I mean, it “works” as in it is a functioning computer, but it’s not really useful as a daily driver machine. Mine is very touchy and build quality-wise, it’s not great.
It is great for what you pay, don’t get me wrong. And I’m sure some people could use it daily, but between the battery life and sluggish performance, it’s not really in the same conversation as the Framework model here.
I think for me the real issue I have is that with the Pinebook Pro (and Linux on ARM in general), you’re limited to a specific set of “blessed” Linux distributions. There is still a lot of custom code that goes into these, so it’s not at the point of being able to just download your favorite distro and running it. It’s getting better, but there are so many variations of chips that it’s hard to get things running smoothly. The flexibility of the OS and ARM CPUs really makes it difficult without a major OEM/vendor taking charge.
"As a new open source platform, Pinebook development is an ongoing process and represents a great opportunity to get involved with computing on a different level, to customize and personalize the portable computer experience, to understand what is going on beneath the surface. If you are looking for a device in a convenient laptop form-factor that you wish to tinker with, then it is safe to say the Pinebook is the right device for you. We do no wish to discourage anyone from getting the Pinebook, but it is not a daily driver, so if you are looking to replace your current work or school laptop it may be wise to look elsewhere."
They have been extremely upfront about this from day 1. Your expectations are not realistic or in alignment with what Pinebook themselves has said about their devices.
I have a pinebook. its. a fun toy but the trackpad is trash and there's not much if any HD space so I still use my MBP as a daily driver. I'd happily pay more for a pinebook pro with at least 512 gb of space, 8 gb of ram and a beefier battery. the cpu performance is on the low end but workable.
I would love to have a pinepook (without pro), but whenever I check their site it is not orderable. Anyone know when it will become available again? Is there some newsletter I can subscribe to? I did not find anything and asking in their discord did also not help
You can put any size of M.2 SSD you want into the Pinebook Pro. The RAM limit is down to the SoC itself, the next generation laptop would probably use a RK3588 which can address more RAM.
I mean, it “works” as in it is a functioning computer, but it’s not really useful as a daily driver machine. Mine is very touchy and build quality-wise, it’s not great.
It is great for what you pay, don’t get me wrong. And I’m sure some people could use it daily, but between the battery life and sluggish performance, it’s not really in the same conversation as the Framework model here.
I think for me the real issue I have is that with the Pinebook Pro (and Linux on ARM in general), you’re limited to a specific set of “blessed” Linux distributions. There is still a lot of custom code that goes into these, so it’s not at the point of being able to just download your favorite distro and running it. It’s getting better, but there are so many variations of chips that it’s hard to get things running smoothly. The flexibility of the OS and ARM CPUs really makes it difficult without a major OEM/vendor taking charge.