Does it make sense to build a laptop from a Raspberry Pi 5 or from an Orange Pi 5?

Last Updated on March 26, 2025 by pg@petergamma.org

part I has been locked:

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=372579&start=125

I reopen the discussion again. I decided to make a laptop out of a Pi5. All of my around 10 laptops I used occasionally do not work anymore, and I use laptops only occasionally. But the Pi 4 is too slow for my purpose.

And the Pi 5

with a NVMe drive

is in the league of a (slow) laptop. But will the prize of the Pi 5 increase if I write this here? As I experienced it with ADS1299 EEG chip products from Texas Instruments? Often they increased the prize of such boards as soon as I gave a positive feedback for it. So if it is the same with the Pi 5, will the Pi 5 end up costing 400 USD, as the Pi 4 was during Corona?

But I am definitely fed up with laptops. They break so easily. And the Orange Pi 5 is also an alternative.

With the modified Ubuntu version, it reminds a bit of the Pinephone:

And if there would be no alternative for the Pinephone, it is a device I would be able to live with. But not with a Raspberry Pi 5 for 400 USD. This SBC is not worth that much. So I will eventually buy a Orange Pi 5 as a second device to try to build a laptop. The modified Ubuntu version for the OP5 has good reviews. And I am happy with basic stuff doing on a laptop.

The Elecrow laptop I have looked at could not convince me.

I prefer to buy the components individually. Elecrow basically sells only from China. And with such a big device which looks as a laptop on x ray, there are high import taxes. I think the Elecrow laptop for the Pi 5 is not worth buying. But individual components like rollable keyboards and 10 inch display or even larger display for the Pi 5 or the Orange Pi 5.

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=385892

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