I'm not usually one to talk about products launched on Kickstarter, because you just never know if/when those things will actually ship. This time, however, I've come across something that's pretty cool, by way of Mecha Systems: the Mecha Comet, a modular, open source handheld. The Mecha Comet is flexible, hackable, and comes with a choice of two different Arm-based SoCs. The more powerful of the two SOCs offers more power, a modern GPU, 4K video support, and AI acceleration.

What's the purpose of such a tool? With a 3.92" AMOLED touchscreen that sports 1080X1240 resolution and several ports (including USB-C, mini HDMI, audio jack, and hardware expansion slots), the Mecha Comet is pretty flexible. The expansion slots allow users to snap on various modules, including a gamepad and keyboard, with the promise of more modules to come.

As for use cases, I could imagine the Comet serving as a portable development tool, a handheld gaming console, an embedded controller, a media player, and more.

The Mecha Comet runs Mechanix OS, a fork of Fedora, and features a custom launcher. Plus, everything involved in the Comet is open source.

If you're interested in the Mecha Comet, you can join in on the fun starting at $189 on its official Kickstarter page. As of now, the Kickstarter has already surpassed its goal of $50,000 with over $500,000 pledged. You can also read more about the device and how it's evolved.