GPD’s new Indiegogo campaign has been open only a few hours and they’ve almost reached their $200k target already. The GPD Pocket is a 7 inch magnesium alloy clad UMPC which borrows its design heavily from the era of the Sony Vaio P. The UMPC and Netbook suffered early deaths when Tablets hit the market, and for me this is a welcome return of a neat and capable form factor. It can run both Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04 but looking at their campaign, you must choose which OS you would like before you order.
The machine has similar hardware to the WIN, being powered by an Atom x7-Z8700, 4GB RAM and a 7000mah battery but this time it boasts a high res 1920×1200 7 inch screen. Looking at their campain page it looks as though they’re hoping to compete somehow with the Microsoft Surface and MacBook Air, which seems mildly ridiculous to me given that it’s going to be very difficult do much productive or creative work on such a small screen.
This doesn’t seem to have stopped anyone though. Even after the overheating and shipping problems of the WIN, GPD have almost hit their target funding within just a few hours of campaign launch. The swish magnesium alloy body and $400 price tag are enough to woo the crowds.
GPD’s website is being hammered at the moment so it’s hard to get on to see their promo material, but the Indiegogo page is here. Shipping is due in June this year, and GPD made good on their timeline last time around so this goal seems realistic at least.
