The yearn A64 was a 64-bit Quad-Core single Board computer which was kickstarted at the tail end of 2015 for shipment in the middle of 2016. Costing just $15, as well as hailed as a “Raspberry Pi killer,” the board increased $1.7 million from 36,000 backers. It shipped to its backers to practically widely bad reviews.

Now they’re back, this time around with a laptop—a 11.6-inch design for $89, or a 14-inch design for $99. Both are powered by the exact same 64-bit Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53 as the original yearn A64 board, but at least yearn are doing a much much better task this time around around of managing individual expectations.

The 11.6-inch Pinebook.
However, you can’t just purchase one off the shelf. The new Pinebooks are develop to purchase (BTO) as well as the procedure is somewhat long-winded. The very first thing you requirement to do is put yourself into the BTO queue on the yearn 64 website. pick the design you want—11.6 or 14-inch—and then go into your email address. I chose the 11.6-inch model.

When you reach the top of the queue—my comprehending is that it’s rather long, a number of months, at this point—you’ll get an email from yearn asking you to verify your order, as well as providing to upsell you on some αξεσουάρ; a USB Ethernet adaptor, some USB to Type-H barrel power cable televisions of different length, as well as a mini-HDMI to HDMI adaptor.

You then add up the expense of the Pinebook, any type of accessories you want, as well as shipping—which seems to normally be between $20 to $40 depending upon where you are in the world—and mail yearn back with your address, phone number, as well as PayPal ID. At this point you’ll get request for repayment to you PayPal account. Pay the bill, as well as your Pinebook will ship in the next BTO batch.

I don’t precisely keep in mind when I added myself to the BTO queue, however it was definitely no later than the begin of Q4 last year, potentially even before that. I got my preliminary BTO email from yearn on the 12th of April, replied on the 18th. The Pinebook shipped from Hong Kong on the 24th, as well as I got it right here in the united kingdom on the 27th—after paying an extra £35 in import responsibilities to the courier—inside its plastic protective case.

As of the time of composing the next BTO batch is arranged for the 5th of May, shipping from Shenzhen rather than Hong Kong. Your experience may vary commonly from mine.

The Hardware

The apparent product to compare the Pinebook to would seem to be the Pi-Top, however there truly isn’t a comparison. funded on Indiegogo back in 2014, the Pi-Top is a Raspberry Pi powered laptop. It has a 10 hour battery life, a 13.3-inch screen, as well as comes as a set you put together yourself. The Pinebook looks as well as feels like a ‘real’ laptop, the Pi-Top truly doesn’t. The Pi-Top likewise expense $299, much more than three times the cost of the Pinebook.

The Pinebook keyboard.
One of my primary complaints about the Pi-Top was its keyboard — I haven’t had to hammer at a keyboard that difficult because I stopped utilizing a mechanical typewriter. The Pinebook’s keyboard is better, much better, although I’m not rather sure what essential mapping they’re using—it appears to be a cross between a us as well as a UK layout—the physical keyboard is comfortable as well as solid to χρήση.

Instead my primary grievance right here is the trackpad, it’s quite poor, although I do have to admit its performance is similar with a number of of the low-end Chromebooks I’ve had the misfortune use. It’s likewise much better than the Pi-Top’s trackpad, so perhaps I was expecting as well much from it.

The hole for the microphone is visible above the keyboard, while the two downward firing speakers are spaced one on each side of the keyboard. The speakers are much more than a bit tinny, with some distortion at high volumes.

Left side of the Pinebook with barrel power connector, USB as well as mini-HDMI ports.
The Pinebook is powered utilizing a five-volt barrel connector, it includes a five-volt, three-amp wall wart as well as you can pick up a USB to barrel connector cable television as an accessory when you order—or splice one together yourself from parts. After charging the laptop ought to run for around six hours on battery, nevertheless best now there are some issues because of software application which implies that you may get shorter battery life than expected.

The barrel connector is on the left-hand side of the Pinebook, together with it is a USB port, as well as a mini-HDMI connector. best now, once again because of software application problems, video output through the mini-HDMI connector is understood not to work, with yearn predicting that this will be resolved around the middle of May.

On the other, right-hand, side of the Pinebook is one more USB port, as well as an headphone jack, which at least in theory doubles as a UART port although I haven’t evaluated this yet—although best now audio out from the port is also known not to work. There is likewise a micro SD Card slot, which I have tested, as well as works just fine.

Right side of the Pinebook with micro SD card slot, headphone socket, as well as USB port.
Above the screen is a Silicon movement 640×480 pixel (0.3MP) USB video camera utilizing a BYD Microelectronics BF3703 VGA CMOS picture sensor. It provides a predictably terrible picture quality—the last time I had a 640×480 pixel video camera in my cellphone I believe it was the late 90’s—but it works out of the box as well as is completely supported by the Linux UVC driver.

Frankly, I was amazed that the Pinebook had a video camera whatsoever thinking about the cost point of the laptop. So I’m not complaining.

