Pine64 Starts Delivery Pinebook Pro Laptop With Rockchip Soc And Linux

Pine64 has started delivery of the Pinebook Pro after some delay. This is a 14″ screen laptop that includes a Rockchip RK3399 processor and runs Debian-Linux with the MATE desktop environment.

Pine64 had hoped to start delivery a few weeks ago, but a number of issues caused delays. The manufacturer that makes the laptops was used to testing hardware with custom Android builds, but it turned out to be impossible to prioritize SD cards or USB storage in the boot procedure. “As a result, we were in a situation where all of the fully assembled Pinebook Pros were factory running Android, and there was literally no way to reflash them with Linux without taking all the laptops apart and manually flashing them,” the company writes.

In the future, Pine64 provides emmc storage with Debian already flashed to the manufacturer. Another problem involved a high-pitched beeping noise during charging, forcing the laptops back to the factory to replace the cause, a small part. In addition, ‘geopolitical events’, probably the trade embargo, caused delivery delays.

Pine64 announced the Pinebook Pro in January and the company has been taking orders since the summer. It is a laptop with a 14″ screen with an IPS panel that has 1920×1080 pixels. The Rockchip RK3399 is a soc with two Cortex A72 cores at 1.8GHz and four Cortex A53 cores at 1.4GHz. The GPU is a Mali T-860 quadcore.The laptop has 4GB lpddr4 and 64GB emmc storage, wifi-ac, bluetooth 5.0, usb-c with displayport alt-mode, a micro-sd card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack The OS is Debian with the MATE desktop environment.

The price is $200. That is converted and with VAT 221 euros. Pine64 already had 11.6″ and 14″ laptops in its range. They have an Allwinner soc with four A53 cores at 1.2GHz and 2GB ram with 16GB storage. Both of those laptops cost $100.