GPD Pocket 2 mini laptop to sport a slimmer bezels and body

After years of producing handheld gaming devices, GPD launched a tiny Windows 10 laptop computer called the GPD Pocket last year. It features a 7 inch touchscreen display, an Intel Atom x7-Z8750 Cherry Trail processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of eMMC storage and currently sells for around $480.

But if you’ve been holding out for a 2nd-gen model, it looks like the wait is almost over.

The company still hasn’t revealed specs, pricing, or the launch date. But GPD’s co-owner posted a handful of pictures in the gpd_devices discord channel last night, giving us our first look at the GPD Pocket 2.

Update: Some specs are now available. See below.

The new model appears to stick with a 7 inch touchscreen display, but the left and right bezels are smaller. The front of the laptop is also slimmer, measuring just 8.5mm, and there are ports on both the left and right sides (the original Pocket had ports on only one side).

Speaking of ports, there are two USB 3.x Type-A ports, a USB Type-C port, a microSD card slot, and a headset jack.

Update GPD co-founder Wade has started talking specs. Here’s what we know so far:

Specs

  • 7 inch, 1920 x 1200 pixel touchscreen display
  • Intel Core M3-7Y30 Kaby lake processor
  • 4GB and 8GB RAM options
  • 128GB of eMMC 5.0 storage
  • MicroSD card slot
  • 6,800 mAh battery
  • 2 USB 3.0 Type-A ports
  • 1 USB Type-C port for charging/data/video
  • Headset jack
  • Capacitive pen

Other tidbits from Wade

  • The system should get similar battery life to the GPD Win 2 handheld gaming PC.
  • The price should be lower than the Win 2 (which sold for $599 – $649 during a crowdfunding campaign, and which now goes for $700 and up).
  • GPD will not offer a Linux model, but Wade says the chipset should make installing Linux yourself pretty easy.
  • The keyboard is not backlit.
  • While the system is not fanless, ther’es a button you can press to disable the fan for silent (and slower) operation.
  • There’s no dedicated HDMI port, but you can use a USB Type-C adapter to connect an external display.
  • GPD will offer a custom leather case for the Pocket 2.
  • The mini laptop can be charged with just about any USB Type-C smartphone charger.
  • GPD could start taking pre-orders through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign as soon as July, with an estimated ship date of August or September. But those dates might be pushed back.

Wade says the company opted for eMMC storage, which is slower than an M.2 SSD, but which has lower power consumption. Unfortunately that means the built-in storage is not user upgradeable (although you can supplement it with a microSD card).

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the GPD Pocket and Pocket 2: the thinner model on the left is the new version:

The biggest physical design changes may be to the keyboard area though. There’s no longer a pointing stick, and there’s still not enough room for a touchpad. So The GPD Pocket 2 will be a touchscreen-only device (unless you connect a mouse or another external pointing device.

The keyboard layout has also been updated. The arrow keys are larger, there’s a single space bar key instead of two (but it’s on the small side), and there’s a black strip above the keyboard that with physical volume, brightness, and other functions (including what looks like the Caps Lock key). That strip looks like a secondary touchscreen display like Apple’s MagicBar, but it’s not.

One thing is not doing: making the Pocket 2 into a convertible tablet. Wade says it has a MacBook-like hinge, not the 360-degree hinge like the One Netbook One Mix Yoga I’ve got sitting on my desk right now.

Update: After receiving some negative feedback about the removal of the pointing stick, GPD is considering delaying the launch of the Pocket 2 by a month or two in order to rework the design and add an optical touch sensor and left and right buttons.

One option under consideration would be to add those buttons to the row of keys above the main keyboard, which would be doable without making major changes to the keyboard layout.

TL;DR

So in a nutshell, the GPD Pocket 2 is thinner, faster, and has an extra USB port when compared to the original. It also adds support for digital pen input and arguably has a better keyboard.

