Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 765 Comments on Giveaway Week – Mekotronics R58 mini PC

Giveaway Week – Mekotronics R58 mini PC

Let’s end Giveaway Week 2022 with a bang, and more exactly a rather powerful Rockchip RK3588 mini PC: Mekotronics R58 (mini).

The device comes with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash storage, two 8K capable HDMI 2.0 output ports, one DisplayPort output,  one HDMI input, Gigabit Ethernet and WiFI 6 connectivity,  as well as a few USB 3.0/2.0 ports, plus support for a SATA drive.

Mekotronics R58 USB ports

I reviewed the Rockchip RK3588 mini PC with Android 12 last July, and I was impressed by the CPU and GPU performance, 4K video playback capabilities, except for AV1 which was not stable at the time, and support for HDMI audio passthrough. Android 12 was quite stable at that early stage as well. Some downsides included the lack of a useful HDMI input app and USB 3.0 performance that could be improved.

I always test samples before adding them to the giveaway, and I initially thought I would have to skip the R58 as the red Power LED would just blink continuously and the system would not boot at all. But the company provided a link with the latest firmware images for the “Mekotronics R58 mini”, and I managed to reinstall the Android 12 firmware dated August 26 and see the Android launcher on my TV. If you’re not a fan of Android, Mekotronics also offers Ubuntu, Debian, and “buildroot” images for the mini PC.

Mekotronics accessories power supply

The kit given away features all accessories including the remote control, the power supply, the two antennas, and various cable. I’ve just removed the batteries because of customs regulations.

To enter the draw simply leave a comment with your country and whatever else you’d like to say (no links in the body of the comment). If the country is missing, I’ll consider the entry void. Other rules are as follows:

  • Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with the same IP and/or email address.
  • Contests are open for 48 hours starting at 10 am (Bangkok time) every day.
  • Comments will be closed after 48 hours. If comments are open, the contest is still going on.
  • Winners will be selected with random.org, and announced in the comments section of each giveaway.
  • I’ll contact the winner by email, and I’ll expect an answer within 24 hours, or I’ll pick another winner.
  • Note that I may not be able to contact people who log in with Facebook, Twitter, or Google, so it’s better to use an email address to enter the draw.
  • Shipping – $35 for registered airmail small packet or ePacket for overseas shipping payable via PayPal within 48 hours once the contest (for a given product) is complete.
  • I’ll post all prizes at the same time, around the 16th of November, except for products shipped directly by companies which will be handled separately.
  • I’ll make sure we have 7 different winners, so if you have already won a device during this giveaway week, I’ll draw another person.

The Mekotronics R58 “mini” computer with 8GB RAM and 64GB eMMC flash, as offered here, can be purchased for $188 plus shipping.

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ROCK 5 ITX RK3588 mini-ITX motherboard

765 Replies to “Giveaway Week – Mekotronics R58 mini PC”

  19. USA here.
    Interesting design…would love to see if there’s a suitable capture capability with one of the “distro-based” firmwares…!

  23. UK.

    The RK3588 is the game changer in this spectrum of the ARM market and looks set to decimate AMLogic and co.

  34. Hello from France.
    With this product will try to yocto myself an image to be used as a multimedia station

  63. Bom, vamos tentar, não custa nada mesmo(Well, lets try, is free after all).
    PS: Sou Brasileiro
    From Brazil!

  92. Nice device. I’m still waiting for my Rock 5B.
    Will I win and get that one before ?
    From France

  99. Holy COW!

    CANADA my dude. Waterloo Region representing!!!

    Super kind of you, thanks buddy, even though I am new here.

  101. Czech Republic.

    I see it can run Debian. Then this little box interested me. But three HDMI ports? I don’t have three displays to begin with 🙂

  178. I’m from Indonesia,
    I’m excited to see Personal Computer based on ARM processors has gone this far. IMHO, Apple is the leader in this technology with it’s Ax ARMs and MacOS whereas Windows doesn’t seem to catch up with Apple. I hope Open Source OSes for ARM processor would have developed as good as it’s x86/x64 based, in terms of hardware support or hardware comapatibility

  199. Fajny sprzęt.
    Czekam na coś podobnego (gabaryty)
    z Windows 98 dla fanów gier “retro”.

    POLSKA 🇵🇱

  239. Afternoon from beautiful Devon in the United Kingdom. Would love to mess around on this. Thanks for the kind gesture.

  245. I would love to test this board and have a dozen different ideas! Please I’m going to be off my feet for a traumatic caused hip replacement. Working on this would be great. John Lawton McBrayer – Switzerland

  269. Worth a shot, really want to mess around with one of these as an android dev device though thanks to the Orange Pi they’re actually getting reasonably priced – United Kingdom

  274. USA

    I’ve been looking for a Nvidia Shield replacement. And this device is perfect. My 8k projector and receiver is itching for a better and faster device to complete the setup. Great review!

  281. This would be a great gift for my son that loves computers. He is getting ready to graduate high school a year early and think he would love to have this. Thanks for the great review.
    United States of America

  314. This is the USA here.
    I am moving into a new home the first week of December. I would love this computer to experiment with Matter and home autmation

  327. Very please to see the the support for 32GB RAM.
    Thanks for publishing this article and conducting the giveaway.
    Best regards from the USA

  344. Germany – thanks for the steady stream of tech Info and updates from a dutch expat

  376. I love small form factor devices–so versatile in their application and uses. Thank you for the article and for the giveaway opportunity.
    US-Texas

  397. (United Kingdom) What’s the power consumption of this under average load and idle? Thanks!

  424. United States of America.
    Hello! This looks like a fun little device to add a lot to a project

  460. England, United Kingdom here, another great review, hope I get to try it for myself

  485. Cheers from Italy. I’ve typed the wrong email in the previous comment, which doesn’t see to appear anyway.

  499. Usa, this might pair very well with an h3 plus as the Nas and the rock as the TV box in a low power trailer/rv set up.

  514. USA here..
    Would love another SBC for projects. Raspberry Pi’s are hard to come by nowadays. Keep up the great work and good luck everyone!

  517. Greetings from the USA. I like what I see. However, it would have been nice to see the USB ports stacked.

  531. United Kingdom (Scotland specifically).
    I have quite a few potential uses for this…

  538. I would love to win this and use it as a pihole and personal cloud.

    United States of America.

  607. Germany
    That thing is nearly faster than my current PC… Wow I need to upgrade

  608. I follow Jean-Luc’s blogs on new embedded systems because they give a lot of valuable information on upcoming embedded systems and SoCs. When I sent him an email to ask for further information, he replied on the same day and I appreciated that a lot.
    I build electronic systems using 8 bit microcontrollers, however earlier this year, i started working with RPi 4 to learn AI. Through Jean-Luc’s blogs, I learnt about the Rockchip 3588 SoC. I am interested in this SoC cause I am interested in machine vision applications and having such a powerful processor should help in obtaining real time ops better than the RPi 4.
    I come from Malta within the EU.

  614. This is awesome I’d love to try an RK3588 device. I wouldn’t be able buy one so I hope I get lucky.

    Germany

  618. Sweden. Would love to try out one of these in my homelab. Router, kids computer, Android gaming in the living room would be awesome!

  693. Can think of about a dozen things I can do with this. Would be fun to tinker around with.

    – Alan, USA

  723. This would replace well the inside-painting-mounted media server I currently have in the United States of America

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Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products
Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products