The GPD Win Mini is a unique clamshell handheld PC, and it packs a lot of power. In this review we'll test all its features and see if it's worth your consi...
  • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    203·
    1 year ago

    Here’s what the device is if (like me) you didn’t know what it was (and, if, maybe like me, you didn’t want to watch some random video).

    It seems to me that those machines are poor PCs and poor Steam Deck wannabes.

    However, they do remind me of my favourite PC of all time, the fabulous Vaio C1 PictureBook by Sony. Mine had 64 Megs of memory (extended to 192 I think) and 12Gigs of disk. And, you bet it ran Linux like a champ (Mandrake, with KDE).

    • OptiZonion@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      1 year ago

      To be fair, the GPD brand has been around for years so it’s not like they saw the SteamDeck release and tried to profit on it. They’ve been THE brand that has been trying to push the portable gaming pc paradigm for a decade, until Valve just “made it right” (price, performances and usability).

      It doesn’t speak of the quality of the products nor the viability of their specific solutions, just a reminder they’re not a “random” brand.

      • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        1 year ago

        Fair.

        I see they have a number of little machines that can come in very handy in a lot of cases. So while I’m not convinced by that one specifically, it doesn’t reflect on the whole lineup. A lot of their gadgets are quite nice.

        However I’m more convinced by their “tech in a pocket” systems than by the gaming ones.

    • Okalaydokalay@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      I wish those little PCs would make a comeback.

      But smartphones have changed that, largely.

      There is a desire to go back to dumb flip phones, though, and I wonder if that could help bring small form factor PCs back.

    • grayhaze@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Without GPD and others, there likely wouldn’t even be a Steam Deck. They really paved the way and made the case for handheld PCs, which proved to Valve that there was a market worth investing in.

    • Bondrewd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      You clearly havent looked at their micropc and pocket 3 with the serial port and display in capabilities. Pretty awesome.

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    1 year ago

    Between ARM chips rapidly improving and x86 APUs really maturing I think portable gaming is in for a very interesting decade.

    • simple@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      I’m honestly placing my bets that Qualcomm Oryon (their next chips intended for PCs) will massively shake the handheld and laptop industry next year. It feels like nobody’s trying for ARM desktop chips outside of Apple and there’s huge potential there.

      • ratman150@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        41·
        1 year ago

        That’s gonna depend a lot on Microsoft fixing windows on arm. Linux on arm exists but most people are “comfortable” (complacent) with windows

      • the_el_man@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Will be interesting if valve can make proton work on arm with similar results. Maybe that will be steam deck 3?

  • echoplex21@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Looks like the heat issues are still there. Not sure what more they can do besides reinventing the whole thing. But this is so small, I love what they tried to do with this. He’s right that the GPD4 makes more sense and is kind of the best of both worlds.

  • Moshpirit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Would this work as a portable computer that you can use at home and at the office? Like connecting it to a big monitor, a good keyboard and a mouse when using it, and disconnecting them otherwise so you’re good to go. Like some kind of very expensive raspberry pi or something.