Would you BUY a 7" Notebook??

https://www.windowscentral.com/gpd-...ticle&utm_content=20170725&utm_campaign=email

GPD Pocket review: An outstanding, but niche, PC for your pocket

John.

 

Well it's either this or GPD Win for my next gadget once I have the money. Imagine bringing a tablet out from your jacket... oh wait it's a full-fledged Windows laptop (Totally not a toy running Android/iOS)

At that time I can finally release some burden from my hard-working 2740p.

 

truly a marvel to admire, and to possibly play with a little ....but unfortunately not very practical for most uses .....even though the price is justified for the build quality and innovation, i suspect most will purchase it simply for the novelty or collectible aspect.

 

I used to work for a tech shop that sold UMPCs and I always liked the idea in theory. However, I found that I could never make practical use of one, in part because UMPCs back then were pretty underpowered.

I ended up only using the UMPCs to browse the web or play lightweight 2D games, which is something my Android phone can do well.

Typing on a keyboard that small for any length of time is only going to be annoying and lessen your productivity, and I kind of feel like if you're going to be doing a lot of work, then you're going to be parked at a desk, which means you should probably be using a laptop or desktop computer.

So while I'd love to get myself this just to play with it as a birthday treat or something, I just can't see when or why I'd use it regularly.

 

It certainly looks like a UMPC to me. It's been about 10 years since UMPCs died off. They were then, in my view, a device that never earned more than novelty status, and nothing has happened since then to make me see differently. The usability still isn't there, in the input devices (keyboard) or the software. Windows 10's scaling just isn't great, and the OS isn't, for all it's been marketed, well integrated with touch. That hasn't changed since Vista.

UMPCs died off fast because smartphones with dedicated finger-friendly OSes were more practical. I put some notes to this effect when discussing the OQO Model 1 UMPC in our feature: Top 10 Iconic Notebooks that Changed Mobile Computing.

Charles

 

Agreed. UMPC's are difficult to use productively. They where the rage due to their novelty, and laptops where still very heavy, and tablets had very poor OS implementation.

Now this. It is just a small tablet with a permanent keyboard, or a large phone that can't make calls.

More like a netbook

However, If you are in the very small niche to need a Windows device that can fit (very tightly) in your pocket; this really is the only choice besides emulating x86 on your Snapdragon 835 phone

 

Yeah its size is more like a netbook, though without its rather weak performance, and it's convenient in some situations where using a smartphone feels awkward and I don't need the power of a laptop, e.g. typing a reply here. Not a fan of virtual keyboards and carrying a ~2kg steel plate for some petty work really gets old to me.

 

Hmm, well I made extensive use of the Psion Series 5 and Revo systems for writing in the past, since they were easily carried and encouraged more writing to be done throughout the day. I can see this being used well for a similar purpose. For practical use, I find the Macbook Air 11" to be the limit of what I can comfortably use for general tasks.

The price is too high and I doubt I'd realistically need 8GB of RAM and such a large disk drive on such a system. The port selection though is impressive and the battery life is very reasonable.

 

I'd consider it if it had LTE and could be used as tablet as well (e.g. Yoga or 360-rotating hinge). Or just LTE. Definitely LTE!

 

I'd buy this at almost any price with the following changes:

2x 8GB+ RAM modules (dual channel).
1TB SSD (no eMCC garbage).
Bigger (much bigger) battery (dreaming about 72 hours run time w/sleep...).

At this price point? The only thing it offers better is size.

The Asus T100TA's (and similar) are still much better, overall.

 

I can't see the point of this device, or it's ancestors from the past. You have something that is too small to comfortably use for real work (I couldn't imagine myself doing software development on this machine for more than a quick edit) without attaching an external keyboard/mouse and maybe a monitor to it, but then why not use a normal computer at the point? It certainly looks comfortable for consuming media though (YouTube, music, etc), though for the price and features, you're better off with a tablet of a smartphone in that use case.

 

Don't see much to recommend about it other than the size and novelty. Especially at that price point. It doesn't do anything my SP2 won't already do and that already fits in my jacket.

 

I personally used qwerty slider smartphones until earlier this year, due to superior typing experience. I actually need to type long texts fast on the go. Now I use a 6.44" phablet; everything is great about it - except typing. I use Hacker's keyboard since I rely on keyboard shortcuts and navigation keys heavily - and mistakes are plentiful, while text correction only makes things much worse and stupid suggestions annoy the hell out of me, to the point I had to disable both completely. Bottom line, I carry my convertible ultrabook with me much more often these days. \=

 

RIP motorola droid qwerty sliders. I have to type professionally with clients - no lolspeak or abbreviations - i am still only half the speed I was on them, even with after two years of swype keyboard experience

 

@bennyg yep. Goodnight, sweet prince. )'=

 

How do I not remember these? The last slider I had was an old dumbphone in like 2001.

 

I remember my last slider: a Samsung Evergreen cell phone. Was a nice phone, and I moved over to a Nokia Lumia 900 as my first smartphone

 

Not really practical from a production stand point. The size is nice for the power offered. About the only thing I would use this for is probably some portable emulation to play some games while riding a bus, or subway, or on a flight, or maybe hauling around some presentations or data to be shown elsewhere. No, I wouldn't buy it, as I would have no use for it really.