It would have been useful to describe the ports on the laptop, internal storage, and what hardware if any is upgrade able. Otherwise, not a bad review.
I think I will buy one of these for my mom, these days they come with Manjaro arm installed. She doesnt use a computer but she wants one to write her stories and poems.
Thank you, Jay. I'm a desktop System 76, Pop!_OS person but have always and still loved the idea of cheap laptops (I still have my Eee PC notebook and OLPC).
SPECIFICATIONS cost:200$ Rockchip RK3399 SOC with Mali T860 MP4 GPU 4GB LPDDR4 RAM 1080p IPS Panel Magnesium Alloy Shell body Bootable Micro SD Slot 64GB of eMMC (Upgradable) PCIe x4 to m.2 NVMe SSD Slot (requires optional adapter) SPI Flash 128Mbit HD Digital Video Out via USB-C USB 2.0 Host USB 3.0 Host USB-C (Data, Power and Video out) Lithium Polymer Battery (10000mAH) Stereo Speakers WiFi 802.11 AC + Bluetooth 5.0 Headphone Jack Microphone Front-Facing Camera (1080p) ISO & ANSI Keyboard Variants Privacy Switches for Camera, Microphones and BT/WiFi Large Trackpad UART Access via Audio Jack Barrel Power (5V 3A) Port
For me, one of the most attractive features of the PinebookPro, which is shared with the upcoming PineTab and PinePhones, are the privacy switches. Add to that the Pro's ability to use an M.2 NVMe drive, well. Of course if one turns off bt/wifi, you either live without internet, or you need a USB-to-ethernet dongle for hard-wired connectivity. Again it's a matter of use case. (edit: for this particular machine, I wouldn't recommend the usb-to-ethernet dongle sold on the Pine Store, since that is a USB2.0 dongle, that'll only give you 100Mbps ethernet, you're better off looking at other vendors, for a proper USB3.0 Gigabit adapter, like those on Ameridroid or Amazon) All the Pine64 devices are intended for people who are willing to live with 'some' rough edges, be it in the software or hardware departments. Then again, if you use Linux as your main (or in fact *only*) OS, then this is pretty much par for the course ;)
I still can't believe this Pi knockoff in a glorified laptop shim has a higher resolution display than the base resolution for laptops 3-4 times the price.
@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 Not really, a few manufacturers sold linux based laptops from 2015 on (don't know if they still do) and they are still WELL over twice the price with 1368x768p TN screens. YES, TN screens. The price difference was MUCH smaller then people would assume (around US$50) because windows is far cheaper to OEM than to end-users to begin with, and even if it wasn't, why would they pass on those savings?
I love the PBP. But I agree it's not for non-tinkerers. I wouldn't make my wife use it, for example. For the limited RAM, you might want to try installing ZRAM. I found it in a review somewhere. It made working with 4GB limitation easier.
I read on the Pine forums that the display is actually the same as what's in the ThinkPad E490 which tested at 300 nits. Not bad, especially historically, but not on a par with modern 400-500 nit screens.
Please note: if you build in a M.2 SSD so please order a 'nvme' standard not a SATA so I do. My mistake cost me more then the intel 660d M.2 SSD. First I ordered a WDgreen 240GB SATA and this is wrong the system can't communicate with a SATA SSD! ----------- ONLY 'nvme' Format in use please think about my words. Best Regards Volker
Papangkorn Apinyanon I started getting into Linux around 2012, when I started using Ubuntu Linux on my Optiplex GX620. The hardware on there was well supported, so it worked great out of the box. If you have new/exotic hardware, your experience may be different. This can improve in the future. Some people say it’s just like Windows or macOS, but I don’t want you to expect everything to be the same. It has a learning curve, but I think it’s very doable if you want to learn about it. Getting some experience in the terminal will be very useful, as you can quickly install applications without using the graphical interface, for example. At first, that was the only thing I did in the terminal, but I’ve become pretty proficient in it and can make some simple scripts too. Also, I always recommend you to not enter any commands if you don’t know what they do. I don’t want to discourage you, but I want you to have realistic expectations. If you keep an open mind and are willing to learn about it, you can try it out by putting it onto a USB stick or DVD. You can try Ubuntu (or many other distros, but I recommend starting with Ubuntu) without even installing them. This is called Live USB/CD. While I’m not new to Linux as you asked, I do know what I struggled with using Linux. If you have any questions, please let me know. Hope this helped! 🙂
Papangkorn Apinyanon I use several distros across multiple devices. My main Linux laptop (HP ProBook 450) runs KDE neon, since it is really customizable and comes with my favorite applications. It’s a really smooth experience and performs well. My Chromebook Pixel runs on Manjaro, since it’s lightweight and fast with the limited amount of RAM (4 GB). The desktop environment is very no-frills out of the box, but functional. Out of these two, I’d recommend starting with KDE neon. You’re getting the right amount of eye candy and a lot of customizability while still being very user friendly. While you can achieve the same on Manjaro by installing KDE yourself, I think you’re better off starting with a great user experience right away to explore what Linux is capable of.
