During these days we have learned about the plans and new boards of the Orange Pi project, an alternative to Raspberry Pi that also uses Hardware Libre. This project has become a very interesting option for those looking for an SBC board to have a mini PC.
It will be launched on the market soon a development board called Orange Pi i96, an SBC board that will lack a GPIO port but will instead have interesting features for Mini PC functions such as a lot of ram.
Orange Pi i96 will be an inexpensive alternative to Raspberry Pi
This new Orange Pi i96 is not yet available but if it will be soon and despite not having a quadcore processor like its latest board, the new Orange Pi i96 will have 4 GB of internal storage that can be expanded, Internet connection through a wi-fi module and 2 Gb of ram memory. It will also have a webcam connector that will allow us to have a webcam on the device. Best of all, the cost of Orange Pi i96 will be $ 10, well below Raspberry Pi 3 or other alternatives on the market.
It is clear that Orange Pi i96 will not be as powerful as Raspberry Pi 3 or other boards, but it will be interesting for those looking for a mini pc or a controller board for a drone or any other IoT device. Currently many users purchase SBC boards not to use them for personal projects but as an inexpensive alternative to a desktop computer. This is why many demand an on / off button. In this sense it seems that Orange Pi i96 will play a great role, just as the Pi Zero, a less powerful but cheaper board than the original Raspberry Pi. We still do not know the release date of Orange Pi i96 but we will surely find out because of the fast sales they will have Do not you think?