Tech
MNT's mini laptop takes modularity to new heights
The Pocket Reform even comes with a trackball for some serious retro vibes.
In a world full of MacBook clones, MNT’s Pocket Reform is a nice break from the status quo of laptop design. Instead of a slim laptop that’s practically impossible to repair on your own, MNT is giving us a fully modular and upgradeable mini laptop, much like its previous Reform laptop.
Shrinking down the laptop really gives the Pocket Reform more of a cyberdeck-esque vibe. It’s meant more for simple things, like web browsing, some retro gaming, and light work, but in a particularly cool and portable package.
Chonky chassis — MNT is still keeping the chunky form factor of the original Reform, just scaling down the screen to seven inches for a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution in its Pocket Reform. The miniature version still has a ortholinear mechanical keyboard, but with 60 keys and Kailh Choco White switches. The Pocket Reform will also have RGB backlighting and you get the option to build it with a 10mm trackball with four buttons.
The fully modular and upgradeable design of the Pocket Reform means you have a few options of what CPU and RAM configurations you want, but the standard option is a NXP i.MX8M Plus with four ARM Cortex-A53 processors at 1.8GHz, up to 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and a Vivante GC7000UL GPU.
In terms of storage, the Pocket Reform can fit a 2TB SSD, with extra space available through the microSD card slot and up to 128GB of eMMC flash memory. MNT included two Lilon battery cells for a total of 8,000mAh that powers the mini laptop, which also includes two USB-C ports, a micro HDMI port, and an Ethernet port.
Build it yourself — Since it’s fully modular, you can build, upgrade or customize the Pocket Reform however you want. It comes pre-installed with Chromium and Firefox so you can keep it simple for just web browsing, but you can also make it a retro gaming setup, a portable music workstation, or a terminal for system admins on the go.
There’s no pricing details for the Pocket Reform just yet, but MNT says it’ll go into an early beta program with devkits coming soon. The beta testers will be able to tinker around with the Pocket Reform and help MNT find bugs and issues before it’s officially released. MNT plans to open up preorders for the Pocket Reform beta in late July.
