Pi-Top - A Raspberry Pi Laptop

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About

Built around the Raspberry Pi platform, pi‑top is a modular laptop that gives you the tools to complete amazing DIY projects and bring your inventions to life. It’s the perfect tool to help you learn to code, create awesome devices, and take your knowledge to the next level.

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Features

  • Modular Rail for pi-top accessories
  • 14" full HD LCD screen with 180° screen angle range and 1920 x 1080 resolution
  • 6-8 hour battery life
  • 104x75mm trackpad with Gesture Control
  • 105mm sliding keyboard for internal access (US layout)
  • 18V, 2.5A charger with AU, EU, UK and US adapters
  • 8GB class 10 SD CARD with pi-topOS; a custom operating system
  • Raspberry Pi not included

 

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Important Dates

Enrollment Begins: Mar 7  2018

Enrollment Ends: Apr 9 2018

RoadTesters Selected: Apr 16 2018 (estimated)

Product Shipped: April 24 2018

RoadTesting Begins: May 1 2018

Reminder/Update Email: June 1 2018*

Submit Reviews By: July 1 2018*

 

*The element14 RoadTest Staff will send this reminder/update email.

**If a RoadTester is unable to meet the deadline, please notify the RoadTest Program Lead, , as soon as possible before the deadline.

RoadTesters

After much deliberation (see below), the following applicants were selected as official roadtesters:

 

Terms and Conditions

Pi-Top - A Raspberry Pi Laptop– RoadTest

Terms and Conditions

These are the terms and conditions which govern the Pi-Top - A Raspberry Pi Laptop  RoadTest contest. This Contest requires participants to submit an application indicating their previous experience with this type of equipment/component, information on what they would do to test the equipment/component, and the applicant’s desire to post a thorough review of their experience with images, photos, or other supplemental materials. Participants will be required to meet the Conditions for Participation.  The winners of this RoadTest will receive the item(s) listed below. RoadTest Reviews are due no later than 60 days after the receipt of the item(s). No other prizes are offered.

The Principal terms of the Competition:

The following words and phrases are used in these terms and conditions and have the meanings given to them below.

Pi-Top - A Raspberry Pi Laptop

(RoadTest or Contest)

Key dates:

Applications Close: midnight (GMT) on Apr 9 2018

Announcement of Winner (estimated): Apr 16 2018

 

Pi-Top - A Raspberry Pi Laptop

Additional Prizes: none

Competition Site: https://www.element14.com/community/groups/roadtest?ICID=menubar_resources_roadtest

Site or element14 Community: www.element14.com/community

Judges: members of the element14 community team chosen at the Organiser’s discretion.

Judging Criteria, All of the following which will have equal weighting:

· Demonstrated competence with the technologies including links or descriptions of past projects

· Qualifications as indicated by current job role and/or schooling/vocational training;

· A thorough description of how the prize would be tested;

· Likelihood that the Applicant will blog about the prize and provide a review on element14.com;

· Originality;

· Innovation.

Organiser: Premier Farnell plc (registered in England and Wales under company number 876412) whose registered office is at Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds, UK

Conditions for Qualification: in addition to meeting the requirements of these terms, all persons applying to take part in the Contest (each one an Applicant) must:

· Provide a RoadTest application describing what he/she would do if awarded the Prize including similar previous projects, product experience and qualifications

Terms: these terms and conditions which govern the Competition and to which the Organiser reserves the right to make changes from time to time and the latest version of these Terms from time to time will be posted to the Site.

  1. Eligibility
  2. Applications:
  3. Selecting Winners:
  4. Liability:
  5. General:

1.1 Save as set out in these Terms, the Contest is open to any natural or legal person, firm or company or group of natural persons or unincorporated body.

