Introduction

For this reason and many others I need one. In the early Nineties I used the HP Palmtops, capable of running DOS and some DOS applications, and I liked them a lot, in spite of all limitations. Then I missed the train with the early Asus Eee releases, and then it was too late: the Eee evolved into a line of cheap and uninspiring netbooks, disappointing from any angle. Too bad.

Then, in October, 2016, a Chinese company GPD (Game Pad Digital) released a pocket-sized GPD Win, which was basically a Windows 10, pocket-sized computer pretending to be a game console, inclusive with built-in game controls. This was a crowd-funding project on Indiegogo. The specs were rather modest (for example: 64 GB of solid-state disk drive; obviously, an Atom processor). but the campaign was successful. You can still buy the newest, improved version at $350 or so.

After that, the GPD people decided to go all the way and bring to the market a "real" pocket-sized Windows computer, a rather upscale version. Another crowd-funding campaign brought $3.5M of seed money, and last June they started shipping out the GPD Pocket (a.k.a. GPD Mini), soon after that moving on to the open market.

Then I read about it and got interested. No, a Pocket computer will not replace my aging laptop. It should ease the transition, though, and also provide me with some other capabilities I need when out of home and without a larger computer.

The Pocket is being sold on Amazon by a number of vendors, with U.S. prices varying, roughly, between $550 and $600. I ordered mine from GearBest in China; shipped from Beijing it arrived after a little more than two weeks.

So here it is: the GPD Pocket in all its miniature cuteness: facts, hard data, my impressions, comments and complaints.

Physical

With the footprint of 11×18 cm (7¼×4¼") and 19 mm (¾") thick, the device easily fits into a jacket's breast inner pocket. Importantly, it also will fit in "tablet pocket", common in camera bags.

The smallest of those are designed to accommodate 7" or 8", 16:9 screens. They also offer adequate padding, therefore the computer is getting a free ride and needs no protection of its own. Actually, with the rigid a strong clamshell, it will have better chances of survival than a tablet, if something happens.

Refreshingly, the outer surfaces are not broken by manufacturer's logo or some sticker decals; the only semi-exception is some barely visible text on the bottom side; mostly the required regulatory information.

Display

The display is 151×94 mm, 7 inches (178 mm) diagonally, with a resolution of 1920×1200 pixels — slightly higher than Full HD. Therefore the aspect ratio is 8:5, a format recently gaining some popularity and, according to some (myself included), more practical than the somewhat more elongated, most popular, 16:9.

Just for your entertainment, here is how images with most common aspect ratios will look on the Pocket's screen ("fit to screen" mode, preserving the image aspect). Purple shows the letter-boxed parts of the native display.

With this size and resolution, the resulting pixel density of the Pocket's display is 12.7 pixels per millimeter or 323 per inch.

Many reviewers and some sellers quote different PPI values; some even stubbornly claim the vertical screen resolution of 1080 pixels. Both groups are wrong.

The display panel is of the In-Plane Switching (IPS) type, upper shelf, used by Apple, Samsung, and some others in their top-tier devices. This kind is known for good colors and good off-axis viewing; no corner-cutting here.

Just for the record: the screen is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, another supposedly hot feature I have no clue about.

Now, bad news. This is a glossy display, no anti-glare finish, a kind I really, really hate. Their main advantage seems that contrast and saturation seem higher when on a store display; in practical use I find them most troubling. The last thing I want to see in the morning is the reflection of my own mug, superimposed on whatever I'm viewing.

A remedy, partial at least, may be application of a screen protector sheet. There was even one included in the box. It did not, however, reduce the glare like the proper treatment does, so I removed it after a few days. (A good example of effective anti-glare finish is the Dell XPS series, non-touch version.) For more on this, see Accessories.

The internals

• Processor: Intel Atom x7-Z8750 at 1.6 GHz (Turbo mode up to 2.56 GHz).

  The common knowledge about the Atom processor line is "crappy CPUs for crappy netbooks". Well, I think this statement is oversimplified to the point of being, — how to say it without hurting anyone's feelings? — not-so-clever.

  You can't ride a cat. Don't blame the cat for not being a pony. You can't let the pony sleep in your bed.

  First, Atom processors were not developed with speed in mind. Instead, they were designed to minimize power usage.

  Second, the current generation got some muscle. This processor has four cores, not just two like the older Atoms.

