Orange Pi Neo Gaming Handheld Revealed, Powered by Ryzen 7 7840U

[T0@st]

The Manjaro Linux team exhibited Orange Pi Neo gaming handhelds at the annual FOSDEM event this past weekend. Attendees were welcomed to play around with early examples at the KDE booth in Brussels, Belgium—Orange Pi expressed its ambition (last year) to expand its single-board operation into the flourishing handheld gaming PC market. According to past reports, the Neo was teased throughout 2023—so it was not surprising to witness working prototypes in the hands of open-source enthusiasts in recent days. Orange Pi has selected AMD's Ryzen 7 7840U "Phoenix" APU—a laptop/notebook processor that is emerging as the de facto choice for many handheld gaming systems. The most globally available mainstream Windows 11 options—ASUS ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go—sport Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoCs, that are eerily similar in design to the popular Ryzen 7 7840U chip.

Orange Pi and Manjaro are targeting a late 2024 launch (according to Android Pimp)—this could place the Neo alongside potential next-generation devices with upgraded internals. Neo's unique selling point seems to be a slimmer (than normal) profile—the "ultra slim and small" handheld's dimensions are 259 mm x107 mm x 19.9 mm, coupled with a 7-inch FHD+ LCD screen (1920 x 1200, WUXGA, 16:10, 500 nits peak Brightness, 120 Hz Refresh Rate). A proper D-pad design and "YXBA" button layout indicate that a retro gaming-oriented playerbase is being targeted, although twin hall-effect sticks and linear triggers bring things firmly into the 2020s tech-wise.



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[qlum]

While Manjaro is not my favorite distro (I mostly consider it a worse version of Arch).
I do like that it's not windows based at least and also includes dual USB and trackpads.
While I doubt this particular unit is going to nail it, I would love to see more options like this over Windows based devices.

 

[Jomale]

How do you want to game with this unnatural thumb position for more than 5 minutes? The trackpads are even worse positioned.

 

[Punkenjoy]

The main problem with all these handheld is the APU. They are laptop APU that have a heavy focus on CPU performance. You don't need 8 core to feed a 12 CPU RNDA 3 GPU. 4 cores with the same clock or maybe 6 would be enough. A smaller silicon would save on cost and power usage.

This is also why the Steamdeck does so well at those power level. The APU is just really well balanced.

 

[wNotyarD]

View attachment 333313
How do you want to game with this unnatural thumb position for more than 5 minutes? The trackpads are even worse positioned.

That's the right stick. Theoretically, you'd have your right thumb on the face buttons most of the time and they're positioned higher, where they should be. The left stick is at a higher position as well.

 

[GreiverBlade]

View attachment 333313
How do you want to game with this unnatural thumb position for more than 5 minutes? The trackpads are even worse positioned.

actually that's the correct position for a right thumbstick (heck even PS layout has it like that )

the Xbox layout (Ally, Legion Go and regular Xbox pads) it's the most comfortable layout for me

tho for that handeld ... they kinda F it up with the double trackpad, the left side is botched due to that, 1 would be enough bottom right preferably
and the 4 buttons on the bottom should be elswhere, like on the Ally... the Legion Go is the actual benchmark in that matter for a Xbox layout with trackpad

 

[trsttte]

How is "no exposed screws" a feature!?

The Ryzen 7 7840U is basically a Z1 extreme with the AI part enabled right? Anyway, cool, handhelds are coming full force into the market, will they remain popular? Perhaps even replace laptops in some scenarios (i'd buy one instead of a laptop right now but I also don't really need a laptop for anything)

If only microsoft hadn't sold it's soul to intel and qualcomm we could have a surface with one of these cpus...

 

[GreiverBlade]

How is "no exposed screws" a feature!?

indeed ... and that's whats made the Ally a better choice for me over a Steamdeck, 6 screw, open it 1 more screw : upgrade the SSD

that Orange Pi Neo will have a 2tb but i dread to see the overprice compared to the 512gb model


tho, the good thing i see for that device : 32gb RAM option ... (although 16gb configured into 6gb vRAM/10gb RAM is fine for the ally for now ) and also faster RAM speed


the trackpad was the thing i wanted most, initially, but after a while, i don't really need it anymore, using the touchscreen works quite fine even under Win11

 

[Gooigi's Ex]

the trackpad was the thing i wanted most, initially, but after a while, i don't really need it anymore, using the touchscreen works quite fine even under Win11

And that’s the conclusion I came up with when I had the Steam Deck for about a week. Trackpads are well overhyped and only useful for MMOs which is ironic because I would rather play MMOs on a Keyboard and Mouse than using trackpads. However, 1080p gaming for handhelds is not considered efficient even though it’s achieved with in 12 watts and sometimes less…again ironic.

The main problem with all these handheld is the APU. They are laptop APU that have a heavy focus on CPU performance. You don't need 8 core to feed a 12 CPU RNDA 3 GPU. 4 cores with the same clock or maybe 6 would be enough. A smaller silicon would save on cost and power usage.

This is also why the Steamdeck does so well at those power level. The APU is just really well balanced.

That’s not necessarily true. Sure you can game with 4 cores but you limit yourself on performance on some games. Also, if it was the 8 core variant of the Zen 2+ CPU(3700x instead of the 3300x), I would agree with you, but compared to the Zen 4 8 core CPU, they are about the same when it comes to efficiency. If you run games using the Steam Deck graphics settings on Window Handhelds, you using just as much CPU power as the Steam Deck and in some cases less and I know this because I do this with my ROG ALLY.

Also, the CPUs in mobile phones are using 8 cores and use less wattage than the Steam Deck and the newest ones are compared to Apple M series chips which compete with Intel and AMD CPUs

 

[ArcanisGK507]

My personal opinion is that this is the appropriate distribution for a controller, you can see that diagonally the stick and the buttons are in the same axis of reach of the thumb pivot... this is ergonomic because our palm of the hand fits and at the same time it rests on the lower surface of the control...

Anyone who believes that for aesthetics and design or space, everything must be aligned in the vertical of the control is a brute.

note: here you can replace the stick with a trackpad

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Wow yep my acer nitro laptop has the 7840HS lol
I opted for it rather than the asus tuf with 7735hs which was 300.us more with asus tax and all
It's been a solid chose so far with a 4060.