Hi, I was looking to potentially buy this device. I'm debating between the pinebook pro and the pinebook. I do know the pinebook is slower, but i'm assuming maybe if I install a minimal install of arch with i3 the performance will be decent?
Also i was wondering how the battery life is. I'm currently using x200 which gives me a 3 - 4 hr battery life. So anything around this range would be great or anything over an hour of battery I would be satisfied.
I appreciate anyone's input.
(07-21-2021, 01:30 PM)unrealb2 Wrote: Hi, I was looking to potentially buy this device. I'm debating between the pinebook pro and the pinebook. I do know the pinebook is slower, but i'm assuming maybe if I install a minimal install of arch with i3 the performance will be decent?
Also i was wondering how the battery life is. I'm currently using x200 which gives me a 3 - 4 hr battery life. So anything around this range would be great or anything over an hour of battery I would be satisfied.
I appreciate anyone's input.
I'm using a pinebook with manjaro + swaywm. It's usable, if you need only terminal tools and do not care when apps are slower. Browsing with firefox/chromium is a little bit slow, but bearable. Unless you want to view videos in browser. I haven't figured out how to turn on HW acceleration in browser. Outside browser, it is possible to watch accelerated videos up to 1080p with MPV (only supported codecs). There are more problems with pinebook, I haven't figured out yet. Eg. plugging in charging cable turns on the notebook, during sleep the battery drain is circa the same as turned on and I'm experiencing freezes after some usage time (mainly after display is turned off). Battery life is good, more than 4 hours.
I don't know about pinebook pro, but unless you want to use your notebook as more potent portable terminal (or very basic video player), I wouldn't recommend the original pinebook.
PS: Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to badmouth the pinebook. I still think it's a good hardware for the price, but it has its limitations and quirks and is not for everyone.
(07-22-2021, 02:36 PM)jezek Wrote: (07-21-2021, 01:30 PM)unrealb2 Wrote: Hi, I was looking to potentially buy this device. I'm debating between the pinebook pro and the pinebook. I do know the pinebook is slower, but i'm assuming maybe if I install a minimal install of arch with i3 the performance will be decent?
Also i was wondering how the battery life is. I'm currently using x200 which gives me a 3 - 4 hr battery life. So anything around this range would be great or anything over an hour of battery I would be satisfied.
I appreciate anyone's input.
I'm using a pinebook with manjaro + swaywm. It's usable, if you need only terminal tools and do not care when apps are slower. Browsing with firefox/chromium is a little bit slow, but bearable. Unless you want to view videos in browser. I haven't figured out how to turn on HW acceleration in browser. Outside browser, it is possible to watch accelerated videos up to 1080p with MPV (only supported codecs). There are more problems with pinebook, I haven't figured out yet. Eg. plugging in charging cable turns on the notebook, during sleep the battery drain is circa the same as turned on and I'm experiencing freezes after some usage time (mainly after display is turned off). Battery life is good, more than 4 hours.
I don't know about pinebook pro, but unless you want to use your notebook as more potent portable terminal (or very basic video player), I wouldn't recommend the original pinebook.
PS: Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to badmouth the pinebook. I still think it's a good hardware for the price, but it has its limitations and quirks and is not for everyone.
Thanks for the response. I want it to work for me, I was actually thinking of using swaywm as well.
It's hard to tell on the website but in the photo the right shift key looks a little small. How do you like the keyboard?
I'm in the US but I saw a photo and the right shift key looks a little squished. That might be annoying as I do use both shifts to type.
Maybe ill just wait for a pinebook pro to get back in stock  I do like the size of the pinebook lol.
If only the pinebook keyboard was all the way to the edge like the x200 
(07-29-2021, 12:23 AM)unrealb2 Wrote: It's hard to tell on the website but in the photo the right shift key looks a little small. How do you like the keyboard?
I'm in the US but I saw a photo and the right shift key looks a little squished. That might be annoying as I do use both shifts to type.
Maybe ill just wait for a pinebook pro to get back in stock I do like the size of the pinebook lol.
I don't dislike the pinebook keyboard. But I don't like it neither. On one of my pinebooks all keys are working alright, on the other some are harder to press. I mean that 1 of 5 times certain letter won't be written after key press. And some standard keys are "hidden" under FN key (ins, ", '), which is not good for me, who has only one hand to operate the notebook. Fortunately I found out how to remap some keys and add sticky support in swaywm, so it's OK now. The layout and key sizes don't bother me, it's no problem to get accustomed to almost anything in 2 weeks for me.
The touchpad isn't great either. I can't figure out how to make tap-to-click work, so I have to click by hard press the touchpad to hear the click sound to click. I'm missing the tap-to-click feature. Also the pinch-to-zoom feature annoys me, cause it's getting in the way of 2-finger-scroll (I want to scroll, but zoom is detected) and I can't turn it off.
I've read somewhere that the keyboard and touchpad are better on pinebook pro.
(07-29-2021, 09:06 AM)jezek Wrote: (07-29-2021, 12:23 AM)unrealb2 Wrote: It's hard to tell on the website but in the photo the right shift key looks a little small. How do you like the keyboard?
I'm in the US but I saw a photo and the right shift key looks a little squished. That might be annoying as I do use both shifts to type.
Maybe ill just wait for a pinebook pro to get back in stock I do like the size of the pinebook lol.
I don't dislike the pinebook keyboard. But I don't like it neither. On one of my pinebooks all keys are working alright, on the other some are harder to press. I mean that 1 of 5 times certain letter won't be written after key press. And some standard keys are "hidden" under FN key (ins, ", '), which is not good for me, who has only one hand to operate the notebook. Fortunately I found out how to remap some keys and add sticky support in swaywm, so it's OK now. The layout and key sizes don't bother me, it's no problem to get accustomed to almost anything in 2 weeks for me.
The touchpad isn't great either. I can't figure out how to make tap-to-click work, so I have to click by hard press the touchpad to hear the click sound to click. I'm missing the tap-to-click feature. Also the pinch-to-zoom feature annoys me, cause it's getting in the way of 2-finger-scroll (I want to scroll, but zoom is detected) and I can't turn it off.
I've read somewhere that the keyboard and touchpad are better on pinebook pro.
Thanks for your input. I guess i have nothing to complain about if your only using one hand. Maybe i could try the pinebook. I do like the idea of having a very small device
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