OrangePi Neo gaming handheld with Manjaro Linux now due out in Q1 2025

While announcements on the OrangePi Neo gaming handheld that will ship with Manjaro Linux have been a bit quiet lately, it's still coming and they've updated their launch plan for it to be available in Q1 2025.

The Manjaro Linux team haven't been doing big standalone progress announcements, but they have been regularly updating a dedicated post on their Discourse Forum.

The latest reply from Manjaro Linux Project Lead, Philip Müller, was posted early December 2024 noting these hardware tasks are currently being worked on:

• To confirm the heat dissipation components,
• Adjusted and optimized screen and other components are assembled into the whole machine for verification and confirmation,
• Plan to change the thin glass cover plate,
• Complete machine to be assembled, verification test,
• The structure of the partially modified mold is to be verified.

The main post was also updated at the end of December 2024 to note it's planned to ship globally, sometime in "Q1 2025", so we should see it before the end of March 2025. Müller also added to the post to note the last few weeks of 2024 they were expecting to see these improvements to the unit from their hardware partners at OrangePi:

• Update the battery to support 1C fast charging. The battery will still be 50Wh.
• A new power adapter to support 1C fast charging will be added.
• Optimize sound quality and sound volume of the Speakers
• Further optimizations to overall thermal design of the device. This will include:
  • optimizing the structure to ensure better heat dissipation.
  • lower FAN noise.
  • cooler surface temperatures on touchscreen and chassis.

On the software side Müller noted lots of work was going into optimising KDE Plasma 6.2 for the OrangePi Neo, along with various code being upstreamed to the Linux kernel.

Current expected pricing:

• Base Model 7840u 16GB / 512GB will be 499$ or 4099 CNY.
• Base Model 8840u 16GB / 512GB will be 599$ or 4499 CNY.

The official page for it is a bit outdated, as it doesn't even list the 8840u model yet.

What compatibility to expect from it? Well it's a Linux device so it will run games in a similar way to the Steam Deck. Either Native Linux games, or Windows games via Valve's compatibility layer Proton.

Along with the Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS, and Valve announcing an upcoming SteamOS Beta for more handhelds, it's a busy year for Linux gaming.