Pinebook Pro, August 2023
Pinebook Pro, August 2023
I purchased a PBP not long ago to replace my Acer Aspire 5742Z (~2010). Thought to share my use case and impressions to give others who are still on the fence after all these years a sense of how it holds up in 2023.
Use case: Email, web-browsing, videos, text-editing.
Setup: I am using the pre-installed GNU/Linux distro (Manjaro) but have swapped the Plasma DE for X Display Manager (XDM) and the Calm Window Manager (cwm). I've also gutted a few of the systemd services like resolved, homed, firewalld, etc. I like DEs and feel like this machine would do better with a lighter environment. (It does!)
Opinion: I was worried coming over from x86 that lots of things I use would not be available with aarch64. There are definitely warez out there that won't easily port over, but I haven't run into any road blocks yet.
What I notice the most is that the PBP does exhibit more screen tearing than the 2010 Acer. Further, even though it has 3x the cores and another GB of RAM, the Acer still felt more performant with its higher clock speeds. (But not by much)
Both machines bog down while loading demanding web pages like Youtube and the full-fledged web browser experience can be irritating on certain websites. Most pages load quickly and I don't even notice this is a lowpower device. (Like Lemmy for example)
If you can avoid using a web-browser for everything, then it's quite a nice device. (Email client instead of gmail.com, mpv instead of youtube.com, for example)
Then for the actual device, I like the screen it's great, keyboard is 'OK' and the trackpad is 'not terrible.' Each one of these things is better than the Acer and it weighs a few pounds less too.
Finally, the battery life destroys the 2010 Acer. I'll get 6-8 hours of work time out of it.
Really, there aren't many alternatives for an ARM laptop and zero at this price point. If an ARM laptop interests you, try the PBP.
Thanks for the well-written review
If the default distro feels a bit sluggish for you, check out PostmarketOS with XFCE. IMO it runs much nicer than the factory Manjaro.
Thanks a lot, I always wondered how it would feel on the daily use.
I use mine as a travel laptop. Installed ElementaryOSv6 and Firefox. Works great for most browser activities like writing, email, uploading photos from my DSLR. It even plays movie files reasonably well. Better than my ASUS Chromebook from back in the day.
Hey, I want one for uploading DSLR photos while traveling too. Did you try some small edits with Digikam or Darktable? Curious to know how well (or not) they work. Thanks!
I think I tried darktable on it, and RAW photos were too much for it. I mean it worked, but slowly. Not enough RAM and the processor isn’t too fast. I use it mostly for writing and wordpressing.