Apart from the trackpad the screen is most likely the poorest high quality part of the build. The panel is a decently sized 1366×768 pixels, as well as is much more than bright enough. sadly on mine there were visible horizontal lines. In other words, it flickered. Συνεχώς. The colour representation of the panel likewise isn’t that great, however compared to the flickering that’s truly a extremely minor issue.

The Pinebook screen is readable, however not high quality.
The flickering is constant sufficient so that, while the screen is completely readable, long-lasting utilize most likely isn’t going to be a great idea. I’m uncertain whether this is a issue with my unit, or a style or develop issue with the Pinebook in general, as well as I’d be thinking about hearing in the comments from anybody else with their hands on a Pinebook whether this is a much more extensive problem.

Booting from a chilly begin to the login screen takes 27 seconds, after entering your password—the password for the default individual is ‘pine64’—it’ll take one more thirteen seconds for the desktop to completely open. Shutting down from the desktop to chilly takes just over eight seconds.

Update: The screen problems I’m experiencing are obviously because of a software application issue which only impacts the 11.6-inch model–they aren’t present on the 14-inch unit. The issue hasn’t yet been resolved, although the root cause is currently believed to be the ANX6345 driver, or fbturbo settings.

Το λογισμικό

The Pinebook ships with Ubuntu MATE 16.04 installed. sadly it runs sluggishly and, at least for me, at a speed that feels considerably slower than the PIXEL desktop on Raspbian running on a Raspberry Pi 3. This is unexpected thinking about the speed of the A64 processor. Although the bad high quality of the trackpad is most likely contributing to that feeling of sluggishness, I’ve got a feeling that there are optimisation issues here; it truly shouldn’t feel this slow.

The default Ubuntu MATE desktop.
Running Firefox was particularly painful, which kind of guidelines it out as a ‘casual web browsing laptop’ that you leave lying around on the sofa.

So, just like last time, the primary problems with the Pinebook seem to be around the software. things are vastly improved over the specify of things when yearn released their original board, unlike the original yearn A64 board the Pinebook is really useable. nevertheless yearn have made it extremely remove that, “…it will mostly be as much as the neighborhood to assist even more establish as well as enhance the BSP [Board support Package] Linux experience on the device.”

It’s possible that the present efforts to add support Allwinner support to the Linux mainline kernel will ultimately pay off, nevertheless up until they do you’re dependent on Pine, or much more likely the neighborhood around the yearn A64 board as well as the Pinebook, to enhance hardware support.

This means that documentation around the hardware is quite important. That documentation is however, lacking. It’s scattered, as well as if you’re expecting something that appears like the Raspberry Pi documentation you’re going to be in for a disappointment. The support forums are also sparsely populated. It’s early days, however there isn’t a great deal of neighborhood to pick up the slack best now.

However in addition to the develop of Ubuntu Linux that ships with the Pinebook there is likewise Android port to the yearn A64 in progress, as well as it appears to be in relatively late-stage development. So, if you’re having issues with Linux installation that shipped with the Pinebook, you may want to try the Android develop instead.

Looking inside the Pinebook

Opening up the Pinebook is quite simple, there are ten Philips screws on the underside of the laptop—be cautious though, the ones towards the thin leading edge of the wedge are smaller so don’t get them mixed up—so flip it over, unscrew them, then thoroughly lever the back casing off with a metal spudger.

The inside of the Pinebook situation is mainly battery.
The primary board is promptly visible on the right, together with a child board dealing with the sockets on the other side of the situatστο πολύ αριστερά.

Μετά την εξάλειψη του πυθμένα της κατάστασης, υπάρχουν τέσσερις πολύ περισσότερες βίδες της Philips για να εξαλείψετε την μπαταρία, εκτός από κάποια ταινία όπου η μπαταρία είναι συνδεδεμένη στην πλακέτα. Ο σύνδεσμος απλώς ανυψώνεται από την υποδοχή της, οπότε κρατήστε την ταινία χρήσιμη θα σας απαίτηση να συνεχίσετε την καλωδιακή τηλεόραση όταν έρχεστε να βάλετε ό, τι επιστρέφει ξανά.

Αφαίρεση των υποκειμένων της μπαταρίας το Trackpad PCB.
Μετά την ανύψωση της μπαταρίας μπορείτε να δείτε την τελική πλακέτα, η οποία είχε κρυφτεί κάτω από την μπαταρία, αυτό χειρίζεται το trackpad.

Η ίδια η πρωτεύουσα του πίνακα είναι κρυμμένη στην κορυφή δεξιά κάτω από ένα τετράγωνο της ταινίας καθώς και μια ασπίδα RF. Εάν απολύσετε προσεκτικά την ταινία από την ασπίδα, θα έπρεπε απλώς να σηκώσετε καθώς και να είναι απλή επαρκή για να συνεχίσετε όταν ασχολείται να κλείσει το φορητό υπολογιστή.

