OrangePi Neo gaming handheld with Manjaro Linux delayed until Q3 2025 with no exact date

By Liam Dawe - 12 Jun 2025 at 8:51 am UTC

The OrangePi Neo gaming handheld with Manjaro Linux initially sounded quite exciting, but it's now facing delays and won't be here until at least Q3 2025.

When I last checked back on it the plan was for a global release in Q1 2025, but it seems after the initial announcement in early 2024 it's going to be pushed back further. Manjaro head Philip Müller replied on the official forum to note "The release got postponed into Q3. There is no exact date determined yet …", which doesn't sound particularly positive.

About a month ago Müller stated that Orange Pi were producing a batch for the Chinese mainland market, while work was going on towards FCC and CE certification and they were hoping "for a release in Q2 rather Q3".

Since then we've had the brief announcement and then more details of the newer ZOTAC GAMING ZONE Handheld that will ship with Manjaro Linux too.

By the time it eventually ships it might struggle to find a footing with many more devices now out, with even more being announced over the last year, all with newer hardware.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.

Tags: Handheld Gaming, Hardware, Manjaro, Misc, Upcoming

6 Likes

About the author - Liam Dawe

I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
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5 comments

wurschti a day ago

I remember the community being super hyped for this one, but it's taking so long, I am not sure it will ever come out tbh. Given the new devices coming every few months, I don't know how relevant it will be even it comes out. Z1E aka 7840H devices are going for less than 500€/$ often now so the impact I guess will be pretty minimal.

1 Likes

doragasu a day ago

This device was very relevant when announced. Now with devices like the Legion Go S that comes with SteamOS preinstalled, and the continuous delays, unfortunately it has lost a lot of interest.

But we will see, as I have already stated here, OrangePi boards are my favorite alternatives to RaspberryPi: great quality and price, and decent support. So we will see how this handheld PC turns out.

1 Likes

melkemind a day ago

Supporter

I think this will still be of interests to enthusiasts, but they probably have lost their chance to get in on the mainstream market. They could maybe drum up some interest if they came up with some unique alternative use cases like an app that utilizes the touchpads and does something you wouldn't expect like control your smart home or something (probably a bad example - that's why I'm not a tech innovator). They need a Nintendo-esque gimmick.

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elmapul 20 hours ago

i think xbox killed the demmand for this, but one thing they might try is take advantage of trackpads, Steamdeck have trackpads but no games made to take advantage of then, instead they are used to improve the experience on existing games.
if they had tons of money and made some great games focusing trackpads, they could have something that only then and steam deck users can fully enjoy, giving people an reason to try their device, it will just need to be better in terms of cost or power than one device instead of a bunch.

but its very unlikely they can pull this off.

0 Likes

TheRiddick 18 hours ago

Seems like a decent design if not a bit compact which could cause some handling issues.

Was this meant to have a Z1 Extreme? Not sure how much faster Z2 is..

Apparently AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, those are insanely expensive chips, its actually cheaper to get a faster discrete GPU laptop then one of those new AMD AI APU's! I don't know what AMD was thinking. or perhaps its inflated pricing on purpose.

They should probably switch to SteamOS if they can, using Manjaro seems unnecessary unless they plan to make a very specific handheld steam client version like some other Distro's have.

Last edited by TheRiddick on 13 Jun 2025 at 2:07 am UTC

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