July has been quite the interesting ride for MagicX. First they announce the discontinuation of the Mini Zero 28, and gauge interest on a MagicX Mini40. Then, they decide the RK3566 wouldn’t be performant enough for a device like that and set out polls for the Mini40 to see what the community would like. Then, a week goes by and they announce an unknown new screen for a new handheld, only to end up being the “MagicX Mini Dream.” Despite the interest in a small OLED panel that raises even more questions thanks to the announcement today from MagicX over in their Discord.
According to MagicX the Mini Dream has completed the “product design renders” that we’ve seen so many times before the device disappears into the ether. But alongside that came a few more announcements regarding specs and what to expect.
- Display and Battery: 3.3″ OLED Display at 1024×768, all powered by a 3.85V/3800mAh Battery across FOUR SoC variants in Linux and Android
- The Four Mini Dream Handhelds are as follows:
- Mini Dream LL – Linux & Passive Cooling
- Mini Dream LP – Linux & Passive Cooling
- Mini Dream AL – Android & Active Cooling
- Mini Dream AP – Android & Active Cooling
- Mini Dream LL SoC/Price:
- RK3566
- $80 (Shipping Not Inlcuded)
- Dimensions/Weight:
- 147x70x18mm
- ~$185 grams
- 22.5mm Dpad
- 7.9mm Face Buttons
It’s a lot to take in, and it’s a lot of weird specs to announce off the bat. I hope they can somehow manage to at least get one of these handhelds out onto the market, but I have a lot of questions now. With the original Mini40, they put out polls for new chips as they felt the RK3566 wasn’t competitive in today’s market. So why change that now? It seems their OLED panel is going to cost enough they’re trying to lower the price in other ways. But that’s just speculation for now.
Regardless, MagicX will continue to be one we keep an eye out on, but as the king of rendered handhelds, I’d love to wait and see something a bit more concrete.