But it lacks the pointing stick found in the original and doesn’t have the backlit keyboard or Yoga-style hinge that some folks had been hoping for. There’s also going to be a model with 4GB of RAM for folks looking to save a few bucks.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,543 other subscribers

21 replies on “GPD Pocket 2 mini laptop to sport a slimmer bezels and body, faster processor”

  1. Every so often I look around for a replacement for my OQO Model 01 (now deceased). It was absolutely perfect for my needs but clearly not everyone elses, and the company died so no new models. I stumbled upon GPD Pocket recently and my heart fluttered when I saw it. Whilst not ‘perfect’ for my needs, it is the closest thing Ive seen for quite a while. Just as I was on the brink of buying one, I heard rumors of the ‘2’…..Used an extremely popular search engine and found lots of images…..my heart sank.
    Whilst the updated spec is very tempting, I’m afraid that if it is released in its currently pictured form then I will not be buying one. Having a keyboard angled out from the screen makes the pen as good as useless and the lack of ‘navnipple’ (as I call them) makes it impractical as a ‘pocketable’ item. These ‘features’ have pushed the new design too far away from perfect machine (the old OQO). So close, but just that bit to far away for me……

  2. definitely needs the pointing device, why do i want to carry around a mouse in my suit when on the go with this? Also still no LTE sim card slot? Will hold out and see if surface phone comes to life….. looks bit better than previous and glad to see micro sd slot added

  3. With just the specs boost, I would have certainly bought one of these. The lack of a mouse is a deal breaker. I wasn’t a fan of the location of the trackpoint on the last model, but at least it was something.

  4. For that small of a device, they should add cell phone capability: dual-boot Windows & Android. Of course: a 360 degree hinge would be required for use as a (rather large) cell phone.

  5. I think GPD is going the wrong direction, going cheaper and removing options is a market strategy for a saturated market where they expect NORMS to be buying these in large numbers. There is no competing product to out sell with cheaper models. If there was a NORM market for these, there would be 20 different options at Best Buy, a cheaper model might make sense, but this is a niche market for enthusiasts, people who expect the next model to have MORE FEATURES and with a slightly higher price tag…

  6. Very disappointed, they should scrap this design, take the One Mix Yoga, put the eraser nub back and put the Core M CPU in it and it would be the perfect machine.

  7. I appreciate what they tried to do with Linux for the first one, but the community version was quickly so much better anyway… and they tried really hard; they were late shipping the Linux versions and tried to keep fixing things with update.

  8. I think that is really neat. I like the small computers. I hope it isn’t too expensive. If one can install Linux on it, perhaps one could try other operating systems? ArcaOS can now be installed from a flash drive.

  9. The new keyboard layout looks cleaner, but the new location of the TAB key is perhaps not the best? And yeah, smallest spacebar ever?

  10. The worst part of the “netbook crazy” were those early 7″ units. They were/are just too small. Having the spec of just 7″ sounds great for mobility, until you have to be productive with a system that small. I think during their short life, netbooks demonstrated that the 10″ models were about as small as was ergonomically feasible for real work. JMO

    1. most of the time, a device will be too small, or too big and too heavy! rarely will it be just right

  11. Beautiful design, but they ruined it for me with that keyboard. No capslock-left-of-A means no ctrl:swapcaps, so spare-moment text-editing (my dominant use-case, with a WordStar-flavored editor) becomes annoying rather than fluid.

    1. Haha, I did that with the original — not with a wordstar editor, but still.
      Possibly worth putting up with for me but for the lack of trackpoint.

    1. I thoroughly expected to click on this article to see you comment about those slimmer bezels? Tobi. You disappoint me. Greatly…smile. Slimmer bezels on this device makes sense.

  13. A 360° hinge is a must if they want people to make proper use of an active pen.

  14. They almost got it right. Not having that nub is gonna kill productivity. A 360 flip screen would have been great too. I’m currently trying to sell my GPD win to buy the new One Mix Yoga.

    1. I’m glad you pointed that out, I would have missed it. What a terrible idea. I say this as someone who grew up on a command-line… how does someone even use a modern computer without a mouse? Touchscreens are not enough. I’m not going to carry around an extra mouse for something where the entire point is that it’s pocket sized.

    2. I’m excited for GPD’s astroturfers to come and tell us we’re all wrong about these things but you’re right, they’re dealbreakers. Like urgan says, who wants to bring an extra mouse along with a system you can fit in your pocket? And how are you supposed to take full advantage of an active pen without a convertible form factor? Who wants to draw or write on the screen when it’s upright like that? Very poor decisions here. The upgrades are what you’d hope for, but they only went halfway and it’s not enough.

      1. They are pushing for people to use it with a capacitive pen. It will be interesting if there is room for one in the case

      2. I think they want us to use the capacitive pen. I still prefer One Mix Yoga because flipping is better for drawing

Comments are closed.