When hearing of "Orange Pi Neo" this weekend from sources at FOSDEM 2024, I just assumed it was yet another Orange Pi single board computer... But then to hear it's a handheld game console from Orange Pi again gives off the impression of some low-power ARM device. It turns out though that the Orange Pi Neo is a forthcoming AMD Ryzen powered handheld gaming console.

The Manjaro Linux project was showing off the Orange Pi Neo at FOSDEM in Brussels. The Orange Pi Neo is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U (Zen 4) SOC with integrated graphics, 16GB or 32GB of LPDDR5 memory, 512GB to 2TB of NVMe PCIe 4.0 storage, 1920 x 1200 7-inch display, and a 50Whrs battery capacity.

It's interesting that the Ryzen 7 7840U is in use rather than the Ryzen Z1 Extreme found with the likes of the ASUS ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. It is also interesting the option of having 32GB of system memory for this portable device.

Manjaro Linux is currently promoting the Orange Pi Neo but presumably other Linux distributions will be supported as well, just as other Linux distributions are supported by Orange Pi for their various ARM SBCs. Plus with this being an AMD Ryzen Zen 4 device anyhow, it should be quite easy to load other Linux distributions on it... One of the main caveats would be whether the controller/input support is working on the mainline kernel or not. In any event the Arch-based Manjaro Linux is a nice option for having a fresh, leading-edge experience on the device.

Currently there doesn't seem to be any product page yet on the Orange Pi site while the Manjaro crew has the specifications and more details on the Orange Pi Neo at neo.manjaro.org .