1.2 All Applicants must be aged at least 18 at the time of their application.

1.3 Applicants must not enter the RoadTest if doing so or taking part may:

1.3.1 cause the Organiser and/or themselves to be in breach of any agreement (including but not limited to any contract of employment) to which they are a party or in breach of any law, regulation or rule having the force of law to which the Organiser or the Applicant may be subject or any policy of the Organiser or the Sponsor;

1.3.2 Require the Organiser to obtain any licence, authorisation or permission to deal with the Applicant; or

1.3.3 Be in breach of any policy or practice of their employer. Some employers prohibit or restrict their employees from taking part in competitions such as these or receiving prizes under them and the Organiser respects those policies and practices.

The Organiser reserves the right to disqualify any Application made in breach of these Terms and to reject any Application which it reasonably believes may be or become in breach. The Organiser reserves the right to require evidence in such form as the Organiser may reasonably require of any Applicant’s compliance with any of these Terms and to disqualify any Applicant or Participant who cannot provide such evidence reasonably promptly.

1.4 Multiple applications are not permitted.

1.5 Applications may not be submitted by an agent whether acting on behalf of an undisclosed principal or otherwise.

1.6 The Contest is NOT open to:

1.6.1 Any person or entity who is a resident or national of any country which is subject to sanctions, embargoes or national trade restrictions of the United States of America, the European Union or the United Kingdom;

1.6.2 Any employee, director, member, shareholder (as appropriate) or any of their direct families (parents, siblings, spouse, partner, children) (“Direct Families”) of the Organiser and Sponsors; or

2.1 Each Applicant must fully complete and submit a RoadTest Application by the Application Close.

2.2 By submitting a Registration Form, each Applicant:

2.2.1 Authorises the Organiser to use his or her personal data (as defined in the Data Protection Act 1998) for the purposes of running and promoting the RoadTest;

2.2.2 Authorises the Organizer to copy, reproduce and publish their application should they be accepted as a Participant;

2.2.3 Will be deemed to have read, accepted and agree to be bound by these Terms. Applicants are advised to print and keep safe these Terms;

2.2.4 Authorises the Organiser to copy, reproduce and use the Application and/or Review for the purposes of the RoadTest and as otherwise contemplated by these Terms. The Organiser will not be responsible for any inaccuracy, error or omission contained in any reproduction or use of the Project Blogs.

2.2.5 Licenses the Organiser to use the intellectual property in the Project (IP) for the purposes of this Contest. As between the Applicant and the Organiser the IP remains owned by the Applicant.

2.2.6 Grants the Organiser the right to use his or her likeness, photographs, logos, trademarks, audio or video recordings without restriction for the purposes of Contest or the promotion of it or the Site;

2.2.7 Agrees to participate positively in all publicity surrounding the Contest;

2.2.8 Agrees to be responsible for all expenses and costs incurred by him or her in preparing for, entering and participating in the Contest (save for any expenses expressly agreed by the Organiser to be borne by it in these Terms);

2.2.9 Confirms that he or she owns all IP used in his or her application or Project or Blogs and indemnifies the Organiser from any claim by a third party that use of any material provided by an Applicant to the Organiser infringes the intellectual property rights of any third party;

2.2.10 Agrees not to act in any way or fail to act in any way or be associated with any cause or group which would have a negative impact on the reputation of the Organiser and/or the RoadTest.

2.3 All applications submitted to this RoadTest must meet the following criteria:

2.3.1 Applicants must be the author, creator and owner of the proposed review idea. Applicants must not submit someone else’s idea;

2.3.2 The proposed application must be reasonably achievable by the within the time constraints of the Contest;

2.3.3 Applications must not include or propose any of the following, the inclusion of which shall render any proposed application ineligible:

(a) Applications which relate to socially taboo topics, such as illicit drug use or sexual gratification;

(b) Applications that are or could reasonably be considered to be illegal, immoral, discriminatory or offensive as determined by the Organiser;

(c) Applications in relation to them which if accepted would infringe or breach any of the policies or terms of access or use of the Site.