Thank you *SO MUCH* for properly criticizing the default OS of this system. "Shoddy at best" is 100% accurate. I've got a review I've been working to document some of the issues I'm having.
The default OS is Debian with the Mate desktop environment. Step 1: Update firmware Check out Pine64 website for easy directions on how to do so. Solves most issues.
If it can behave well with education apps such as "Blackboard" it could maybe compete, but that is a very crowded segment where the emphasis is ease of use. Something, that for all its limitations, ChromeOS excels at. A lack of Office 365 support for students is a common deal breaker especially as more campuses push towards being paperless. Somehow, after all these years, even common run of the mill word processing programs still make an absolute mess of formatting when converting files.
26:50 Chromebooks. This thing looks great for people who like to mess around with Linux on ARM, but Chromebooks will probably give you a better user experience and will still allow you to install Linux applications. The cherry on top is the Android app support, but dealing with Google does introduce some privacy concerns. Thanks for a great review!
@Caleb P yes, receiving it in the mall a video, then touching the box another video, unboxing it another video, turning it on another video. And the list goes on. Lmfao
I got one from the first production run, login creds were not included in the box. Found them mentioned in passing in a comment on the Pine forum lol. But the finish was great and the thing booted up no problems. Some of the software was a bit hinky but within 2 weeks updates had addressed everything I cared about. As a note the WIFI was solid even before I updated drivers so my experience was not the same as the reviewer. I am planning to switch to Manjaro though, but mostly because it's my preferred distro. 100% 2 thumbs up would buy again.
I don't know if this is the same Pine Computers that I knew years ago. They used to make various IO cards for PC's. Their build quality was good, but no two cards even when purchased the same day out of the same bin had the same chipset or drivers. Although they all worked when you bought them, when windows updated or was upgraded, some of your cards worked, while other's didn't. In one case revision A couldn't be upgraded, while revision B (purchased the same day out of the same bin) had new drivers that worked a treat... So I only had to replace half of the HDD controller cards in my office. I suppose it was better than upgrading all of the HDD controllers. So overall, their cards were well built and they had decent support, but they were literally working with whatever parts that were available the day the cards were assembled and someone just wrote A or B on the board to identify which was which. (At least they did that.) Basically, Pine was a smaller manufacturer that was at the mercy of their vendors. They used whatever parts they could get at the price point of the moment. So if things haven't significantly changed... users might find some inconsistencies between two seemingly identical laptops.
I wanted to say ty for your channel. I am new to linux as of 04/02/2020 and have soaked up all I can. Must say that all your video's have helped a great deal in my learning. I am a Windows convert so I started with LinuxMint but am looking forward to trying out new Distros as my knowledge grows....thanks again.
Excellent video. I watched it at 2x speed with auto-subs on and I heard everything you said! The dd-flash procedure is trivial for any non-first-time linux user, I am not concerned about that at all. The reason I would consider this machine is for business use - when you go into a meeting, it is somewhat assumed that you can log in to the sprint-review or backlog-issue management software (on the web). For me this is an issue, because I prefer to work on a proper stationary machine, meaning a non-power-gimped cpu. The flipside being I can not use my machine during a meeting in some conference room. I get by, using an android device, but it's not optimal from a proffesional stand point.
Loved the video. I've been eyeing this for the last couple of weeks and you answered a lot of questions I had. I would say that the pine64 community is very active from my recent IRC visits (I found myself smiling at the no-ip url on their irc network. I keep imagining a bunch of SOPINE modules running their IRC network)
Thanks for the review. I'm in the waiting room for the PBP. I'm looking for years to find an affordable device to play around with ARM linux. Based on your opinion I'll get spot on what I wanted. Maybe it is a regional thing but after observing the Medion Akoya S2015 Chromebook on which I was unsure about the android and linux support that goes further than prefixing and then to find it at a low price. It hovered around CHF 199 for a long time but then it went out of market. I hoped to get some clearance for a very low price but it didn't happen. Now there are not many ARM systems, even Chromebooks all seem to use low-power x86-CPUs. Here in Switzerland I only find these three ARM notebooks: Acer Chromebook R13, Lenovo Chromebook 300e and of course Surface Pro X which are all more expensive than the Pinebook Pro.
@@arax20 Scalability of performance and the resulting battery life increase, but I also want to learn how the whole booting process works and how the S-States for suspend differ from x86. Final goal is to install Gentoo with a custom kernel and get the most efficiency out of it.
By the way, while I agree that Debian Stable is pretty boring on the desktop (great on mission-critical servers, of course), there are ways to spice it up without switching to a different distro. Simply move to the Testing or even Unstable repos, and you can have as much excitement as you want. ;)
I want to experiment with ARM and also practicing Linux for a class, but there is a huge delay in getting this machine but will have to wait and hope things get better for our brothers overseas.
