4GB Raspberry Pi 4 Model B for $55 – or new 4GB Orange Pi for $50?
There's a new rival targeting the Raspberry Pi Foundation's latest higher-end options available in the Raspberry Pi 4 lineup, which tops out at 4GB of memory for $55.
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The new Orange Pi 4 features the popular Rockchip RK3399 processor and comes with 4GB of memory, putting it in the same category as the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B's top $55 4GB option. But the Orange Pi 4 with 4GB of RAM costs $49.90, undercutting the Raspberry Pi 4 by $5.
Add 16GB of eMMF flash storage and the price comes in at around $60, offering developers and builders an interesting alternative to the Raspberry Pi's high-end 4GB SKU with a Broadcom processor.
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The board is also available as the Orange Pi 4B variant, which comes with a Gyrfalcon Technology Lightspeeur 2801S neural processing unit capable of 2.8 tops, or trillion operations per second, at 300mW.
Both boards are available through the Amazon store of its maker, Shenzhen Xunlong Software, and from AliExpress.
Shenzhen Xunlong Software highlights that the Orange PI can be used to build a computer, a server, a game or entertainment hub, or speaker.
The Rockchip RK33399 processor is based on a six-core Arm big.LITTLE design, which consists of a 'large' dual-core Cortex-A72 and a 'small' quad-core Cortex-A53.
The Orange Pi 4 also includes a Mali-T864 GPU that supports OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC.
It supports HDMI 2.0 for video output at up to 4K at 60Hz, and there's also a LCD connector for MIPI DSI display, and a USB-CV port with DisplayPort Alternate mode.
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Orange Pi developers say it will support Android 8.1, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04 and Debian 9. Raspberry Pi's Raspbian OS is based on the newer Debian 10, aka 'Buster'.
In January, Shenzhen Xunlong Software launched the Orange Pi 3 Allwinner H6-based development board, following on from the company's previous Allwinner H6 boards, the Orange Pi Lite 2 and Orange Pi One Plus.
The Orange Pi's Rockchip RK33399 processor is based on a six-core Arm big.LITTLE design.