Orange Pi, known for its competitive single-board computer designs compared to products like Raspberry Pi, is venturing into the gaming handheld market with a new device called Orange Pi Neo, according to details from the Linux Manjaro OS development team.
The Orange Pi Neo handheld is powered by Ryzen 7 7840U, boasting 8 Zen4 cores and 12 RDNA3 Compute Units. Despite its slightly slower NPU processor compared to the newer 8000U series, gamers are unlikely to find this detail a major concern. It’s worth noting that all major gaming handhelds currently available utilize the same APU, with some featuring a customized version referred to as Ryzen Z1 Extreme.
With dimensions of 25.9×10.7×1.9 cm, the Orange Pi Neo falls into the category of ‘compact’ handhelds. Like the Deck or Ally models, the Neo sports a 7-inch screen with a resolution of 1920×1200. The company guarantees a 120 Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness reaching up to 500 nits.
Equipped with a 50 WHrs battery and two USB4 ports, the Neo offers two memory options—16GB or 32GB—both adhering to LPDDR5(X) 7500 MT/s specifications. Despite its smaller size compared to ROG Ally, Legion Go, and Deck, the Neo utilizes a standard-sized M.2 2280 slot for PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe storage, available in capacities of 512GB or 2TB.
It’s important to mention that the Neo has been leaked in multiple posts and videos throughout 2023. The Orange Pi team has evidently been developing new handheld systems utilizing both ARM and X86 architectures, with various designs leaked during this period. It appears that the Neo design has now been officially concluded.
While the system hasn’t received a formal announcement, its specifications are now available on the Manjaro website, accompanied by teasers on social media. The Neo handheld is presently undergoing demonstrations at FOSDEM 2024, a gathering for software developers. It remains uncertain whether the Neo will exclusively feature the Manjaro operating system, but it appears to be one of the likely options.
Source: Manjaro