You can output the USB C to HDMI with the right adapter. I'm using mine with VGA at time of writing. Mine booted into Plasma not Mate. Now that I think of it I am running the whole system of a 128 gigabyte micro SD card. If I remember correctly, I ditched the official build for a more generic Manjaro on ARM installation. Okay, I see, yours came with Debian. That's is strange. Manjaro is faster.
Hi, a very good video, thank you very much. I am sorry, I did not watch the complete video, did you checked the noise level of the fan? It is noisy this laptop? Greetings, Lars
I like the content of your videos but I don't like the room noise in your audio. Can I recommend an alternative. Perhaps you could invest in a podcasting microphone. I got mine for just £70 off Amazon and it works fantastic, even for music production.
The lousy keyboard you read about was probably on their even cheaper (and much smaller) regular “Pinebook” laptop. But it seems like they got it right on the larger Pro model.
Thank you so much for this review! I was really on the fence for this purchase. I think it'll serve exactly as I want to as a lightweight device to SSH with, and watch some TH-cam while I'm at it.
@@jwizz1396 Essentially what this means is that you can run things that typically require admin (called "root" in Linux) privileges to run. I assume you know Windows so think about whenever your computer asks you if you want a program to "make changes to this computer", this is an action that typically would require root privileges to run.
@@speedymemes8127 the sudoers file can be edited presumably to remove the no-password-required configuration just as any other GNU/Linux distribution. Plus we did not see the reviewer install and configure Manjaro Linux.
How where you able to get a hold of one? They have halted shipping products from china and that has significantly increased the delay of his product. I have not received mine and it has been about a month.
I honestly have no idea. I thought I got mine fast too. I wonder if they figured out I was part of a TH-cam channel and prioritized it, I have no evidence of that and I hope that's not the case (it wouldn't be fair to others).
Nice. It looks a lot like my Latitude 7480, but I am sure we are not talking about the same quality for sure, but for the price point it's impressive. I do like the pre-installed os. What bothers me is you have to enter a user name and password, instead of running an installer like my XPS developers edition. It might have something to do with the distro differences. Go mate! lol.. neat
You should do a video on different distribution available for the Pinebook Pro and possibly decide which would be the best setup for the Pinebook Pro in general.
Jay, You say that flashing another distro is a little complicated using DD. I was under the impression you simply have to download the Emmc image from OSDN, flash it to a micro SD, boot from this and follow the instructions on the screen as per this link forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-19-12-released/114406. Does this not work?
To develop code for ARM, how about a raspberry pi, a jailbroken fire TV or an old android phone. I'm glad this exists giving people more choice in hardware, but its going to need a better selling point.
4 ปีที่แล้ว +2
how about the use case: "I want a low-power consumption (long battery) laptop" ??
there are alot of misconceptions about battery life and hardware, its a linuxbox, so adjust the CPU profile, to 400 or 800mhz and limit the cores u want use and you can easily double the stamina.
Around half way in the videos so far I love it, also maybe you could predetermine the camera angles you would need, so you don't have to do it on the spot, and you could possibly use a fade away transition between scenes.
There are cheap Chromebooks that can run Linux in a VM on top of Chrome OS or can be modded to run a Linux distorts (GaliumOS was specifically created for installing on Chromebooks. I have a $200 HP Chromebook that has worse specs in most regards than the Pinebook Pro.
i don't like very bright screens anyways . i have a tablet and i have to turn the brightness down all the way to its minimal position and even then its still to bright for me to use comfortably for long periods of time . and on my laptops i turn the brightness down to 20%
jay, i am living in a 2 GB ram world, running elementary OS.... and my oh my its quite cool. SO a 4 GB ram world would be the 7th heaven for me..... just wonder what the total cost would be to buy and ship one too South Africa......
@@Kulkasterbang . My favorite OS. Cant remember having any issue with MX Linux. But with Ununtu based OS like linux mint or Lubuntu there's always some issue. Even linux-mint freezes once in a while for no reason.
My use case is to replace my Chromebook, which I only use its ssh client and web browser. The Pinebook's size and cost makes it an ideal replacement for the mobile laptop my Chromebook was, AND it's native Linux and not Google's bastardized Linux. So it's an easy sell for me.
For me, the trackpad on the Pinebook Pro is definitely the weakest point. It has trouble registering small movements. Also, I really think they should just ship Manjaro ARM on future batches instead of Debian Stretch. Other than that I think it is a pretty good ultra portable laptop.
I'd recommend during the profile views of the laptop, maybe use that time to also show real quick any side ports headphones, usb, and such. just a suggestion.
If they took the price up by 50%, upgraded the keyboard and track pad and added a touchscreen, I'd snatch one up. Even so, at $200 I still might get one...
