PotatoP: Low-powered system showcases possibilities of laptop with years of battery life

Hobbyist Andreas Eriksen has designed a laptop with a battery life that can be measured in years, not hours. Dubbed the PotatoP, the device is inspired by other low-powered creations like the Lisp Badge and the Lisperati 1000. Arguably, the PotatoP looks more like the latter than the former, albeit with a vertical-orientated display and a larger keyboard.

A SparkFun RedBoard Artemis ATP sits at the heart of the PotatoP, which contains an ARM Cortex-m4F microcontroller, 1 MB of flash memory and 384 KB of RAM. Eriksen combined the low-powered board with a 4.4-inch MIP display that operates at 340 x 320 pixels and consumes hardly any power. For reference, Garmin uses MIP displays on its smartwatches to achieve excellent battery life runtimes, Forerunner 265 and Forerunner 965 excluded.

Separately, the PotatoP has a microSD card for storing data and a 12,000 mAh battery for keeping its components powered. The star of the show is its solar cell though, which delivers practically unlimited trips away from a charger. Unsurprisingly, the PotatoP is only capable of performing simple tasks like text editing and playing games like Snake.

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