is significantly better than the Allwinner A64 according to Geekbench. As in, more than double the single and multi-threaded performance. That could make the difference between awful and tolerable performance. GPU performance is obviously better but I haven't found a good comparison/benchmark (both GPUs are scalable to a # of cores, which appears to have doubled in this case).
2 GB LPDDR3 RAM was doubled to 4 GB LPDDR4.
16 GB eMMC quadrupled to 64 GB. You could probably use the new capacity for a couple of years before adding a 1 TB SSD, which could be $50 by then.
The original Pinebook came in both 11.6" ($89) and 14" ($99). The Pro seems to have at least 1 additional USB port (the Type-C), but I don't see counts yet. The page says that the latest iteration of Pinebook now has a 1080p IPS panel, whereas early buyers got a 1366x768 TN panel [liliputing.com] (here is a Forbes reviewer who got Pinebook with 1080p [forbes.com]).
802.11n is now 802.11ac, and Bluetooth 4.0 is now 4.1.
Plastic clamshell is now metal.
Looks like a worthy upgrade for twice the price. If shipping ends up being around $30 in each case, it's proportionally less painful for the $200 version. However, it looks like it will be offered by a North American retailer [ameridroid.com] this time so you don't have to get it shipped directly from Hong Kong.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by petecox on Wednesday May 08 2019, @07:57AM (2 children)
Performance should be akin to an ARM Chromebook - iirc, Google's OP1 is merely a RK3399 rebadged.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday May 08 2019, @08:20AM
https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/22/14691396/google-chromebook-arm-laptop-op1-processor-apptop [theverge.com]
It's considerably better than previous ARM SoCs that were used in Chromebooks. So past bad experiences with ARM laptops may not apply here.
I wonder how well the 2-cluster design is handled. Here's a comment by one of the Pine devs:
https://www.pine64.org/2019/05/06/may-2019-news/ [pine64.org]
I doubt I would switch off the Cortex-A72 cores just to get an extra 2 hours of battery life. Although maybe they should switch off automatically at 15% battery.
Core clusters are probably set to get a lot more attention in the near future now that Intel is toying around with big/small cores [anandtech.com]. I think that even high-end desktops could benefit from something like that (e.g. 1-4 small cores used primarily when the system is idling).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 08 2019, @11:55AM
Funny, I'm considering this to replace my battered, old Asus C720 running linux. Never would have thought a cheap, underpowered POS laptop would remain serviceable for 5 years and become my main, general use machine.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stormwyrm on Wednesday May 08 2019, @07:37AM
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday May 08 2019, @04:35PM (1 child)
Comment on news post:
https://www.pine64.org/2019/05/06/may-2019-news/ [pine64.org]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by zzarko on Wednesday May 08 2019, @10:07PM
If someone can touch-type, then it shouldn't matter what is drawn on the keys, just use your favorite keymap, no?
C64 BASIC: 1 a=rnd(-52028):fori=1to8:a=rnd(1):next:fori=1to5:?chr$(rnd(1)*26+65);:next
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday May 08 2019, @04:41PM (4 children)
https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/05/07/all-chromebooks-launched-this-year-will-be-linux-ready/ [androidpolice.com]
All Chromebooks launched this year will be Linux-ready
Will this Pinebook Pro be Linux Ready?
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)
(Score: 2) by engblom on Thursday May 09 2019, @05:12AM (3 children)
What does "Linux Ready" means when it comes to Chromebooks? Is it meaning that I can replace ChromeOS with a distro of choice?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 09 2019, @05:22AM
You could already do that.
"Linux Ready" is referring to booting sandboxed Linux applications within ChromeOS. All of said machines also run Android apps within ChromeOS.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 09 2019, @09:50AM
X-ready = you kind of have X through some trick
See HD-ready for TV.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Thursday May 09 2019, @02:00PM
It specifically means what is called Crostini.
A feature in Settings that allows anyone to "turn on" Linux. A new app appears which is a terminal with a shell to a debian linux in an LXD container within a custom written secure vm ("crosvm").
Google looked at qemu, kvm and others. They had too many features google didn't need. Too much attack surface area. Google wrote crosvm in a a higher level language, with just the features it needs, and strongly focused on security from the start.
If you read up on the necessary commands, you can create your own LXD containers on this same vm (called "termina'). You can even create new vms under crosvm. You can install your own distros. If you want a full desktop, you will need to use something like VNC to get the effect of what crouton gives you today.
Personally: I'm still using crouton. Just because of inertia. I have to run the device in "developer mode". But that isn't much of a drawback since the device is always in my physical control. Or locked in hotel room safe and powered down.
Crouton: an older technique that allows you to run a chrooted jailed linux distribution, with full desktop GUI, on the same kernel as Chrome OS -- thus it is insecure. Your linux distro, which is untrusted, could compromise the entire device, including your credentials, google account, etc. I run ubuntu bionic with xfce and I love it. A desktop in a resizable window (better than vnc) and can be "full screened" with the push of one button. I can run Eclipse with java and other dev tools.
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)