Hey @LearnLinuxTV what capture card are you using is that the QGeem capture card or just a dongle on your desk? I want to find a good capture card for my distro reviews because Simple Screen Recorder just isn't cutting it and I have bought a couple of them that haven't worked with linux. Any suggestions?
It's been a while since you posted this video and I doubt you still have it around. But in case you do, and in case you have the time, I'd like to see if you can install Neverware CloudReady on it. Making this a Chromebook like machine seems like a good use case (if it runs, Cloudready seems to have less rough edges for general users). Thanks.
i buyed it simply by curiosity... ahahahah. I find the software really bad duh. Manjaro ARM is great but there's missing a lot of software for daily use. If there were a little bit more work in the Linux ARM side it could become a really great platform :p.
My thoughts exactly. Was so excited, until I saw the limited usability unless you are really good at developing. It killed my interest as I wanted to use vs code on it, but it's shaky at best currently
Jay, Rather than use DD, I was under the impression one can simply download the Emmc image from OSDN, flash it to a micro sd, boot from the sd and simply follow the instructions to flash to the Emmc, following these instructions : forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-19-12-released/114406 . Does this not work?
Hi, is the RAM upgradable in this machine? Also what is pins on the native screen being used? I also noticed a lot of flex at th-cam.com/video/U9WyYJU4j2A/w-d-xo.html . Is the keyboard flex too bad?
I was one of the people that asked you to review this unit @LearnLinuxTV, I am happy you did! This is a great laptop everyone, get one when you can. There is a reason why this laptop keeps selling out, and while your at it get the NVME adapter when you buy the pro.
If you're using Manjaro, make sure to install Panfrost - it makes the desktop experience much faster. Once you've installed it, set compositor to OpenGL 2.0. This script makes the process painless: github.com/McMarius11/Pinebook-Pro/blob/master/graphics_driver_pf_fb.sh
So Linux is still not a works out of the box experience. I have zero faith I could buy one of these and then start browsing within the hour based on this review.
It would have been useful to describe the ports on the laptop, internal storage, and what hardware if any is upgrade able. Otherwise, not a bad review.
2:00 Did you just rip open a re-usable zippy bag? XD
Greta would shed a tear for it. How dare you!
@@hundsboog Yes.
I saw that too lol
You monster o.o
He did say he was excited to try it out.
I think I will buy one of these for my mom, these days they come with Manjaro arm installed. She doesnt use a computer but she wants one to write her stories and poems.
I hope you have bought it. She will be happy
For me its just crazy that I can use a phone charger to charge my laptop
The CPU is basically a smartphone CPU. :)
@@goku445 I thought it had two cpus
@I am the one who controls the sun dual cpu nice
You can do that with some other laptops too, most notably the macbook! I wish more laptops had this capability.
After the 11 years old asus monster this is going to be a huge upgrade
First thing to do after unboxing the PBP is to update the firmware. There's instructions on the Pine 64 website. It's super easy.
what firmware is there to update?
Thank you, Jay. I'm a desktop System 76, Pop!_OS person but have always and still loved the idea of cheap laptops (I still have my Eee PC notebook and OLPC).
The website says: Manjaro KDE edition is what it is now shipped with...
SPECIFICATIONS
cost:200$
Rockchip RK3399 SOC with Mali T860 MP4 GPU
4GB LPDDR4 RAM
1080p IPS Panel
Magnesium Alloy Shell body
Bootable Micro SD Slot
64GB of eMMC (Upgradable)
PCIe x4 to m.2 NVMe SSD Slot (requires optional adapter)
SPI Flash 128Mbit
HD Digital Video Out via USB-C
USB 2.0 Host
USB 3.0 Host
USB-C (Data, Power and Video out)
Lithium Polymer Battery (10000mAH)
Stereo Speakers
WiFi 802.11 AC + Bluetooth 5.0
Headphone Jack
Microphone
Front-Facing Camera (1080p)
ISO & ANSI Keyboard Variants
Privacy Switches for Camera, Microphones and BT/WiFi
Large Trackpad
UART Access via Audio Jack
Barrel Power (5V 3A) Port
For me, one of the most attractive features of the PinebookPro, which is shared with the upcoming PineTab and PinePhones, are the privacy switches. Add to that the Pro's ability to use an M.2 NVMe drive, well.
Of course if one turns off bt/wifi, you either live without internet, or you need a USB-to-ethernet dongle for hard-wired connectivity. Again it's a matter of use case. (edit: for this particular machine, I wouldn't recommend the usb-to-ethernet dongle sold on the Pine Store, since that is a USB2.0 dongle, that'll only give you 100Mbps ethernet, you're better off looking at other vendors, for a proper USB3.0 Gigabit adapter, like those on Ameridroid or Amazon)
All the Pine64 devices are intended for people who are willing to live with 'some' rough edges, be it in the software or hardware departments. Then again, if you use Linux as your main (or in fact *only*) OS, then this is pretty much par for the course ;)
7:15 You're not blind, there is no hdmi according to the specs.. only a USB-C port for "Video-Out"
I still can't believe this Pi knockoff in a glorified laptop shim has a higher resolution display than the base resolution for laptops 3-4 times the price.