2.4 No Application may contain any of the hazardous substances identified by Article 4 of Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament on the Restrictions on the Use of Substances in Electronic and Electrical Equipment ("the Directive") or the use of such hazardous substances in the in any such Project must not exceed the maximum concentration values set out in the Directive.

3.1 Winners will be selected by the Organiser on the basis of the quality of his or her application and its adherence to these Terms.

3.2 The total number of Winners selected will be at least the minimum number set out above but the actual number is at the sole discretion of the Organizer and/or the Sponsor, if applicable.

3.3 The Organiser will use all reasonable efforts to announce the Winners via an update to the RoadTest page by the date listed above.

3.4 Winners agree to take part in all publicity which the Organiser or the Sponsor wishes to use to promote the RoadTest, the Products featured or other Contests with which the Organiser may be connected from time to time.

3.5 Details of the Winners may also be published in the media.

3.6 Winners are responsible for all applicable taxes, duties or other charges payable in relation to any prize.

3.7

4.1 The Organiser hereby excludes all and any Liability arising out of the Contest or the acceptance, use, quality, condition, suitability or performance of any Prize, even where that Liability may arise from the Organiser’s negligence.

4.2 Nothing in these Terms will affect any Liability of the Organiser for death or personal injury arising from its negligence, for breach of Part II of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (in the event that any entrant is entitled to claim rights under the Consumer Protection Act 1987) or for any matter in relation to which it would be illegal for the Organiser to exclude or to attempt to exclude its Liability.

4.3 Subject to 4.2, neither the Organiser, any parent company nor any subsidiary of the Organiser or such parent company or any of their directors, officers and employees (together referred to in these terms and the ‘Associates’) makes any guarantee, warranty or representation of any kind, express or implied, with respect to this Competition or the Prizes potentially available under it. Neither the Organiser nor any of its Associates shall be responsible for any Liability that may arise out of or in connection with person’s participation in this Competition, the claiming, redemption or value of any prizes under it, the use or enjoyment of such prizes or any events or circumstances arising out of or in connection with any of them. Any implied warranties of condition, merchantability or suitability or fitness for purpose of any of them are hereby expressly excluded. Wherever used in these Terms, ‘Liability’ shall mean any and all costs, expenses, claims, damages, actions, proceedings, demands, losses and other liabilities (including legal fees and costs on a full indemnity basis) arising directly or indirectly out of or in connection with the matter concerned.

5.1 The RoadTest is organised and sponsored by the Organiser. The Organiser reserves the right to delegate all or any of its powers, rights and obligations arising in relation to the RoadTest to any Associate and certain such rights and powers are assumed by the Organiser on behalf of itself and each Associate. Reference to “Organiser” shall be deemed to include reference to each Associate.

5.2 The RoadTest may be terminated at any time if there are, in the sole opinion of the Organiser, an insufficient number of entries, or if the Applications are not of an appropriate standard for a competition of this nature. The Organiser has the right to cancel or suspend the RoadTest at any time due to circumstances outside its reasonable control.

5.3 The Organiser shall have the sole discretion to disqualify (without correspondence or right of appeal) any Applicant it considers to be adversely affecting the process or the operation of the RoadTest or to be in breach of these Terms or to be acting in a disruptive manner or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other Applicant or Participant.

5.4 The Organiser has the right to amend or add to these Terms from time to time. Revised Terms and Conditions will be posted on the Contest Site and it is a condition of entry to the RoadTest that Applicants agree to comply with these Terms and, if appropriate, such Terms as amended from time to time.

5.5 Headings are for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation or construction of these Terms and Conditions.

5.6 These Terms and the operation of the Contest shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English Law and any claim or matter arising under these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

How To Write a Winning ApplicationClick here to watch this short webinar
RoadTest Reviews
Comment List
Anonymous
Parents
  • Now this is a pretty cool device to make a computer out of mostly open-source bits that can easily be tinkered with. I'm sure a lot of people have thought of making something similar or hacking something up ... but to know there's an "off the shelf" alternative to save all that legwork makes me feel quite warm and fuzzy inside, since it takes away one hurdle and lets you focus on the rest of the hacking.

