The issue with using it while traveling, or uber/lyft, etc, is that you will need wifi, and if your phone is not a smartphone you won't be able to tether data from it in cases where public wifi not available... so you still need a smartphone (or a hotspot device I guess), but certainly not plus sized. Anyway after seeing all those videos, I think you'll have no issue with linux on it.

are you sure? meaning the hardware is missing?
that would be an opportunity wasted.



did you look at the search results i posted?

Hi, ondoho,

Thank you for the replies and for the videos. Yes, I've seen the videos that show that GPD Pocket 2 can run Linux. I was just saying that without Linux this device would be of no interest for me.

enigma9o7, yes, I would need a hot spot device. There are plenty of MiFi modems that do not require a contract and are good choices for the occasional travelling.

I guess paying $20 a couple of times per year for on-demand mobile WiFi vs $1000 - $1500 every two years for a smartphone justifies the bother.

BM

No sim socket or cell radios. Mic/speaker not positioned for holding to your head like a phone. No noise cancellation mic. With VOIP software you could use it without headset if you were in a real quiet place, just like any laptop...

But if you carry a mobile hotspot too, issue solved.

In keeping with the thread's Subject, but diverging a bit from recent posts focusing on the Pocket 1 - Pocket 2 - One Mix Yoga, all with a 7" screen form-factor:

Has anyone seen there is now an 8" model 'in the pipeline'? I was (10 years ago) and still am very happy with the size of the original ASUS 700-series Eee PCs and was very disappointed when I discovered newer ASUS models were growing larger. When the product diverged from what I originally found to be attractive, I waited.

The original 700-series EeePC's may have had a 7" screen but the device's overall proportions were really those of an 8" netbook, because of the oversize screen bezels. This allowed a larger keyboard layout than would be possible with these newer models, with a 7" screen (still) but with narrow bezels. So I wonder, do I really want to go with a smaller keyboard layout than I've become used to, with the 701 and 701SD?

So, I'm waiting until more is known about this 8" model because there's a chance it actually may be a better match for the 701-701SD's form factor, than these 7" models. As well, I saw one post saying it may have a faster processor.

At the moment, the 701 is performing tolerably well with a 2GiB RAM upgrade, even when running Firefox Quantum -- with add-ons to strip out unnecessary (and I hear, poorly coded) javascript and excessive advertising, that takes forever to load. Battery life is now the major drawback, but really the only reason I'd appreciate a newer netbook -- so I don't have to bother bringing the charger.

The 701 will no longer accommodate loading Bodhi 5.0 (although 3.x was OK) within its 4GB SSD, but that was resolved with a Type A1 SDHC card in the slot -- so we now have a 701 with the equivalent of a 36GB SSD.

Regarding the Type A1 SDHC, you can now get a higher-speed A2, but for anyone considering this, practically, there would be no advantage. Both are designed for running programs. However, in the 701s, the main speed-limiting factor seems to be the (10-year old) hardware interface running the SD slot.

With (most of) the operating system running from the type A1 card, the 701 'feels' about the same as if it were running from the original SSD. It's doubtful a faster card would improve on this, IMO.

If I were rendering video, or running games, the 701 would obviously be unworkable. But for running a browser, LibreOffice and my favorite terminal programs (the ToPyDo organizer, for example) there are no problems.

i'm really wondering about the sizes.

i liked my acer aspire one a lot, i think it was the same form factor as the eeepc's 900 etc: a 10" screen with large bezels around it, the keyboard just about large enough to type comfortably (the keys were a little smaller, but surprisingly for me it was easy to get used to that), and a small but usable touchpad.
it was thick & heavy, but otoh it had a real hard drive and was, for all intents and purposes, a real & normal laptop. no problems whatsoever installing any gnu/linux.
that with a smaller bezel & more up-to-date hardware would be perfect for me.

beyond that; i guess i've gotten used to carrying my phone with me and wouldn't want to miss it.
but i wouldn't want to carry that acer aspire one with me at all times, even if it was thinner.
or even the previously mentioned ultra-portable - too large compared to a phone, too small compared to a laptop.

there's another aspect that really keeps me from going more portable with my computing:
screen reflection, glare, in both natural and artificial light.
i understand that for a high price one can find something better (but still not perfect?), but i never held a device that was sufficiently usable in sunlight.

There was a some-what promising review of stock Ubuntu running on this UMPC (nee netbook) but unfortunately it's lacking in many details. The author keeps saying his review isn't very definitive because "I only tested Linux by running from a LiveUSB" and then saying his 'Linux skills" are minimal.

In the Comments section, readers are saying a 2S running Linux has a problem with idle power consumption, which exceeds that for MS Windows. There is no conclusion as to why this should be so.

It would be nice to find a review by someone who had actually installed the operating system and made power-consumption measurements. If the battery life is very short on Linux, that could be a deal-breaker.

Is there a better review, by now?