The secret: no Microsoft Windows!
@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 Not really, a few manufacturers sold linux based laptops from 2015 on (don't know if they still do) and they are still WELL over twice the price with 1368x768p TN screens. YES, TN screens. The price difference was MUCH smaller then people would assume (around US$50) because windows is far cheaper to OEM than to end-users to begin with, and even if it wasn't, why would they pass on those savings?
@@Peterowsky And yet this one manages 1080p at less than the price of any low-end Windows laptop.
@@Peterowsky Around $15 to $20
The rk3399 is not a Pi knockoff, it's simply a better SoC.
I love the PBP. But I agree it's not for non-tinkerers. I wouldn't make my wife use it, for example. For the limited RAM, you might want to try installing ZRAM. I found it in a review somewhere. It made working with 4GB limitation easier.
I read on the Pine forums that the display is actually the same as what's in the ThinkPad E490 which tested at 300 nits. Not bad, especially historically, but not on a par with modern 400-500 nit screens.
The person that got plasma going just installed a different distro. It's in the pinebook pro wiki how to do that.
Please note: if you build in a M.2 SSD so please order a 'nvme' standard not a SATA so I do. My mistake cost me more then the intel 660d M.2 SSD. First I ordered a WDgreen 240GB SATA and this is wrong the system can't communicate with a SATA SSD! ----------- ONLY 'nvme' Format in use please think about my words. Best Regards Volker
I have this laptop! Writing this comment with it. It's the best laptop I've ever owned. The display and keyboard are soo underrated
Papangkorn Apinyanon What do you consider a ‘normal user’? Is it someone who’s never experienced Linux before?
Papangkorn Apinyanon I started getting into Linux around 2012, when I started using Ubuntu Linux on my Optiplex GX620. The hardware on there was well supported, so it worked great out of the box. If you have new/exotic hardware, your experience may be different. This can improve in the future.
Some people say it’s just like Windows or macOS, but I don’t want you to expect everything to be the same. It has a learning curve, but I think it’s very doable if you want to learn about it. Getting some experience in the terminal will be very useful, as you can quickly install applications without using the graphical interface, for example. At first, that was the only thing I did in the terminal, but I’ve become pretty proficient in it and can make some simple scripts too. Also, I always recommend you to not enter any commands if you don’t know what they do. I don’t want to discourage you, but I want you to have realistic expectations.
If you keep an open mind and are willing to learn about it, you can try it out by putting it onto a USB stick or DVD. You can try Ubuntu (or many other distros, but I recommend starting with Ubuntu) without even installing them. This is called Live USB/CD.
While I’m not new to Linux as you asked, I do know what I struggled with using Linux. If you have any questions, please let me know. Hope this helped! 🙂
Papangkorn Apinyanon I use several distros across multiple devices. My main Linux laptop (HP ProBook 450) runs KDE neon, since it is really customizable and comes with my favorite applications. It’s a really smooth experience and performs well. My Chromebook Pixel runs on Manjaro, since it’s lightweight and fast with the limited amount of RAM (4 GB). The desktop environment is very no-frills out of the box, but functional.
Out of these two, I’d recommend starting with KDE neon. You’re getting the right amount of eye candy and a lot of customizability while still being very user friendly. While you can achieve the same on Manjaro by installing KDE yourself, I think you’re better off starting with a great user experience right away to explore what Linux is capable of.
Thank you *SO MUCH* for properly criticizing the default OS of this system. "Shoddy at best" is 100% accurate. I've got a review I've been working to document some of the issues I'm having.
The default OS is Debian with the Mate desktop environment. Step 1: Update firmware Check out Pine64 website for easy directions on how to do so. Solves most issues.
@@hotroof a more recent review (September 2020) of the Pinebook Pro shows Manjaro Linux is the current factory-installed operating system.
If it can behave well with education apps such as "Blackboard" it could maybe compete, but that is a very crowded segment where the emphasis is ease of use. Something, that for all its limitations, ChromeOS excels at. A lack of Office 365 support for students is a common deal breaker especially as more campuses push towards being paperless. Somehow, after all these years, even common run of the mill word processing programs still make an absolute mess of formatting when converting files.
26:50 Chromebooks. This thing looks great for people who like to mess around with Linux on ARM, but Chromebooks will probably give you a better user experience and will still allow you to install Linux applications. The cherry on top is the Android app support, but dealing with Google does introduce some privacy concerns.
Thanks for a great review!
If this was another youtuber, they would've milked the hell out of this video and made it 10 parts. 😂
Thanks for not doing that, Jay.