     

    I think I might just put in an application for this one ... if I have the time image.

Comment
  • Now this is a pretty cool device to make a computer out of mostly open-source bits that can easily be tinkered with. I'm sure a lot of people have thought of making something similar or hacking something up ... but to know there's an "off the shelf" alternative to save all that legwork makes me feel quite warm and fuzzy inside, since it takes away one hurdle and lets you focus on the rest of the hacking.

     

    I think I might just put in an application for this one ... if I have the time image.

Children
  • It is a quite cool idea, just a tad on the expensive side I think compared to a laptop.

     

    Great for keeping all your R-Pi bits together in one place with a bit of space included for prototyping on the move.

     

    The keyboard might be the limiting factor for some - looks more calculator buttons / ZX Spectrum than laptop, plus it is US only layout I think.

     

    Ben Heck did a review of it in Episode 219

    Episode 219: Ben Heck's Pi-Top Assembly Demo Episode

     

    The supplied educational software looks like it has potential as well, which is obviously the market they are aiming at.

  • It is a quite cool idea, just a tad on the expensive side I think compared to a laptop.

    That was my thoughts as well.

     

    The open source aspect is negated because both could use Linux of whichever flavour best suits.

    The Pi version does allow access to GPIO, which the Laptop doesn't ... however with some extra hardware it could be possible.

     

    Unless I'm not looking properly, I haven't seen a Linux Tablet, or a trend to removing Android and replacing it with Linux.

    Am I not looking in the right place or is it not being done for other reasons.?

     

     

     

    Mark

  • I think the Pi-Top has its strengths over the laptop in a number of areas:

     

    • If you are in a teaching environment where you may have 20 or 30 workstations to store and deploy quickly and easily between lab/project sessions and you don't want to have to deal with a mass of components loosely wired together; the Pi-Top looks like it can keep the breadboard fairly safely internally in the space under the keyboard. I've not seen a recent laptop that has this additional storage space unless you can make use of a battery or DVD drive slot.

     

    • If you want a basic diagnostics terminal but with an interface not normally found on a laptop and you don't want to have to use external USB dongles. The interface can be kept within the Pi-Top.

     

    • If you want to do some prototyping on the move. Perhaps you are trying to work on some code for a problematic sensor or something and you just want a setup that can be easily carried around with you and easily to access whenever you have some time to work on it without taking up much space.

     

     

    • Testing a project prototype out in the field. Perhaps you need to start collecting real world data but not quite at the stage where the project is running embedded code in its final enclosure and you need a terminal to see what is going on or to adjust parameters as well as some space to hold the early stages of the circuit all in a format that you can easily take out of the lab and into the field.

     

    If it wasn't for the overall size required for the keyboard/screen, then I think a few people might be 3D printing similar style  enclosures for such scenarios perhaps using a laptop keyboard.

     

    Their included educational software was one thing that caught my attention as they appear to have done a lot of work there including an attempt to gamify coding. CEEDuniverse reminds me a bit of 'Crobots' from back in the mid 80's where you had to write code/pseudo code in order to play the game, however they appear to have taken this to the next level by incorporating interaction with the GPIO.

     

    I've not come across a native Linux tablet either, however I've seen some attempts to convert an existing Android tablet to a Linux one. Convert an Android Device to Linux » Linux Magazine

  • There is a company Canonica in the UK that has developed what it calls their Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition product the first tablet to use the Ubuntu OS.

    https://store.bq.com/en/aquaris-m10-fhd-ubuntu-negro

     

    It's close to the same price as the Pi-Top. 

