GPD Pocket 2 Announced
- Thread starter vcoleiro1
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levi
Still fresh, damnit!
Weird seeing the Phawx's face reflected in the screen while playing Metroid Prime. There was me thinking that doesn't look like Samus, and I didn't recall her ever wearing glasses!
vcoleiro1
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I got a Pocket 2 today and can confirm as others have , that the optical mouse sensor works really great.
I was very surprised at how accurate it is and how easy it is to use. I actually think it's a lot easier to use and more accurate than using a track point. It also only takes me two swipes with my thumb to go from one corner, to the diagonally opposite corner ie the furthest distance.
I was very surprised at how accurate it is and how easy it is to use. I actually think it's a lot easier to use and more accurate than using a track point. It also only takes me two swipes with my thumb to go from one corner, to the diagonally opposite corner ie the furthest distance.
vcoleiro1
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The one I have is one of the prototypes. That said the Pocket 2 is in production now and chinese backers who backed it on the jd.com crowdfunding , are starting to get theirs.
I never got the Pocket 1, so I was surprised a bit to see how small it actually is. I've got largish hands and am able to thumb type on it. Of course it's designed to be used as mini laptop though.
Here's a picture of it in my hand
comradekingu
Glowing ember
And the layout is all over the place. WHYYUYYUUYYUYUYUYUYU
fusion_power
Advanced Member
I still can't believe how fast chinese can make such devices those days. The Pocked 2 seems to be a solid and useful device with an compared fast CPU, even active cooling in a handheld PC thinner than 10mm and most important, it just runs normal Windows out of the box, no thinkering required.
Why the hell werent chinese companies not able to build us a better Pandora and especialy not a decent Pyra at all? Even european companies have trouble to make what ED want's them to be made. At the same time they throw out devices like that. Yes, I know that money is a factor but I don't believe that it is the only cause. I doubt that the Pyra development would be faster with more money as long as the companies stay the same.
I don't want to complain, I just fear we lose the competition against China one day if things continue like that.
Why the hell werent chinese companies not able to build us a better Pandora and especialy not a decent Pyra at all? Even european companies have trouble to make what ED want's them to be made. At the same time they throw out devices like that. Yes, I know that money is a factor but I don't believe that it is the only cause. I doubt that the Pyra development would be faster with more money as long as the companies stay the same.
I don't want to complain, I just fear we lose the competition against China one day if things continue like that.
levi
Still fresh, damnit!
A Chinese made Pyra wouldn't be running debian in all likelihood, although that may not stop us developing our own version to run on it, it's taken us long enough to get debian running stable on hardware that's designed for it.
They also probably wouldn't want the thickness that comes from a discrete separate CPU board, since it's not in their interest to let you reuse motherboards and things; they want you to buy a whole new system every few years. I can't see them supporting two full-sized SD cards either which take up a relatively huge footprint on the motherboard. I somehow doubt they'd include a vibro-motor and a barometer or other bits and pieces that the Pyra has. They also tend to want to make different devices for different use cases, although the Win series is a bit of a half-way house having a passable keyboard as well as gaming controls. The Pyra reportedly has a better keyboard and gaming controls that actually are useful in the desktop or on the terminal. And it certainly wouldn't have a removable battery compartment.
It's horses for courses. The chinese would never make a Pyra like the one ED is making. GPD have got the closest, but it's still lacking in places for many of us I reckon.
They also probably wouldn't want the thickness that comes from a discrete separate CPU board, since it's not in their interest to let you reuse motherboards and things; they want you to buy a whole new system every few years. I can't see them supporting two full-sized SD cards either which take up a relatively huge footprint on the motherboard. I somehow doubt they'd include a vibro-motor and a barometer or other bits and pieces that the Pyra has. They also tend to want to make different devices for different use cases, although the Win series is a bit of a half-way house having a passable keyboard as well as gaming controls. The Pyra reportedly has a better keyboard and gaming controls that actually are useful in the desktop or on the terminal. And it certainly wouldn't have a removable battery compartment.
It's horses for courses. The chinese would never make a Pyra like the one ED is making. GPD have got the closest, but it's still lacking in places for many of us I reckon.
fusion_power
Advanced Member
I'm sure there are capable chinese companies that could make a Pyra FOR US like WE want it, not like they want it. 
