In advance I had worried about the battery life being poor as I'd never really done a run down test and it was fitted with a cheap eBay aftermarket battery. Also, hanging the keypad, trackball and illuminated buttons off USB OTG was using a little power all the time despite using my Power Profiler to help reduce that as much as I could.
In the end it was just fine to be used heavily all day. There was a lot of in-game chat.
In the end it was just fine to be used heavily all day. There was a lot of in-game chat.
I had wondered about usability as modern smartphones and their apps are designed around a touch interface with really great predictive typing.
Going back to a trackball, mouse buttons and keyboard is very much a retrograde step. Discord (which the LARP used for in game communications) did suck a bit with the non-touch interface but was usable and the case fitted nicely in both hands for two thumb typing. The screen could still be touched but this is hard near the edges due to the lip on the case.
The biggest aggro was the paint. I hate painting 3D printed objects and having tried not to spray the paint on too thick and give it plenty of time to dry the red parts were still soft as I was travelling to the game.
At various points the case, especially the back, kept sticking to other things like the tool belt I carried the Cyberdeck in. You can see this quite clearly in the second photo where it's messed up the finish. If I ever open this up again to add more features, like a LORA radio, I'll end up reprinting the case and transferring the internals to a new one which will mean ungluing some of the wiring.
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