Crowdfunded Gemini PDA with ten-core SoC coming in January 2018

Personal digital assistant (PDA) devices might be out of style since smartphones pretty much offer the same functionalities, but that does not mean this type of device is dead and gone. Planet Computer is a company that thinks PDAs could still have an appeal and started an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign earlier this year for a new breed of PDAs called Gemini that tries to combine a notebook with a smartphone. The first models were initially expected in December this year, but Planet Computer had some difficulties with the initial specs and had to modify the entire configuration, moving the shipping date to January 2018.

The Gemini PDA comes with a 6-inch 2160 x 1080 LCD screen attached to a QWERTY keyboard, which hides a series of powerful features underneath. These include a Mediatek Helio X27 ten-core SoC running at a maximum frequency of 2.6 GHz coupled with 4 GB of LPDDR3-800 RAM, 64 GB of internal storage, and a 4,220 mAh battery. It also runs custom versions of Android and Linux.

An interesting fact is that Planet Computer hired Martin Riddiford to help with the design of the Gemini. Riddiford is known for his work on the Psion PDA devices back in the late 1990s.

The base version of the Gemini is priced at US$299, but it only comes with Wi-Fi connectivity. For Wi-Fi + 4G, the price goes up to US$399. These two versions will begin shipping in January 2018 for Indiegogo backers.

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