  Third, the four-core Atom is still very thrifty. It takes 2 W of power idling, 4 W under typical load. For the eight-generation i7-8550U, used in top lightweight laptops of late 2017, these numbers are 10 W and 15 W. That's, roughly, a factor of four.

  The average CPU Mark for the x7-Z8750 is 1902; for the i7-8550U — 8012, a factor of 4.2×. In other words, you get what you pay for, in terms of wattage used.

  The published numbers slightly vary from day to day, as new users' benchmarks are added. See also my own results below, obtained on the GPD Pocket.

• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 405 at 200 MHz base clock rate, up to 600 MHz burst.

  Same story, same background. This is definitely not a gaming computer, although I'm going to try it out in this capacity, too. Again, see my benchmarks below.

• Memory: 8 GB LPDDR3-1600, not expandable.

  This is as much as this processor can handle, quite generous for a device of this size.

  LPDDR stands for Low Power Double Data Rate which works at 1.8 V, as compared to 2.5 V for the "regular" DDR. The power usage is thus reduced almost by a factor of two (as 1.8²/2.5²=.518), quite spectacular!

• Storage: 128 GB eMMC (Embedded MultiMediaCard), Samsung DJNB4R.

  This mechanism of internal, non-volatile data storage is quite different than a proper SSD (Solid-State Drive). Serving the same purpose, it may be considered a poor man's version of the latter. Used in cheaper devices, it comes usually as 32 or 64 GB; the largest size available at present is 128 GB. To make things worse, it is soldered into the motherboard, so it cannot be upgraded.

  The eMMC is also much slower than a "real" SSD. I clocked it at five times slower than a mid-range Samsung SATA 3 drive.

  Regarding the speed, however, in real life things do not look as bad as they look on paper. The disk access is still fast enough, as long as you don't do something very I/O-intensive, like high-res video editing. I don't. And Windows 10 Home boots on my Pocket in just 30 seconds, the best I've experienced yet.

  Yet the size limitation will be quite painful, at least for me. On my soon-to-be-replaced Alienware laptop, 800 GB out of 1 TB is taken. With some self-imposed discipline I could live with 512 GB of space. But 128 GB?

  Well, tough life. Take it or leave it. I bought a couple of 128 GB, USB 3.0 memory sticks ($40 or so apiece), and I'm keeping my bigger data sets on them. They are specialized: one used for my U.S. flight data archive (which may use up to 1 GB per day) and one for my photography.

  Those sticks are tiny, protruding out of the USB Type A socket only by 6 mm or so. One can be left in the socket full-time, until the other one is needed. And they are not so slow: the one made by Samsung is just a tad slower than the internal eMMC. Let me see how I can live with that.

Benchmarks

Here are some benchmark results, to compare the GPD Pocket against some traditional laptops of various vintages:

• Alienware M11x R3 — my seven years old laptop which I will be retiring any moment now (I've never used one computer for so long): i7-2637M CPU, 8 GB RAM, NVidia 540M graphics (2 GB), 1 TB HDD, 11.6" 1366×768 display.
• LG gram 15, a mid-line performer a friend bought early this year (thanks for the benchmark, Piotr!): i5-6200U, 8 GB RAM, Intel HD 520 graphics (1 GB), Samsung 256 GB SATA 3 SSD, 15" 1920×1080.
• Dell XPS 13 a friend bought in 2017: i7-7Y75 CPU, 16 GB RAM, Intel HD 615, Toshiba 256 GB SSD, 13.3" 1920×1080.
• Lenovo 720S (IdeaPad S720S) , running an AMD Ryzen 5 2500U with Vega graphics, 8 GB RAM, Samsung 512 GB SSD, 13.3" 1920×1080.

The Performance Benchmark (PassMark) Version 9 results are shown in the table below.

For work, I often run applications using lots of CPU power (mostly floating-point) on a single thread, single processor. The last column shows how much time did it take to process a full day of U.S. air traffic (about 50 thousand flights).

This is actually better than I expected for a tiny, low-power device. The CPU Mark for a seventh-gen i7 is just 2.2× better than what Mini scored (and I would expect 3× for the new, eight-generation i7-8550, used on some top-of-the-line light laptops). This is not inconsistent with the 2.6× increase in speed which I'm getting in my own applications (the last column).

The Disk Mark obtained for the GPD using its internal eMMC was 737, not much above the 601 reported for my old Alienware with its spinning, mechanical drive.

Because with the Pocket I will have to depend a lot on external drives, I did some read/write benchmarks with those, too. The results are quite interesting.

