Orange Pi 3 H6: An updated version of the Raspberry Pi competitor that starts at US$29.90
Following the recent RAM upgrade for the Orange Pi, Shenzhen Xunlong Software has released the Orange Pi 3 H6, a new version of its single-board computer. The Raspberry Pi competitor is equipped with an Allwinner H6 SoC that integrates four ARM Cortex A53 cores that clock up to 1.8 GHz and an ARM Mali-T720 GPU. The SoC is complemented with 1 GB or 2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM depending on the model purchased and 8 GB of eMMC flash storage. There are also two versions with no pre-installed storage.
All four models are otherwise equally equipped though. The Orange Pi 3 H6 has an HDMI 2.0a port, a Composite video output and a 3.5 mm jack. There is also a Gigabit Ethernet port and a Wi-Fi module that supports up to IEEE 802.11 ac and Bluetooth 5.0. Moreover, Shenzhen Xunlong Software has equipped the device with four USB 3.0 Type-A ports, one USB 2.0 port and a TF card slot.
$30-40.
Previously: The New 64-bit Orange Pi is a Quad-core Computer for $20
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Need a teeny tiny computer that can run Android or Linux? Only have $20? Well you're in luck. When we first met the Orange Pi (get it?) the company was selling a nice Raspberry Pi clone for $15. Now they're selling a souped up version with all the trimmings.
The board includes an Ethernet port and three USB ports. It has 1GB of memory, H5 High Performance Quad-core 64-bit Cortex-A53, and a standalone graphics chip. It supports camera input as well as HDMI out and even has a physical power switch and IR blaster. In short it's a mini computer that can probably play some games, display some HD video, and generally be used in all sorts of home-brew projects.
You can check out the specs here and order online. If you only have $5 you can pick up an Orange Pi Zero with Wi-Fi and Ethernet built-in. It's no Raspberry but who doesn't love oranges?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @12:38AM
Guys used to line up for it at the sorority.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday January 23 2019, @12:41AM (6 children)
I've got a bunch of h.265 that won't play on my pi, I have to use handbrake to convert it to h.264. If this board will let me skip this step then I'm on board, otherwise why bother?
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday January 23 2019, @01:02AM
You could face the same problem with AV1 [wikipedia.org] in a few years, which is why I don't want any new computer unless it has at least hardware decoding of AV1.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday January 23 2019, @01:12AM (2 children)
Apparently yes:
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/this-35-raspberry-pi-rival-is-faster-has-2gb-ram-usb-3-0-and-4k-display-support/ [techrepublic.com]
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Orange-Pi-3-H6-2GB-LPDDR3-AP6256-Bluetooth5-0-4-USB3-0-Support-Android-7-0/32971627475.html [aliexpress.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @01:14AM (1 child)
see it compared to its competitor https://www.cnx-software.com/2017/11/27/amlogic-s905x-vs-rockchip-rk3328-vs-allwinner-h6/ [cnx-software.com]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday January 23 2019, @04:14AM
That's the 3328, which has been superseded by the 3399. Also, if your main goal is video playback then the cheapest way to get that is to buy one of the bazillion cut-price TV set-top boxes and use that as your base hardware, either with the built-in software or whatever distro you want to drop on it.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday January 23 2019, @03:31AM (1 child)
The Orange Pi is a bit of a swing and a miss, the H6 is sort of halfway between a low-end Arm64 (Pi) and a high-end one (anything with an RK3399). So it's competing with things like the Pine64 (which has been around for ages and costs about the same, but with far better support) and NanoPi K2. If you want something more powerful, the RK3399 devices start at about $65 for a NanoPi M4. OK, it costs a few dollars more, so I'll skip a few cups of coffee and make up the difference - unless you're deploying hundreds or thousands of them at once, going for the cheapest device you can get is false economy.
Another thing to consider with these is software support. I don't want to spend several days hacking up custom kernels or downloading something from virusbucket.ru (is it Orange that distribute their firmware via Mega links? One of the Arm-devices vendors does this), I just want to drop the firmware on an eMMC (no, not an SD card, eMMC) and have it work out of the box. Odroid are good for that, you just order the ready-to-run eMMC when you order the rest of the hardware.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday January 25 2019, @02:06PM
Worrisome download sites are OK if you have an independent checksum you can use to verify noncorruption before your machine does anything with it..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @01:34AM (4 children)
Allwinner is not a good name. They should change it to something else, like Lucky Goldstar (which has a nice ring to it) became LG.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday January 23 2019, @01:41AM (1 child)
How about AW Shucks?
It could be called Super Dragon Crescent 10K for all I care. The name doesn't matter.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @09:21AM
Well, for one thing the name implies that they are the best chip company out there. I guess they could document the issue in the errata.
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday January 23 2019, @04:11AM (1 child)
Hey, at least it's not 10000 Years Fu Dragon Happy Golden Luck Red Black 8888888, Inc.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday January 25 2019, @02:07PM
What? Only seven 8's? Not eight?