The Comet is a handheld Linux computer that brings extensibility

Esp32 is completely different league than anything linux based

Disclaimer: Founder here

M5 is based on ESP32 so it is microcontroller based so you are limited to things a MCU can do. But yea I love the M5 platform, funnily I am here at CES and met the Founder of M5 just yesterday!

That looks pretty interesting, do you happen to have any first hand experience with this? In my experience, platforms like this live and die by the pain of unhandled edge cases, so even if the happy path works fine, it can still be something to avoid.

From the looks of it you can still use your Bluetooth keyboard as it is with the Linux bluetooth stack, except you have to figure out a way to power it .. yet another battery?

I think you can just create another module that'll split the gpio to keypad and other purposes as it is just a USB keypad..

Founder here, thank you for this note we will build a jig to test this out and share results on our docs. One of the things we have done to reduce wear over time is that the spring contact is on the device and we expose a very small contact surface from the housing. Check this - https://ibb.co/xqm3z3W

It's almost as if the connector itself should be a swappable part - every 100,000 cycles or so you get a new one.

And if flimsy parts and design-for-manufacturing rather than design-for-repair aren't done intentionally to increase sales through replacements and/or to optimize for minimal cost, then it's done through negligence.

Are pogo pins the gold standard for data across the most (dis)connect cycles? Could any hardware engineer chime in?

Hear me out but... this could have been a high-speed serial interface instead, much less stressing. And a breakout board for when you want GPIO.

On Garmin watches the springy mechanical part is on the cable, not the watch. Have you observed the watch itself wearing out? I would hope it's designed such that the cable is sacrificial and the watch lasts. In the product here the springs appear to be on the device side, which seems to me like the bit that would be more likely to wear out. That's concerning, but there's more chance of being to able to replace it than in something tiny like a watch.

I’d also love to find out, I’m also on the lookout for a similar device. What I have found are SBCs on r/SBCgaming offering rock chip ARM Linux devices for under $50-100. Iirc http://retrocatalog.com/ is good for searching.

I have a Planet Computers Gemini, which is a reinterpretation of the Psion Series 5, running Android but you can also install Linux. They have new models since, but I've heard reports the company is not honoring orders, so caveat emptor.

Another option would be one of the GPD Pocket mini-laptops, they actually ship with Ubuntu. I'd gotten one of the older models, but the screen was just too small for my tired eyes: https://www.gpd.hk/gpdpocket/

I’ve been looking for this too. I could replace basically all my laptop computing with something low powered that sshed into a server. So far I’ve found:

https://github.com/ByteWelder/Decktility https://www.clockworkpi.com/ https://soulscircuit.com/pilet

It doesn't have a QWERTY keyboard, but you can repurpose an Anbernic RG35XXSP as a Linux device : https://github.com/MrJackSpade/RG35XXP-XFCE

My portable Org mode setup is read-only, and I'm very happy with it. I just copy the files from my desktop to ~/Documents/Notes on the Android device an us Orgro (Orgzly or Organice) to read them.

If I do need to record something on the go I make a voice note and update the Org mode file at home on the desktop. I then push to the phone with adb, or pull from the phone with scp in Termux.

For a slightly larger, look at the uConsole from ClockworkPi. It is probably double the size and doesn't have the same form factor though.

why not zipit z2 (if you can find it)? i remember the keyboard not being great but it was completely usable.

around the same time there was also ben nanonote, but the z2 is probably preferable to it.

not a lot of clamshells since then (and generally not enough pocket qwerty computers).

for something slightly larger, consider gemini pda or one of its succcessors, or a keyboard case for a phone, e.g. pinephone.

or a bit larger still (but the same 6" screen diagonal), you get an actual pc with gpd micropc.

If you're willing to cave on the clamshell form factor, there's a bunch of neat stuff in the HackberryPi / Lilygo T-Deck space.

If you just want calling, sms, browsing and messaging, and some amount of GNU/Linux, your main options are:

1) Any officially supported sailfish OS device ( https://shop.jolla.com/ - which includes their licensed and officially blessed version for older sony xperia services)

2) Any ubuntu touch supported devices: https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/promoted/

Would be very stable... And good enough for daily use..

But honestly even degoogled Android on a well supported phone like Pixel + Termux is fairly good enough to use these days. I don't see the value of running desktop Linux software on these devices anymore...

I for one am seeing the future of desktop PCs to be fully in the handheld space and the desktop part becoming obsolete.

The current gen handheld AMD APUs are super fast. All that’s needed is one external PCIe 5 connector so you can plug in a GPU when you are at home and you can have a PC with a 6 TB SSD, 64 GB RAM and a 16 core CPU in your pocket at all times while on the go.

Founder here, that would be me. I have spent countless hours on this :D

The Zero Terminal has a pretty difficult disadvantage in that it does not exist.