$700 for an N100 tablet? Yikes. I can't imagine they would sell enough to stay in business.
this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2024
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I would think it's hard to stay in business promoting Linux-first products as it is, and the higher price is because they know they will sell fewer units, and so they need to recoup a higher per-unit cost to functionally stay in business.
I agree that the price seems a bit absurdly high, but finding a quality Linux tablet of any type seems pretty dicey as it is.
EDIT: https://pine64.com/product/pinetab2-10-1-4gb-64gb-linux-tablet-with-detached-backlit-keyboard/
For example, this Linux tablet from Pine64 is more affordable, but with a Rockchip RK3566 it's just way underpowered compared to the N100, and that's over $200. Further, the Pine64 seems restricted to 64gb eMMC while the Juno Tab 3 can be upgraded to 2tb storage with its M.2 slot. I see no mention of an M.2 slot for the Pine64 Tablet. This genuinely seems like a more fully featured tablet compared to other available Linux-first tablets.
The PineTab doesn't even have a wifi/bt radio that's supported by its own OS. When you're an OEM and you're choosing what chips you're putting in a design, I think you should stick to chips that are usable. Chips where the manufacturer has written specs and maybe even a driver that transforms "a piece of glass with a lead frame" into something with a purpose.
Anyway, that's just how I feel.
StarLabs has one with an N200 but that's still dated
"Celeron N100" for 700$? That's absurd, you can get a Raspberry pi tablet for way less and if you want x86 there are cheaper alternatives, maybe they're just a small team and assemble everything by hand that might explain the high price but 700$ is a little high
I've looked, are there any clear winners I might have missed?
Man that's a hard sell when the starlite is going for $627 https://us.starlabs.systems/pages/starlite
$70 cheaper with better specs is a no brainer
That's the linux tax again...w a free OS no less 🤦♂️
The StarLight is also Linux
Right, the point they're making is that the Linux devices are more costly, despite having a free OS, compared to cheap Android tablets, for instance. It's a markup that Linux-first devices can't avoid because they just can't sell as many devices (because Linux is less popular), so they have to go with a higher per-unit price up front to recoup costs and make a profit.
They lack the economies of scale that allow them to be sold for cheaper.
Anyone using this? How is it?
I use it. Its not great. The touchscreen will freeze randomly requiring a reboot. Sometimes just a reboot isn't enough. U have to unplug it, shut down, then it'll work. Its good otherwise. I can run 100 minecraft mods just fine
This seems terrible. You can get a nice laptop for a lot less, including some that you can configure as a tablet, e.g. Lenovo Yoga.
I wouldn't mind having a linux tablet. But not at $700
$700 for a celeron, it would be a bit nicer if it was at least an i3
12.1" Damn. I would have gotten excited if it was a 6-8" device
So I'm like a week in... but I bought an 'p8 mini laptop' off ebay as it found a sale cheaper than aliexpress.... but i'm loving it. n100, 12gb ram and 512gb hd. amaa
Necro edit - forgot to mention I got it for 330 pulse shipping
How's battery life? Thinking of using mostly as e-reader.
so i have't really gotten to test this hard but seems like 4ish to 6ish hrs of work.. It does get a lil warm but I have my plasma settings to change cpu gov on power events and that really helps... i think i could get more if I switched to sway or something. It suspends really well with only loosing a percent or two overnight and hibernating works.
Did you had any troubles with the hardware? Did the touchscreen work out of the box and which OS?
The only things that aren't working out of box are autorotating the screen and when the device boots up it seems to want to display the login screen on a screen other than the default. A simple closing the lid, waiting for it to sleep and reopening the screen fixes this. Or if you have an external monitor it'll output there by default. I feel like the latter could easily be fixed as it feels like I need to default it do the correct screen and I suspect it's picking up the touch screen device as the display... It shows up on the battery settings as a display with a discharging battery for some reason. The auto rotating doesn't bother me... I prefer having explicit control of the rotation for my needs.
I'm using endeavoros with plasma 6
Way too expensive.
Not bad specs, aside from that CPU. It is terrible. My wii probably has more processing power than that.