ⓘ Manjaro Forums
It appears that development of the Orange Pi Neo handheld has been put on hold, with its developer citing RAM and storage price fluctuations as the main reason for the predicament. The current shortage of components has clearly claimed many victims, with the Neo handheld console being the latest.
However, the project has not been shelved and remains very much alive – the only thing that is now uncertain is the launch window. That said, given the lack of positive news regarding supply chain issues affecting consumer tech companies, the future looks pretty bleak for smaller companies like Orange Pi.
The software part of the handheld has seen good improvements
Manjaro Gaming Edition, however, has made a lot of progress, as revealed by Team Manjaro’s Philm. CE and FCC certifications of the gaming handheld have also been granted, which is good news. It seems that if and when the supply chain sees better days, the Neo handheld project should be back on track.
It’s worth noting that the Neo handheld is almost two years old now, and is still expected to feature AMD’s AMD Ryzen 7 7840U and 8840U technology. Zen 4-based chips are undoubtedly not far behind, but they are no longer as competitive as they were two years ago. With further delays, the device may need to be given an APU update.
The price has been set at $450 for the base version with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage, but considering the current market scenario, the Orange Pi Neo handheld will definitely cost much more than that if it appears on the shelves soon. For now, people who desperately need a handheld for gaming will have to settle for something like the ROG Xbox Ally, currently available for $580 on Amazon.
