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I’m really excited about Linux tablets, but quite apprehensive about Purism as a company. Starlabs’ new tablet does also seem like a compelling package, luckily.
Pine64’s pinetab 2 also looks pretty good
From this blog review on June 2023, it seems that camera, WiFi and bluetooth are still not working properly.
PineTab2 seems more like a developer tinkering/testing device rather than a Linux tablet alternative for Android/iPad.
Yeah, that’s generally the idea behind Pine64 devices. Also note that they encourage you not to order if you expect refunds for issues like broken pixels.
They’re very cheap because of that though.
True. I just wanted to add that comment just because the other poster make it sounds like PineTab2 is an alternative for Purism tablet - which is competing with iPads and Android tablet. It gave me false hope for a moment until I searched some reviews online and see it is a totally different device category.
So I just replied to clarify just in case other people got the false impression too.
The price difference is absolutely wild, oh my
Since I don’t know either: could you tell me a bit about your thoughts about Starlabs and Purism?
Purism’s corporate charter recognizes them as a social purpose corporation, it sounds very good in theory, but I think it’s been a struggle for them to pull off. Under this charter they’re supposed to value creating products and services that benefit society more than simply making profits. Unfortunately, I think being so idealistic has caused them to over promise and under deliver, as was the case with the Librem 5 phone imo.
In addition to what the other commenter said: AFAIK Starlabs is the only Europe based manufacturer that makes their own Linux based laptops (non Clevo/similar computers). I personally don’t have any experience with their stuff though, but I’ve never heard similar complaints about them that are levelled at Purism.
I have some links saved about purism dramas, in case you are interested:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Zlatan-Todoric-Interview
https://old.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/dmhfcz/purism_then_and_now/
https://old.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/my8u2l/psa_librem_14_units_appear_to_have_been_modified/
https://old.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/owahb4/librem_5_usa_read_before_ordering/
Ooof that’s rough. Thanks. Dammit, the tablet looks so cool.
Really people still purchase from this company? I wonder how many years people we’ll have to wait to not get their tablet?
They might do it to subsidise the software development they’ve been contributing to make so much of GNOME adaptive - for which I am grateful.
8gb soldered… my phone has 16gb soldered.
But it still has a phone OS. Android is really resource hungry taking into account it’s limitations.
? eh?
Another Linux tablet is definitely good news. I like Purism’s stated values and their laptops are very solid, the Librem phone was a disappointment for me personally though.
Their company is run by scammers it seems. Louis Rossman’s videos are informative.
The Starlabs Starlite 5 looks much more interesting imo
Those are some… odd specs.
1TB NVME, OLED with an Intel N CPU?
the low power cpu bottleneck for nvme drives is pretty intense from what I know. These specs, to me, look like the equivalent of a tech youtuber just throwing together random hardware into a case to make a build video because it’s a slow week for content.
Bleah, that Intel N CPU is going to ruin the experience.
x86 in an ipad form factor? Boo!
What linux tablets use RISC? I see PineTab does, but it’s for people who like to brag that they use Arch. Are there any that are more polished?
From what I understand, the RISC-V ecosystem is not polished enough yet, so the state of PineTab-V roughly represents the state of the entire platform for desktop Linux.
I see they also have an ARM model available. Shit… at $240 after shipping I might buy that for my 10 year old to get him into Linux.
As much as I like the idea behind Pine64, make sure you understand what you’re doing - their devices usually need some time before they’re useful, they might underperform, etc.
On the other hand, they’re usually priced well for what they offer, and I think the ARM model of new PineTab might look better than their usual new offerings. Make sure to find out, how polished it is before you buy.
