Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/03/05/cool-linux-handheld-computers.html
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The Gemini is very my cup of tea
Did you ever have a Psion pocket computer?
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I have the first revision of the GPD Win (wish I had waited for the 2, though). And for more business-oriented stuff I am eagerly awaiting the Gemini. It is going to be a gadget filled year!
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I was going to say, looks like something from the 90’s.
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Not a coincidence, apparently:
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This is just… I mean… Given netbooks and smartphone peripherals… ?
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I am quite concerned with the overall trend to make such devices more and more premium, price-wise.
Why? If there’s demand for devices at different price points then manufacturers will explore all of those avenues. If the demand for high end Linux devices doesn’t exist then let the market figure that out.
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This looks like if my old LG NV and my current Note5 had a baby. I loved both those phones and would love this baby too.
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Oh man. You missed out then; the best phone of that generation was a Nokia E90 (the last of the Communicator phones). It was beautiful; I had one in mocha brown.
I’d buy one again in a heartbeat, if they released an updated version running Android.
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I had the Env2 and i loved it. It even survived being in my pocket in the pool for almost an hour before i realized my tragic mistake. I took the battery out to dry for a day, popped it back in and still worked. The only damage it had was that the ringer speaker no longer worked, but i was fine with just going off the vibration/haptics off of it. I got so used to it i no longer keep the ringer on my subsequent phones.
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Yeah, I would love one of these, but not for $500. Maybe half that. I already pay that for my phone every 2 years, don’t need another device that is essentially a crippled version of my phone.
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Everything old is new again.
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I certainly remember the psion being the hill that people would die on: for people who just wanted to get shit done with no fancy gizmos like colour screens and an excellent keyboard. Not that i had one myself. The gemini does look pretty schweet…
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I don’t think UMPC’s were all that great the first time around. (Although, not technically a UMPC, I loved my Palm TX + external folding keyboard dock thingy.) They bled into the Netbook phenomenon for a reason, and wee Netbooks were lovely and portable (and underpowered), but my gorilla-like hands just couldn’t hack it.
Still, I’d love me something that was more like an Alphasmart with a full screen. Anyone know of something like that?
My hands are too big for these microkeyboards, but I like having a clamshell anyway - I can two-finger type if I have to. And folding keyboards are a thing, for the other pocket.
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The Sharp Zaurus SL-C860, even with it’s quirky keyboard layout, is still one of my favorite handhelds. It’s the only one I’ve ever used that can serve as a proper ssh terminal on the go. On-screen keyboards are just miserable for terminal work, especially when they’re eating up most of the screen space. It’s a shame the “tiny laptop” form factor never took off.
The best you can do now is a phone and a separate bluetooth keyboard, but even then it’s hard to find one that integrates into a little folding case with the phone.
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That’s my primary use case right there! 
My nexus 7 is OK with an external KB, but it’s pretty long in the tooth now. At some point I won’t be able to get parts to fix it.
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I thought Open Pandora was a giant smoldering tire fire, at best.
It makes me rather thoroughly skeptical as to how many of these “coming in 2018” products will actually emerge.
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