GPD Pocket 4 review

GPD are renowned for making small PCs that are usable in many different ways. They have that little niche market, and they are the only producers of these smaller computers. After years of considering a GPD Pocket 3 and even nearly backing the Kickstarter, I finally settled on an AMD variant: the Pocket 4.

As a fan of (and shareholder in) AMD, I was over the moon when the Pocket 4 was announced. 

This review was meant to be released after the Zettlab NAS and Apple Watch Ultra 3 reviews, but my excitement about the Pocket 4's features prompted me to do it first. Let's see what this tiny little computer is capable of.

Design

The design is easily my favourite aspect of this excellent little device. It manages to be both portable and genuinely powerful, and the overall feel is superb. The compact keyboard is surprisingly usable—one of the nicest I’ve tried on a device this size, and I’ll touch on it in more detail shortly.

The chassis is crafted from solid unibody aluminium, giving the device excellent durability and a premium feel. Despite its sturdy construction, it remains impressively lightweight at just 770g, with dimensions of 206.8 × 144.5 × 22.2 mm.

The touchpad, while not perfect, performs better than expected for such a small machine. One feature I appreciate in particular is how practical it is when walking; you can control the buttons with your left hand while navigating with your right, which makes on-the-go use remarkably convenient.

The screen rotates 180 degrees in a single direction, allowing the Pocket 4 to transform from a laptop into a tablet. The built-in gyroscope automatically adjusts the orientation, much like an iOS device, and the capacitive touchscreen is responsive and comfortable to use with your fingers. One thing I should warn you of is that, unlike the GPD Pocket 3, there is no support for an active stylus. 

The keyboard itself is one of the finest I’ve encountered on a small device. My main complaint—aside from its physical limitations—is the space bar, which can be unresponsive at times due to its small pressable area. The key layout also has a few quirks, with some essential keys tucked away behind others. That said, the keyboard isn’t bad at all; it just takes longer to adjust to than a full-sized layout.

The hinge on the laptop that allows swivelling to tablet mode is also quite sturdy, and apparently it's been tested by GPD for 100,000 rotations. 

Specifications

The GPD Pocket 4 is an upgrade on the Intel-based GPD Pocket 3. It features an AMD processor, either the Ryzen 8840U or the Ryzen 9 AI HX 370. The HX 370 CPU is the version I got, and it has a massive performance gain over the 8060U, plus 12 cores (24 threads). The HX 370 is based on the Zen 5 (Strix Point) microarchitecture and is built with a 4nm process. It features a base clock of 2.0GHz, a boost clock of 5.1GHz, and 36MB of L3 cache. The whole-system-on-a-chip package can deliver a total of 80 TOPS (tera-operations per second), whilst the 8840U can only achieve 38 TOPS, according to GPD. The CPU has a TDP of just 28W. It is a monster for such a small device, and it lets you play several games at reasonably high settings. See below for some benchmarks. 

The display is absolutely outstanding. The 8.8-inch display is so high-quality in terms of colour that you'd think you were using a desktop monitor designed for colour reproduction, such as my Asus ProArt monitor. The resolution is up to 2560 by 1660p (16:10 aspect ratio), for a total of 343 pixels per inch, with a refresh rate up to 144Hz. The screen is shielded by glass - again, a really nice addition. The display reaches a maximum brightness of 500 nits. Finally, the display also features 10-Point Multi-Touch.

Not only is the built-in display excellent, but the built-in iGPU that drives it, the AMD Radeon 890M, is a competent graphics processor that allows you to play many of the 2024 triple-A games at low settings with ease - something previously unheard of from an integrated graphics chip. It features 1024 shaders and 16 compute units, running at 2900MHz. It's also capable of running four displays without any issue. 

The Pocket 4 features LPDDR5 memory running at 7500MT/s, making it snappy. You can choose 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB. I went for the 32GB variant. Bear in mind that the memory is not user-serviceable and cannot be upgraded after purchase. The Pocket also features a PCIe 4.0 NVMe 2280 M.2 SSD. The model I chose features a 2TB drive - more than I'll probably need in the machine. Being an M.2 2280, you can replace this drive at any time - and it's reasonably straightforward.

