With the clock counting down rapidly until I can get to the pub the doors open for tomorrow’s London Show, another announcement has arrived from R-Comp:
Stop Press – We’ll be knocking 20ukp off all hardware items (over 50ukp) at the show. You don’t need to quote any adverts or phrases or claim anything special. Just money off for everyone 🙂
At the recent Show Preview user group meeting, Andrew Rawnsley of RCI demonstrated some new hardware items that had been proving popular this summer, and will be available at the London Show this weekend.
18 inches of RISCBook
First up was a new 18″ RISCBook laptop. For those unfamiliar, the RISCBook range of laptops run RISC OS and Windows together, providing the best of both RISC OS and Windows software, with links between the two OSs to allow them to share resources such as files, printers, clipboard, and networking.
The pressing onset of Windows 11 has prompted a number of users to upgrade this Autumn, and the 18″ laptop has proven popular. Although 18″ may sound huge for a laptop, screen shapes have become more flexible in recent times, and the 18″ uses a 16:10 ratio with more vertical space for documents. This means it is roughly the same size/weight as a 17″ laptop, whilst offering more screen space (1920×1200). Very practical for working on documents, and the high refresh rate (144 Hz) IPS panel looks lovely.
We’ve found that as people age, they appreciate the larger screens and full size backlit keyboards (with number pads), whilst finding the convenience of a laptop is easier to fit in various rooms. For example, RCI’s Allan (Andrew’s father) now uses his laptop downstairs to save having to trek up to the more traditional machines in his office upstairs.
Whilst the laptops aren’t RISC OS friendly when they arrive, RCI is able to adapt them to run RISC OS beautifully, with smooth performance and flexible software compatibility (run both 26bit and 32bit applications).
Touchpad mouse gestures (eg. 3 finger tap) mean that replication of the three button mouse is great too. Of course, you can plug in a mouse (or use a wireless one) too.
These laptops are no slouches – 8-core, 16 thread AMD chips amply demonstrate why AMD have become so dominant again recently – they can motor through anything from web browsing to video editing. Whilst the graphics are on-chip, they’re top tier for what they are, making games possible too. With 16GB RAM and 1TB of storage packed into a slim and low-weight chassis, there’s a lot of “oomph” inside.
Of course, RCI offers a range of other RISCBooks too, from 13″ upwards with a variety of screens including OLED. However, these 18″ units have proven quite popular, and so we’re singling them out to RISC OS users. The laptops should be on display in London. Expect to see RCI’s MiniPC range too.
Pinebook Pros
Speaking of Laptops, RCI still have one or two Pinebook Pros – they grab stock from around the world when they appear online. Pinebook Pros offer a fantastic native-RISC OS experience with class leading performance, working wifi, and even optional NVMe sockets for high speed storage. Prices fluctuate as limited availability often results in price spikes, but RCI is trying to keep prices in the same ballpark as before.
N.Ex.T, Hydra and NVMe
RCI will also be showing N.Ex.T and Hydra systems as usual – expect to see large NVMe drives and some exciting new features. See the latest v9 (and the forthcoming v10) NVMe drivers with SMART disc health features and drive health checks. See native RISC OS disc partitions, 4K sectors, our NVMe toolkit and more.
Hydra shows how Pi4 and Pi5 tech can be used side-by-side, and you’ll be able to see ROD’s new RISC OS Direct for Pi5 running on a Hydra Head.
Check out the tiny mini.pi N.Ex.T computer which packs almost every feature into the tiniest box, at a cracking price.
There will also be some rather different devices shown with up to 8 NVMe slots! Aimed at file sharing and home NAS appliances, these small silent boxes provide exceptional capabilities at surprisingly affordable prices, whilst opening up a range of options for RISC OS and allowing room to expand and grow. Come and find out more at the show.
RISCube Minis
We’ve talked about RISCBooks, but 2025 has also bee the year of MiniPCs with our range of RISCube Minis offering state of the art features and stunning performance at lower-than-ever prices. See features like the latest USB4, multiple 4K+ displays, Wifi 6E and 7, 2.5 Gbit ethernet and more – all useable from RISC OS!
Monitors
We’ll have a selection of IPS and OLED displays available on the stand for you to check out and plan the best way to make your day-to-day computing more pleasurable. Remember your screen determines everything you see and do on the computer, so if you’re an enthusiast (and coming to a computer show counts as an enthusiast!) then you deserve the best you can.
Monitor prices have come down a bit recently, so why not take advantage of that to treat yourself?
Whatever takes your fancy, come and check out our range at the RCI stand at the show.
