Enlarge / PCB for the prototype PineTab 2, a successor to a tablet that deed accumulation astatine the worst imaginable constituent successful 2020.

Pine64

Pine64, makers of ARM-based, tinker-friendly gadgets, is making the PineTab 2, a sequel to its Linux-powered tablet that mostly got swallowed up by the pandemic and its dire planetary manufacturing shortages.

The PineTab 2, arsenic described successful Pine64's "December Update," is based astir the RK3566, made by RockChip. Pine64 based its Quartz64 single-board strategy connected the system-on-a-chip (SoC), and has each but gushed astir it crossed respective blog posts. It's "a dream-of-a-SoC," writes Community Director Lukasz Erecinski, a "modern mid-range quad-core Cortex-A55 processor that integrates a Mali-G52 MP2 GPU. And it should beryllium perfect for space-constrained devices: it runs cool, has a assortment of I/O options, coagulated price-to-performance ratio, and "is genuinely future-proof." While Linux enactment was scarce aboriginal on, improvement for RK3566 is "booming," and it's present a premier campaigner for mobile operating systems, Erecinski writes.

Enlarge / Inside a PineTab 2 prototype, with a artillery and connectors that are acold from hidden for a imaginable replacement.

The PineTab 2 is simply a implicit redesign, Erecinski claims. It has a metallic chassis that "is precise sturdy portion besides being casual to disassemble for upgrades, maintenance, and repair." The tablet comes isolated with snap-in tabs, and Pine64 volition connection replacement parts. The insides are modular, too, with the eMMC storage, camera, daughter-board, battery, and keyboard connector each removable "in nether 5 minutes." The 10.1-inch IPS display, with "modern and reasonably bladed bezels," should besides beryllium replaceable, albeit with much work.

Pine64's video for their December update—details astir the PineTab 2 commencement astatine 7:11.

On that easy opened chassis are 2 USB-C ports, 1 for USB 3.0 I/O and 1 for charging (or USB 2.0 if you want). There's a dedicated micro-HDMI port, and a front-facing 2-megapixel camera and rear-facing 5-megapixel (not the benignant of all-in-one media accumulation instrumentality Apple advertises, this tablet), a microSD slot, and a headphone jack. While a PCIe strategy is exposed wrong the PineTab, astir NVMe SSDs volition not fit, according to Pine64. All of this is taxable to alteration earlier last production, however.

As with the archetypal PineTab, this exemplary comes with a detachable, backlit keyboard cover, included by default. That makes supporting a desktop OS for the instrumentality acold much viable, Erecinski writes. The firmware chipset is the aforesaid arsenic successful the PineBook Pro, which should assistance with that. No default OS has been decided arsenic of yet, according to Pine64.

The tablet should vessel with 2 memory/storage variants, 4GB/64GB and 8GB/128GB. It's owed to vessel "sometime aft the Chinese New Year" (January 22 to February 5), though there's nary steadfast date. No terms was announced, but "it volition beryllium affordable careless of which mentation you'll settee on."

The original PineTab yet shipped, but Erecinski describes it arsenic "a unfortunate of COVID and its fallout," and its "death" arsenic a prime to absorption connected the PinePhone. Pine64 aboriginal iterated connected the telephone to present the PinePhone Pro. As with the PineBook and PinePhone, discourse is key: This is simply a instrumentality meant for tinkering, experimenting, oregon utilizing arsenic a genuinely low-power spare/alternate device, not a regular operator oregon workhorse for astir people. Those who cognize themselves capable to order, however, should support an oculus retired aboriginal adjacent year.

Listing representation by Pine64