Surprise! The external Samsung T5 SSD scored (3221) more than four times higher than the internal eMMC (737). This makes using external drives not a necessity (forced on us by limited internal storage), but rather a free choice (driven by higher speed of the external medium).

Actually, we may look at it from the opposite angle: it is the internal storage which is so slow. The external T5, however, is not far behind the internal unit in LG (4068, also by Samsung), and this is not too shabby.

Also, note that the one-terabyte Western Digital mechanical drive got a better, if only slightly, benchmark (786) than the internal eMMCs (737). (I've run that benchmark four times and on two WD drives.) The USB sticks came last (418 and 574), but not far behind the eMMC (737).

Power supply

7,000 mAh, 26 Wh Lithium-Polymer (Li-Po) battery.

The Li-Po chemistry is rather upscale, a plus. The battery is also quite large, using about half of available space in the main body of the computer.

The claimed battery life estimate of 12 hours is overly optimistic. Realistically, I'm getting six to seven hours of mixed use, which I consider a very good result.

There is no dedicated power-in socket. Instead, the Pocket uses its sole USB Type C receptacle for powering/charging. If you need the Type C port for data interface, look for the right adapter. With that, the port will serve multiple devices at a time, still supplying the computer with power from the charger.

The included wall converter is much smaller than power bricks, still used with most laptops. It supports the Power Delivery protocol, negotiating with the powered device about the voltage to be supplied and maximum current. This particular one provides three options:

• Up to 3 amperes at 5 volts (15 watts); this is the regular USB voltage;
• Up to 2⅔ A at 9 V (15 W);
• Up to 2 A at 12 V (24 W, a possible error?)

It remains unclear, which of these options does the Pocket use.

A plain, 5 V USB power supply can also be used, as long as it provides enough juice, best when the computer is off when charging. While even the most limited, 500 mA outlet will recharge the battery (albeit slowly) when the computer is asleep, things go downhill if you insist to use it while charging: a 1 A outlet will barely keep up with power usage, and only 2 A will actually make some difference.

Battery charging, with the included charger at least, is quite fast: 128 minutes from 12% to 90%.

Ports

For a device of this size, the GPD Pocket set of ports is very nice, not worse than in some ultralight laptops. Still, it may be not quite enough for many, perhaps most, users. Not without a port hub, that is.

The ports are as shown in the picture, left to right:

• USB 3.1 Type C (no Thunderbolt)

  This is the real Eager Beaver of the company. It is used to power the computer, also being able to communicate (in either direction) with a number of USB devices at the same time and/or an HDMI-driven display.

• HDMI

  A Micro HDMI socket, less common than the regular-size one. A cheap, four-inch conversion cable will make the Pocket compatible with your existing cable investment.

• Headset 3.5 mm

  Older headsets used separate plugs for the microphone and earphones. Adapters are available.

• USB 3.1 Type A

  The socket will work just fine with older devices, all the way back to USB 1.0.

The headset and HDMI socket have their own uses; either you use them for their designated services or you don't use them at all. This leaves only the USB A and C ports re-assignable to any other purposes.

The Type C port, however, is most of the time used for power supply, while the Type A one will, if you follow my advice, be occupied by the semi-permanent USB stick drive. This means we have not a single socket left to hook up anything else we may need: another external drive (backups!), scanner, or memory card reader. Not unless we use a hub (a.k.a. multi-port adapter).

There are many of these on the market, widely differing in practicality, quality, and price. Some come on a short cable, others have the male USB Type C plug mounted directly on the body. Avoid that type, as they will block the other ports, or the cooling vent, or both.

Actually, if the other ports remain unobstructed, then what we really need is a hub with two or three USB Type A sockets, one incoming (charging) USB Type C and, possibly, a reader for SD and/or Micro SD cards. It took me some time to find one on Amazon; see below.

Connectivity

Things look good here; no corner-cutting:

• WiFi 802.11ac standard (or lower), double-channel (have to check that).

  Works just fine on my home network in the 5 GHz band, but stubbornly refused to connect at 2.4 GHz (tried on two networks). This seems to be a known problem, but I had no motivation to investigate, with the 5 GHz band satisfying my needs. One day I may have to.

• Bluetooth 4.1, the latest and greatest (almost: v4.2 is out by now).

  I encountered no problems connecting two miniature Bluetooth mice I tried, or a portable keyboard. I may try a keyboard next, stay tuned.

• Miracast, including Microsoft Wireless Display really nice.

  Miracast is a recent (2013) protocol for sending your device's display to another screen (usually a TV).