@Caleb P yes, receiving it in the mall a video, then touching the box another video, unboxing it another video, turning it on another video. And the list goes on. Lmfao
Who?
Curious about what the limits of key input are. My minimum standard for keyboard input is 4 keys simultaneously.
I got one from the first production run, login creds were not included in the box. Found them mentioned in passing in a comment on the Pine forum lol. But the finish was great and the thing booted up no problems. Some of the software was a bit hinky but within 2 weeks updates had addressed everything I cared about. As a note the WIFI was solid even before I updated drivers so my experience was not the same as the reviewer. I am planning to switch to Manjaro though, but mostly because it's my preferred distro. 100% 2 thumbs up would buy again.
That laptop shell looks pretty similar to a standard macbook from around 2006 to 2009. It's a not as thick, but still looks pretty similar....
I don't know if this is the same Pine Computers that I knew years ago. They used to make various IO cards for PC's. Their build quality was good, but no two cards even when purchased the same day out of the same bin had the same chipset or drivers. Although they all worked when you bought them, when windows updated or was upgraded, some of your cards worked, while other's didn't. In one case revision A couldn't be upgraded, while revision B (purchased the same day out of the same bin) had new drivers that worked a treat... So I only had to replace half of the HDD controller cards in my office. I suppose it was better than upgrading all of the HDD controllers.
So overall, their cards were well built and they had decent support, but they were literally working with whatever parts that were available the day the cards were assembled and someone just wrote A or B on the board to identify which was which. (At least they did that.) Basically, Pine was a smaller manufacturer that was at the mercy of their vendors. They used whatever parts they could get at the price point of the moment. So if things haven't significantly changed... users might find some inconsistencies between two seemingly identical laptops.
I wanted to say ty for your channel. I am new to linux as of 04/02/2020 and have soaked up all I can. Must say that all your video's have helped a great deal in my learning. I am a Windows convert so I started with LinuxMint but am looking forward to trying out new Distros as my knowledge grows....thanks again.
2:02 rip ziplock bag that could've been reused...
In some cases it ends in a pile of other bags to be used :) for a long time..
Costas Mamais word
@@costascostas1760 I know I have a big ziplock bag full of small ziplock bags myself. :)
how dare you
One pro is it's low power so you can power it for a very long time off battery or solar. Its a apocalyptic computer :D
Excellent video. I watched it at 2x speed with auto-subs on and I heard everything you said!
The dd-flash procedure is trivial for any non-first-time linux user, I am not concerned about that at all.
The reason I would consider this machine is for business use - when you go into a meeting, it is somewhat assumed that you can log in to the sprint-review or backlog-issue management software (on the web). For me this is an issue, because I prefer to work on a proper stationary machine, meaning a non-power-gimped cpu. The flipside being I can not use my machine during a meeting in some conference room.
I get by, using an android device, but it's not optimal from a proffesional stand point.
Loved the video. I've been eyeing this for the last couple of weeks and you answered a lot of questions I had. I would say that the pine64 community is very active from my recent IRC visits (I found myself smiling at the no-ip url on their irc network. I keep imagining a bunch of SOPINE modules running their IRC network)
Thanks for the review. I'm in the waiting room for the PBP. I'm looking for years to find an affordable device to play around with ARM linux. Based on your opinion I'll get spot on what I wanted. Maybe it is a regional thing but after observing the Medion Akoya S2015 Chromebook on which I was unsure about the android and linux support that goes further than prefixing and then to find it at a low price. It hovered around CHF 199 for a long time but then it went out of market. I hoped to get some clearance for a very low price but it didn't happen. Now there are not many ARM systems, even Chromebooks all seem to use low-power x86-CPUs. Here in Switzerland I only find these three ARM notebooks: Acer Chromebook R13, Lenovo Chromebook 300e and of course Surface Pro X which are all more expensive than the Pinebook Pro.
What's the benefit of ARM that makes you want to try it out?
@@arax20 Scalability of performance and the resulting battery life increase, but I also want to learn how the whole booting process works and how the S-States for suspend differ from x86. Final goal is to install Gentoo with a custom kernel and get the most efficiency out of it.
By the way, while I agree that Debian Stable is pretty boring on the desktop (great on mission-critical servers, of course), there are ways to spice it up without switching to a different distro. Simply move to the Testing or even Unstable repos, and you can have as much excitement as you want. ;)
I want to experiment with ARM and also practicing Linux for a class, but there is a huge delay in getting this machine but will have to wait and hope things get better for our brothers overseas.
You can output the USB C to HDMI with the right adapter. I'm using mine with VGA at time of writing. Mine booted into Plasma not Mate. Now that I think of it I am running the whole system of a 128 gigabyte micro SD card. If I remember correctly, I ditched the official build for a more generic Manjaro on ARM installation. Okay, I see, yours came with Debian. That's is strange. Manjaro is faster.
