Mecha Comet Brings Actual Modularity to Pocket-Sized Linux Computing, Hits Kickstarter

Crowdfunding campaigns for handheld devices seem all too steadily, however nearly none of them ship on their guarantees. Nonetheless, the Mecha Comet intends to defy this pattern. Mecha Techniques launched this open and modular Linux handheld on Kickstarter, which was created from the beginning with customization in thoughts.

At first look, the Mecha Comet resembles a compact smartphone, measuring 155 x 73 x 14mm and weighing 225 grams. The entrance of the gadget affords a 3.92-inch AMOLED show with a 1080 x 1240 pixel decision, multitouch capabilities, and an incredible 550 nits of brightness, making it utterly viewable even in direct daylight. On high of the display screen, you’ll discover a typical 8-megapixel autofocus digital camera, a few microphones, a speaker, and a 3.5mm audio connector for enjoying music. There are additionally two USB-C connections for charging, transferring information, and connecting an exterior show, in addition to Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and HDMI all on faucet.

Energy comes from an ordinary 4,100 mAh battery, which you’ll be able to merely change with a brand new one by snapping it right into a single socket. Inside, there may be an M.2 3042 slot the place chances are you’ll improve: add a cell modem for mobile connectivity, a sooner SSD for added storage, an NPU to hurry up sure actions, or perhaps a LoRaWAN gateway if essential. As well as, a 9-axis movement sensor screens the thing’s orientation and motion.

You may select between just a few CPU configurations, with the bottom mannequin together with the NXP i.MX 8M Plus quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 configuration. That one comes geared up with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage. Then there’s the step-up mannequin, which replaces the 8M Plus with the i.MX 95, a 6-core Cortex-A55 processor that ought to present some extra oomph however may additionally burn via your battery life a bit sooner. On higher-end fashions, you possibly can improve the RAM to 8GB and the storage capability to 128GB through SSD.

The Mecha Comet actually makes its mark with its adaptability, due to these magnetic snap-on attachments that simply click on onto the gadget. Those on the underside merely pull out in seconds, and the choices are fairly candy, together with a QWERTY keyboard and trackpad for tapping away, a gamepad with fancy soft-press buttons and a tactile touchpad for gaming, or, for the extra adventurous, a GPIO breakout board with 40 pins for some severe {hardware} tinkering. That’s all for an inexpensive $15-$25 per merchandise, with financial savings out there for quantity purchases. Merely loosen one screw to realize entry below the hood.

The gadget is definitely fairly adaptable, as you possibly can swap in different Raspberry Pi HATs and the factor turns into able to quite a lot of new duties. As for the casing itself, it’s truly fairly user-friendly; merely open it up and also you’re free to swap in new components or experiment with no matter. (Nonetheless, it’s value mentioning that the case isn’t essentially the most spectacular merchandise on the earth; it does the job.)

The Mecha Comet comes with its personal distinctive Fedora Linux distribution, Mechanix OS, based mostly on kernel 6.12. As well as, you obtain a customized Wayland launcher and some homegrown apps in-built Rust and Flutter that look nice on the {hardware}. Should you take pleasure in coding, chances are you’ll browse all the supply code on GitHub. Should you’re curious concerning the {hardware}, the producers have dedicated to supply all the particulars below CERN-OHL-S-2.0 as soon as manufacturing is full, which ought to hold the whole lot open and accessible for the foreseeable future. As for software program assist, they promise a 7-year shelf life, with the SoC itself usable till 2036. You may snag one in all these intelligent units as an early hen deal on Kickstarter for $189, with cargo scheduled to start in mid-2026.
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