     

    The Pine64 folks has something similar to the Pi-Top called a Pinebook that has a version of their Pine64 processor board installed for $99 if you choose the 13" model.  Looking at reviews of the Pinebook compared to the Pi-Top,  the Pinebook is a bit cheaply made where the Pi-Top seems to be a bit more robust. The specs of the Pine64 with add on Wi-Fi/BT module is similar to the new RasPi 3 B+. The Pine64 is 64-bit though.

    https://www.pine64.org/?page_id=3707

     

    I was considering getting a Pinebook since I gave up my MacBook Pro to my daughter and comparing the Pinebook to the Pi-Top with the new RasPi 3 B+ would be a nice exercise. 

  • You bring up a great point of keeping all the Raspberry Pi parts together in one place. This would be especially helpful in a classroom full of students. It would be rad have one for each student, or even one for every pair. As a teacher I cannot say how helpful this would be instead of having to setup monitor, keyboards, and mice to a Pi for an activity that we might only be able to spend 45 mins on.

  • Former Member
    Former Member in reply to mcb1

    Agree with you.  So far, there seems to be no interest to invest Linux desktop-ish resources in a tablet.  Ubuntu made noise about this 3 years ago and what do we have?  Nada.  Android will dominate for years to come.

     

    Laptops are different.  Linux desktop software installs nicely, even if you have a NIVIA graphics or a Broadcom ethernet chipset (used to be painful). 

     

    I just did a full replacement of Windows 7 on a neighbor's circa 2009 HP Pavilion dv3-1075us with the latest Xubuntu.  Runs a lot faster and cooler now.  Still a lug-about at 5.something lbs.  Of course, said neighbor is going through thinking-conversion: MS-Office to LibreOffice, Outlook to Thunderbird, etc.  There is always an initial investment.  But, no more forced $$$ upgrades in the future for him.

     

    Richard

  • Laptops are different.  Linux desktop software installs nicely

    I have an old laptop that I keep thinking about putting Linux onto.

    There are various flavours with some more suited to less powerful machines.

     

    I just need some free time .....

     

    Mark

  • I have repurposed a few old Laptops over the years by installing Linux on them and they always seem to run much more efficient with Linux.  My current one is a HP HDX Laptop with an Intel Centrino that my daughter out grew and now I am running Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS; certainly not Linus' favorite.. Debian proper might have been a better approach. As far as Distros, I suppose the 2 main lines to look at are Fedora (RedHat) and Debian (Ubuntu) but then again there is SuSE which is running on Raspberry Pi now as well.  I have Ubuntu Mate running on a Pine64 which seems interesting but the kernel they used does not seem to have the kernel libs so I can not build kernel modules on it as of yet.  You might have to try a few builds on your system before you find the one that best suites it. It can be time suck though.

  • Former Member
    Former Member in reply to jomoenginer

    Careful with Pine64 products.  The Linux kernel in use is a one-off ("longsleep", a talented kernel adapter) and the hardware is not officially supported by the various Linux distributions.  I have a Pine64+ (2GB RAM).  I don't mind the lack of formal support since I have been doing Linux development for a long time but it might not be for everyone.

     

    The Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition got poor performance reviews although the look and feel is has good aesthetics according to the same reviews.  However, I could not see it for sale on Amazon or Newegg in the USA.  This might be a Europe-only product now.

  • Yeah, I got the Pine64+ 2Gb from the Kickstart and thus far it seems to be working fine with Ubuntu Mate.  The lack of official kernel is a bit of a bummer, but the Pi-2 Header is a nice feature and I have been able to get some of the Derek Molloy and other Raspberry Pi GPIO code to work on the Pine64.  There is no WiringPi that seems to work, but that is easily worked around by going direct to  /sys/class/gpio or /dev/gpiomem. I'm not sure what the future of Pine64 is but they seem to be aligned with ameriDroid.

    https://ameridroid.com/products?keywords=pine64

     

    However, the whole community sounding the Raspberry Pi is tough to touch these days.