Orange Pi continues to offer a wide range of mini computers in an attempt to capture a piece of the market dominated by the Raspberry Pi. Recently we covered the 2G-IoT model with integrated mobile connectivity, and now it's time for Orange Pi Prime, which packs a quad-core SoC with Mali-450 graphics, 2 GB of RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an infrared sensor, and three full-size USB ports for just 28 euros.
It's also available on Amazon.
I frequently visit the RetroPie subreddit and other emulation forums, and the general opinion among users points in the same direction: it would be great if the Raspberry Pi 3 had a bit more power. Needless to say, there are technical and budget constraints that prevent the use of a more robust SoC, but on the other side of the planet they have a different perspective. If we're willing to wait and sacrifice a little compatibility, Orange Pi does offer interesting mini computers at very aggressive prices.
Orange Pi Prime specifications
The new member of the family is the Orange Pi Prime, based on the Allwinner H5 SoC with four 64-bit Cortex-A53 cores and a Mali-450 module that can play 2K video without stuttering. It features 2 GB of DDR3 RAM, three standard USB ports, a micro USB port that works as OTG or power input, a dedicated power connector (which suggests the need for a solid power source), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, and infrared connectivity, a reset button, a power button, a built-in microphone, HDMI output, a microSD slot, a 3.5 mm audio jack, a CSI input, and a 40-pin GPIO.
Software and price
The official Orange Pi page hasn't published the Prime yet, but it does offer four images: Android, Arch Server, Debian, and Ubuntu. The official price for the mini computer on Aliexpress is around 28 euros; however, the cheapest shipping method brings the total to 33 euros, with a one-month delivery delay. The real question mark is the core frequency of the H5 SoC. Even Allwinner's datasheet lacks that information, but I'll update this article as soon as I find it.
