Re: [PLUG] new laptop / MicroCenter / Maestro

[Adam Schaible via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

Hey Syeed,

Yeah the MicroCenter website says $50 but they've been out of stock for months, I bought mine from a scalper for $80 a while back just because I was so interested after Walt posted Jonathan's talk up on the PLUG site. I mainly just wanted to see if I could follow along with everything he covered in his talk and, pleasantly enough I was successful. Not sure if Evolve deserves the credit, or Jonathan... maybe both? 

However as a "daily driver" the Maestro is definitely a clear step below the currently available, competing models from Asus that are $40 to $75 more... while the keyboard layout is decent the "feel" of the keys is terrible (Asus is just a moderate improvement, I am kind of a snob from how good ThinkPad keyboards are), the touchpad is tiny (Asus is a big winner there) and not very sensitive, and the plastic chassis is super flimsy. I stripped one of the screws removing the plastic bottom cover putting my SSD in... there are several others there to retain the cover but Evolve's OEM just seems to use a cheaper, thinner grade of resin/plasticizer in general. I've handled 3D printed homebrew laptop chassis that are sturdier. 

Build quality concerns aside, the fact remains that the Maestro is a real, honest to goodness full featured x86 computer with acceptable specs, running all the latest distros, for well under $100 (even after paying a scalper and adding a $15 SSD like I did). Even if I couldn't handle it as my daily driver it is super great for "lab"/education/experimentation and if I don't have too much more use for mine after a few months I'll probably be looking for a new home for it so others can learn as well. So stay tuned!

-- 
  Adam Schaible
  plug@schibes.com

On Tue, Mar 21, 2023, at 15:21, Syeed Ali via plug wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Mar 2023 11:56:19 -0400
>> Evolve III Maestro
>
> $50 a piece; wow.
>
> If it's USB 3 bootable, it would definitely be worth it.
>
> From the pictures I've seen the keyboard layout looks good too.  A bad
> keyboard is a showstopper for me at any price.
> ___________________________________________________________________________
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