The Pocket 4 has dual front-firing 2 W “ultra-linear” stereo speakers, which GPD claim deliver roughly double the sound power of their previous generation. In real-world testing, the speakers reached a surprisingly loud volume (about 91.9 dB) for a device of that size. Mids and highs tend to be clear and relatively well balanced, giving vocals and dialogue decent clarity when watching videos or doing everyday tasks.

The Pocket 4, much like its predecessor, also features a fingerprint reader. It is also worth noting that this fingerprint reader is now located on the front of the device rather than inside, so you can use it when the Pocket 4 is in tablet mode.

Benchmarks

Whilst the following are not specifically benchmarks, these are good indicators of how this device performs when playing certain games.

Spyro Remastered - 1920 x 1200 - 70FPS

Warcraft III Reforged - 3440 x 1440 - 112FPS

Connectivity

The Pocket 4 has a pretty decent range of connectivity; in fact, it's better than both my MacBook Pro and my Elitebook.

On the rear of the device, the Pocket 4 features a fully-featured USB4 USB-C port, another USB-C port capable of 10Gbps and DP-Alt mode. You'll also find a 2.5Gbps RJ45 Ethernet jack - a very welcome inclusion. 

On the left side, you'll find a USB 3.0 Type-A port and an HDMI 2.1 port. The left-side ports are upside down, and it's an extraordinary design choice to put a USB port upside down like this (see the photo).

On the right, you'll find a USB 2.0 Type-A port and a 3.5mm headset jack. 

The GPD Pocket 4 delivers solid wireless connectivity. Both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are reliable — Wi-Fi connects quickly to my network and holds stable even when I move around the house, while Bluetooth pairs easily with headphones and peripherals without noticeable dropouts or lag. Overall, wireless performance is more than adequate for everyday work or light media use.

Modules

The GPD Pocket 4's main boast is its modular design, which lets users quickly switch the module on the back and change its functionality. There are currently four modules available:

• Transflash (microSD) reader
• RS232 serial port
• KVM HDMI and USB-C input
• 4G LTE module

I own all four of these modules, but when I got the device, I only had the Transflash reader. This is standard.

The three additional modules you can buy for the Pocket 4.

To install a new module, unscrew the two screws at the rear of the device, remove the old module, insert the new one, and screw it in. 

Note: GPD Pocket 3 modules are not compatible with the GPD Pocket 4.

Criticisms

The first criticism I have of the Pocket 4 is the left side connectors. I have no idea why GPD had to flip the left USB and HDMI ports. This might seem minor, but in reality, it is a frustration. Putting in an HDMI plug upside down is something I have seen before, but a USB port, never. You do get used to it, but it's very frustrating no matter what.

Next, the keyboard. The keyboard is excellent; most keys are large enough that the typing experience is pretty decent, but it is not perfect. For a start, I really do not like that the number keys are so small that when I reach for them, I end up pressing the keys above, which more often than not is the print screen key. Additionally, the function keys being on the numbers is another frustration. However, I do realise why they have done this, and there is no easy way to see how they could have done anything better. I also don't like the space key not responding to every tap - this happens because the rubber domes are positioned too centrally, and a tap on the left or right side of the key doesn't actuate them properly.

The final frustration I have is the lack of replaceable RAM. However, this is another one where I can see why this is the case, as the machine is small and therefore there is not as much room to fit two DIMM slots. But it still would have been a really nice feature.

Conclusion

The GPD Pocket 4, much like the Pocket 3, feels like a machine where GPD have decided they want to build something as good as it can possibly be; they've not made any decisions to go for lesser hardware and have gone all out. The only areas for improvement with this little device are the keyboard and those pesky left-hand ports.

I cannot believe I am saying this, but the GPD Pocket 4 feels like one of the best-built computers I have ever used, and every single feature of the device is well thought through. The device packs a punch - way above what you would expect from a device of its size. 

I thoroughly recommend this product to anyone looking for a portable laptop capable of running many modern games on the go. Or a computer with a KVM for viewing headless servers, for example. Or someone who wants a machine that is always at the ready, for example, a system administrator. Or someone who wants a mix of everything in a powerful little machine.