12-25-2018, 12:42 AM
As it seems, most ultraportable notebooks have converged on same design conception. If you look at many examples, there are lots that look very alike. In case of Pinebook, it's pretty similar to Apple Macbook Air, Xiaomi Notebook Air 13.3"... Manjaro Bladebook also seems to be similar to these. But there's no connection between those vendors at all.
Moreover, most of Intel-based ultraportables have a motherboard that spans pretty much entire case. But in case of Pinebook, due to use of ARM SoC, there's a lot of free space inside the case. In theory, Pinebook probably could've been made under 6" (like Psion or Gemini PDA), but that just wasn't practical (keyboard would've been way too small), so they have chosen a larger and more common screen/case size and usable keyboard (it wouldn't be very pleasing to use Linux DE from a very small screen). And it's natural that it looks like other laptops in same size and form-factor category.
Moreover, most of Intel-based ultraportables have a motherboard that spans pretty much entire case. But in case of Pinebook, due to use of ARM SoC, there's a lot of free space inside the case. In theory, Pinebook probably could've been made under 6" (like Psion or Gemini PDA), but that just wasn't practical (keyboard would've been way too small), so they have chosen a larger and more common screen/case size and usable keyboard (it wouldn't be very pleasing to use Linux DE from a very small screen). And it's natural that it looks like other laptops in same size and form-factor category.