Hi, a very good video, thank you very much. I am sorry, I did not watch the complete video, did you checked the noise level of the fan? It is noisy this laptop? Greetings, Lars
no fan.
I like the content of your videos but I don't like the room noise in your audio. Can I recommend an alternative. Perhaps you could invest in a podcasting microphone. I got mine for just £70 off Amazon and it works fantastic, even for music production.
The lousy keyboard you read about was probably on their even cheaper (and much smaller) regular “Pinebook” laptop. But it seems like they got it right on the larger Pro model.
The rk3399 is also well supported in mainline which is of utmost importance.
Thank you so much for this review! I was really on the fence for this purchase. I think it'll serve exactly as I want to as a lightweight device to SSH with, and watch some TH-cam while I'm at it.
Too many ads. I quit two-thirds of the way through because of the ads.
2:24 Universal voltage ... at this price point, too.
i don't think i own a single switch mode power supply that is not multi voltage, isn't that standard these days?
Anyone knows if they will release newer versions soon? To buy now or wait a bit?
There was no sudo on the unpackaging tool... VERY unsafe.
You can simply uninstall the OS and download another one. Any Linux distro is free.
im a novice with linux but im learning can i ask whu thats a bad thing? and if so how could that be fixed?
j wizz means anyone can install. Security hole.
@@jwizz1396 Essentially what this means is that you can run things that typically require admin (called "root" in Linux) privileges to run. I assume you know Windows so think about whenever your computer asks you if you want a program to "make changes to this computer", this is an action that typically would require root privileges to run.
@@speedymemes8127 the sudoers file can be edited presumably to remove the no-password-required configuration just as any other GNU/Linux distribution. Plus we did not see the reviewer install and configure Manjaro Linux.
How where you able to get a hold of one? They have halted shipping products from china and that has significantly increased the delay of his product. I have not received mine and it has been about a month.
I honestly have no idea. I thought I got mine fast too. I wonder if they figured out I was part of a TH-cam channel and prioritized it, I have no evidence of that and I hope that's not the case (it wouldn't be fair to others).
Can you do the mac style trackpad thing where 1 finger click is left click and 2 finger click is right click?
Yes, but you must toggle that in settings.
Nice. It looks a lot like my Latitude 7480, but I am sure we are not talking about the same quality for sure, but for the price point it's impressive. I do like the pre-installed os. What bothers me is you have to enter a user name and password, instead of running an installer like my XPS developers edition. It might have something to do with the distro differences. Go mate! lol.. neat
You should do a video on different distribution available for the Pinebook Pro and possibly decide which would be the best setup for the Pinebook Pro in general.
Click by tapping with one two or three fingers instead of using the buttons.
Jay, You say that flashing another distro is a little complicated using DD. I was under the impression you simply have to download the Emmc image from OSDN, flash it to a micro SD, boot from this and follow the instructions on the screen as per this link forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-19-12-released/114406. Does this not work?
I wasn't aware of this. Awesome! I should check this out.
This is exact same hardware as in Macbook Air. They just painted it black and drilled a few holes
To develop code for ARM, how about a raspberry pi, a jailbroken fire TV or an old android phone. I'm glad this exists giving people more choice in hardware, but its going to need a better selling point.
how about the use case: "I want a low-power consumption (long battery) laptop" ??
there are alot of misconceptions about battery life and hardware, its a linuxbox, so adjust the CPU profile, to 400 or 800mhz and limit the cores u want use and you can easily double the stamina.
With trackpads like that, I prefer using taps and multitouch instead of pressing them. It's actually really nice.
Around half way in the videos so far I love it, also maybe you could predetermine the camera angles you would need, so you don't have to do it on the spot, and you could possibly use a fade away transition between scenes.
the point of the pinebook pro is that it is not X86 based one and it is not as fast as other sbcs but it is a complete system at only 200$
There are cheap Chromebooks that can run Linux in a VM on top of Chrome OS or can be modded to run a Linux distorts (GaliumOS was specifically created for installing on Chromebooks. I have a $200 HP Chromebook that has worse specs in most regards than the Pinebook Pro.
i don't like very bright screens anyways .
i have a tablet and i have to turn the brightness down all the way to its minimal position
and even then its still to bright for me to use comfortably for long periods of time .
and on my laptops i turn the brightness down to 20%
Jesus...the number of commercial interuptions on this video are beyond ridiculous.
jay, i am living in a 2 GB ram world, running elementary OS.... and my oh my its quite cool. SO a 4 GB ram world would be the 7th heaven for me..... just wonder what the total cost would be to buy and ship one too South Africa......
oh n0 snif
can i get your full specs?
How's the speed on Elementary?
MX Linux
@@Kulkasterbang . My favorite OS. Cant remember having any issue with MX Linux. But with Ununtu based OS like linux mint or Lubuntu there's always some issue. Even linux-mint freezes once in a while for no reason.
