Step 5 Preview vs Inkling
Step 5 Preview took 10 min 44 s and $0.33 at list price, Inkling took 8 min 30 s and $0.21 at list price. Step 5 Preview took 1.3× as long and cost 1.6× as much.
Step 5 Preview
StepFun · $2.70/M out · 155 HN pts
Inkling
Thinking Machines · $4.05/M out · free route · 4 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a three-person workshop based in Rotterdam, dedicated to keeping vintage synthesizers alive and playable. We are technicians, musicians, and obsessive tinkerers who believe that classic analog instruments deserve better than silence. From temperamental Jupiter-8s to worn-out ARP Odysseys, we restore, repair, and maintain the machines that shaped the sound of modern music. Every repair starts with listening—both to the instrument and to the person who plays it. Whether you are chasing a rare fault, need a full calibration, or simply want your old synth to feel new again, our bench is open. We understand that no two synthesizers arrive with the same story, and we treat each circuit, slider, and key with the care its history deserves. At Patchbay, we are here to make sure the sounds of tomorrow are built on those that came before.
Patchbay is a three-person repair studio in Rotterdam dedicated to vintage synthesizers. We work on analog circuits, replace failing capacitors and resistors, calibrate unstable oscillators, and restore instruments that have been silent for years. Our bench sees early Japanese mono synths, European string machines, American polys, and large modular systems. We treat each repair as a specific problem rather than a routine job, because these machines were built differently and fail differently. The studio grew out of our own need for careful, local repairs. Over time, musicians, collectors, and producers across the Netherlands started bringing us gear they could not trust elsewhere. We open every case with the same approach: diagnose the fault properly, use appropriate parts, and test the result thoroughly. We do not apply quick fixes or ignore underlying issues. Whether your synthesizer suffers from tuning drift, dead voices, noisy outputs, or an unknown electrical fault, we are in Rotterdam to find the cause and return it to reliable working condition.
Specs and numbers
| Step 5 Preview | Inkling | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | StepFun | Thinking Machines |
| Made in | China | US |
| Released | 8 Oct 2026 | 17 Jul 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $1.00 | free route (list $1.00/M) |
| Price out, per M tokens | $2.70 | free route (list $4.05/M) |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 524,288 tokens |
| Weights | open | open |
| Hacker News points | 155 | 4 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 44 s | 8 min 30 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.33 | $0.21 |
Inkling was cheaper: $0.12 less at list price, and less on 3 of the 6 prompts. Inkling was faster: 2 min 14 s less in total, and faster on 3 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Inkling's rebuild matched the screenshot at 51%; Step 5 Preview was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Inkling's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Step 5 Preview was not in it.





