The Peakago is a tiny laptop computer that’s small enough to slide into a pants pocket (assuming you have fairly large pants pockets). It’s not the first mini computer to fit that description — but it’s one of the cheapest to date.
Peakago is taking pre-orders for this little laptop with a 7 inch display through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. It’s set to ship to backers in March, 2020, and folks who pre-order can reserve one for as little as $269 or so.
9/9/2020 Update:Â Peakago has yet to ship any products to backers of the crowdfunding campaign, and the company has been radio silent for much of 2020, with no updates to the Indiegogo page, no response to backers, and no responses to my emails. I would not recommend anyone spend money on the Peakago crowdfunding campaign.Â
What you get for that price is a 1.2 pound mini-laptop with a 7 inch, 1920 x 1200 pixel IPS touchscreen display, a 360-degree hinge, and a QWERTY keyboard that you can use for touch-typing… with a little practice. Because the keyboard is so small, some keys might not be where you’d expect to find them, and there’s an optical touch sensor instead of a standard laptop touchpad.
The little computer is powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processors and features relatively slow eMMC storage. It supports single-band 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, and unlike many other little laptops, the Peakago has a VGA webcam.
Update 11/15/2019: Peakago has updated the crowdfunding campaign. Every Peakago will now ship with 802.11ac WiFi support and now there’s an option for a new Peakago Pro with a higher-performance Intel Pentium N4200 processor, but only if you get the WiFi-only model.Â
It’s a full-fledged Windows computer capable of running most Windows apps… but based on my experience testing a demo unit, it’s pretty pokey when it comes to performance. Working with this little computer feels a bit like slipping back in time to an era where you had to wait just a little longer for PCs to load applications or perform other functions — although once apps are up and running, it’s not a bad little device for some web browsing, video streaming, or other simple tasks.
On the bright side, it’s inexpensive, has a decent set of ports (USB-C, USB-A, micro HDMI, audio, and microSD), and compact (7.1″ x 4.5″ x 0.78″).
Peakago is offering three different configurations at launch.
- Atom x5-Z8350/4GB RAM/64GB storage ($269)
8GB RAM/128GB storage ($339)- Update: Pentium N4200/8GB/RAM/128GB storage for $339 (before Nov 22nd, or $399 after)
- Atom x5-Z8350/8GB RAM/128GB storage + 4G LTE ($399)
Note that those prices are the crowdfunding prices for the first 100 backers at each level. Peakago suggests that these prices are 40-percent off the eventual retail prices… which could make these little laptops a tough sell unless Peakago gives the hardware a bit of an upgrade.
LTE Window 10 pocket-able is a game changer
IMHO, this is what these minimal computers should cost. A little higher would be okay if they had an N4100 or faster cpu. More competition should lead to improvements!
I agree with this on quality alone- so many horror stories from people who bought GPD or other small scale products and dealt with the RMA process if they were lucky. I’d be fine with the opportunity to lose $250 bucks on a device, but $1000+? Nah, that’s okay.
I don’t know… These GPD-type UMPCs seem a pretty niche market. How many competitors can the business reasonably support? I’ve seen models from at least a half-dozen different vendors noted here at Liliputing over the last couple years now – and they don’t seem to be getting any cheaper. Most commenters here turn their nose up at the CPUs in the sub-$500 models.
I’m interested and can live with the Atom-class CPUs for my needs, but I haven’t seen one I’m willing to risk the money on yet given the at best questionable post-sales support issues.
I have 2 GPD computers, the Pocket and the MicroPC. Both are working great. The Pocket had an issue with the battery expanding. I got lucky, the motherboard was not damaged and the case regained its shape when I replaced the battery.
I have heard some horror stories from other GPD buyers, but so far, so good for me.
I really like that this has built-in LTE which is rare for these modern UMPCs but that super slow Atom SoC is a deal breaker. The MAG1 from a previous article had a good SoC and built-in LTE but, too bad, it only supports Chinese carriers and I’m not going to source my own LTE module and antennas.
Built in LTE is the one feature most of these Tiny Computers are missing. I can get along ok with the atom processors. But having to tether to my hotspot gets old.
I guess, for you, this device fits your needs. Did you back the campaign?
No I didn’t. I have been burned on several crowdfunded campaigns recently, so I won’t back another one. Plus I have 2 working mini computer/UMPCs so I don’t want to spent the money on a new one right now, even one that has built in LTE.
I’ll wait to see if it hits the retail market and then reconsider.