Yes love the way you did this video everybody should do them like that
My use case is to replace my Chromebook, which I only use its ssh client and web browser. The Pinebook's size and cost makes it an ideal replacement for the mobile laptop my Chromebook was, AND it's native Linux and not Google's bastardized Linux. So it's an easy sell for me.
barba rella then buy it
Get a used x220 or x230 for less money better functionality and more upgradability
For me, the trackpad on the Pinebook Pro is definitely the weakest point. It has trouble registering small movements. Also, I really think they should just ship Manjaro ARM on future batches instead of Debian Stretch. Other than that I think it is a pretty good ultra portable laptop.
YES a review that has a follow up, all in 1 video LORD ty! The review was awesome, thank you for making it.
I'd recommend during the profile views of the laptop, maybe use that time to also show real quick any side ports headphones, usb, and such. just a suggestion.
What about the freedom to change de OS or Linux versión on this Arm laptops???
is it possible to increase the RAM from 4 to 8 GB? or replace 4 with 8?
wtf site always says out of stock
If they took the price up by 50%, upgraded the keyboard and track pad and added a touchscreen, I'd snatch one up.
Even so, at $200 I still might get one...
Oh, who am I kidding. I just bought one.
Hey @LearnLinuxTV what capture card are you using is that the QGeem capture card or just a dongle on your desk? I want to find a good capture card for my distro reviews because Simple Screen Recorder just isn't cutting it and I have bought a couple of them that haven't worked with linux. Any suggestions?
Out of stock for the EU and US versions. Sadface. Looks like a fun lappy
Where did you buy this?
Can you connect a Samsung phone and display Dex? Maybe I'm wishing for too much?...
It's been a while since you posted this video and I doubt you still have it around. But in case you do, and in case you have the time, I'd like to see if you can install Neverware CloudReady on it. Making this a Chromebook like machine seems like a good use case (if it runs, Cloudready seems to have less rough edges for general users). Thanks.
Why do people still believe that crap? There is no such thing as a "cloud", it's just someone else's computer
Pardon my ignorance but how does this laptop compares with a $200 Wal-Mart laptop with Linux installed?
the monitor with camera in the background, is that gnome3?
But can it run some games? Like low end games?
didnt the pinebook come with manjaro kde?
Mr. Scissors
I was expecting Stanley as well.
i buyed it simply by curiosity... ahahahah. I find the software really bad duh. Manjaro ARM is great but there's missing a lot of software for daily use. If there were a little bit more work in the Linux ARM side it could become a really great platform :p.
My thoughts exactly. Was so excited, until I saw the limited usability unless you are really good at developing. It killed my interest as I wanted to use vs code on it, but it's shaky at best currently
install gentoo
is it in anyway possible to run Factorio on the machine?
I doubt it as it uses an arm based processor, so unless a specific version of factorio for arm exists, it won't.
Jay, Rather than use DD, I was under the impression one can simply download the Emmc image from OSDN, flash it to a micro sd, boot from the sd and simply follow the instructions to flash to the Emmc, following these instructions : forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-19-12-released/114406 . Does this not work?
But how does it game?
Liked the actual time , nice and real , really like your review , covered all I would like to know,, well done
If this can run android app too then it will be game changer....
Hi, is the RAM upgradable in this machine? Also what is pins on the native screen being used? I also noticed a lot of flex at th-cam.com/video/U9WyYJU4j2A/w-d-xo.html . Is the keyboard flex too bad?
Does it support Box86+Wine-x86+DXVK?
Try to use bs=4M status=progress to show what is going, man.
Is it capable of video editing?
Oh hell yeah! I was hoping you would get one to review! Thanks!!
I was one of the people that asked you to review this unit @LearnLinuxTV, I am happy you did! This is a great laptop everyone, get one when you can. There is a reason why this laptop keeps selling out, and while your at it get the NVME adapter when you buy the pro.
Watching this on my Pinebook Pro. EDIT: It's magnesium not aluminum.
You're right it's not the most graceful way of opening! what if you need to RMA a part?? just reuse the bag!!! OMG OMG OMG :)
Very nice review!
Much better intro! Good job!
Appreciate your videos. Hope you have a nice day
Great review Mahalo for doing it. Aloha
This is a great review. Thank you.
Merhaba bundan Türkiye de hiç yok galiba bilginiz var mı?
man thank you ❤️❤️🙏
Reminds me of a Dell Latitude keyboard.
If you're using Manjaro, make sure to install Panfrost - it makes the desktop experience much faster. Once you've installed it, set compositor to OpenGL 2.0. This script makes the process painless: github.com/McMarius11/Pinebook-Pro/blob/master/graphics_driver_pf_fb.sh
So Linux is still not a works out of the box experience. I have zero faith I could buy one of these and then start browsing within the hour based on this review.
Ahh, big Alt keys. Like they should be, and they should be used.