Just like when Apple introduced the first iPhone, making larger iPads
obsolete, GPD has introduced the Micro
PC2, which makes me look at a regulariz laptop and go, "Wow, something that
finally makes my hands look big." For those of you who weren't sure, that was
a joke. The iPad came after the iPhone. As with their first generation micro PC,
GPD's goal here is simple. to create the smallest and yet fullyfeatured
laptop computer possible. And when I say fully featured, I mean this thing has
better IO than some freaking full-size laptops. Over on the right, we've got a
10 GB per second USB type A power button
with a fingerprint sensor as well as a speaker grill. On the back, we've got
two and a half gig networking, HDMI 2.1,
another 10 gig USB typeA, two 10 gig USB
type-C's, and a micro SD slot. And finally, over on the left, a headphone
jack, microphone port, and another stereo speaker. At the bottom, they've
got plenty of venting for the new copper fin cooling solution for the Intel
processor N250 CPU. whatever that is.
It's four cores, four threads up to 3.8
GHz and operates at TDPs between 6 and
15 watt. So, I am expecting suitably
adequate performance, but nothing particularly remarkable, especially when
it comes to gaming, even though GPD does claim you can play AAA games. We're
going to get to that later. For now, let's finish off the unboxing. We've got
completely empty envelope. Wow. It can contain whatever your imagination wants
it to. Also in the box is a pretty decently sized 45 W power brick and a
USBC to USBC cable. Not an especially
long one. So hopefully your outlet is very close to where you intend to use
your computer. Especially because we found that the included 27watth battery
does not give you the most amazing battery life. Let's plug it in. I
actually cannot get the power cord to my
jack with the plug right here. Thankfully, we're using our magnetic
cable management, so I can easily move it up. There we go. And solved.
Realistically though, a device like this is not about ultimate battery life or
ultimate performance or even ultimate usability. It's about flexibility and
being able to get something done in an emergency. And that's somewhere that I
think the Micro PC2 is going to absolutely shine. The overall specs, not
that bad. It's got 16 gigs of LPDDR5 memory, 512 gigs of M.2 storage,
including the ability to put a fullsized
double-sided M.2 drive in it, so you can have up to 8 terb of storage in here,
albeit only at Gen 3 speeds. And the
display is actually pretty darn impressive. It's 1920x 1080 and reaches
a peak brightness of 500 nits, making it
actually quite usable. And back to the
theme of flexibility, quite flexible as well. The hinge opens up just over 180°.
Not sure if that was the intention. And
rotates around so you can use it in tablet mode as well. It'll be one of the
thickest tablets you've used in some time, but it is a tablet nonetheless.
Now, you might have noticed that it ships with Windows 11, specifically with
Windows 11 Pro. That's because the Micro
PC2 is realistically not intended mostly
for home users. It's for professionals. So, you're going to want support for
things like Bit Locker, HyperV, Windows Sandbox, Active Directory, and more. But
they don't assume your OS preferences.
And they boast full support for various Linux distros as well. fully
understanding that the kind of CIS admin that might want to be able to get some
work done on the fly on their little keyboard and their pocketsized device
might use Arch. By the way, uh speaking of being pocket- sized, I guess now's as
good a time as any to discover if it will fit in the pocket of our cargo
pants from ltstore.com. Okay. Well, not the phone pocket.
Too bad GPD already has a product called the pocket. Otherwise, they could have
called this the GPD pocket. Man, they really that up, didn't they?
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That's where we put them. >> All right, what are the odds this will just come apart nicely and it won't be a
hassle? Do you think it's just going to be these four screws? I can see there's going to be nothing under the rubber
feet. >> Nothing under the rubber feet. >> You sure? >> So sure.
>> Wow. It was that easy. Access to the M.2
slot just like that. And it's totally
true. You can put in anything you Wow.
So, they went and put what appears to be thermal compound on the Wi-Fi chip, but
then they've just put a piece of plastic on it. Is that a cooler? No. No. It's
just a sticker. Yeah, it's metal. Okay, cool. So, that's just to make sure that
your SSD doesn't short out on it. Okay, you know what? I approve. Is there
actually enough clearance for Oh, yeah. Yeah, you could have a double-sided SSD
in this thing. That's awesome. There's our 27watth battery.
Cool. Let's close it up. Oh god, I just
broke the screw off. >> Uh, is it just a standard Oh, it's in there. Oh.
>> Oh, yeah. No, no, this is like sword.
Um, that's fine. It'll run. Can I get some captain tape?
>> Captain? >> I'll get it. >> What makes captain tape special?
>> Uh, it's really sticky. It's not like a like a gooey kind of sticky. Like it's a
very tacky sticky. Uh-huh. Okay, there.
Fixed. Hey, it still works. That's always a good sign. Now, let's talk
about how it works. GPD has all kinds of ideas for this. The Yaxis can be rotated
counterclockwise and folded back to create a three-dimensional view. the y
axis
perhaps this what does three-dimensional view mean
>> I assume tent mode >> oh
like this from their notes also after
withstanding 100,000 cycles of mechanical arm testing including
sustained rotation flipping and inversion it achieves a durability rate
of 99.3% the screen flips up to 180° for a bird's
eye view perspect perspective. I've never heard this called bird's eye view
perspective, but I think I see where they're going with it.
