Subj : Re: one up laptop
To   : All
From : Theo
Date : Tue Oct 21 2025 15:11:56

Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> wrote:
> Has anyone here looked at, or purchased, a one up rpi laptop? I've
> read a few reviews of it and, while it appears to be a solid product,
> I'm a bit turned off by the cooling fan next to the heat sync. Is that
> fan absolutely necessary for users never intending on overclocking the
> cpu? The laptop currently in use has an Intel Pentium N3540 and is
> typically idle because the majority of work is on a pi3b+ via
> ssh. Looking to replace it. The CPU is typically idle and memory
> utiliation is roughly ten percent.
> 
> One attractive feature that attracted me to the platform is fanless
> operation. And considering the age of the platform, I am new at
> this. The decision to transition to pi computing has been the biggest
> and best decision I've made since early adult years. I'd like a pi
> laptop but would like a fanless operation at the same time.

IMHO the Pi will always be compromised as a mobile platform until they sort
out proper power management in the SoC.  You really want to be able to send
it to sleep, hibernate, power down different components, etc, but the
silicon is not designed for this.  Result is that you can make a laptop but
it's always going to be eating some power while the lid is closed.

It's maybe fine if you are going to keep it plugged in all the time or use
it for short periods away from a wall socket, but the simple thing of
folding up the laptop in the evening and picking it up in the morning gets
really annoying if the battery has gone flat overnight and you need to
restart everything.  If you're the kind of person who boots the machine fresh
every morning like a desktop PC maybe this doesn't bother you, but that's
not what people typically do with laptops.

Theo

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
 * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

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