Pinebook Pro Initial Impressions

[User 6582]

My Pinebook Pro arrived yesterday 

It was packed extremely well.  Overall, it looks great.  No one would ever guess it only cost $200.  The fit and finish is very good.  The screen quality and video playback are excellent.  Sound through the built-in speakers could be better, but headphones seem to work fine.  The top case sags a bit in the middle when I press on the center of the keyboard, although the keyboard itself is surprisingly good.  The touchpad seems to work fine, although there seems to be a small dead area in the top center that doesn't click.  Two-finger scrolling is very quick and smooth.   I've been playing back videos from a 3.0 USB stick to run down the battery, and the computer hasn't felt warm.  The USB 2.0 port works fine with a mouse.  Unfortunately, the WiFi is weak — my crappy smart phone (that I almost never use) gets full bars, but the PBP only shows 55%. (I don't have any hardware to test the USB-C or Bluetooth.  I haven't tried the SD card slot.)

There are some software problems.  Neither of the browsers included with the stock build work well.  Firefox keeps crashing.  Chromium won't let me change its settings, and sometimes claims I have no internet.  Fixing this should be a priority.  The "test speakers" function under sound settings doesn't work.  The clock, Bluetooth, and CPU settings get reset every time I reboot.  I've tried setting the clock to my time zone several times.  Ejecting a thumb drive from USB 3.0 removes it from the desktop but reports "Error ejecting /dev/sda".  Trying to open Network from the Pine menu often fails.



Is there a way to set up MATE so it has something similar to an applications folder?  I find scrolling through a tiny box rather tedious.

Is there an application to manage users and groups?  

Are there better descriptions of the CPU settings?

Does anyone know of a way I could test the microphone and camera?


tl;dr:  So far the hardware seems fine, although the software needs work.

Yes, I'm mirroring your issues as well.

I did find a solution to setting the time by going to a command line change. I don't remember the details (I'm on another computer while the PBP gets its first recharge) , but found it easily enough by Googling "Debian 9 time zone change". If you can't find it that way I'll look tonight and get the details...

Another interesting thing I found was Firefox ESR (extended service release) 60.00 wouldn't work at all....Seems like an ESR version of Firefox that worked for PBP might be a good idea to keep from constantly needing to tweak a browser....That make sense?

Yes, my wifi seems weak compared to other computers I have....Funny, I get the same 50-something percent readings as well, regardless of distance from the wifi router.....

I have had to play around with font sizes and window sizes to get something a little bigger. A little too small for me out of the box... :-)

Still playing with the trackpad, since I find it's too sensitive. Tried a wireless mouse but it didn't work. Maybe a Bluetooth mouse? Something else?

And I'll be interested to find out what will make the mic and camera useful.....

And as Luke mentions, would Ayufan's spin make things more usable?

And the beat goes on.... :-)