You don’t have to use this little dock mechanism – we can definitely imagine 3D-printing an enclosure that sticks to the back of the lid with a few cables between the laptop and Raspberry Pi. However you choose to connect your Raspberry Pi though, it doesn’t require any extra software setup and is immediately good to go, which is very nice.

Take it with you

As there are no computer parts inside the shell, the whole thing is very light, even with a Raspberry Pi attached to it (although it does throw off the balance a little). The heaviest part of the assembly is probably the 5,000mAh battery, which charges nice and quickly, although only with the included DC barrel jack. With a Raspberry Pi plugged in the battery lasts for a couple of hours just fine with fairly normal use, and you can also check the battery with a touch of a button.

Perhaps due to either how light it is, or the materials used in construction, but the Note does feel a little bit flimsy while using it. The mousepad is fine, however the physical clicks for right and left click feel clunky and only work near the bottom of the touchpad. Compared to other normal laptops the keyboard is actually pretty good though, and is nice to type on – it has an extra bit of resistance that makes the keys satisfying to use.

Multi-purpose

We didn’t find much use for it with our other PCs – although we don’t have any mini PCs like a Mac Mini or such around, which seems like a good fit for the CrowView. It’s quite nice for watching videos from a phone though, especially if you’re travelling and don’t want to lug a regular, heavier laptop around with you.

However, it’s as a Raspberry Pi dock that it really shines for us, and despite our concerns with the build quality and awkwardness of the provided dock system, it works more than well enough that we’re definitely going to be using it in the future instead of juggling cables on monitors and PSUs. We might use a Bluetooth mouse though.

Verdict

9/10

There are some minor build quality issues but the product itself is fantastic and does exactly what you’d want it do.

Specs

Display: 14-inch IPS, 1920×1080

Battery: 5000mAh

I/O: Keyboard, touchpad, mouse, webcam, USB A, USB-C, speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack, mini HDMI in