GPD Win (x86 Computer / Palmtop)

[Agricola]

Actually I was wondering if it would be possible to charge the tablets with atom x5 or x7 through USB port available in car or flights, because it's the kind of place you like to enjoy to use your gaming handled.

I think it would be possible to charge the pyra in this kind of USB port and play with it at the same time.

So you mean playing a game/doing anything else power-hungry while charging the device? While that's at no time the best way to handle a rechargeable battery as it gets quite hot, it is, if you really want to do that, a question of power input versus output. As these devices pretty much all charge via USB (right?), the input is determined by the USB specifications, which are 5V voltage, 0,5A current -> 2,5W of energy. Often, USB devices specifically for charging have a higher curren, the maximum I've seen was 5A, but you shouldn't expect a lot more than 1A in transportation, maybe even just 0,5A (which is btw what most laptops give you, and the Pandora afaik too).
The output is even more unclear, as you need to factor in display brightness, CPU usage, memory usage, WLAN, Bluetooth and a lot more. The GPD WIN will probably do better than any tablet with the same CPU (as the big displays eat up a lot of energy while the keyboard doesn't), but it's impossible to say how good or bad any device does until it's tested. Even the Pyra will probably have problems playing some high-end games/emulator while charging, but then again, its battery is huge. I'll personally be happy if I can play Heroes 3 VCMI for 10 hours on the Pyra while it's on a charger

 

[Faust]

So you mean playing a game/doing anything else power-hungry while charging the device? While that's at no time the best way to handle a rechargeable battery as it gets quite hot, it is, if you really want to do that, a question of power input versus output. As these devices pretty much all charge via USB (right?), the input is determined by the USB specifications, which are 5V voltage, 0,5A current -> 2,5W of energy. Often, USB devices specifically for charging have a higher curren, the maximum I've seen was 5A, but you shouldn't expect a lot more than 1A in transportation, maybe even just 0,5A (which is btw what most laptops give you, and the Pandora afaik too).
The output is even more unclear, as you need to factor in display brightness, CPU usage, memory usage, WLAN, Bluetooth and a lot more. The GPD WIN will probably do better than any tablet with the same CPU (as the big displays eat up a lot of energy while the keyboard doesn't), but it's impossible to say how good or bad any device does until it's tested. Even the Pyra will probably have problems playing some high-end games/emulator while charging, but then again, its battery is huge. I'll personally be happy if I can play Heroes 3 VCMI for 10 hours on the Pyra while it's on a charger

Yeah exactly what I mean. Especially when I'm on a long trip to Asia, I'm used to use my android phone, and to plug it to the USB port to use it when It runs out of battery.

I know that people like to take power bank, but I'm not this kind of people, that's why I wondering if it's possible to charge and use it while plugged into a USB port, because it's meant to be played on the road, even if it runs out of battery.

I understand what you are saying, maybe that someone has a x5-z8500 atom tablet can give a try on a car.

 

[Chip]

a question of power input versus output.

Bingo. Heck, even my phone barely charges while in use when hooked to a .5A power source.

What's important is that the charger circuitry is smart enough to identify and take advantage of 1A, 2.4A, etc power sources. The issue some of those cheap tablets likely have is a dumb charger circuit that can't differentiate and only ever tries to use .5A.

 

[EvilDragon]

Yep, it's probably only because of the power usage.
You're lucky if a car can output 2A with the USB Port, often it's less.
If the device needs more power while being used than the port can often, it won't charge.
That's the same with the Pyra and any other modern device, unless it's running in low power mode.

Even my phone discharges slowly when connected to AC and navigating with Google Maps while playing music...

 

[Exophase]

They don't want to change the Keyboard layout , as they have locked in the pcb design. And the molds for the keyboard cutouts. That's their official response, as they say it would delay the project by a month. I know it sucks, I'm the one most dissappointed by that. But it is what it is. The Xbox guide key was actually asked for by a number of people, it is in response to them that they added it.

Oh no, a whole month in exchange for improving a very awful design... The only thing I had heard is that they were going to update the keyboard. Changing a few key functions is probably not what people had in mind, there's little they can do to fix that.