That was my intention. GPD shows that they can make such devices, imagine if they work with real "gaming guys" like ED & Co. to make an perfect device from both worlds.
By the way, I never needed 2 SD card slots in my Pandora, if it was that big design issue, why so desperatly focus on 2 (even 3) SD card slots on the Pyra? Who needs so much storage space? IMy old 16BG SD in the Pandora is still half empty, I never really needed the other slot, an old SD sits there just to fill it with some music. Even with one SD slot you have plenty storage these days, if this helps to simplify a device like the Pyra, hell, skip it and save tons of development time. The modular CPU board is more important and I'm sure the device still could have been made thinner with such an board design than the Pyra is. ^^
That was my intention. GPD shows that they can make such devices, imagine if they work with real "gaming guys" like ED & Co. to make an perfect device from both worlds. By the way, I never needed 2 SD card slots in my Pandora, if it was that big design issue, why so desperatly focus on 2 (even 3) SD card slots on the Pyra? Who needs so much storage space? IMy old 16BG SD in the Pandora is still half empty, I never really needed the other slot, an old SD sits there just to fill it with some music. Even with one SD slot you have plenty storage these days, if this helps to simplify a device like the Pyra, hell, skip it and save tons of development time. The modular CPU board is more important and I'm sure the device still could have been made thinner with such an board design than the Pyra is. ^^
levi
Still fresh, damnit!
Plenty of people want 'da mostest' storage possible, it seems from some commenters. It seems to be the kind of stat people can focus on if the CPU isn't as new as it could be. Whether anyone will actually spend the money to do that or not I couldn't say.
On Pandora I used my other slot when I was booting from SD, but the Pyra has that internal microSD slot for that purpose (if you really don't want to use the internal flash for whatever reason), and since I stopped doing that I used it briefly to prepare as SD card for reflashing while I left my pnd card in the other slot but that's about it. I guess if you wanted to copy data from one full-sized SD to another it might be useful, but who doesn't have a portable USB card reader in this day and age?
I'm not sure anyone living in Europe could reliably work with a chinese manufacturer and get the kind of quality without paying someone who knows the project inside and out to go out there and live there for a while. They used to give out visas like candy to Europeans, but I'm not sure that's true any more. I've also experience of trying to run a project remotely, and that was a bit of a disaster because I didn't ask for enough proof that things were actually being done as I expected, and it turned out that despite assurances that is was all fine and dandy, what was delivered looked more like it had been knocked up in the last week of development time, and didn't match the design whatsoever. That was just software though.
On Pandora I used my other slot when I was booting from SD, but the Pyra has that internal microSD slot for that purpose (if you really don't want to use the internal flash for whatever reason), and since I stopped doing that I used it briefly to prepare as SD card for reflashing while I left my pnd card in the other slot but that's about it. I guess if you wanted to copy data from one full-sized SD to another it might be useful, but who doesn't have a portable USB card reader in this day and age?
I'm not sure anyone living in Europe could reliably work with a chinese manufacturer and get the kind of quality without paying someone who knows the project inside and out to go out there and live there for a while. They used to give out visas like candy to Europeans, but I'm not sure that's true any more. I've also experience of trying to run a project remotely, and that was a bit of a disaster because I didn't ask for enough proof that things were actually being done as I expected, and it turned out that despite assurances that is was all fine and dandy, what was delivered looked more like it had been knocked up in the last week of development time, and didn't match the design whatsoever. That was just software though.
fusion_power
Advanced Member
Of course you need a western company that has experience and connections with chinese companies and most important, have western people right there in China in the companies to keep connections and communications between here and there. Pandora Dev team didn't had these and this was one problem why they made compared bad experiences with producing the device mainly in China. But remmeber, basicly all tech today is made in China, even from Apple & Co. You just need to find such a western company with deep china connections that can make such devices for you.
levi
Still fresh, damnit!
Fair enough. When you find such a company, let us know
vcoleiro1
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Tech dev in China for westerners has opened right up as of years ago . The hub for it is in Shezhen where there are a number of western/chinese companies setup specifically to develop tech for western clients. It's not the same anymore, of course that doesn't mean it's ot better to have people on the ground there, it is.
