TL;DR
- Manjaro’s OrangePi Neo is barely the most recent handheld console to face challenges as a result of reminiscence and storage shortages.
- The OrangePi Neo was designed to make use of both 16GB or 32GB of LPDDR5 and ship in H1 2026.
- The mission is now indefinitely “on ice.”
What a positively rubbish timeline we’re dwelling in on the subject of client electronics. It was all going fantastic — tech stored getting higher, extra highly effective, and extra reasonably priced. After which the 2020s rolled round, and all the things went to hell. Proper now, part costs are skyrocketing whereas availability takes a nostril dive. As we brace to seek out out simply how badly that’s going to have an effect on smartphones, we’re already seeing handheld consoles really feel the hit. And now the most recent to affix that ignoble membership seems prefer it’s the OrangePi Neo.
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The Neo’s presupposed to be an upcoming Linux-based gaming handheld working Manjaro, powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 chip and that includes a 7-inch FHD+ 120Hz display. The mission’s been in growth for years now, and the concept was to promote it in two totally different {hardware} configurations, one with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM for $450, and one with 32GB RAM for $550.
As you in all probability know, RAM is on the heart of this present disaster, and DDR5 chips are among the many most fascinating — so, after all, that is now an issue. In an replace posted final week to the mission’s standing web page, Manjaro’s Philip Müller shares the dangerous information:
As a result of excessive costs of DDR5 RAM and SSDs the mission is at the moment on ice. Certifications for CE and FCC are actually full. Additionally lots of enhancements across the Manjaro Gaming Version had occurred. We are actually ready for an excellent time to launch the product …
That’s not nice, and ending the message with an ellipsis like that has us feeling lower than assured about future prospects right here. Manjaro had shared a H1 2026 goal for transport the primary OrangePi Neo items, however at this level, we’re not even positive if late 2026 would possibly nonetheless be within the playing cards.
For a product that was already this far alongside, redesigning at this stage to make use of totally different reminiscence parts might be fairly impractical, so Manjaro would possibly actually simply be caught ready this mess out. That’s in all probability not what anyone wished to listen to, however on the plus facet, simply assume how good issues should be for everybody in alternate-reality 2026!
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