Ο επεξεργαστής ALLWINNER A64 είναι ορατός κοντά στο κέντρο του σκάφους, ενώ το τσιπ ακριβώς κάτω από αυτό είναι ένα Sino Riches SH68F83, ένα μικρο-ελεγκτή χαμηλής ταχύτητας που χρησιμοποιείται ως πληκτρολόγιο HID / γέφυρα Touchpad. Στα αριστερά του επεξεργαστή Α64 είναι ένα προβλέπτο NCLD3B2512M32 με 2 GIB LPDDR3 DRAM που λειτουργεί στα 533 MHz

Το κύριο συμβούλιο με το κύριο σιλικόνη επισημαίνεται.
Μια μονάδα EMMC 16 GB είναι ορατή, όσο και η καλύτερη από την CPU. Μπορείτε να παραλάβετε αντικαταστάσεις για την ενότητα-κυμαινόμενη σε μέγεθος από 8 GB έως 64 GB-στο κατάστημα yearn. Η ενότητα είναι αντικαθιστά ο χρήστης. Προφανώς ελεγμένες ταχύτητες έως και 80 MB / s καθώς και οι συνθέτες ταχύτητες έως και τα 40 MB / s εμφανίζονται με την ενότητα. Το πινέλο είναι σε θέση να εκκινήσει τόσο από το εσωτερικό EMMC είτε από μια εξωτερική κάρτα Micro SD.

Οι τρεις άλλες μικρότερες μάρκες είναι οι εξουσίες Χ-εξουσίες XP803, οι οποίες χειρίζονται τη χορήγηση της μπαταρίας καθώς και τη φόρτιση, ένα geness logic gl850 g το οποίο λειτουργεί ως ελεγκτής πλήμνης USB 2.0, καθώς και τελικά το Analogix ANX6345 που ασχολείται με το RGB για να εμφανιστεί η μετάφραση.

Στην κορυφή μπορείτε επίσης να δείτε μια δεύτερη θωράκιση RF, αυτό είναι λίγο πιο σταθερά συνδεδεμένο από την πρωτεύουσα ασπίδα, ωστόσο, μπορεί να ξεπεράσει προσεκτικά για να εκθέσει ένα realtek rtl8723cs, μια υπηρεσία SDIO 2.0 που περιλαμβάνει Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LR, όπως καθώς και ο δέκτης FM.

Σε αντίθεση με το συμβούλιο του Χρονητικού Α64, ή το Raspberry Pi Powered Pi-Top, δεν υπάρχουν καρφίτσες gpio που υποβάλλονται στο πρωτεύον του πίνακα του πευκοδάσου.

Θα έπρεπε να είστε συνειδητοποιημένοι ότι όταν επανασυναρμολογήσετε το πινέλο, η επιφάνεια του trackpad έχει την τάση να υποκύψει προς τα έξω, θα απαιτήσετε να βεβαιωθείτε ότι πιέζεται πίσω στην τοποθεσία πριν από την επαναφορά της πλάτης – δεν θα μπορείτε να το σπρώξετε Η τοποθεσία μετά την επιστροφή έχει συνδεθεί – αφού διαφορετικά τα κουμπιά Trackpad δεν θα λειτουργήσουν για επανασυναρμολόγηση.

Περίληψη

Συνολικά, η ανάπτυξη υψηλής ποιότητας του πευκοδάσου είναι εκπληκτικά εντάξει. Εκτός από το touchpad, το οποίο δεν είναι καλό, καθώς και η οθόνη, η οποία μπορεί να είναι ένα ζήτημα με τη μονάδα μου, αισθάνεται σαν ένα «πραγματικό» φορητό υπολογιστή.

Ωστόσο, για να είναι πραγματικά σαφής, αυτή δεν είναι αντικατάσταση για το MacBook σας. Δεν μπορείτε να το παρέχετε στον νεαρό σας που ξεκινάει στο κολέγιο – ή ακόμα και το υψηλό ίδρυμα – καθώς και να περιμένετε να διαχειριστούν. Δεν είναι επίσης πραγματικά μια αντικατάσταση για ένα χρωστικό βιβλίο χαμηλού επιπέδου, η επιφάνεια εργασίας είναι επαρκώς υποτονική ότι θα ήμουν επιφυλακτικός να το συστήσω ως προσιτό φορητό υπολογιστή περιήγησης στο Web για τον καναπέ.

Από την άλλη πλευρά, θα έπρεπε να παραδεχτώ, μου αρέσει. Είναι πολύ καλύτερο πολύ καλύτερα μαζί από ένα φορητό υπολογιστή $ 89 έχει οποιοδήποτε τύπο καλύτερου να είναι, καθώς και παρά την μπαταρία υπάρχει μεγάλη περιοχή μέσα για την προσθήκη των πραγμάτων. Μάλλον ποια πράγματα δεν απομακρύνω τελείως, με την ίδια ακριβώς μέθοδο, δεν είμαι απλά σίγουρος τι θα τελειώσω με αυτό μάλλον ακόμα. Ωστόσο, θα κάνω κάτι έξω.