Based on FPGA technology and designed to run both past and next-generation Spectrum software, the ZX Spectrum Next may be a niche proposition, but it has found plenty of fans in Sinclair fandom—the only problem is that it's incredibly hard to get hold of one as they're not mass-produced.
Instead, the team behind the system have held crowdfunding campaigns to raise the cash required to make more units, and we're approaching the third and perhaps final of those campaigns.
"We’ve set July 19th 2025 as the go-live date for the third Kickstarter Campaign for the ZX Spectrum Next Issue 3," says Henrique Olifiers, a key figure behind the project. "With this third (and likely final) campaign, we hope to expand the community even more in order to make it better for game and app devs to be rewarded for their work: the more people with Nexts in their hands, the more stuff gets made for us all."
Olifiers adds that, while there are alternatives available such as the "N-Go and X-Berry Pi boards," there's still a clear demand for "a cased, ‘manualled’ and boxed Next, and if this is what it takes to grow our community (currently clocking at around 16,000 units including clones), so be it: we’ll do it again."
It is also revealed that a bunch of new FPGA cores are going to be compatible with the Next (including a C64 one), which should expand its appeal even more.
Featuring a case design by the late Rick Dickinson—the designer of the ZX81 and a key figure in the creation of the ZX Spectrum's iconic rubber keyboard—the Next's first Kickstarter took place back in 2016 and raised £723,390. A second campaign in 2020 raised £1,847,106.