Single-board computers (SBCs) market has seen many new entries which are powerful & with new exciting features. Raspberry Pi 4 which have broken records in processing power and performance speed and surplus increase in memory and connectivity. Coral Dev board which is able to run machine learning algorithms!
We will be reviewing them based on their cost, performance, features, usage etc. We are keeping an eye on the new entries & will keep updating the 2020 list of best SBCs. so keep the fingers crossed & wait for the new updates on the list.
Raspberry Pi 4 model B
Raspberry Pi 4 is most talked SBC in 2020. If you are a beginner & looking to learn applications of SBC, Raspberry pi 4 is the most recommended among all. It get support from a large community and enough resources (tutorials, projects , debugging lessons) are available online.
New Raspberry Pi 4 have much better speed and performance compared to its predecessors. It is cheap, priced at same as Raspberry Pi Model 3B+.
The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B boasting a 64-Bit quad-core processor running at 1.5GHz, dual-display support at resolutions up to 4K at 60fps, up to 4GB of RAM, dual-band 2.4/5.0 GHz wireless LAN, Bluetooth 5.0/BLE, True Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, and PoE capability (via a separate PoE HAT add-on). Faster Processor Memory Flexibility More Power Delivery 4K Dual-Display Improved Connectivity Extended GPIO. Check out their official forum –https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/ for more info.
| CPU | Broadcom BCM2711, Quad coreCortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC 1.5GHz |
| GPU | Broadcom VideoCore VI |
| RAM | 1 GB, 2 GB, or 4 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM |
Nvidia Jetson Nano Developer Kit
Jeston Nano from Nvidia comes with best of flexibility. It can be used to AI & Machine learning along with simple mini PC alternative. It is powered by capable Maxwell GPU and specifically designed for modern AI workloads with incomparable size, performance & cost. Tech-enthusiast are using this kit for multiple AI-ML applications like object detection, speech synthesis, signal processing, image classification etc. All in an easy-to-use platform that runs in as little as 5 watts.
| CPU | Quad-core ARM® A57 CPU |
| GPU | 128-core NVIDIA Maxwell™ GPU |
| RAM | 4 GB 64-bit LPDDR4 |
Orange Pi H3
Powered by the Quad Core Allwinner H3, this board is capable of 4K Hardware H265 Decoding, OpenGL ES, and much more. It runs at a blazing fast 1.3GHz and outclasses the Raspberry Pi 2 while rivaling the Raspberry Pi 3. It has been stated that the board officially supports Android 7.0, Ubuntu and Debian images. You can use the Orange Pi 3 similarly to the Raspberry Pi 4 like building a computer, retro game console, media center, etc. Make sure to purchase a high quality 2A power supply. Many power supplies rated 2A will only deliver 0.5A or less!
| CPU | Quad Core 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 |
| GPU | ARM Mali GPU |
| RAM | 1GB DDR3 |
Asus Tinkerboard
Asus Tinker Board has a faster system-on-chip (SOC) than the Raspberry Pi 3, a quad-core Rockchip RK3288 running at a maximum 1.8GHz. It has built-in HDMI-CEC hardware and software for improved video output and interfacing, requiring only one remote for controlling from TV output. The audio jack can manage both audio output and a microphone input. The board will even automatically detect when a device is plugged into the audio jack and switch modes accordingly.
| CPU | SoC 1.8GHz Quad Core CPU |
| GPU | 600MHz Mali-T764 |
| RAM | 2GB LPDDR3 dual-channel |
ODROID XU4
ODROID-XU4 is a new generation of computing device with more powerful, more energy-efficient hardware and a smaller form factor. Offering open source support, the board can run various flavors of Linux, including the latest Ubuntu 16.04 and Android 4.4 KitKat, 5.0 Lollipop and 7.1 Nougat.
By implementing the eMMC 5.0, USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, the ODROID-XU4 boasts amazing data transfer speeds, a feature that is increasingly required to support advanced processing power on ARM devices. This allows users to truly experience an upgrade in computing, especially with faster booting, web browsing, networking, and 3D games.
| CPU | Samsung Exynos5422 Cortex-A15 2Ghz & Cortex-A7 Octa core |
| GPU | Mali-T628 MP6(OpenGL ES 3.1/2.0/1.1 and OpenCL 1.2) |
| RAM | 2GB LPDDR3 |
BeagleBone Black
The BeagleBone Black is open-source hardware that combines the capabilities of a microcontroller and a Raspberry Pi into a single board. It features a single-core Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 processor clocked at 1GHz, 512MB of DDR3 RAM, and 4GB of eMMC memory that holds the pre-installed Debian Linux operating system. The board also features two Programmable Real Time Units (PRU) that run in parallel with the ARM processor and are responsible for the microcontroller duties.
| CPU | AM335x 1GHz ARM® Cortex-A8 |
| GPU | |
| RAM | 512MB DDR3 RAM |
Banana Pi R2
Banana Pi M64 has extra 8 GB (option 16/32/64G) of eMMC which makes it unique & different from other SBC in market. It features awesome 4K HDMI , MIDI-DSI, MIDI-CSI , wireless & Gigabit ethernet. It have MicroSD slot supports up to 256GB expansion. Check out on http://forum.banana-pi.org/ for more information on DIY projects. Compared to Raspberry Pi 4, its users community is small in number & have less resources available online. Beginners may find it difficult to find debugging solutions to their problems compared to Raspberry Pi.
| CPU | MediaTek MT7623N, Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 |
| GPU | Mali 450 MP4 GPU |
| RAM | 2G DDR3 SDRAM |
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