Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here to give you a quick review of a unique kind of product
at least in my experience, and that is a mini laptop. And this is a product that's coming to an Indiegogo campaign starting today and it is
for this little 7-inch laptop-slash-tablet-slash-hybrid device that is able to do quite a lot of things
As you can see, it folds down really, really compact. I'll give you just an idea of the specifications of what is here
Obviously, this is an alternative to using a tablet in that one does have a keyboard
which we'll double back to in just a moment. It also operates with either, you can use it with Windows 10 either in S mode or you
can run it in full desktop type mode as well. Now, you can get these specced out at two different levels
They have a light version and then what they call a light and then a full version
The light version has 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. The full version has 128GB of storage and then 8GB of RAM
Of course, unlike at least an Apple tablet, you do have the option of either putting in
a microSD card here on the side. You also have the option of, with a USB port, both a USB 3.0 and a USB-C, you have the ability
to add, of course, more storage via alternatives there, memory sticks, external hard drives, etc
So, definitely more flexibility for looking at it from a photography perspective for storage
than working with your typical tablet, at least, again, within the Apple universe, which
is where I'm more experienced. What we've got here in terms of the display is we've got a 7-inch IPS touchscreen with
a resolution of 1920x1200, and so, you know, very pixel dense for such a small screen
The main chipset here is an Intel Cherry 8350. The battery is a 4500 mAh battery pack, and so it seems to have a, you know, obviously
the battery life will depend on what you're doing. It seems to be, in my experience, to be somewhere around 7 hours, 8 hours of usage there
And so it does have a built-in camera for doing Skype, and it is a 0.3 megapixel camera
so it's not going to exactly blow you out, but enough for doing video chat and whatever
It does have a sensor, and so it will rotate your screen from different positions
It will also kind of recognize when you've gone to tablet-type mode and when you want
to go to desktop mode, and, you know, and it will also detect when you want to rotate
the screen. And so you do have options for a stand. The actual hinges here seem to be very well made, and so it does give you a lot of flexibility
on how you want to display it. Now this device, in terms of the dimensions, the PicoGo is 181 by 113.6 by 19.6 millimeters thick
And it weighs in at 539 grams, and so it's light, but it's not incredibly lightweight
Now looking here at the side, in terms of the ports, you've got microSD there, but what's
also interesting about the microSD is that this is a 4G compatible, and so you can also
put in a SIM card into there, and so you can actually have mobile data through 4G
You do have a cheaper option without 4G if you want to not have that
It's about $60 difference between the two, and so having that capability is certainly desirable
What you do have also is a 3.5 millimeter jack. You have a micro HDMI out, which I'll come back to in just a second
And then as noted, you've got a USB 3.0, and then also a USB Type-C. So you actually have
a fair amount of flexibility when it comes to connectivity there. Now as far as looking at it from a photography perspective, one indictment that I do have
here is that while obviously it makes sense to have the microSD when it comes to putting
in like a SIM card, if you really wanted to have a flexible photography device, obviously
having a full-size SD port would be really, really significantly important. And that's kind of the main area I can see it having advantages over a tablet
Obviously if you're going to use this to back up some images or to view images or even to
do some edits on the fly, although a 7-inch screen is hard to do dedicated edits on, but
you're going to have to tether the camera either by one of the USB ports to access that
Now as far as the actual usability of it, I have used it with a variety of things
And so the touchscreen is, you know, about laptop-type responsive. I do find if you're trying to do something really, really precise, because some things
are quite small on the screen, using a stylus is helpful for that
But you know, as far as running apps like Microsoft Office, which is a good application
for this, and one of the things that when it comes to like Office, for example, that
I feel like is a good use application of this is, for example, if you're running PowerPoint-type
presentations, if you were to pair...well, let's just say even if you're pairing it with
a regular size projector, I have connected both wirelessly to a projector and then using
the micro HDMI port. But if you're connecting in that way, it's a very small, convenient thing to bring along
for running your display from. And it's got enough processing power there to run displays just fine and to be fairly
responsive for that. Another area where I would find this particularly useful, again as a photographer, is if you
connected something like this to a mini projector, which now there's a lot of those on the market
You could have a small package for bringing along, so some applications from that
Obviously, it's going to be also useful if you're traveling on the fly
Let's say that in an airplane, I mean, it's a screen you can view content from
You know, you can run Netflix and things like that just fine from it
The other advantage here is the fact that it's charged by a USB-type feed
It's easy to charge it from a power bank, for example, and so good for that
You have a lot of flexibility on how you're going to position the screen and so how you're
going to view the content. So good things when it comes to those areas there
Now, when it comes to typing, where this device kind of falls apart for me is that, of course
while it's great to have a full keyboard, if you have North American male-sized hands
it's big hands to fit on a small keyboard. And frankly, I don't know that it's really advantageous, hardly, over a tablet for typing
You know, after a while, I made some adjustments, and like anything, you do adapt to it, but
I do find that it's not quite enough room for me to actually assume a good normal typing
position, and so I tend to stick a finger here and there, and so obviously that slows
down the typing process. So I feel like this is a device that's better suited for those that have small hands and
might benefit from that. The other thing here is that, of course, the touchscreen functionality is very welcome
because your other alternative, of course, you could always attach some kind of Bluetooth
or wired type mouse, but your other alternative is to use the nub here to navigate around
And while it works okay, you know, on either side you would have your right and your left
clicking, you know, kind of mouse ports here, but while it's okay in terms of navigating
around, it's obviously, it's not like, it's kind of like a trackpad kind of thing, and
it's just not nearly as fast or precise if you're accustomed to using a mouse, and so
it's actually much more intuitive to use touchscreen wherever possible on it
And so, I mean, the actual device seems to be nicely made. It functions fine
I'm able to, I've installed, you know, some real programs on it, and it seems to run them okay
However, in this case, the small form factor certainly has, I think, more limitations than
in my experience, for my purposes, positive than what it brings. Now, of course, your mileage may vary, you know, and if your hands are smaller, this
may be a great alternative to using a tablet because it gives you a lot more of the conventionality
of a, you know, Windows 10 type laptop for doing that. And of course, the other appealing thing is, is that the price is very reasonable on this
and you can jump in through their Indiegogo campaign, and so you can get the Lite version
which has the, you know, the 64 gig of storage, 4 gig of RAM for $269
What they call the, there's the No 4G version, which is $339, and that has the larger 128
gig of storage, 8 gig of RAM, so it's going to run a little bit more responsibly
And then your top tier model is still under $400, $399, and that is for the 4G models
that is going to give you the ability to use it on the fly and then to run that 4G
So obviously, if you're comparing that to a lot of the, you know, the tablets, you know
that are 4G compatible, it actually is less expensive than them. So I do believe that there's applications for this, either for office work on the go
or even for, you know, backing up or storing images off of it
And, you know, there are some things still that it's hard to do on a tablet, and so obviously
having access to, you know, full, you know, web browser and office type programs
there are going to be advantages for that. And so I certainly think that there is an application for this, but again, it might decide
it might depend on the size of your hands. I'm Dustin Abbott, and if you look in the description down below, I will give you a link there
to that Indiegogo campaign that just started this morning, so if you want to take a look at that
Of course, this morning, if you're watching this, the day that I release it, but beyond that
there's also a link up there to follow me on social media or to become a patron
Of course, if you haven't already, please click that subscribe button right here on YouTube
Thanks for watching. Have a great day