Hadn't personally seen anyone say anything about the XBox key on Dingoonity but I'll take your word for it, you know what people are saying much more than I do.

They're just not taking the keyboard very seriously. They must be confused as to why people are making a big deal about it. I'll admit there's a class of usage where a terrible keyboard is better than nothing but there's also a big class where it isn't.

 

[slaeshjag]

Maybe they saw the keyboard section we used to have here and went "nope"?

 

[Alperoot]

Recently I got a Surface 3 from my school and it doesn't charge via USB. It's got another port for charging.

 

[Exophase]

So you mean playing a game/doing anything else power-hungry while charging the device? While that's at no time the best way to handle a rechargeable battery as it gets quite hot, it is, if you really want to do that, a question of power input versus output. As these devices pretty much all charge via USB (right?), the input is determined by the USB specifications, which are 5V voltage, 0,5A current -> 2,5W of energy. Often, USB devices specifically for charging have a higher curren, the maximum I've seen was 5A, but you shouldn't expect a lot more than 1A in transportation, maybe even just 0,5A (which is btw what most laptops give you, and the Pandora afaik too).
The output is even more unclear, as you need to factor in display brightness, CPU usage, memory usage, WLAN, Bluetooth and a lot more. The GPD WIN will probably do better than any tablet with the same CPU (as the big displays eat up a lot of energy while the keyboard doesn't), but it's impossible to say how good or bad any device does until it's tested. Even the Pyra will probably have problems playing some high-end games/emulator while charging, but then again, its battery is huge. I'll personally be happy if I can play Heroes 3 VCMI for 10 hours on the Pyra while it's on a charger

Note that the charging circuit will lose power too, nothing runs straight off the USB's 5V. My phone gets quite a bit hotter when being used and charged at the same time, that's probably from inefficiency in the regulators and whatever the charging itself consumes.

So off that 500mA USB you get maybe 2W of main power if you're lucky, maybe significantly less.. it's really not a lot. Expecting to charge from a computer and use the device in any real capacity at the same time isn't realistic. It's not for the Pyra either. Even my JXD S7300 couldn't manage that.

 

[Faust]

Note that the charging circuit will lose power too, nothing runs straight off the USB's 5V. My phone gets quite a bit hotter when being used and charged at the same time, that's probably from inefficiency in the regulators and whatever the charging itself consumes.

So off that 500mA USB you get maybe 2W of main power if you're lucky, maybe significantly less.. it's really not a lot. Expecting to charge from a computer and use the device in any real capacity at the same time isn't realistic. It's not for the Pyra either. Even my JXD S7300 couldn't manage that.

That's quite sad, I played my ireadygo much I5S without any issues plug into USB port in several flights.

If I remember, we will be able to boot the Pyra without the battery while charging, does that mean we will be able to play it while plugged into USB port if it doesn't charge the battery at the same time? Would it be the case?

I get the atom processor, it's sad, but as long as it's meant to replace laptop, it's understandable.

 

[Exophase]

That's quite sad, I played my ireadygo much I5S without any issues plug into USB port in several flights.

If I remember, we will be able to boot the Pyra without the battery while charging, does that mean we will be able to play it while plugged into USB port if it doesn't charge the battery at the same time? Would it be the case?

I get the atom processor, it's sad, but as long as it's meant to replace laptop, it's understandable.

Running it without the battery will probably not help that much, the 5V from USB still has to be stepped down to 3.7V or so to be battery-like. So probably still around 2W with just a small difference in whatever power the battery takes. Only difference is you no longer have a battery acting as a buffer so you'll get shut off with high power consumption having even momentarily. While with the battery you'll need to use that much power on average over long periods of time. This is however based around the assumption that the charge circuit only uses whatever power is left over that the rest of the system isn't taking.

If you're doing something that could last > 11 or so hours on a full battery charge then maybe 500mA USB will be enough to sustain it. No real surprise your Much-i5S can manage, quad 1.2GHz Cortex-A7s on 28nm is not very demanding power-wise. Especially if you're not often using more than one or two cores.

Don't know about airplane USB ports, maybe they give more current than that.
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Maybe they saw the keyboard section we used to have here and went "nope"?

