Pocket-sized Windows Gaming PC
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,965 words · ~9 min read
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I'm struggling a lot with this video why are we making it who could possibly care
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and why does this product exist this is
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the GPD win it is a Windows-based one of
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those translators that all the Korean kids in class use to cheat on their
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spelling tests in theory it's a gaming device it
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has a gam pad built in but it runs an Intel Cherry Trail processor with
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onboard Graphics meaning is it capable of Gaming well there's really only one
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way to find out by watching this video
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also you could just read discussion about it on Reddit but you're here at
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this video now you might as well keep
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going G fuel is the sugar-free Alternative Energy beverage to maintain
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focus and endurance over long days and gaming sessions save some money using
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Code Linus at the link in the video description so let's start with what the
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heck is this thing inside the Box you
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get oh that's my Windows 10 key don't worry too much about that but you get
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the GPD win you get uh some ripoff Apple
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ear pods go ahead and take a look at those while I open up the other crap
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that's in here you get a USB typc cable
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there you go looks a little something like that you get a USB charger it's a 2
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and 1/2 amp fun fact this thing will
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lose charge during heavy use and by
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heavy use I mean downloading games in Steam it will lose charge on a 2 Amp
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device so you're going to want to use that puppy if you want to game for you
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know more than a few hours at a time on it and you get these instructions most
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of which are in English but not
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all on the other side they are okay so
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let's have a look at what we're dealing with here we've got a air exhaust we've
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got intake apparently they're both intakes
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which is actually not how that works but sure GPD we've got a fan switch off low
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and high I'd recommend high it's really not that loud it's right up to my mic
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not that bad you got a couple of speaker ports here and then uh not a whole lot
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else going on around the bottom except oh look at that more ioe than the
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MacBook how shocking so we've got a type-c connector that's for charging
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we've got a mini HDMI we've got a Micro SD slot see that wasn't so hard look how
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thin that is apple look how thin that is
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is that that hard to put on your device yeah I thought so all right we've got a
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type a connector so that's USB 3 going by the color and a headset Jack so
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that's your microphone headphone combo Jack also yes my friends L1 R1 L2 and L1
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buttons because this is a freaking
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gaming device sort of I guess let's go
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ahead and uh oh no no how do I jump over him I don't remember anymore oh there we
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go that's right that's how Batman jumps look at that I running Batman Arkham
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Asylum at 39 frames per second and we're
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dip down to 34 in a fight scene sometimes it goes all the way down to a
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cinematic 24 but really it's not that bad so let's have a look at what they've
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got over here they've got a d-pad they've got a couple of joysticks
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they've got an ABX wild check that out emulation much they've also got
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PlayStation logos on the uh buttons there so you don't get confused when
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you're playing oh I don't know say for example Final Fantasy 7 and you're
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trying to play on like a PC controller it's all like okay March along with the
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other guys in the band press X Plus triangle I'm like which one's X I've
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never played on a PlayStation in my life uh what else we got here full keyboard
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as well as some auxiliary buttons here including start see I paused before you
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hit me right there start select print screen L3 R3 volume up and volume down
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dedicated buttons for that definitely thumbs up there an Xbox button and power
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but what are the capabilities like I mean I guess I just showed you
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but it does more hold on so that's a surprisingly good gaming experience I
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mean sure it's an older AAA title but the fact that it runs at all on
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something this size is pretty darn impressive and even more so it's got a
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6700 Milah battery which resulted in about about 20% of it being lost in the
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time that we were playing the game not too bad and not every game is going to
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be as intensive as you know something like Batman Arkham Asylum so let's say
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you wanted to fire up the old emulator I'm actually pretty impressed again
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Orlando doesn't need healing anyway because he's like a badass but whatever
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check this out Final Fantasy Tactics running on ePSXe anywhere from 30 to 60
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FPS somewhere in that range which is frankly good enough for this compy of
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experience that's right Auto potion you just did like 18
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damage so gaming wise I'm actually pretty darn impressed so far it's got 64
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gigs of emmc storage 4 gigs of RAM meaning you've got a pretty decent spec
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computer in your hands so then of course you know the next step for me is what
