GPD Pocket Review – 7 Inch Mini Laptop Fit in your Pocket

GamePad Digital (GPD) is a manufacturer who wants to conquer the market mainly with niche products. After the manufacturer last year released the Windows 10 handheld console “GPD WIN”, GPD has this year a compact 7-inch laptop – the “GPD Pocket” – in the luggage. For this review, I tested this Mini Laptop for several weeks in everyday life.

First of all, we would like to thanks, GamePad Digital (GPD) for his confidence in giving us the product for Review. You can buy From GPD official AliExpress Store. You can Also buy From Gearbest at $479.99

Unboxing

The scope of Unboxing of the GPD Pocket is hardly different from that of a conventional smartphone. Are contained in addition to the Pocket PC or a screen protector, a charger with USB C bushing and NEMA-1 connector (5V 3A – 9V 2.67A – 12V – 2A), a USB-C to USB-C cable and a Chinese user manual.

Design and Build

The GPD Pocket is a laptop for the laptop case, which is designed especially for the large-scale business user and mobile IT. The dimensions of the aluminum housing are 18 cm in length, 10.6 cm in depth and 1.85 cm in thickness. The weight is just 503g.

The connection possibilities are all on the right side of the housing and amount to a multifunctional USB-C socket, a micro-HDMI socket, a 3.5m jack audio connection and a USB 3.0 type A socket. Personally, I missed an additional Micro-SD memory card slot. Also on the right side of the housing is a fan grille, because the system is not passive, but actively cooled! Four small rubber feet, which are located in the respective corners of the bottom of the housing, ensure a stable stand.

Also interesting is the keyboard (US layout) of the GPD laptop. Despite the compact housing, the most important keys, as well as function keys, are available. Mouse movements are not recorded via a trackpad but via a pointer. The functionality of the Pointer is similar to the TrackPoint of the Lenovo ThinkPad series.The processing quality of the GPD Pocket is decent. The housing is fault-free manufactured and also the connections sit firmly. The display hinge opens cleanly, with a pleasant resistance. The glass-protected display, the keyboard, and the small blue pointer also give a high-quality impression.

Keyboard and Pointer

Despite its compact design, the GPD Pocket keyboard has a total of 84 keys. The keyboard is occupied according to the US layout. For reasons of space, numerous keys have been made considerably more compact and moved closer together. The first writing attempts with the GPD Pocket are therefore somewhat habituated. However, if you have become accustomed to the compact and US-American layout, it is no problem with the Pocket PC to write smaller texts, without constantly looking for the keys. However, you will not break a speed record, and you should not adjust to a liquid 10-finger writing. The touch feeling is particularly positive. Keystrokes feel pleasant and are hardly audible. However, I missed a keyboard lighting, which would have made it much easier to work in the dark.

Mouse moves are controlled via a trackpad, via a TrackPoint. As the name already suggests, this is a small pressure-sensitive point that can be moved more or less joystick-like in all directions. The mouse speed is controlled by the pressure intensity. However, a new feature is not the way the TrackPoint works. Anyone who knows the Lenovo ThinkPad series will also recognize the TrackPoint!

In practice, the TrackPoint control also proves to be necessary for the first time. Although the blue rubber cap has a good hold and can control the mouse pointer precisely, the speed and ease of a mouse are not approached. The TrackPoint is not enough to handle everyday tasks. If one does not manage at all, it is also not a problem to connect a mouse or one serves the Pocket PC via the touch screen of the display.

User interface and performance

Windows 10 and Linux

A factory- installed Windows 10 Home 64-bit is preinstalled at the factory. The manufacturer also attaches a suitable license key. This is located on the packaging in which the device is delivered. The preinstalled Windows 10 is ready for use with the first start. All drivers are already preinstalled. Alternatively, it is also possible to install various Linux distributions on the GPD Pocket. Community projects and instructions can be found on the net.

Hardware

The installed processor is an Intel Atom X7-Z8750, which was already installed in the GPD WIN. This processor, manufactured on the 14nm process and presented at the beginning of 2016, offers a total of 4 processor cores, which clock at 1.6 GHz and reach a maximum clock rate of 2.56 GHz in the burst. The processor is cooled by an active fan cooling system. The process graphics is an Intel HD 405  which theoretically with 4K and/or. H.265 video material cope, but is less suitable for playing.

The main application area of GPD Pocket is Office applications. Some console work, image processing, and web browsing are no problem for the Pocket PC. Even high-resolution YouTube videos play the device without image breaks. More demanding tasks such as video editing and gaming are hardly conceivable. It is not possible to play current playlists on the device fluently. Again, well, the use works as a streaming PC. HEVC encoded video material to other devices to stream works easily.

The memory configuration is an 8GB large LPDDR3 memory and a 128GB eMMC5.1 memory. A memory extension using an SD memory card is not possible as already mentioned. In addition, the internal memory cannot be exchanged. Because of the huge amount of memory, multitasking tasks do not pose a problem for the GPD Pocket. However, the memory speed of the internal eMMC memory could be better. The test achieved a moderate read speed of 142 MB / s and a write speed of 89 MB / s. Also, the RAM clock does not hold what GPD promises. According to GPD, the RAM clock should be 1600 MHz. In fact, this is 1066 MHz. A subsequent raising of the clock is only possible by flashing a modified BIOS ( link ).

The cooling performance of the active cooling system has been positively surprised. Air is sucked over the underside, passed through a heat pipe and discharged at the side. In idle, the core temperature was at an average of 36 ° C. A maximum temperature of 74 ° C was reached under permanent full load. Even the highest speed, the volume of the fan is still acceptable. However, the “thermal throttling”, which is already at a mild 68 ° C and reduces the processor performance, is anything but satisfactory. The reason for this is the aggressive Intel DPTF settings in the BIOS. A solution to the problem is the flashing of a modified BIOS!