Higole has introduced the Gole1 R, half mini-PC and half tablet. With a 5.5-inch panel adorning its top panel, the Gole1 R resembles a regular mini-PC on its four other sides. As such, the device is operable without an external monitor, although you will still need other peripherals like a mouse and keyboard. Surprisingly, Higole has also included a small battery, making the Gole1 R portable in all senses of the word.
According to the company’s Kickstarter page, the 19 Wh battery powers the Rockchip RK3588, along with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of eMMC flash storage. For reference, the Rockchip RK3588 is a low-powered solution found in many mini-PCs. It is worth stressing that the Rockchip RK3588 can only decode 8K content via its HDMI 2.1 port; encoding is out of scope for the ARM Cortex-A76 and Cortex-A55-based SoC. Additionally, the mini-PC comes with the following other ports:
- 1x Combo 3.5 mm jack
- 1x HDMI-in
- 1x MicroSD card reader
- 1x IR module
- 1x RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet
- 4x USB 3.0 Type-A
- 1x USB Type-C
Moreover, Higole has included Bluetooth 5.2 and WiFi 6 connectivity. Currently, the Higole Gole1 R is orderable for approximately US$353 through Kickstarter. Alternatively, the company sells a version without a display or a battery but with M.2 expansion for US$300. Higole hopes to start shipping units to backers next month if the Kickstarter reaches its campaign goal.