I got my DevTerm earlier this week. TL;DR version: I think @beschizza would be disappointed if he tried to use this as an all-in-one writing device without significant modifications that include replacing the case and built-in keyboard with something human-scale.
Putting it together was fun–mostly because I hadn’t delved into the forums and seen some of the pitfalls that people have run into. (Though I then realized that I hadn’t bought the right batteries and didn’t have thermal paper for the printer.) Somehow, despite not exercising a crazy amount of care putting the thing together, once I rectified the battery problem, it booted up just fine.
Overall impressions:
When assembled (what I assume is) correctly, it feels pretty solid. The two knobs on the sides are not scroll knobs; they’re to hold the top and bottom of the shell together. The whole thing feels appropriately weighty, though not crazy heavy.
The screen is quite nice–widescreen with solid resolution. My eyesight’s not good enough to tell the difference between this and some higher-resolution screens.
The real pitfall so far is–as I was worried about–input. The built-in keyboard isn’t useless, exactly; it’s just way too small to touch-type on for an adult human being. The last knuckle of my index finger spans all three rows of letters; the whole keyboard is smaller than my hand. Not sure if it’s just my unit, but the keys on the edges of the keyboard (including Enter, Backspace, and Shift) and the spacebar all feel mushy. There’s a teeny tiny trackball at the top of the keyboard and three mouse buttons immediately under the spacebar. The fact that this is reasonable placement–using my middle finger on the trackball, my thumb rests on the left mouse button–really underscores just how small this keyboard is. But given the size of everything, I imagine that any extended use of this machine if I want to write on it will involve a LOT of accidentally hitting a mouse button instead of the spacebar.
It’ll be an interesting toy, and it might well be a useful machine with peripherals, but it’s no all-in-one Alphasmart replacement. It appears to have Bluetooth and it also has three USB-A ports and a USB-C port that I think is meant mainly for charging but that I assume also works as a regular ol’ USB-C port.
Without pretty extensive case and keyboard modifications (that I don’t really have the time, tools, or or inclination to perform), this isn’t what I’d been hoping for. Still an impressive achievement, and for those with more hardware knowhow and a 3D printer, I bet turning it into a supercharged writing deck would be a good time.
