Chinese device maker GPD has made some of the most interesting little computers in the past few years.
The GPD Win line of handheld Windows gaming PCs are unlike anything else currently on the market, and the GPD Pocket line of pocket-sized laptop computers have inspired a series of clones and a bit of a rebirth of the netbook/UMPC market.
Sure, these are all devices that only appeal to a niche audience (which overlaps heavily with Liliputing’s audience), but GPD seems pretty happy with the way things are going. According to Japanese website Hermitage Akihabara, the company plans to launch a bunch of new products in the next few years.
Details are a bit scarce at the moment, but here’s what we know so far:
- GPD says its 3rd-gen Win and Pocket devices are coming in 2020.
- In 2019 the company will introduce “two completely new devices.”
In other words, those new devices won’t just be new Win or Pocket computers. And it won’t just be an update to the GPD XD Plus Android handheld game system either.
GPD has been making handheld devices for a while, with a series of Android models predating the company’s more recent Windows-powered devices.
So if the company’s truly branching out into new territory that could mean… a tablet or phone. Those would both be new for GPD, while old hat for the rest of the industry.
But given GPD’s history with outside-the-box products, I’m hoping that the company has something more surprising in store for 2019.
I’d like a lower price GPD Win. Maybe in tablet form with specs closer to the original GPD Win. A entry device would be nice. At least without the controller and keyboard built in, people can just add their own favorite telescopic controller and save a few while doing it.
Not gonna happen with any 14nm Intel Core M/Y/U chipsets.
Only way possible is if they made a motherboard and shell…and people can shuck out their old Laptop SoC’s and place them in there.
Pocket Chromebook maybe?
I hope for a Ryzen APU handheld with all the performance powerhouse of their Radeon RX Vega Graphics!
A professional device, or/and a device with phone/4G build in would be very interesting.
But i hope for a more pocketable Windows device – sliding keyboard, and a small formfactor.
Who knows, it might be a miniature Windows 10 PC that you can stick on the back of your TV/Monitor. That sounds like something GPD would build, and it really is a different category of “mini” device. I’m guessing since they made a Nintendo 3DS clone, the other device might be a Playstation Vita clone or possibly a Nintendo Switch clone.
Though I hope 2020 is fruitful with improvements to the GPD Win3 and GPD 3XD !!!
I’d like an Android phone with proper a controller. Maybe a slide out one like the Xperia Play
Well, since Sony won’t, it seems like GPD is in the best position to make an actually good gaming phone. I just seriously hope they don’t skimp on the battery so it will actually last all day while gaming.
Current one has 6000mah so i hope they will continue on this. Also i hope they use modern manufacturing technology soc like 14nm or 10nm instead of old mediatek soc.
I would take a 14nm over a 7nm any day of the week, if it was a choice of Qualcomm versus MediaTek. I cannot exercise how much of a disappointment it is when your device is software locked because the manufacturers don’t care and aren’t friendly enough to give you the tools (bootloader) to fix things yourself.
Back on topic, if GPD does go ahead with building a phone…
….I hope its a 5.7inch 16:9 Stereo-speaker slab phablet (a la ZTE Axon 7). And that it has two compact joysticks/gamepads that attach to each side (a la Nintendo Switch). That way the phone is compact and pocketable on its own (unlike the beefier GPD Win 2), with the small joysticks being put in your other (left or right) pocket.
It’s that, or men have to start carrying purses instead of pockets.