  For that, you need a receiver: an HDMI dongle, with a short USB cable for power supply. You plug both into the right sockets on your TV, select the right HDMI input, and activate the connection from Windows Display Properties. You don't have to be on any WiFi network; the connection is direct.

Keyboard

The keyboard in GPD Pocket is a mixed job.

It is the chiclet type, but a good chiclet, like in better ultralights (comparable to the Dell XPS 13). The keys are relatively large, well-spaced (except for key clusters, see below), with a good tactile feedback and a generous, for this type at least, travel distance of 1.3 mm.

Only when using the Pocket did I realize how much I've got used to backlit keys, missing here, probably for energy efficiency reasons. I can't argue with that. But I can, and will, argue about some other design issues. Why wasn't a brighter white used to mark the keys? Or, at least, bold letters? Why the function keys are marked with in soma dark camouflage color, invisible in any less than bright light?

And then things get worse. Looks like every time the keyboard designers were running out of space, they would go into panic mode and do something really strange.

Some of the changes just could not be avoided, whether we like them or not. Five keys from the far right had to migrate somewhere, and the only space available was in the top row. Tough luck.

Some others, though, seem quite arbitrary. For example, while most keyboards have a wider [Backspace] below a narrow [Delete], this one has a wider [Delete] below a narrow [Backspace]. There must have been a reason, but I can't see it.

Also, the F1-F12 function keys, heavily used in many applications for some quick-access functionality, are now accessible by holding down the [Fn] key; some require two hands. This could be greatly helped by making the [Fn] key sticky; unfortunately, Windows allows that for all special keys except this one.

I'm afraid that any changes involving the [Fn] key must be done on the BIOS level, as it does not generate a scan code for Windows to use, but modifies the codes sent by other keys. This is also why all keyboard remapping programs (those I know, at least) leave that key alone.

The keyboard was, possibly, chosen from existing designs, offered by an external supplier, but it is still GPD who is responsible for the final outcome. I hope the Pocket line will stay on the market, and in the future versions the keyboard will be revised.

On the other hand, some of the criticism regarding the keyboard is just ridiculous. For example, about being unable to touch-type on it. C'mon, this is an undersized, chiclet keyboard, not a pony!

The bottom line is that, while I find the keyboard mildly irritating, I can live with it (after two weeks of use, as of this writing). It is a minor nuisance rather than a major problem.

Update of January 3: after a month of quite heavy use, I came to terms with this keyboard. At this stage, the worst thing about it is the function key problem, mentioned above.

Mouse

The GPD Pocket has a built-in pointing device to move the cursor around: an eraser-tip joystick at the bottom of the keyboard, with two mouse buttons below it. While in the Nineties this was the most common solution, it has been largely replaced by touchpads, although you can still see it in quite a few laptops.

This one is no better and no worse than ones I've used over the years. It can be useful from time to time, being more precise than the touch screen (but much slower).

Obviously, whenever I can, I'm using a real mouse with the Pocket; the Bluetooth connection is working just fine. More on this in the Accessories section.

Software

This computer comes with full, international edition of Windows 10 Home. In a very welcome move, Microsoft allows to distribute this version at no cost for computing devices with displays smaller than 10 inches (diagonal).

There is also a version of Pocket with Ubuntu GNU Linux preinstalled, but I never tried it. Another option is to try Ubuntu out without installing it on your computer, using a bootable USB drive.

While no Windows restore medium is provided in the package, the drive image can be downloaded from the GPD support area, already customized for this particular hardware (I think it's mostly device drivers). You can also create a bootable recovery USB drive of your actual configuration, but the process, as simple as it is, sometimes takes obscene time. It took me three hours, and I've read about overnight sessions, a well-known bug/feature of Windows for some time now.

Unlike many computers, the Pocket does not come loaded with piles of trashware. That's a blessing, taking into account the limited amount of internal storage; every megabyte counts.

Another layer of software, invisible to mere mortals, is the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). It deals with things programmers take for granted, making sure that various versions of hardware properly understand the software (and that it runs at all); it also knows how to load the system from disk when the computer is turned on, and how to start it. There are dozens common versions of BIOS, each for a given group of processor-motherboard combinations; otherwise we would need a different flavor of Windows (or UNIX, or whatever) for each.

The Pocket uses the BIOS by American Megatrends, specific to just this computer. It was updated at least twice after the original, and I was happy to see that I received the latest Version 5.011 of August 7, 2017, so I don't have to upgrade it myself. The upgrades, among others, addressed reported problems with low-battery boot and with a somewhat erratic fan behavior.

