GPD Pocket 2 7″ Mini Laptop Windows 10 PC

You might have seen my posts on Twitter and Facebook recently about my new toy mini laptop PC, the crowd funded GPD Pocket 2.

I have been burnt before with crowd funded projects (I supported 3 smartwatches and only one make it to production and it under-delivered 😦 ), so I was wary of getting involved again. However, this was the second generation of the GPD Pocket and demo devices had already been delivered to a number of YouTube reviewers. I felt fairly safe to get involved with crowd funding again, as this would give me a discount and get the device earlier.

GPD (standing for Game Pad Digital) is based in Shenzhen in China and started building handheld gaming devices. They later expanded into pocket sized Windows machines.

You might ask “Why did I want/need a tiny PC?” when I already have a Surface Book 2 15″ machine (which is awesome by the way). Well, it comes down to convenience. The client for the system that my software licensing is based on Soraco’s QLM (Quick License Manager) runs on Windows. There is no “App” version available that can run on my phone. So having a tiny machine that can be used for all my sales and support activities and be carried easily is really handy. My Surface is still my primary machine and is used for all development work, but it is much bigger and 4 times heavier than the GPD Pocket 2, which only weights about 500g (1.1lbs). OK, it is also really cute and I love gadgets, but I had to invent have a business case.

After registering as a backer with on the (now completed) Indiegogo campaign GPD Pocket2: 7.0′ UMPC-Laptop ‘WIN 10 OS’ at the start of September with the expected ship date in October, I was happily surprised to receive the machine early on 18^th September 2018. This was great as I wanted to bring it with me on my trip to the USA for GPUG Summit 2018 in Phoenix, AZ, USA (I start flying on Friday).

Since getting the machine, I have upgraded it from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro, installed Office 365, SQL Server 2017, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018, Dexterity 18.0, Visual Studio 2017, Quick License Manager and all my usual tools and utilities. I installed a 256GB microSD card which is used for all my documents and media files, which leaves plenty of space on the main 128GB SSD for the operating system and applications.

The machine has some impressive specifications for its size (18cm x 11cm x 8-14mm), boasting a 7″ 16:10 1920×1200 resolution touch screen with a dual core Intel Core m3-7y30 CPU, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Bluetooth and WiFi, Optical Finger Mouse (weird but works really well). It also comes with 2 x USB 3.0 type A and 1 x USB 3.1 type C ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack and micro SDXC slot. For more information see the GPD Pocket 2 Specifications Page. It even has a chocolate chiclet keyboard (see image below 🙂 ).

On the keyboard there is a button with Japanese characters on it which is designed for use with Japanese Windows (top row, third key from the left). As this had no use for me, I used SharpKeys from randyrants.com to map the key to the media play/pause key. Combined with the existing mute, volume up and volume down keys makes the device much more practical for playing music.

The following review from one of my favourite tech channels compares the first generation GPD Pocket with the new GPD Pocket 2. It highlights the better performance of the second generation machine:

Powerful PC in your POCKET (direct link)

If you are interested in having a look at this amazing little machine or want to know more about GP Power Tools and Batch Posting Service Toolkit, stop by Booth 1540 at the GPUG Summit 2018 Expo, or catch me around when I am training at GPUG Academy (Dexterity or GP Power Tools) or presenting sessions.

PS: Use code PRPWDC to get 10% discount on conference registration.

David

This article was originally posted on http://www.winthropdc.com/blog.