Orange Pi Neo Coming As A Ryzen 7 + Linux Powered Handheld Device

[schmidtbag]

Unless I'm mistaken the difference between the Z1 Extreme and the normal 7840U is that the Z1 has a lower cTDP of 9W and does not include the NPU (probably the reason it can go lower than the 7840U), in any case they both only support dual channel (though (LP)DDR5 runs 2x32bit instead of the 1x64bit of (LP)DDR4).

It appears I was mistaken - I could've sworn the Z1 was quad channel but nope, it's dual.

In any case and back on topic, I very much doubt that orange pi can move these cheaper than a Steam Deck or even a Rog Ally. Unless you are on mainland China and don't have to pay for transport and import fees that is.

It could be cheaper if they cut corners with their design. Valve has deep enough pockets that they likely can just drag along their R&D costs for a long while. Though, considering how much Valve has done for AMD, I wouldn't be surprised if AMD did a lot of the work for them, or at least made a discount for the Deck's rather custom chip.

[Ananace]

I got a little bit of hands-on time with the device when I visited the KDE booth at FOSDEM. It didn't feel too heavy, at least for short periods, the inputs were reasonably comfortable - though there doesn't seem to be a comfortable grip to allow easily switching between controller and trackpad inputs, at least not for my hand size.
The shell felt like the sticky when dry and slippery when wet plastic that you get on some cheap aftermarket controllers, but that could definitely be different on the actual finished version.

I spent a bit of time chatting about their immutable OS design, and they really do seem to have thought quite a bit on the subject, so it's likely going to be a solid device. Though I felt that there was an awful lot of marketing weight placed on just how easy it would be to make it mutable again, which feels like it goes slightly counter to it supposedly being a casual-friendly device.

[Amaranth]

It appears I was mistaken - I could've sworn the Z1 was quad channel but nope, it's dual.

It could be cheaper if they cut corners with their design. Valve has deep enough pockets that they likely can just drag along their R&D costs for a long while. Though, considering how much Valve has done for AMD, I wouldn't be surprised if AMD did a lot of the work for them, or at least made a discount for the Deck's rather custom chip.

Valve likely sells the Steam Deck nearly at cost, with maybe a bit of extra markup for the higher end versions. The R&D for the device itself, their work on SteamOS, and their work on Proton and drivers and such can be justified by increasing sales on Steam via a new market. Pretty much like any other console, when you run the store you can lose money on the hardware.