GPD’s last few products have been handheld gaming PCs including the GPD Win 4 and GPD Win Max 2. But the company also makes handhelds and mini-laptops designed for general purpose usage rather than just gaming, and it looks like there could be several new models on the way. Then just follow any on-screen instructions to load the operating system of your choice into memory. Doing so shouldn’t overwrite Windows unless you choose a method that says “install.” So when you’re finished, you should be able to shut down the computer, remove the flash drive, and boot into Windows as if nothing ever happened (although you may notice that your data and time settings need adjusting). The port selection on this little guy is better than expected, two full size USB A ports, one on either side of the machine as well as a multipurpose USB C port that is used to power the device as well as to drive any external displays. I found myself wishing that it had an additional USB C port instead of one of the USB A’s as you will need an adaptor to be able to power the machine and output to an external monitor simultaneously. Both of the USB A ports are USB 3.0 which is nice. Having the TDP set to 15W will help conserve battery power. Very high performance may not be required for tasks like web browsing or working with office documents. You can of course increase the TDP to 20W to match the gaming handhelds for more performance, but at the cost of using more battery power. PassMark Again, I’m only looking at the default settings. It’s possible that advanced Linux users will be able to troubleshoot the issues I encountered. But so far the closest I’ve come to a non-Windows operating system where everything works the way you’d expect it to is Ubuntu 18.04.

This time I was able to boot into Debian, connect to the internet, surf the web, stream videos, and do just about everything you’d expect to be able to do with a modern desktop operating system.

Customer reviews

Recharge speed is pretty good from the included charger. Even when the machine is running at max capacity the processor only consumes around 6-8W, and it could recharge from the included USB C while under load. GPD set the default scaling to 175 percent on my demo unit, and that seems to be a pretty good compromise… but some applications still handle scaling in Windows 10 better than others, so don’t be surprised if every now and again you encounter software where all the menus and icons look incredibly tiny. You can also use this machine for viewing or editing documents, a little coding-on-the-go, for watching movies, or really for anything else you would expect to do on a PC. Just bear in mind that you’ll probably have to type more slowly than you would on a larger machine, and the small screen doesn’t provide a lot of room for multiple windows. The keyboard is arranged to accommodate bigger buttons, each button is individual and separated to prevent mistyping. Overall the keyboard is not too congested and it’s surprising how well they managed with the limited space available. Is the device perfect, no of course not. The display bezels could be smaller, there is no webcam, the optical pointer/mouse buttons are a little bit frustrating and having a proper, full speed, SSD would be great. But this device nails all the really important aspects – all day battery life, a silent mode and being a really fast machine make this one of, if not the best UMPC that you can get on the market at the moment.

There were a few problems though. The first is that when you first launch the operating system the display will be sideways.It’s also surprising to find a touchscreen of this calibre in such a device. When I give it to people for the first time, they grab the screen and are pleasantly surprised to find that it’s touch-sensitive – and that it works well. Admittedly, the touch targets in Windows 10 on a 7-inch screen are small, but for basic functionality such as scrolling, closing apps or selecting the OK button, it works. While the G1 also has a USB4/Thunderbolt port that will let you connect it to a wide variety of devices Having it here creates a few problems, first of all it is far from the keys which means that it really interrupts your flow if you need to use it. After having the device for a while I found that I was naturally using the arrow keys and other keyboard shortcuts as much as I could to navigate around as I found it to be much faster than taking my hands off the keyboard to use the optical sensor. If you have been following GPD you will know that they were originally not going to include an optical sensor at all and instead rely solely on the touch screen to select things. I am super glad that they did not go down this route, navigating a full Windows 10 OS (or Linux distro) on a 7 inch screen using only touch is something that I would not wish upon my worst enemy and the inclusion of the optical sensor above the keyboard, while slightly inconvenient make the machine usable.

In 2006, the concept of Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPC) became a reality with small, inexpensive laptops aimed at the masses. UMPC was a collaboration between Intel and Microsoft to create a new market for peripherals. With touch screens and support for a stylus, UMPC was a precursor to modern smartphones, but without cellular connectivity. Keeping in mind that these tests were performed on the default 15W TDP, the scores are very good for both the system and gaming benchmarks. Using the product as intended for your day to day tasks it will perform them very well and also conserve battery life. This is the operating system that took the longest to boot, but when it did I was pleasantly surprised to see that scaling seemed to be set to 200 percent. Text, graphics, and everything else looked great. I didn’t need to squint to see anything and I didn’t need to adjust any font or display settings.An exception would of course be if you are playing games, while I do not keep many games on this machine due to the limited storage space I do use an indoor cycling simulation program called Zwift where there is a noticeable difference between the different modes. To be fair Zwift also triggers my Macbook Pro fan to turn on at full speed and is clearly a resource hog. There is a dedicated fan toggle button for when you want absolute quietness.