Accessories

In the box

The Pocket comes with the wall-plugged charger described above and a proper (A-to-C) USB/power cable, 3 m (10 ft) long. There was also a screen protection sheet in the box.

At that time, GearBest was also throwing in some freebies (they probably still do). One was a port replicator: plugging into USB Type C port and providing a Type A one, slots for SD and Micro SD cards, and another USB Type C. The device is not very useful, as what you really gain is just one Type A port and card readers, in exchange for the lost (blocked) HDMI output.

The other freebie is a fitted leather case, quite nice. I'm not sure, though, how much I'm going to use mine. The third thing was not in the package and I don't even remember what it was supposed to be.

As always, you need a few extra accessories to make the computer usable.

Mouse, of course, a Bluetooth one

This will keep ports available for other uses. I've been using two such mice on this computer; both are rechargeable and neither gave me any connection problems.

External storage, and plenty of it!

With the GPD Pocket this is not just the matter of backups or long-term archiving. Most of the users will have to resort to external storage for day-to-day operations. And I think you may need all three kinds of that storage.

Some kind of cloud storage may also be an option, but I still don't have an appropriate synchronization procedure developed for that, so I'm not using it.

USB hub, or port replicator

We need one plugging into the sole Type C port on the Pocket, and tethered (as opposed to a rigid, direct connection), ideally providing two USB Type A ports, an SD card reader and, importantly, a Type C Power Delivery port with power in.

The hub by Lasuavy, is nicely made and offers the basic options as enumerated above (including two USB 3.0 Type A ports and adding a micro-SD reader).

Update of February 1: Originally, the power-in feature of this hub did not work for me. Then I found out that it will — if the hub is first connected to the (working) power supply, and only then to the Type C port in the computer.

While this behavior seems to be common among Type C hubs, a proper warning sign would be nice.

An anti-glare (matte) screen protector

The one from BROTECT is better than anything I have seen yet, and I'm recommending it highly.

BROTECT is a German company; they sell screen protectors made of thin, flexible glass (not plastic), for all kinds of screens. On Anazon, they offer two versions for the GPD Pocket: glossy and matte. I've ordered the latter.

This thing is expensive ($15 for a two-sheet pack), but it is worth every penny. Having used maybe three similar products in the past, I'm not an expert, but I can say this is the best aftermarket, anti-reflective laminate I have yet used or seen.

It suppresses reflections effectively, at the same time not affecting the image — brightness, contrast, saturation and detail are not degraded. If anything, my pictures look better now, like large-format prints after switching from glossy paper to semi-matte. This may be wishful thinking, but they do. Seriously.

I was also unsure how will the extra layer affect the touch screen sensitivity. Good news again, things are working nicely, and I like the feel now more than before.

Last but not least: the dreaded air bubbles. I got a few; some gentle persuasion made them go away. Except one, 2 mm across, which simply refuses. Luckily, it is located in the left bezel, outside of the image area, but I will still keep working on it.

Microsoft Wireless Display Receiver

This is a $50 dongle you plug into virtually any HD, big-screen TV as already discussed.

As Windows 10 supports Miracast on this computer, I could use any compatible receiver instead. The Microsoft solution, however, gets highest notes in most comparisons, so I chose it.

I've been using the Microsoft's version for two months now (as of this update). It works OK (at least with resolutions up to 1080p at 30 FPS: no stutter or excessive lag, although the TV image is about ¼ of a second behind. This may, however, become a problem in games, and that's when wired HDMI may come handy.

Occassionally, the receiver shows problems: erratic screen refresh, with pieces delayed or pixelated, and I'm talking about just desktop display, not some video with high data rate. This seems to be common, and it goes away after a restart (unplugging both ends from the TV).

The receiver was never able to establish a connection with my friend's Dell XPS 13. as much as we kept trying. Both devices see each other, start the process, give up.

I also tried a Miracast receiver, branded as AnyCast (and sold on Amazon under a dozen other names, too). No luck, symptoms like above, on both computers.

Update of 2017/12/12: The AnyCast was able to establish connection between the Pocket and a Sony HDTV, initially with a a lag of about one second. After a few minutes this increased to more than five seconds, with an occassional hiccup, only to freeze entirely soon after that. Another failure.

The Microsoft receiver works just fine with the same setup.

Anyway, for playing games you will still need an HDMI cable, Micro to full size.