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about not gaming this is actually where it stood out to me even more because
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you've got your D and X input mode for
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the game pad then you've got this mouse mode in the middle that's actually
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surprisingly intuitive to use so the right stick becomes a mouse and remember
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you've also got a touchscreen so you're not like limited to just waiting for
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this to move around as you you know browse forums or whatever else the case
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may be left and right click are handled by the shoulder buttons back
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there and this left one here is now a
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scroll it is shockingly intuitive to use
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and and actually very pleasant as long as you can you have decent Vision
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because text is not very big and given this is a 5 and A2 in 720p screen as
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soon as you try to scale anything within Windows you're going to end up with a
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lot of usability problems like bringing up uh Windows that have all the buttons
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cut off on the right and the bottom Which is far from my only complaint the
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wobble on the shoulder buttons in particular however quality the switches
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under them might be is at the very borderline of what I would consider to
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be intact let alone and acceptable and I
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ran into a very interesting bug maybe it's Unique to my unit but I kind of
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doubt it this is pre-production to be very very clear where while I'm plugged
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in and charging I can't actually boot up the device I have to unplug boot it
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throw it back in and then I can use it while I charge practically speaking
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though none of that stuff really changes the usability of the device that much
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and there are a shocking number of ways
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to use it so right now I've actually
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mixed things up and I'm using steam and home streaming to stream this game off
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of a computer upstairs that's how I'm running rocket League at a solid 60
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frames per second with no dips whatsoever at the highest quality pretty
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freaking cool and made possible by the fact that they didn't cheap out on those
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little things that you often see on Cheapo handheld devices like dualband
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Wi-Fi and another interesting use case while I don't necessarily agree with the
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optimism that GPD has about you know how
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great it is as a productivity device is getting actual work done because the
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team viewer experience is frankly not that great from a phone and being able
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to remote in and use a computer with a mouse and keyboard is a pretty
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compelling use case one that my wife brought up almost immediately when she
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looked at it so I guess all that's really left then is the conclusion is it
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worth the price of admission which is somewhere between 3 50 to
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$400 for something that in essence is a
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fatter clunkier Nintendo DS that runs a
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full Windows 10 operating system which
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kind of blew my mind and the answer is I up to
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you personally I wouldn't buy one but
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what this does make me excited for is the future of hyper mobile devices like
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this when they get just a little bit more power like it's feels kind of like
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the iPhone to me is it as revolutionary as the iPhone no to be very clear but
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it's kind of like the iPhone to me where it's like hey there's this like great
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idea but like it's kind of not that great right now but stay tuned like five
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years from now it's going to be awesome that's what I feel this is
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like let me know in the comments below if you agree or if you think I totally
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missed the mark So if you're not familiar with mass drop they're a
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community where users discuss products they're interested in buying and then
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Mass drops all like oo you guys want to buy that okay they go and talk to the
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manufacturer they negotiate a bulk order at a discounted price and Bam all those
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people get a lower price the manufacturer gets to sell a bunch of units and mass drop sits in the middle
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today's drop is the noble X they are made in the USA and they
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offer a great sound signature with a midnight blue anodized face plate and a
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detachable cable and they ship with two pairs of silicone ear tips two foam ear
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ear tips one pair of silicone ear tips
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presumably this will make sense visually a cleaning tool a carrying case and a
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warranty from Noble audio I mean they got Noble right in the name what are the
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odds they don't honor it right now selling for
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$249.99 with free domestic shipping in the US check that out at the link in the
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video description so I think that pretty much wraps it up if you guys dislike
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this video go ahead and hit that dislike button but if you liked it hit the like
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button get subscribed maybe even consider checking out the where toy Link
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in the video description for the stuff we featured today also linked in the
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video description is our merch store which you can buy a cool which you can buy a cool shirt where you can buy a
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cool shirt like this one and our community Forum which you should totally
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join I think that's it right we have other videos you should watch them we'll
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have a thing there it'll be
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pretty like me