I'm sure there are capable chinese companies that could make a Pyra FOR US like WE want it, not like they want it.
It's the quantity and the complexity.
Most chinese tech companies use existing parts and simply wrap them up.
That's why there are so many cheap tablets all using the same screen with slightly different PCB and shell but different brands put on.
I found that out when I tried sourcing a new screen for the cheap tablet my sister had - there were at least 15 different brands with the same screen and specs out there
GPD did a similar thing with the GPD Win 1, but at least they designed their own PCB (though based on the standard Intel schematics).
The same layout has simply been reused for the GPD Pocket, it's basically the GPD Win in a bigger they
Then they made enough money with the GPD Win 1 and Pocket that they could hire enough people to work on the GPD Win 2, which is why it's now a really unique device, properly built
But still, it's a lot less complex than the Pyra (bigger size but with less parts like sensors, 4G, etc., so hey have a lo more space for the layout).
Maybe we should've made a way less complex design first as well and use the money for a better, more complex device... you never know that upfront.
Heck, if I had known that the Pyra would take THAT long due to it's complexity, I surely would've worked on a more simplified version first... but you can't turn back the time.
But as you can see with the Win 2: The more properly it's built, the more expensive it gets.
It's worth the price, but expensive for a chinese gaming handheld
Anyways, back to quantity and complexity:
Most chinese companies probably could NOT have built their own design (companies like GPD are exceptions), they mostly use existing layouts and create a PCB from that.
The few that REALLY do their own designs are HUGE companies - and even the quantities of the GPD Win 2 would be way too little for them.
There's not really another company like GPD in China out there
@EvilDragon
What's your take on those copy cat GPD Pockets, the One Mix Yoga and the TopJoy Falcon? Are those just copying GPD's board just with different CPUs, or are they doing something like GPD where they did their own board just with Intel's schematics? I'm doubting they're doing anything fully custom, but I also doubt there's any factories making prebuilt boards at that size like they do for all them Chinese laptops.
Also, if there are now companies cloning the Pocket with different CPUs, how come no one's cloned the Win, too? With how successful the Win 2 is, I expected for there to be a Chinese factory out there to do a cheaper clone of the Win 1 using a Z8350 or (better) a Pentium Silver N5000. Maybe the design is too complex for them to bother?
What's your take on those copy cat GPD Pockets, the One Mix Yoga and the TopJoy Falcon? Are those just copying GPD's board just with different CPUs, or are they doing something like GPD where they did their own board just with Intel's schematics? I'm doubting they're doing anything fully custom, but I also doubt there's any factories making prebuilt boards at that size like they do for all them Chinese laptops.
Also, if there are now companies cloning the Pocket with different CPUs, how come no one's cloned the Win, too? With how successful the Win 2 is, I expected for there to be a Chinese factory out there to do a cheaper clone of the Win 1 using a Z8350 or (better) a Pentium Silver N5000. Maybe the design is too complex for them to bother?
fusion_power
Advanced Member
Yupp, and EU companies like to rebrand chinese tech products with their own label while the same source device is used actualy. Even my not-so-cheap "developed in germany" -Gaming Chair actualy is an colletion of various parts that I've seen in many other gaming chairs, I'm sure all come from the same chinese company for gaming chairs. XD
But still an complex device compared to the "usual" chiense-stuff. Well, the Pocket 2 has no backlit keyboard and of course not an removable PCB. On the other side it has a complex active cooling solution in such a small device, pretty impressive. I'm sure they also could have made an removable battery without adding much more thickness to the case.
True. GPD for sure stands out with their innovations, compared to other chinese companies. I like the evolutions of their devices, GPD Win 1 to 2 or Pocket 1 to 2. Solid engineering skills. And we know from them that there is a bigger market for tiny Handheld including the Pyra.But as you can see with the Win 2: The more properly it's built, the more expensive it gets.
It's worth the price, but expensive for a chinese gaming handheld
"Only Nixon could go to China." -old Vulcan proverb^ Move to China and show them how it's done right
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Nintendo
Nintendo Switch
A lot of people would disagree with me...but IMHO, most of the times, the Chinese prioritise quantity over quality.