USB cables: never enough of those

Basically, you need two types: A-to-C and C-to-C (male connectors on both ends), in lengths varying from 30 cm to 3 m (1 to 10 ft). To avoid compatibility or performance issues, make sure they support the USB 3.0 standard at least. A quote, slightly rephrased:

"USB 3.1 is capable of data transfer speeds up to 10Gbps if your USB host connection, cables, and device all support USB 3.1. It also known as USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps). USB 3.0 is capable of data transfer speeds up to 5Gbps. It is also known as USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gbps). USB 3.1 is backwards compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0."

If you need to know more on USB 3.1, see, for example, an article on Digital Trends.

Also, get a male-to-female Type C, angle connector or two. These come very handy.

The Bottom Line

The GPD Pocket mini-laptop is a little wonder of technology, a most enjoyable and useful device, but only if you really need it, or can find a good use for it, or are a computer technology freak like myself. Any one of those three conditions would justify the purchase, two would be a compelling reason, and three will make it an absolute necessity.

It will not replace a regular laptop, even a small one, and it is not trying to. You will not be able to use it as your primary computer. But it may be at hand in many situations in which normally you wish you had a computer with you.

The designers did a very good job within the self-imposed (or perhaps market-imposed) limitations of size and price, and the execution of the design is first-class.

I hope GPD will follow up with a more upscale model, and I would be willing to pay $300 more for it. The most significant upgrade would be more of internal storage: at least 500 GB. Backlit keyboard would be nice; nicer than I would have ever thought. A slight rearrangement of the keyboard layout will make many people happy. too. Well, we will see.

At the time (November, 2017) I'm happy with this computer, enjoying it a lot. I'm going to Poland (again!) in December, and taking it along. We will see how it will prove itself.

Update of 2019: I'm glad I did that. My "real" laptop died while I was there, and for a month the Pocket became my only computer, with a large-screen TV as monitor, and with the dead laptop's drive housed in an external enclosure. This worked better than I expected; I was even able to use the C++ CodeBlocks development environmrnt!

Competition: the One Mix Yoga

Another Chinese company, One Netbook, followed with a GPD Pocket look-alike, named One Mix Yoga. You have to look really close to see that this is a different device.

The top two of these features would have made the One Mix Yoga a strong contender, if not for one unfortunate design decision: using the Intel Atom x5-Z8350 CPU, considered to be "much slower" than the x7-Z8750, used in the Pocket.

Its CPUBench (at base clock rate) is just a third behind, but being less power-efficient the cip will usually be throttled down at lower speeds. Add to that the slower, single-channel memory, plus some other stuff I may not know about, and we may get some visible drop in performance, subjectively enhanced by our expectations.

Because of these performace isssues (whether real or perceived), One Mix Yoga ever challenged the original GDP Pocket for its top-dog mini status.

Problems

Over a year of using my GPD Pocket, I exerienced one hardware failure: the keyboard. One day some keys just stopped responding. The GPD technician reacted swiftly, asked whether I'm willing to replace the keyboard myself, and had a new one on its way the next day.

Air express from China to Poland (where I am staying now) took four or five days. My stepson did a splendid (and quite entertaining), one-hour replacement job, and I was back in business.

Too bad that, before contacting the support, I followed a piece of advice from a GPD forum and restored Windows to the original (factory) state. Having to tweak Windows back to my liking, and to re-install and re-configure my applications, took a long time.

I've also seen hundreds of complaints about the Pocket discharging the battery after being put into sleep state. Yes, I have experienced that too, but the problem is not with the hardware: the Windows Connected Standby and Modern Standby features do not work quite right (they never did), another example of excellence Microsoft is so admired for. Use a Web search to find out how to disable these features.

Given the scale of the problem, GPD should, I think, add a brief explanation to their support materials, maybe even regisstry patches to do/undo the modifications needed.

References

• Early review by Max Glenister on his techie Web site: "The GPD Pocket is an interesting device. It bucks the trend of cheap technology and comes across as surprisingly premium feeling. It’s let down by the keyboard but that’s about the only real problem with it. It can handle typical laptop tasks, and you will find yourself enjoying doing real work on such a small device."
• Windows Central review by Daniel Rubino: "While I can't recommend the GPD Pocket for regular people, power users and hobbyists who have some money to spare won't be disappointed. The GPD Pocket, while specialized, is a blast to use and it continually surprises in how many ways it can be utilized. Just don't expect it to replace your laptop."