PlanetPC XR Mini Desktop - new Planet Indiegogo campaign

[Varti]

"Planet Computers introduces the PlanetPC XR series of mini desktop computers. The XR series runs Ubuntu Linux and are based on ARM multicore processor technology.

The new-look XR features a unique integrated colour touchscreen, giving access to soft keys for frequent tasks, a system monitor and controls for WiFi, Bluetooth, VPN, Network disk, audio and other system functions.

The XR Series is truly zero configuration, allowing anyone to become a Linux user straight out of the box.The XR2 performance range features an 8-core superfast ARM processor coupled with a Mali-G610 GPU and a 6TOPS NPU to give extraordinary performance. The XR1 value range is based on a 4-core ARM processor."

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/planetpc-xr-mini-desktop#/

 

I wonder if Planet has given up with the mobile devices market, or if they are simply trying to enter more than one market in order to diversify their products line.

Varti

[ArchiMark]

Varti, that's a very good question...

Certainly, making phones has been extremely challenging the past few years.

Hope they're not going to produce the XR Mini in China....

I'm pretty much done with products from there....as much as possible, anyway.....

Mark

[gidds]

Good question, indeed!

A mini desktop doesn't really interest me (probably not powerful enough to be a headless video-encoding engine, plus I already have one of those; not powerful or full-featured enough to be my main desktop, plus it's not portable like my MacBook Pro; yet too big, powerful, and complex to be my media centre). But there's nothing else like the Astro — nor even anything very much like the Gemini or Cosmo — and that's a class of device I've been using for almost 30 years, and will continue to need for decades to come, so I _really_ hope it doesn't end with the Astro!

I don't know enough about mini-desktops to judge how this new device compares to the competition… Is the spec competitive? Ditto the price? Is it likely to appeal to the professionals, developers, gamers, and/or content creators that they claim?