The keyboard arguments generate a lot of drama and flare some tempers, I'm sure no one wants that.

But GPD Win's keyboard design is just special, I think almost everyone agrees it's awful. And it'd be pretty easy to get a near unanimous consensus for a proposed alternative design. I could understand if the keyboard was something the designers thought a lot about and merely reflects their personal tastes best. But I doubt that. More likely they didn't think about it at all.

 

[EvilDragon]

But GPD Win's keyboard design is just special, I think almost everyone agrees it's awful. And it'd be pretty easy to get a near unanimous consensus for a proposed alternative design. I could understand if the keyboard was something the designers thought a lot about and merely reflects their personal tastes best. But I doubt that. More likely they didn't think about it at all.

Somehow, this reminds me of the GP2X Stick... or the double-DPads on the WIZ

 

[Exophase]

Somehow, this reminds me of the GP2X Stick... or the double-DPads on the WIZ

Or the split button pads on the GP2X F200. Or the return to no dpad altogether on Caanoo.

It's funny, the only time they got the dpad right was Wiz, where I guess they were so proud of it they decided to just use it in place of the face buttons too.

 

[FBnil]

Surface 3 from my school and it doesn't charge via USB

Does it charge by the hour?

 

[Chip]

Somehow, this reminds me of the GP2X Stick... or the double-DPads on the WIZ

Or the split button pads on the GP2X F200. Or the return to no dpad altogether on Caanoo.

It's funny, the only time they got the dpad right was Wiz, where I guess they were so proud of it they decided to just use it in place of the face buttons too.

I can't even count the number of Asian gadgets that could have been massively improved by just one person on the project having the slightest clue what the end user was really looking for. I don't know what causes the disconnect between the engineers, designers, and customers, but I'm starting to think it would behoove these factories to hire a westerner to keep on staff, just to sanity-check their designs before tooling up for production.

 

[Alperoot]

Does it charge by the hour?

What do you mean, like does the charge reach to 100% in an hour? No, it charges very slowly.

 

[Exophase]

I can't even count the number of Asian gadgets that could have been massively improved by just one person on the project having the slightest clue what the end user was really looking for. I don't know what causes the disconnect between the engineers, designers, and customers, but I'm starting to think it would behoove these factories to hire a westerner to keep on staff, just to sanity-check their designs before tooling up for production.

I've always felt that way too. Super frustrating.

But it does seem like eventually the biggest name devices ended up being at least a little better than their predecessors. And I'm told GPD XD is actually pretty good.

Too bad they're starting all over with GPD Win's keyboard. Maybe the Win 5 will have a good one.

 

[FaeMinx]

What do you mean, like does the charge reach to 100% in an hour? No, it charges very slowly.

You're cute... you know that?

 

[EvilDragon]

But it does seem like eventually the biggest name devices ended up being at least a little better than their predecessors. And I'm told GPD XD is actually pretty good.

Better than JXD, but the latest version of the GPD XD has a lot of light bleed.
Also, it almost feels like the DPad has no pivot...
And from the last batch I received, two had a black screen after a week of usage, need to find out why though.

So while it's still better than most JXD devices, it seems they're trying to lower production costs by sacrificing quality.

 

[Exophase]

Better than JXD, but the latest version of the GPD XD has a lot of light bleed.
Also, it almost feels like the DPad has no pivot...
And from the last batch I received, two had a black screen after a week of usage, need to find out why though.

So while it's still better than most JXD devices, it seems they're trying to lower production costs by sacrificing quality.

DaveC would have some choice words with them. He was very insistent on getting the dpad pivot right.

 

[vcoleiro1]

I think I've mentioned this before, but I see some people had asked again why the right column of keys were not put in the centre between the sticks. The reason given by GPD is that they can't put them there, as there is something going in that area . Given the layout of the XD, it's probably the big heat sink they say they will be putting in it. That's why the last set of layout suggestions had the right column of keys just above the keyboard in a row, or simply swapped over the right column to the left side - which ridiculously enough, centers the letter keys perfectly. It's almost like they meant the right column to be on the left side, and at the last minute things got swapped around and screwed up.

Here's an example of what I mean with the column of keys swapped to the left side

And this is there current layout with the keys on the right side: