Mecha Comet - Open Modular Linux Handheld Computer

The handheld market is booming, but mainstream devices are mostly sealed boxes: locked software, closed hardware, replace-don't-repair. Mecha Comet is built as the opposite — an open-source, modular handheld computer that's truly yours to own, build and mod. A 15-person full-time team in Washington, Missouri handles everything in-house: mechanicals, PCB design, software and supply chain, iterating through 7 hardware revisions since 2022. The base model runs an NXP i.MX 8M Plus with 2 GB/4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage, upgradeable via add-ons; the OS is Mechanix, a custom Linux distro whose bootloader, kernel and root filesystem are fully open-source, as is the hardware design. Modular internals make modding and repair practical, and the team commits to stocking affordable spare parts long-term. It's a gaming handheld and a programmable, remotely deployable pocket Linux machine at once. Launched in January 2026, the campaign drew 3,346 backers and raised about $1.2M — ~2,398% funded, covered by How To Geek and Hackster.io.