With ready availability of single board computers, displays, keyboards, power packs, and other hardware, a home-made laptop is now a project within most people’s reach. Some laptop projects definitely veer towards being cyberdecks while others take a more conventional path, but we’ve rarely seen one as professional looking as [Byran Huang]’s anyon_e open source laptop. It really takes the art to the next level.
The quality is immediately apparent in the custom CNC-machined anodised aluminium case, and upon opening it up the curious user could be forgiven for thinking they had a stylish commercial machine in their hands. There’s a slimline mechanical keyboard and a glass trackpad, and that display is an OLED. In fact the whole thing had been built from scratch, and inside is an RK3588 SoC on a module sitting on a custom-designed motherboard. It required some effort for it to drive the display, a process we’ve seen cause pain to other designers, but otherwise it runs Debian. The batteries are slimline pouch cells, with a custom controller board driven by an ESP32.
This must have cost quite a bit to build, but it’s something anyone can have a go at for themselves as everything is in a GitHub repository. Purists might ask for open source silicon at its heart to make it truly open source, but considering what he’s done we’ll take this. It’s not the first high quality laptop project we’ve seen by any means, but it may be the first that wouldn’t raise any eyebrows in the boardroom. Take a look at the video below the break.
nice
nice
nice
WTF LMAO
Don’t waste your time on the video, in the end it’s yet another fancy case for an R-Pi clone.
It’s using a system on module onto a custom PCB and is someone’s high school project. Don’t waste your time on being this dead inside.
Keep in mind that what we have here isn’t just a product to make judgement on, but rather a project that shows how to achieve a goal, and you might want to examine it even if your goal isn’t identical. This is, after all, HackaDay.
It’s a school project, something to consider before criticism
The Pinebooks use similar Rockchip SoCs. They have ARM cores. They’re plenty powerful, more open-source friendly, and not as power hungry as x86 trash. They’re an excellent choice for this project.
At first I was like, interesting, but the look was just not for me. Then I saw the SOC, and well, nope.
I get this could be a fun little project, but I do serious work and this thing would not handle my day to day software. And please dont start on open source alternatives… they cant compete
It’s not the software that can’t compete but your mind that got locked itself into Micr🤬😳😠it ecosystem 🤣
Unless you’re doing some space shuttle stuff there’s no reason why you cannot install Linux Mint instead of that cancer written by a bunch of american nerds.
This perspective always fascinates me because IME proprietary alternatives can’t compete with the FOSS software I use, but clearly there are a few niches dominated by corpo software. What specifically do you have in mind?
Gorgeous build quality, great documentation.. especially impressive for a friggin senior project. Someone’s gonna get mad job offers!
My little critiques:
– ESP32-S3 seems like crazy overkill for just running power controller… but with it connecting over USB, its role could always be expanded later for more fun stuff
– modular keyboard is sweet, but if the magnetic attachment is power only, that’s a missed opportunity…wired keyboards ftw!
(couldn’t tell 100% from write-up)