Beam 1.0 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
Beam 1.0 took 2 min 35 s and $0.063 at list price, Claude Sonnet 5.5 took 3 min 49 s and $0.34 at list price. Claude Sonnet 5.5 took 1.5× as long and cost 5.4× as much.
Beam 1.0
Reflection AI · $1.00/M out
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Anthropic · $10.00/M out · 9 HN pts
Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 has CLI runs here (Claude Code).
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 studio in Rotterdam devoted to repairing vintage synthesizers and keeping electronic instruments alive. We work with analog and digital keyboards, drum machines, and modular systems, restoring worn circuits, replacing fragile components, and returning each machine to reliable musical use. Our small team combines careful technical work with genuine respect for the instruments that shaped decades of music. Whether an instrument needs a routine service, a difficult diagnosis, or a full restoration, we approach it with patience, clear communication, and attention to detail. We believe these machines are not just equipment; they are tools with history, character, and sound worth preserving. Based in Rotterdam, we serve musicians, collectors, and studios who want their gear maintained properly and played again. At Patchbay, every repair is treated as a collaboration between craft and music, ensuring that classic synthesizers continue to inspire new sounds for years to come.
Patchbay is three people in a workshop in Rotterdam, trying to keep old synthesizers alive. We repair, restore and recalibrate the instruments that shaped electronic music: Moogs and Oberheims, Rolands and Sequential Circuits, the odd temperamental Soviet oddity that someone found in an attic.
Most of what lands on our benches has been silent for years. A crackling pot, a drifting oscillator, a power supply that gave up in 1994. Some come from working musicians who need their instrument back before the next tour. Others come from people who inherited a dusty box from a parent and want to hear what it sounds like.
We work slowly and by hand. We trace faults with a scope and a schematic, source or rebuild parts when originals are gone, and change as little as we can. Every synth leaves with a note describing exactly what we did, so the next person to open it knows where we have been.
Come by, bring your synth, and stay for coffee.
Specs and numbers
| Beam 1.0 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Reflection AI | Anthropic |
| Made in | US | US |
| Released | 16 Oct 2026 | 28 Sep 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $0.25 | $2.00 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $1.00 | $10.00 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Weights | open | closed |
| Hacker News points | — | 9 |
| Time for the six prompts | 2 min 35 s | 3 min 49 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.063 | $0.34 |
Beam 1.0 was cheaper: $0.28 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Beam 1.0 was faster: 73 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Claude Sonnet 5.5's rebuild matched the screenshot at 94%; Beam 1.0 was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Claude Sonnet 5.5's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Beam 1.0 was not in it.





