On the weekend of February 2 to 4, FOSDEM 2024 was held, where many developers and people related to free and open source software met. Many topics have been discussed there and information has been advanced such as that which ensures that Kubuntu will start using Calamares, but a new console or handheld PC was also presented by surprise, the Orange Pi Neo which will use the Manjaro operating system.
Whether it ends up being competition from the Steam Deck remains to be seen. Valve pulled out something that had actually already existed, but improved the concept and is getting a lot of sales even to people who had never touched Linux. Later, others such as the Legion Go or the Rog Ally arrived, with superior power but an imbalance that makes them lose on fronts such as autonomy. Manjaro did not want to miss this train and has teamed up with Orange Pi to offer the Orange Pi Neo with the following specifications.
Technical specifications of the Orange Pi Neo
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 7840U |
|---|---|
| Screen | 7″ FHD+ 1920 x 1200, WUXGA 16:10 500nits brightness 120Hz refresh rate |
| Operating System | Manjaro |
| RAM | 16GB / 32GB LPDDR5 Dual channel 7500MHz |
| Storage | 512GB-2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD |
| Dimensions | 259mmx107mmx19.9mm |
| Battery | 50WHrs |
| triggers | Two custom duals above |
| Gyroscope | Dual 6-axis gyroscopes |
| Ports | 2x USB 4.0 Type-C 1x 3.5mm jack 1x card reader |
| Audio | 2 1W panoramic speakers |
| Bluetooth | BT5.3 |
| Refrigeration | Large turbo fan Double copper tubes Aluminum alloy fans Extra large air vents Custom cooling system and air ducts with a subtle design |
| Colours | Available in black and white colors |
| Price | To be announced |
The Orange Pi Neo already has a page on the Manjaro website, but it still does not appear on your hardware section. When it does we will also know how much it will cost and when it will be available. Taking into account the prices that are being considered in the Manjaro store and what the Orange Pi SBCs cost, the only thing we can say is that it won't be cheap, and I think the Orange Pi Neo will be priced closer to the ASUS Rog Ally than the Valve Steam Deck.
Muscle has to be a good option, but, in my opinion, it is a bit in no man's land. On the one hand, the operating system will be Manjaro, a desktop operating system, and initially it will not be as well optimized as SteamOS for a console. On the other hand, Manjaro is Linux, which will allow you to install Steam, Heroic and all the emulators we may need, but it also cannot access Microsoft's Game Pass.
100% desktop operating system
That the Orange Pi Neo has a 100% desktop operating system It also has its good things and its bad things. The best thing is that it is a real PC that can operate using the on-screen keyboard and touch panels or connect it to a monitor and work with it as if it were a desktop or tower computer. If we want to install software like GIMP or Visual Studio Code, we can do it from official Manjaro or AUR (Arch User Repositiry) repositories. It is also possible to add support for flatpak and snap packages. The Steam Deck by default only allows you to install Flathub packages, which allows us to install the two mentioned programs but taking up much more space. It is also true that there is an option to make it not read-only.
The bad thing about desktop operating systems is that They are not so optimized like SteamOS. Even if Steam was running in mode Big Picture, the operating system would continue to run in the background with corresponding resource consumption. On the other hand, SteamOS in its console mode acts – bridging the gap – like Kodi on the Raspberry Pi: it makes a kind of bridge to the operating system so that it runs only what is necessary to function.
We will know more about the Orange Pi Neo in the next few hours.