Arm-powered PlanetPC XR mini PC offers tons of ports and a stylish control touchscreen

Mini PCs powered by Arm cores usually come in very compact form-factors popularized by the Raspberry PI design, which tends to offer the bare minimum when it comes to functionality, but also keeps things very easy on the wallet. There are, however, solutions that offer way more functionality, putting to shame even the more sophisticated X86 mini PC designs. Take for example the PlanetPC XR from UK-based company Planet Computers. This model might not impress with the processing power, but it surely dazzles with an integrated color touchscreen that lets users control an extensive set of system functions.

As one would expect, these features come with increased price points too. Planet Computers is selling the PlanetPC XR1 base model with a Rockchip RK3566 quad-core CPU + Mali-G52 2EE GPU, 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB flash storage for around US$600 (~US$450 for early Indiegogo backers). A faster XR2 version with the RK3588 octa-core CPU + Mali G610 MP4 is available for ~US$770 (US$650 for backers). Users may opt to increase the RAM capacity to 32 GB and the flash storage to 256 GB on the XR2 model.

Both models support additional M.2 SSD storage up to 2 TB, and the XR1 can accommodate up to 14 TB of SATA HDD storage, as well. Other standard features for both models include stereo speakers at the back, a microphone on the front panel, Wi-Fi 6 + BT 5.0 connectivity, optional 4G / 5G modem, and pre-installed Ubuntu Linux distro. The chassis measures 290 x 260 x 60 mm.

Port selection is particularly generous for an ARM-based system. The XR1 comes with 1x USB-C 2.0, 3x USB-A 2.0, 2x USB-A 3.0, an HDMI 2.0 video output, 2x GbE jacks, microSD card reader and audio + mic jacks. Even more ports are offered on the XR2 model: 1x USB-C 3.0, 4x USB-A 3.0, 1x USB-C 2.0, 1x USB-A 2.0, 2x HDMI 2.1 + 1x HDMI 2.0 + 1x VGA video outputs, 2x GbE jacks, 1x microSD card reader, line in + line out + mic audio jacks. The XR2 also comes with two Wi-Fi antennas.

Users can control a variety of functions via the included touchscreen. There are soft keys for audio volume, play / next / previous, a system monitor with extended info for CPU, memory, storage and network, as well as easy access for VPN and connectivity features.

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