Giveaway Week – Mekotronics R58 mini PC

Mekotronics R58 USB ports

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. 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 […]

Mekotronics LS1200 “live streaming” box is powered by MediaTek Genio 1200 SoC

Mekotronics LS1200

Mekotronics LS1200 is a mini PC powered by a MediaTek Genio 1200 (MT8395) octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 processor with a 4.8 TOPS NPU, and especially suited to live streaming applications. The system, housed in a metal enclosure, is offered with an unspecified amount of LPDDR4x memory and eMMC flash, HDMI input and output, an eDP (Embedded DisplayPort) interface, a Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, and four USB host ports. Mekotronics LS1200 specifications: SoC – MediaTek Genio 1200 (MT8395) octa-core processor with CPU – 4x Cortex-A78 cores @ 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 2.2GHz GPU – Penta-core Arm Mali-G57 GPU @ 880MHz with support for OpenGL ES 3.2/2.0/1.1, Vulkan 1.1/1.0, OpenCL 2.2, AI accelerator – 4.8 TOPS dual NPU with support for TensorFlow and Caffe models DSP – HiFi 4 audio DSP VPU Encoding up to 4Kp60 with H.265/HEVC Decoding up to 4Kp90, AV1, VP9, HEVC, H.264 codecs supported System Memory […]

Mekotronics R58 review – Part 2: Android 12 on Rockchip RK3588 CPU

RK3588 mini PC SATA SSD

I’ve written the first part of Mekotronics R58 review last month with an unboxing, teardown, and first boot with 3D graphics benchmarks. I’ve now had more time to play with Android 12 on the Rockchp RK3588 mini PC, so I’ll report my experience with the device. User interface and settings As already mentioned, the box ships with Android 12 for TV and the stock launcher. The Google Play store is working, and I had no troubles installing all apps I needed for the review. Most of the settings are pretty much standard. While the first time, I used Ethernet, and also tried WiFi 6 connecting the R58 to Xiaomi Mi AX6000 router. It worked but not without some effort, as initially, all I got were messages like “Couldn’t find SSID” both with 2.4GHz and 5GHz SSIDs. It turned out I had to disconnect the Ethernet to make WiFi work, and […]

Mekotronics R58 review – Part 1: Rockchip RK3588 mini PC unboxing & teardown

Mekotronics R58 review Rockchip RK3588 mini PC

Mekotronics R58 is a cost-optimized Rockchip RK3588 mini PC and SBC that sells for as low as $169 with 4GB and 32GB eMMC flash. The company has now sent me a model with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash for evaluation, and in the first part of the review, I’ll do an unboxing, check out the hardware more closely, and boot it up for a quick check. Mekotronics R58 Unboxing There’s no retail package so to speak with just a white box and a sticker reading “MINI 8+64G” indicating the RAM and storage capacity for the device. The mini PC ships with a 12V/3A power adapter and cord, an IR remote control with two AAA batteries, two WiFi antennas, an HDMI cable, and a USB-A to USB-C cable probably to flash the firmware if needed. The mini PC is housed in a metal enclosure with plenty of ventilation holes at the […]

Mekotronics R58 is a cost-optimized Rockchip RK3588 SBC going for $169 and up

Mekotronics R58 SBC

Mekotronics R58 is a single board computer based on Rockchip RK3588 processor that will also be sold as a mini PC with an enclosure, and offers a cheaper alternative to the company’s R58X embedded mini PC with up to 16GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, dual SATA, etc… The R58 comes with fewer ports notably only one Gigabit Ethernet port, one SATA interface, and the RS485/RS232 terminal block and M.2 socket are gone, but it does add an extra HDMI output port, meaning it could support up to four independent displays. It still features up to 16GB RAM and 64GB eMMC flash. Mekotronics R58 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with four Cortex-A76 cores @ 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz, an Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU, a 6TOPS NPU, 8K 10-bit decoder, 8K encoder Memory & eMMC flash configurations 4GB LPDDR4x + 32GB eMMC flash 8GB LPDDR4x + […]

$249 Rockchip RK3588 8K mini PC comes with up to 16GB RAM

Mekotronics R58X RK3588 mini PC

Mekotronics R58X is an embedded mini PC powered by Rockchip RK3588 Cortex-A76/A55 processor with 16GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, 8K capable HDMI and DisplayPort video output ports, HDMI input, M.2 NVMe storage, and more. This is yet another announcement of Rockchip RK3588 hardware following ROCK5 Pico-ITX SBC, Firefly ITX-3588J mini-ITX motherboard,  and Mixtile Blade 3 server board among others. Melotronix R58X may have different use cases, as it is suitable as an IoT gateway, an industrial PC, an edge computing platform, a video analytics server, digital signage, a vehicle control unit, and other embedded applications. Mekotronics R58X mini PC/SBC specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with four Cortex-A76 cores @ 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz, an Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU, a 6TOPS NPU, 8K 10-bit decoder, 8K encoder System Memory – Up to 16GB LPDDR4x Storage eMMC 5.1 flash 2x SATA 3.0 connectors + SATA power […]

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