Planet Computers’ smartphone looks like a pocket computer, thanks to a QWERTY keyboard that’s (barely) big enough for touch typing and supports both Android and Linux software.
Now the British company is branching out with a range of compact desktop computers. The PlanetPC XR series mini PCs feature Rockchip’s ARM processors, a color touchscreen display on the front, and built-in Ubuntu Linux software. Expected to be available in September 2023, it can be pre-ordered from the Planet Computers website, or you can pre-order one at a lower price by supporting the PlanetPC XR Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.
The pre-order price of PlanetPC XR1 equipped with Rockchip RK3566 quad-core processor, 4GB memory and 32GB storage is US$610 (currently about 4191 CNY), and that of PlanetPC XR2 equipped with RK3588 octa-core processor and the same storage capacity The pre-order price is 769 US dollars (currently about 5283 CNY).
Early bird supporters of the crowdfunding campaign can book the above devices at prices of US$461 (currently about 3167 CNY) and US$656 (currently about 4507 CNY).
Planet Computers also offers the XR1 with up to a 2TB SSD or an additional 14TB hard drive, while the XR2 comes with up to 32GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and up to a 2TB SSD for additional storage.
Both models feature a 1424×280 pixel color touchscreen display on the front that can be used to display system information or controls, and the computer can be connected to one or two external displays.
The bottom front panel also has an RGB light strip with 16 LEDs for status information. With built-in stereo speakers and a microphone, it can be used with voice assistants, voice calls, or other applications without external hardware. There are also two Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.
