Orange Pi plans together with that Manjaro Linux project a handheld console à la Steam Deck. When it comes to equipment, the device should have a 16:10 display, low-wear Hall effect joysticks with RGB lighting and a AMD Ryzen 7 7840U offer more than some competitors. The operating system used is Manjaro, which is based on Arch Linux.
The Phoenix APU is different from that AMD Z1 Extreme thanks to a higher base TDP of 15 instead of 8 watts. Compared to the Van Gogh SoC in the Steam Deck, both are significantly faster. They have twice as many CPU cores and a 50 percent larger GPU and rely on the current Zen 4 and RDNA 3 architecture instead of Zen 2 and RDNA 2.
| Orange Pi Neo | |
|---|---|
| SoC | AMD Ryzen 7 7840U |
| CPU cores | 8 x Zen 4 @ 3.3/5.1GHz |
| GPU | RDNA3, 12CUs @ 2.7GHz |
| R.A.M. | 16/32 GB LPDDR5-7500, dual channel |
| SSD | 512 GB to 2 TB |
| SSD slot | M.2 2280, PCIe 4.0 x4 |
| display | 7 inch 16:10, 1,920 x 1,200 pixels, 120 Hz, 500 nits |
| battery pack | 50Wh Li-Polymer |
| connections | 2x USB 4.0 Type-C, 3.5 mm jack, micro SD |
| Dimensions | 259 x 108 x 19.9mm |
Orange Pi Neo
Whether this ensures better frame rates remains to be seen in the end. The 120 Hz display with a 7-inch diagonal and 500 nits brightness also puts more load on the graphics unit with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. The Steam Deck has an OLED display with 90 Hz and 1,280 x 800 pixels, which is significantly brighter at up to 1,000 nits.
Full-length NVMe SSDs
The other hardware consists of a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD in 2280 format that is up to 2 TByte in size. An expansion to 8 TB would potentially be possible, provided that double-sided SSDs can be installed. You can choose between 16 and 32 GB of LPDDR5-7500 RAM.
An SD card slot, two USB 4 Type-C ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a 6-axis gyro are also included. A 65-watt power adapter with a Type-C connector recharges the 50 Wh battery. Hall effect joysticks ensure that operation remains precise even after a long period of time.
On the software side, Manjaro uses as Arch-Descendant of rolling releases, so features and drivers should always be up to date. It is still unclear whether Manjaro is planning extensive UI adjustments like in SteamOS. Manjaro has not yet given a release date Orange Pi website the project is not listed yet.