This statement simply isn’t correct. I can procure much faster chips as a consumer, even at the low end. This isn’t the fastest single board computer either, not by a long shot. Like I said in another comment, it’s only about as fast as a 2010 Macbook Pro. That’s not “very fast” by any metric.

I’m using a Core i3-N305 based single-board computer (Odroid H4) for my Plex server and it performs easily twice as well at just 3W more - while being x86 and fully compatible with any relevant OS without having to modify boot loaders and drivers or worry about incompatibilities. Reducing its power draw to the 12W of this chip would still easily outperform the Rockchip and would allow for a smaller heat sink. Best of all, MSRP is nearly the same compared to the CM3588 with the RK3588 (admittedly without RAM). You’d have to do something to the rear IO to make it slim enough for use in a laptop project, but that’s trivial on a project like this.

Huh, it uses the same Rockchip SoC - but they are dishonestly claiming that it’s “very fast”. Not a good look.

This is a highly impressive project, not just for a high school senior, but it should be stressed that this is nowhere near as powerful as a similarly priced modern laptop. This is a legendary school project, impressive enough to open doors to universities and lay the foundation for a successful career in the computer industry, but not really something you should try and build yourself if you’re looking for a laptop in this price range.

A Geekbench 5 single-core score of 492 and a multi-core score of 2019 points are about comparable to a Macbook Pro from fifteen years ago. There is a small NPU present on the chip, which the old Macbook doesn’t have, but if that’s not important to your use case (which is very likely), then this device is not suitable for anything but the most basic tasks and will feel sluggish with any current software. There’s a reason the video barely shows the device in use, because it just wouldn’t be very pleasant to look at.