I'm a bird. Let's give the keyboard a shot. It's not
really intended for two-hand typing. I
think you could, but you should not.
It's really not faster than typing with your thumbs. And if you look at the
ergonomics of the rest of the input devices, it's clear that it's intended
to be used in this kind of orientation.
And the touchpad with the threeb button layout here actually very usable. I have
seen a couple folks online complaining that they're not big fans of this
layout. I strongly disagree,
dude. Flipping kind of love it,
actually. Hm. Scrolling.
Oh, buddy. Middle click. So, middle click, but be careful not to click on
anything that is hyperl. Nice. Since
we're connected to the internet, and I clearly don't have the 2 and 1/2 gig networking plugged in, it's got Wi-Fi 6
as well as Bluetooth 5.2. So clearly whatever the Intel processor
processor N250, it's clearly a little on
the older side. I will mention that the keyboard is back lit and uses honestly a
fairly sensible almost standard layout that is immediately intuitive for me to
get around with all of the most essential shortcuts. So, screen
brightness, volume control, and uh
function access to the F keys, which if you're using this as like a CIS admin or
something like that is pretty much essential. You've got to have all the
keys that are on a standard keyboard. >> How bright is this backlight, though?
>> Ah, yes. Two different brightnesses, extremely dim and slightly less
extremely dim. Though to be fair, it is definitely usable if you're, you know,
in a dark server room or something, which by the way is more of a thing.
They're actually turning out the lights in data centers to save power. The
housing is made of ABS uh with a Rockwell hardness rating of R109. I
never said the display was 7 in, for instance. Wait, does it have a webcam?
You will not be conference calling on this, but that's okay because the real
work gets done in the command line. Oh, there's a more expensive one that comes
with an i3n300. Again, whatever the that is. What
it isn't is high performance. This thing got absolutely crushinated by an Asus
Chromebook that we tested it against. I don't even know what CPU that thing had
in it is, but whatever it is, it's in a Chromebook, so it's obviously not that
good. There was one other thing with regards to performance and battery life,
and that is that while it does have switchable power profiles, you have to
go into the BIOS to do it like a caveman. Oh god, you'd think they'd at
least put it somewhere convenient, you'd think. >> Yeah. Okay. It's at 15 watts. AAA games.
How about Cyberpunk Play? Oh, I can hear
that fan kicking in. >> The mouse is so big compared to it.
>> I know, right? How fun is that?
Need a smaller mouse. >> Your fingers cook over in half the
keyboard. >> No, as long as I can reach my crouch
button, my jump, and my WD, I'm golden.
Oh my god, this is taking so long to load. Hey, there we go.
That is more input latency than I would expect on cellular data game streaming
from a data center like across the country. This is,
man, I'm not even out in the city right now. This is freaking awful. I wouldn't
have thought it possible to experience some motion sickness on a screen this
small, but I think I've got some. Oh, is
motion blur on? Yeah. Hi. Okay, that's
definitely not helping. A glorious 15fps
at the lowest settings in a AAA game. They're technically not wrong. It does
run. What if we try to run something more esportsy? Maybe this is doable.
Man, that fan though.
To be clear, it's actually not that bad,
right? It's actually got a pretty okay tone. It's just, you know, it's a small
device and that's what happens. Oh, there's updates. There's driver updates.
That was the problem. We didn't have all the driver updates. Belle,
>> it will probably run it. So many more FPS. While we're waiting for this to
install, why don't we check out the speakers, YouTube,
huh? My expectations were extremely low
and it exceeded them. Not by a ton.
Harsh and completely lacking in bass, but reasonably loud and usable. Very
usable. So, good job. >> It's obviously not a touch screen, is
it? >> Oh, did I not mention it's a touch screen? Yeah, it's definitely a touchcreen. Sorry. So, you could you
could do this if you wanted. Wow. Oh my god. Did Counter-Strike crash? I
shouldn't have touched the touchcreen. Way to go, Andrew. Classic Irish move.
Uh, okay. I couldn't even kill the chicken
before a bot took me out. Okay. Oh.
Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Here we go. Here we go. Oh. Oh. Oh, these hitches though.
Hitches be crazy, yo. Good stereo imaging.
No, he took my kill. Yeah, let's go.
>> That was quick. >> Yeah, got him. It was a bot, unfortunately, so that doesn't count.
>> Let's go. Oh, another bot. Damn it. Come on. Come on.
Rage quit. Rage quit this ShortCircuit.
Subscribe to ShortCircuit. >> You don't want to do an emulator? >> No. Maybe you could play emulated games,
but I'm not in the mood anymore. Fine, I'll play an emulated game.
>> I say people are going to be mad that now you brought it up. >> They coaxed me back with the promise of
better performance in emulators. Fine. Don't bet on me.
>> Come on, baby. Show me what you got.
>> Fortunately, he does not know how to block low.
>> Nice. Well, this runs great. So, you can play
lots of PlayStation 2 games as long as you bring a controller with you that is
the size of your entire computer. It starts at $590 and you should subscribe
to ShortCircuit
and cut.