Pine64 has announced the launch of its new tablets PineTab2 and PineTab-V. Basically identical in design and format, they are radically different in their hardware architecture. Both are available to reserve for a very attractive price of $159.
Pine64 is a Chinese manufacturer specializing in free system-compatible laptops, smartphones, and single-board computers. In a tablet market polarized by iOS and Android, there is not much availability of Linux tablets that we can consider ‘pure’ and hence the interest that these models can arouse.
PineTab2 and PineTab-V: the same and different
Like most of the hardware that this manufacturer launches, they are designed as budget products. They share a 9mm-thick metal chassis and promise ease of hardware upgrades. Its screen is also the same, a 10.1-inch diagonal LCD and native HD resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. It comes with a detachable keyboard cover.
Its big difference is inside, since one uses ARM and another RISC-V. PineTab2 mounts a Rockchip SoC model RK3566 with four ARM Cortex-A55 cores and Mali-G52 graphics, widely used in cheap ARM products. PineTab-V relies on a StarFive JH7110 processor, which features four SiFive FU740 1.5GHz 64-bit RISC-V processing cores, Imagination BXE-4-32 graphics, and a 32-bit RISC-V E24 CPU core. integrated.
PineTab2 and PineTab-V motherboard, respectively
Pine64 says that they should offer similar performance, although it must be said that they are not comparable due to their different architecture. If the ARM version installs a Arch Linux with the KDE Plasma desktop environment Ready to run and with thousands of applications, the RISC-V model has no known operating system. It is clearly not intended for the end user but for developers who want to get started with RISC-V.
From the rest of the specifications, mention the 5MP (rear) and 2 MP (front) cameras, the USB 3.0 Type-C and USB 2.0 ports for charging its 6,000 mAh battery. Also a micro HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a microSD card reader. Outwardly, the only aesthetic change is the color of the blackcurrant, the PineTab-V is deep matte black, while the PineTab2 is silver gray.
The PineTab2 and PineTab-V are sold with the same memory and storage configurations and prices:
- 4 GB LPDDR4 RAM + 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash storage for $149.
- 8 GB LPDDR4 RAM + 128 GB 128 GB eMMC 5.1 flash storage for $209.
